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I am about to start building a new house and would like to do some future proofing (yeah right) for down the track. I want to put a 8 port router switch in my garage and run the internet to several points inside the house. I figure that a gigabit network is the way to go (the whole 1000mbps speed issue thing) and my questions are these:
Do i need cat 6 cable for a gigabit network?
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I have a belkin wireless 4 port modem/router (the iinet one) and the phone line and this modem will be in the office. The router has 4 outputs (wired) on the back. I would like to have the office connected to all the other computers via a gigabit connection (file transferrring etc) The router will be in the garage about 10 meters away.
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I will be running my htpc in the theatre room and will also look at having an xbox360 / ps3 on the network too. I would also like to have a network point in each of the bedrooms up stairs (3) and the TV room upstairs. How many outputs will i need? Do i need:
2 2 for the theatre room
1 1 for the office
3 1 for each bedroom
1 1 for media server
7 total points???
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What is 1000mbps vs 2000mbps (is it just marketing for full duplex??)
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Is there anything else I am mising or should know?
Not sure why you'd need a router switch (or do you mean Layer 3 Switch?), unless you want to do some funky dual NAT-ing or specific VPN tunnelling. Otherwise, a standard Layer 2 (or 3) switch will be fine.
Quote:
I would like to have the office connected to all the other computers via a gigabit connection
Is there a computer in the office, or just the modem? I'll assume that there is for now. If you want the office computer to have a gig link to everywhere else, you'll need to wire it direct to the gig switch in the garage (I don't know the modem you're talking about, but I'm assuming it doesn't have 1000bT wire speed). If you want to keep the modem/router in the office, you'll need another port to connect it to the switch also.
You haven't made mention of a firewall in your description. Most home modem/routers have one built in these days, but if yours doesn't then you should think about implementing one. One important note though: If you are planning to use the wifi of your modem/router to connect laptops etc to the network & the internet, and you implement a separate firewall (see diagram), your laptop will connect outside of the firewall (DMZ/Internet zone). This exposes your laptop to the internet with minimal protection, and will make it difficult to connect to resources in the private network (office, media server etc) without increasing the exposure of those resources.
Why not run double or triple data to each room & put in a patch panel at your centralized point? That way you have maximum flexibility between phone/data/whatever comes along. Run all inbound things (phone/cable) in to that spot & then rout data & phone around.
You can pick up a 2nd hand 32 port Krone patch panel for $105 from a bloke on Ebay. They're like new - let's face it, if it's only been punched once, it's hardly second hand.
I'd use 5e (because it's the same price to run 2 of those to 1 cat 6, give or take.
The thing is, if you run the cables now & don't terminate them, they are there if you need them in the future. If you don't run them now.....
Justin
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VMC32: Asus M3N78-EMH HDMI, 4850e, TMG A2 CPU Cooler, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x HVR-2200 (4 tuners), 500GB Samsung, NSK2480B. Connected to a Metz 32 inch LCD.
Office/Server: Abit A-N78HD, BE-2350, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x AverTV Duo (4 tuners), CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Tower.
Why not run double or triple data to each room & put in a patch panel at your centralized point? That way you have maximum flexibility between phone/data/whatever comes along. Run all inbound things (phone/cable) in to that spot & then rout data & phone around.
You can pick up a 2nd hand 32 port Krone patch panel for $105 from a bloke on Ebay. They're like new - let's face it, if it's only been punched once, it's hardly second hand.
I'd use 5e (because it's the same price to run 2 of those to 1 cat 6, give or take.
The thing is, if you run the cables now & don't terminate them, they are there if you need them in the future. If you don't run them now.....
Justin
I agree with Justin double data points (min) in each room is the way to go with a patch panel in the garage or a laundry linen cupboard or something, just make sure all the points and cables are clearly tagged/labelled.
If you are really looking for a bit of 'future proofing' and don't want to run CAT6, then maybe look at conduiting the cable runs so you can pullthrough 'the next big thing' if the CAT5e ever becomes a liability.
Another thing, I wouldn't neglect the Kitchen, you may want to run a small TV with inbuilt media extender capabilities in there one day (that's certainly the way things are heading), or the chef of the house may want to access recipes from a nifty little touchscreen or via the internet fridge.
Hey Matt have a look at the Clipsal Star Serve stuff i'm thinking about decking the house out with it. It looks interesting and allows you to use the MCE box throught the house and it has infer red relay's for remotes and things. Anyway just another thought to throw at you.
I definitely agree with the comment about conduits; if all of your cabling can be replaced down the track, then you are really future proof (although not in a very sexy way).
I did Cat6 at my place, and found it only added a 10% premium. So my experience is quite different to Logifuse for whatever reason. Cat5e is enough for Giagbit, but I went for Cat6 since it was only marginally more expensive than Cat5e, and I figured it might give me a few more options down the track. Any runs not in cavities, are in conduits.
I went for only one network point to most rooms. I really can't see my boys ever asking for a landline telephone in their room. I only did a double run to locations where I thought there was a high probability of there being a landline telephone. Was a bit of waste though, because we don't even have an active landline at the moment.
I also didn't get a patch panel. I have all my network points running into my study, rather than my garage, terminated to three standard wall plates. Cable modem and phone are immediately neighbouring, with my router right there as well.
There are some great ideas there.....keep em coming!!
couple more questions if cat5e will do gigabit why would i use cat6? Whats the difference between the 2 cable types?
Matt
Matt,
Cat6 is the standard populrly linked to gigabit ethernet. In longer corporate type runs it makes sense. Not quite sure what people consider "long" runs though! When running points around an office building I go for Cat6, around home 5e or 6 does the trick, but then 'm only using overgrown fly leads (ie 30 or 40m through the roof)
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Too many toys is still not enough.
There are some great ideas there.....keep em coming!!
couple more questions if cat5e will do gigabit why would i use cat6? Whats the difference between the 2 cable types?
Matt
The difference is shielding. Now to cabling the house, (rubbing hands with glee) If you have a set of stairs there's almost no better place for a central point than the cavity underneath. If not a garage wall will do.
For that ultra neato finish get yourself a "Hill Home hub" inwall cabinet. As for how many runs to each room, I ran four to each bedroom (1 data, 1 phone, 1 distributed AV, 1 spare) and 6 to any room with a PC. Cable type was cat5e, and everything ran back to a wall in the little room under the stairs.
The main phone line into the house passes here first too so I tapped into it (actually it now stops here and is parrallel connected to 12 krone rj45's, the rest of the runs terminate to krone rj45's as well. there are two 16 port gigabit switches daisy chained, an adsl2+ modem with 4 ports feeds into both of the switches then all the house runs go into the gigabit switches (Here's a real BIG tip....label everything! as in which room each rj45 goes)
There's also now a SD Tuner/DVD player feeding into a cat5 balun distribution AMP 12 outs.
So any room point in the house can become a phone, a network, or a background AV point.
The media server also lives under the stairs, it has a "teaming" Gigabit NIC (2Gigabit) and the switches are teaming aware, my PC upstairs also has a teaming NIC so those torrents get thrown around really quick. (hence the "spare" run is being used in some places!)
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That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.
Aristotle
Guys!!
couple more questions if cat5e will do gigabit why would i use cat6? Whats the difference between the 2 cable types?
It's sort of been answered by others already, but maybe not super accurately (although I'm no guru on the subject).
For starters, it's NOT about shielding. Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 are UTP cabling standards, where the U stands for UNshielded. Anyway, Cat5e and Cat6 cables each contain 4 UTPs. Cat6 however has greater bandwidth, superior signal-to-noise ratio, superior tolerance to interference and crosstalk etc. This is due in large part to the fact that the UTPs in the Cat 6 are twisted more tightly in Cat5e (and this is why Cat6 is thicker).
Anyway, this means that you can, for example, do longer cable runs with Cat6 than Cat5e. Although Cat6a is intended to support future 10Gbps networks for cable runs up to 100m, Cat6 should handle 10Gbps over the sorts of runs you'd typically find in the home. ie. Not more than 30m.
10G considerations maybe shouldn't be at that forefront of your mind when deciding between Cat6 and Cat5e, especially since Cat6a (rather than garden-variety Cat6) will be the norm for 10G. Of course, whether you'll ever need or want 10Gbps at home is perhaps another discussion.
