Daisy chain 2 8 port switches or one 16 port?

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munkle

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So I am wiring my house with cat 6 and putting in some Ethernet ports in some of the rooms in my house. So here comes my dilemma: the internet starting point will be in the basement and the main switch will be here. Now I have to get some ethernet ports in our 2nd floor (2 floors above the basement). So I have fairly easy access to the attic from the basement by using a fireplace vent that was never hooked up to a fireplace, just has some foam stuffed it it to seal it. Is it worth it to have a few 150" runs of cable from the basement to the attic to have a direct connection or just to have 1 run to the attic with a second switch in the attic for shorter (a lot shorter, like 20 to 40 feet) cable runs?

Mostly it is just for internet access and light file sharing (we already have wireless but don't know what it is about my house, it is a black hole for any kind of wireless signal, cell phones any thing wireless just doesn't work that great here).

Also any recommendations on some good gigabit switches for this project (I have all the cable already)? I will be hooking these up to a monowall setup.

Thanks.
 
For just a home network and internet and light file sharing..nothing to lose sleep over, either way will work.

Ultimately, for optimal performance, have 1x central switch and every room (or better..every PC) have a dedicated run to it.

But realizing it's a home network, with generally light use..having a single home run between the first floor and second floor and an 8 port switch on both ends will work fine.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
For just a home network and internet and light file sharing..nothing to lose sleep over, either way will work.

Ultimately, for optimal performance, have 1x central switch and every room (or better..every PC) have a dedicated run to it.

But realizing it's a home network, with generally light use..having a single home run between the first floor and second floor and an 8 port switch on both ends will work fine.
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Thanks for the reply, probably going to daisy chain 2 8 port switches then because it will be alot easier on the cable runs and cost less cable wise.

Any recommendations on some switches. I was thinking 2 dlink dgs-2208 for the daisy chain or 2 netgear gs108

If I went with one main switch I would go with the dell 2824 since it is on sale and my brother in law can get it for a little less but its this or 2 smaller switches.
 
1 switch, do it =). 2nd floor or 1st has more need for cat5? could put the main switch and modem up on 2nd floor and run the wires down.

honestly the cost saving of wiring isn't going to be that pick. if your buying premade cables from monoprice, how much will you really save? if you are buying a 1000ft spool, then you have all the cable.

i like the dell switches, maybe a little expensive for a home user,
 
marley1 said:
1 switch, do it =). 2nd floor or 1st has more need for cat5? could put the main switch and modem up on 2nd floor and run the wires down.

honestly the cost saving of wiring isn't going to be that pick. if your buying premade cables from monoprice, how much will you really save? if you are buying a 1000ft spool, then you have all the cable.

i like the dell switches, maybe a little expensive for a home user,
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Maybe I should clarify a little more, there are 3 floors in the house, basement, mainfloor, and top floor. The cable comes in in the basement, this is why the main switch will be in the basement (due to the wiring of the cable in my house the modem must be hooked up in the basement) also the basement will receive 5 ethernet hook ups. I have a 1000ft spool of cat 6 already. Running one from the basement to the upstairs is at least 150ft per run, I already ran one cable many years ago from main floor to a room upstairs and it was 125ft. So if I start running lots of cables I will rapidly deplete the spool,that's I commented on cable costs. Thanks for the advice!
 
That single link will be shared between all devices between the two floors. If you have multiple devices on the top floor trying to make multiple connections to devices in the basement, they'll all be limited to a total of 1Gb. For internet that obviously won't be a big deal, but you could run into issues if you stream media or copy files back and forth a lot.

It sounds like you're running cables across the basement and/or top floor (in addition to just the height of the run). Could you possibly have your central point for networking more in the center of the house? Run coax from the entry point in the basement to that spot for the cable modem, or leave the modem at the entry point then run a single Ethernet cable from there to the central point. Obviously this will depend on the layout of your house, but then you'd be running a single cable 50', instead of running an extra 50' on every drop you install.

I'm lucky in that the closet perfect for networking gear just happens to be on the middle floor near the center of my house.
 
InvisiBill said:
That single link will be shared between all devices between the two floors. If you have multiple devices on the top floor trying to make multiple connections to devices in the basement, they'll all be limited to a total of 1Gb. For internet that obviously won't be a big deal, but you could run into issues if you stream media or copy files back and forth a lot.

It sounds like you're running cables across the basement and/or top floor (in addition to just the height of the run). Could you possibly have your central point for networking more in the center of the house? Run coax from the entry point in the basement to that spot for the cable modem, or leave the modem at the entry point then run a single Ethernet cable from there to the central point. Obviously this will depend on the layout of your house, but then you'd be running a single cable 50', instead of running an extra 50' on every drop you install.

I'm lucky in that the closet perfect for networking gear just happens to be on the middle floor near the center of my house.
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Unfortunately if I move it to a more central location it would require tearing apart the dry wall to run ethernet cables, how it is proposed I only need to make holes for the ethernet connection box. In the basement there is an unused vent pipe that will take me to the attic and I can wire the top floor easily from the attic and the basement can be wired easily and the main floor can easily wired from the basement also. I'm thinking it is my best route to do the 2 switch method for the ease of running the cables, it will pretty much only be used for internet with light file sharing.
 
i think you made up your mind before you posted =)

just make sure the switch upstairs can be power cycled if need be.

as far as switches go, the dell 8 port is usually on sale, newegg has that hp switch, also has tons of other good gigabit, there is a "green" model that has been getting good "egg" reviews.
 
marley1 said:
i think you made up your mind before you posted =)

just make sure the switch upstairs can be power cycled if need be.

as far as switches go, the dell 8 port is usually on sale, newegg has that hp switch, also has tons of other good gigabit, there is a "green" model that has been getting good "egg" reviews.
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Kind of :p, I would run them all from one switch if it would be alot better, but the cables are the hassle of it.
 
My thought is... When you're running cables.. Always run more than one. Cables are cheap compared to the time and effort to run them (even on a DIY project)... Even if you only run two, that's still better than one.

With more cables, you're protected in case something bad happens to one of them. (animals love to chew on network cords for some reason... I've seen it happen more than once.) Or if you ever find that there is just that one client that really needs the extra bandwidth (say you put a media server in the basement, and you have a client upstairs that wants to stream HD video from the server).. In either case, you've already got a line run to take care of it...
 
jpochedl said:
My thought is... When you're running cables.. Always run more than one. Cables are cheap compared to the time and effort to run them (even on a DIY project)... Even if you only run two, that's still better than one.

With more cables, you're protected in case something bad happens to one of them. (animals love to chew on network cords for some reason... I've seen it happen more than once.) Or if you ever find that there is just that one client that really needs the extra bandwidth (say you put a media server in the basement, and you have a client upstairs that wants to stream HD video from the server).. In either case, you've already got a line run to take care of it...
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You have a point about redundancy but honestly its probably not worth the effort of tearing up drywall; and its not like we're talking about the upper switch ports sharing a megabit connection, its gigabit. That's still a 1000 mbps/7 = 142ish mbps per port (assuming the 8th port is used to connect to the lower switch) on the upper switch even if all systems are running full tilt. That's plenty bandwidth to run a couple of HD streams per port coming from downstairs and when are you ever gonna do that? rarely if ever, is it technically the best solution? no, but it is realistically equivalent in that you'll probably never notice the difference.

A side note on those d-link switches, i bought two and both had a weird issue were they would lock up after a few hours and have to be power cycled. I ended up going with a cisco/linksys mbit switch since i only have cat5 in the walls and cant really use the gigabit anyway. You may have better luck though as they seem to get good reviews anywhere you look.
 
well it looks like something special will happen, ordered 1 of the dgs-2208 (I hope there aren't any wierd problems like yours) and apparently my brother in law is going to get a good deal on the dell 2824 switch from a dell rep. so that will be going in basement.

The only dry wall I needed to cut is the dry wall in a closet, already cut it tonight. Probably going to start running cable tomorrow, not sure how I will get 2 rg-6 cables an:pd 4 cat 6 cables through the small holes in the 2x4s. That is going to be fun.
 
Try to pull maybe 2 cables as a time instead of all six if it's tight.

You can't drill a bigger hole? If it's too tight it'll damage the cable.
 
valve1138 said:
Try to pull maybe 2 cables as a time instead of all six if it's tight.

You can't drill a bigger hole? If it's too tight it'll damage the cable.
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I could but I don't want to drill to big of a hole that it weakens the wall a ton. As far as I know the wall isn't supporting the beams above it since they are supported on the foundation behind the wall but you never can be too careful.
 
A little off topic, but I wanted to know what you guys use to pull the wire. I'm new to this and also need to run cat6. However, I'm in TX and we don't have basements, only really really tight attic spaces :(

I will have only one other person helping, and I don't mind spending money on tools that will make my life easier in the attic.
 
Fish tape. Think thin sheet metal on a roll. Pull the fish tape through the wall, then tie the cables to it and 'reel' it back in. Home Depot/Lowe's/etc have it in 25 foot increments.
 
Jonathan said:
A little off topic, but I wanted to know what you guys use to pull the wire. I'm new to this and also need to run cat6. However, I'm in TX and we don't have basements, only really really tight attic spaces :(

I will have only one other person helping, and I don't mind spending money on tools that will make my life easier in the attic.
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I'm using my hand.
 
As for power cycling, they sell power outlets that you can hook up to your network. Just remote in, and power cycle.

And, how about this..Run 2 Cat6's up to the attic, and then run everything down from there?
 
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