Home Network Build Reality Check

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NobleX13

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 15, 2010
Messages
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I am closing on my first house on Monday and have been collecting components for my home network over the past month. Below are the details of my proposed buildout.

ISP: Cox Communications (22 Down/3 Up)
Modem: Motorola Surfboard 6120
Router: Symantec 1620 Security Gateway running pfSense
Core switches: 2x Dell PowerConnect 5324 24-port Gigabit switches
Patch Panel: 24 Port Monoprice
Access Point: Ubiquiti Networks UniFi AP
Mounting hardware: 4U Monoprice 19" wall-mount rack

Layout:
This is the area that I need some suggestions on. Coaxial cable enters the home in the furnace/laundry room in the basement, and I was originally planning on running all the bedroom network cables down to this area.

After further review, it may be easier to run cables through the attic and in to one of the upstairs bedrooms, which will be my lab room, housing the second switch and a 19" rack that I have yet to obtain.

Other than that, I will be running a minimum of two ports per bedroom, plus ports in the living room, kitchen, basement, and garage.

Could you folks share your home network designs and experiences? I'm looking to hear about more than just your basic modem and WRT54G setup.

Also, could you guys recommend an affordable yet decent quality spool of Cat5e? $80 on monoprice seems a bit high, and the $38 1000ft spool I got off of ebay is solid core but has really low-grade insulation that makes it difficult to strip and crimp. No need for Plenum cable here.

Once I am moved in I will start a network build log. :)
 
Sounds like the right path so far :) Remember drilling down in the attic is easier than going up from the basement :) UNLESS its a continued wall all the way up, in the center of the house.

I just bought a brand new house, already finished, wish i had bought it before drywall was going in, then I would have run a conduit from the attic to the crawlspace. Would have made my life nicer..

Are you going floor standing rack ? or self made rack ? Do you have servers that you want in the rack ? or just networking equipment.

I started off with a open rack, however my 15 month old child loved pulling on things :) so i bought a rolling enclosed rack from triplite, LOVE THE UNIT! lock it and no fingers can grab components and wires.
 
Thanks for the reply, Dash. I am going with a floor standing rack most likely, although the local craigslist is kinda slim on that type of stuff and I can't afford a new one. There might be a continuous wall from the landry room to the attic; I will have to check.

The problem with my house is that the living room and kitchen area has a lofted ceiling, so it is physically impossible to run cabling down from the attic in that area of the house. After I close I will do some crawling around and see where the coaxial cable is run. If it is inside the wall and isn't stapled to the studs I may use it to pull new cables; otherwise I will run some exterior conduit underneath the overhang of the house.

I will have servers to rack, I just don't have any right now. I sold off my NAS and F@H rigs to scrape up 20% down. Eventually I will add some Ubiquiti Air-Fi cameras, since my apartment was broken in to last week and I can't stand the thought of not having some cameras up.

No kids yet, Dash. I will get a dog soon and my Fiance will be moving in in roughly a month.
 
As a fellow homeowner, let me caution you on spending money at this point.

You had to sell off components to scrape together that down payment, so I assume you're not flush with cash.

First, you're going to have expenses, you'll need a lawnmower, possibly a snowblower, plus a pile of other things you haven't thought about yet, you probably don't have enough furniture for all the rooms in the house. You need to have a minimum of $1000 sitting around to deal with emergencies.

Unless you've made a very careful budget, I'd recommend not spending on anything special until you've lived there for 2 or 3 months.
 
Yeah do you really need 2 big 24 port switches, and that high end router?
 
jjeff1 said:
As a fellow homeowner, let me caution you on spending money at this point.

You had to sell off components to scrape together that down payment, so I assume you're not flush with cash.

First, you're going to have expenses, you'll need a lawnmower, possibly a snowblower, plus a pile of other things you haven't thought about yet, you probably don't have enough furniture for all the rooms in the house. You need to have a minimum of $1000 sitting around to deal with emergencies.

Unless you've made a very careful budget, I'd recommend not spending on anything special until you've lived there for 2 or 3 months.
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AMEN!
 
extide said:
Yeah do you really need 2 big 24 port switches, and that high end router?
Click to expand...

I always wondered, besides the coolness factor, why people buy enterprise grade gear for a home network. I am not knocking the choice, just trying to figure out why? Hopefully you got those swtiches on the cheap. Either that, or you guys got a lot of money at your disposal.

And for your original question, if possible, YES I would terminate all drops into the basement. Just makes for a much cleaner, more centralized setup. I certainly wish I could have done that with my home network.
 
Lawnmower check
Snowblower check


I'll be short on furniture when I move in, that's for sure :p


I already have most of my equipment.

Comcast 12Mbps/2Mbps
WatchGuard Firebox X700 with PFsense 2.01 upgraded with various parts.
(1) HP Procurve 1810-24G
Ooma Telo
Unifi Pro (on backorder)
(2)Netgear GS108E
24 port Cat6 Patch Panel
 
mikey71497 said:
I always wondered, besides the coolness factor, why people buy enterprise grade gear for a home network. I am not knocking the choice, just trying to figure out why? Hopefully you got those switches on the cheap. Either that, or you guys got a lot of money at your disposal.
Click to expand...

Because it works for a very long time. A significant amount of consumer level equipment fails at a higher rate.

For my I found my core router and switch limiting. I 'd still like to upgrade my X700 to a X750e, but I can live with what I have for now.
 
mikey71497 said:
I always wondered, besides the coolness factor, why people buy enterprise grade gear for a home network. I am not knocking the choice, just trying to figure out why? Hopefully you got those swtiches on the cheap. Either that, or you guys got a lot of money at your disposal.
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Because when you play "what does this setting do" on the enterprise gear at work and you knock the internet off for a few hours you get fired. When you do the same thing at home you just can't get on the internet for a few hours and know what not to do next time.
 
-Dragon- said:
Because when you play "what does this setting do" on the enterprise gear at work and you knock the internet off for a few hours you get fired. When you do the same thing at home you just can't get on the internet for a few hours and know what not to do next time.
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True dat!
 
Hey let's chill out folks. I sold off most of my gear to make the the move easier, not because I was actually so short on cash that I didn't already have the 20% down. Financially I am fine.

I bought those two PowerConnect switches because I got a sweet deal on them. I plan on a four-port LACP link between switch 1 and switch 2, "just because".

I purchased enterprise gear because I am a Networking guy stuck in a sysadmin job and need to keep my skills sharp. Eventually I will be streaming multiple 1080P hd video streams over the lan, capturing multiple 720P security cameras to my yet-to-be-built NAS, and hosting small LAN parties.

In addition, I am training to be a Citrix admin, so I will have a Citrix XenServer/Xen Desktop/XenApp home test lab in addition to my ESXi box.

For resale purposes it makes sense to do all ethernet home runs to the basement instead of having an in-wall patch panel in a bedroom. Not that I plan on moving within the next 10 years, but still.
 
I like the plan. The hardest part will be dropping all the cable into the basement. As far as Cat5E solid I have yet to find a better "everyday" price for a spool than Monoprice. If you have some time you can find a sale and maybe save $10-20/spool. Enjoy the new house and realize its all worth it to get the runs done early 2 drops a room is great, but I would toss more in whatever room was going to be my "office".
 
I've never bought cable from Monoprice, what do they end up charging for shipping? Home Depot also sells Cat5e by the 1000' box.
 
Mackintire said:
Because it works for a very long time. A significant amount of consumer level equipment fails at a higher rate.

For my I found my core router and switch limiting. I 'd still like to upgrade my X700 to a X750e, but I can live with what I have for now.
Click to expand...

or because you buy it once, and really never worry about buying it later on, like saving $$ and buying some cheap piece of shit DLINK or linksys or netgear router..

I hate consumer routers they are plane SHIT they are for the people who have a laptop OR a desktop, and at that they are garbage, sure they work, but that's about it.

If yoru going to build something to learn and or use everyday try to buy decent gear..
 
jeffmoss26 said:
I've never bought cable from Monoprice, what do they end up charging for shipping? Home Depot also sells Cat5e by the 1000' box.
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When I was wiring my house a few weeks ago, I just got a 1000' box of Cat5E from Home Depot for about $80. Monoprice wanted more than that to begin with, plus about $25 shipping.
 
McTurkey said:
When I was wiring my house a few weeks ago, I just got a 1000' box of Cat5E from Home Depot for about $80. Monoprice wanted more than that to begin with, plus about $25 shipping.
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cable is cheap :p wait till you see the cost of the tools you *may* need to run and pull the cable :)
 
My home network :)

469439_10150561893093155_541148154_8967283_794967484_o.jpg
 
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