Need some hub or switch advice please.

[1Wolf]

My home builder is nearing completion of a new home for my family. He has wired each room with CAT-6A (Around 12-14 cables) to terminate in the utility room of my basement. He said its up to me to purchase a switch or hub to plug all those rooms into.

Unfortunately I'm a complete novice with network stuff, and I've never purchased anything more than a home router. So I'm not quite sure what to get and I'd really appreciate some advice. I don't even know if I should be looking for a "switch" or a "hub". I'm guessing I should get something with more ports than I need so I have extra. I have no idea though if more ports makes the device slower or causes problems, or if I should be looking to go with the absolute minimum ports. I don't know what brands are good.

I'd need something that is easy to set up for a beginner and is very user friendly.

Just for reference...

• The has gigabit fiber internet wired to the house.
• I don't know if the ISP provides just an ONT or its some sort of ONT/Gateway thingie or what as I have not yet received my equipment from the ISP for the new home. So I'm not sure exactly what equipment the ISP will provide. Its in a different state with a different ISP so that will all be new to me.
• The internet comes into the house (to a main floor bedroom) to whatever fiber modem is provided by the ISP...
• Then from the fiber modem to my wireless router (ASUS AX6000 Dual Band WiFi 6 Gaming Router).
• Then from the wireless router to whatever hub or switch I purchase for the utility room.
• Then all of the other rooms of the house plug into that hub or switch in the utility room.

The setup in my current home (Also gigabit fiber internet) is simply that the internet comes into the ONT provided by my ISP, then from the ONT to my wireless router, then from my wireless router to a computer. I've never had to involve anything like a hub or switch so, while that might be simple to you, its new to me. Any advice or even some favorite pieces of equipment would be greatly appreciated.

TL/DR
Complete novice with networks is trying to determine what type & brand of switch or hub I might need to connect the wired rooms of a new home.

Thanks

 

[Eulogy]

You'll want to know more precisely how many drops there are. Also as a word of warning, a lot of people don't terminate cat6a very well, so hopefully "your builder" is good at what they do or subcontract out. Make sure every drop is clearly labeled.

You want a switch, not a hub. If you have 14 drops, I'd just go with a 24 port switch. You can get away with an unmanaged one just to get everything connected. Having more ports than you need is not a bad thing and saves you from swapping it later. Don't cheap out on the switch you choose and you'll get full throughput on every port.

I'd also ask them if they can terminate to a keystones in a patch panel. Basically, they'd run the cables to each room to the utility closet. In the utility closet will be a strip that the cable terminates to, and that gives you a female end to plug things into. Then you'd just run a short, like 1', cat6a cable from that patch panel to the switch ports. It's a bit overkill, but, it's a lot tidier, and you don't ever touch the in-wall cables from that point forward.

Also, if they're just now installing, I'd have them run all of those drops in conduit as well.

 

[1Wolf]

You'll want to know more precisely how many drops there are. Also as a word of warning, a lot of people don't terminate cat6a very well, so hopefully "your builder" is good at what they do or subcontract out. Make sure every drop is clearly labeled.

You want a switch, not a hub. If you have 14 drops, I'd just go with a 24 port switch. You can get away with an unmanaged one just to get everything connected. Having more ports than you need is not a bad thing and saves you from swapping it later. Don't cheap out on the switch you choose and you'll get full throughput on every port.

I'd also ask them if they can terminate to a keystones in a patch panel. Basically, they'd run the cables to each room to the utility closet. In the utility closet will be a strip that the cable terminates to, and that gives you a female end to plug things into. Then you'd just run a short, like 1', cat6a cable from that patch panel to the switch ports. It's a bit overkill, but, it's a lot tidier, and you don't ever touch the in-wall cables from that point forward.

Also, if they're just now installing, I'd have them run all of those drops in conduit as well.

Thanks Eulogy Much appreciated.

Unfortunately, I don't have much choice in how the CAT6A is terminated, run, or set up. The home is being built out of state in a small community so there are simply not any network professionals that I could subcontract. I know that having electricians run network is generally frowned upon, however, being a fairly remote town he is accustomed to having to do double-duty and truly does the best anyone could ask for doing his homework. He ran everything in "Smurf" tubes (forgive if my spelling is wrong), and did his best to follow the best practices he could research and such.

I don't know if he labelled the drops, so I guess that is something I'll just have to do my best to figure out. All of the cable ends up at a small shelf in the utility room where I plan to place the aforementioned 24 port switch. Thanks again for the advice on switch vs. hub as I wasn't even sure what to shop for.

Do you have any favorite brands or models of switch? Especially those that are user friendly for those less network savvy.

 

[Eulogy]

Smurf tube is fine, that's 1" flexible PVC. Hopefully he's good at terminating. Pretty much anyone with a crimper can do cat5. cat6 is where you need to actually pay attention.
Finding which cable is which will be a small pain but not huge. You can use a tracer, or plug things in and see what lights up. Like, if you plug something in at a bedroom and see switchport 12 light up/connect, then you can label it. It'll take work, but, it won't be too bad. Goes way faster with two people

I honestly don't keep close tabs on things at the lower end. I imagine NetGear, TP-Link, etc. are all mostly fine at that level. The main thing to keep in mind, unless you're wanting to learn networking, is go with an unmanaged switch for now. "Managed" switches allow you to do things like VLANs and other semi-advanced things that, not to be rude, sound like you should not consider at least for now.
Something like this, at a glance, looks decent:
https://www.netgear.com/business/wired/switches/unmanaged/gs524/

If you get the Datasheet (in the Documents dropdown), you can see it has a Switching bandwidth of 48Gbps, which is exactly what you want. Basically, you want (# of ports) * (1Gbps) * (2). So 24 * 1 * 2 = 48. That way you know the switch ASIC isn't going to be your network bottleneck. If you look at other switches, this would be the main spec to validate. I can imagine some lower end ones not having enough bandwidth. It's unlikely to be an issue as you'll almost never need max bandwidth on every port 24x7x365, but, IMO, it's easy enough of a problem to avoid all together

 

[MrGuvernment]

Stick with NetGear, less issues with unpatched exploits like TP-Link. You could go with Ubiquiti also, but you pay for the name more than a NetGear which will run rock solid for ages.

 

[1Wolf]

Smurf tube is fine, that's 1" flexible PVC. Hopefully he's good at terminating. Pretty much anyone with a crimper can do cat5. cat6 is where you need to actually pay attention.
Finding which cable is which will be a small pain but not huge. You can use a tracer, or plug things in and see what lights up. Like, if you plug something in at a bedroom and see switchport 12 light up/connect, then you can label it. It'll take work, but, it won't be too bad. Goes way faster with two people

I honestly don't keep close tabs on things at the lower end. I imagine NetGear, TP-Link, etc. are all mostly fine at that level. The main thing to keep in mind, unless you're wanting to learn networking, is go with an unmanaged switch for now. "Managed" switches allow you to do things like VLANs and other semi-advanced things that, not to be rude, sound like you should not consider at least for now.
Something like this, at a glance, looks decent:
https://www.netgear.com/business/wired/switches/unmanaged/gs524/

If you get the Datasheet (in the Documents dropdown), you can see it has a Switching bandwidth of 48Gbps, which is exactly what you want. Basically, you want (# of ports) * (1Gbps) * (2). So 24 * 1 * 2 = 48. That way you know the switch ASIC isn't going to be your network bottleneck. If you look at other switches, this would be the main spec to validate. I can imagine some lower end ones not having enough bandwidth. It's unlikely to be an issue as you'll almost never need max bandwidth on every port 24x7x365, but, IMO, it's easy enough of a problem to avoid all together

Thanks again for your help Eulogy. That helps a ton! At least now I have some guidelines to shop for and have a little better idea what I'm looking for.

Thank you!

 

[1Wolf]

Stick with NetGear, less issues with unpatched exploits like TP-Link. You could go with Ubiquiti also, but you pay for the name more than a NetGear which will run rock solid for ages.

Thanks!

 

[sharknice]

The setup should be exactly as you described it in your current home.

Just buy an unamanaged gigabit network switch with as many ports as you need. Everything will be controlled by your router so you don't need to worry about software updates or security.

One thing I highly recommend you add to your setup is a UPS (uninterruptible power supply). Power all your networking equipment by plugging into that and you won't lose internet during a power outage or surges.


Also whatever hardware your ISP gvies you they'll likely try renting to you by default. You can pay for it outright and save money in the long run.

 

[toast0]

If you're not planning to use all the ports at once, you can probably get by with a $20 8-port gigE switch. Unmanaged. Netgear, tp-link, some name you've heard of at least. Unmanaged doesn't have any exposed software to need updates.

Plug in 8 ports down at the wiring center, plug in all your computers and things. If anything doesn't link up, disconnect wires with no link and try the other ones. If everything is termininated properly, that's all you need.

A lot of ISP modems and wireless access points have a little switch on them. If you're using one of those, and you need a couple more than 8 ports, there you go.

Hubs are very out of fashion, most 100baseT network equipment is switches, anything from the past two decades should be a switch.

 

[zandor]

If you buy a switch and later decide it's too small you can always just chain more than one switch together. I have 6. My main setup down in the basement has 3. I have my core 10Gb managed switch that connects to the router and my desktops, then everything else is chained off of that. Plugged into the main switch I have a PoE (power over ethernet) switch for my WiFi access points and an old Netgear 1Gb unmanaged switch that deals with stuff like printers. The rest are scattered around the house in spots where I have more devices than wires.

 

[1Wolf]

Just a follow up here as I'm about to order my 24-port switch. I see two Netgear unmanaged 24-port switches on Amazon. Is there a compelling reason to go with the more expensive one? The cheaper one gets tons of good reviews on Amazon and it looks like it would do the trick. I'm guessing the more expensive one is there business line and maybe more sturdy and reliable over time? I'm guessing that is why it has so few reviews: Because network guys probably aren't shopping on Amazon for the hardware to set up a business. This is just for my home.
GS524
GS324

Thanks!

 

[Eulogy]

The 524 has much high PoE capability, which you likely don't need/care about. Otherwise both will perform well for your needs, so I'd just go with the 324.

 

[wizzi01]

Have to pay for the limited lifetime warranty and next business day replacement of the 524 some how.

 

[1Wolf]

Thanks for the help Much appreciated.