Network map

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paulwatson5

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Feb 8, 2014
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Hi, can anyone help me out with my network?

I have a home network setup which consists of hardware in my living room, bedroom and garage.

I'm looking for any pointers which would improve my network setup and im still learning so understand that my setup may not be setup very efficiently.

If i post a network map would someone be able to help me out please?
 
What are your goals? To break up collision domains? Increase bandwidth on your LAN?
I'll help if I can. Post what you babe and what you're trying to accomplish.

EDIT: babe = have. Lol. Keyboard on phone. I'm leaving it because it's funny, Damn it.
 
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Thanks (babe!)

Here is a very rough map (will do a propper one when i get a bit more time)

OK, bit of a brief walkthrough. My router is a standard sky router which only has 10/100 ports, im looking to replace this with a router with gigabit ports and dual channel wireless.

The devices in the bedroom and the garage are conected via 500mbps homeplugs (understand there may be a bottleneck here, would gigabit homeplugs drastically improve the transfer rates?)

The garage lab is literally only a test lab and the reason for the 10/100 switch in there is simply because its managed and supports VLANS so when i have a bit more knowledge i might try to create a seperate network for my testing lab and have a pfsense firewall in there etc.

Coming soon is another HP Microserver (got it at such a price i couldnt say no..... not sure what role it will provide as yet)

So, my questions are:
1. Should i replace my router
2. Should i replace my homeplugs
3. Is there anything you would place differently (may or may not be possible)
4. I would like a plex server so i can stream to my smart tv, would i be able to achive this over homeplugs in my current setup?

Below is the ROUGH network "map"

Living room
Sky SR101 10/100 wireless router
LG TV / SKY HD/ XBOX 360 / Homeplug

Bedroom
Homeplug
5 Port gigabit switch
HP N40L (File server) / SKY HD

Garage
Homeplug
8 Port gigabit switch
ESXi box / Dell GX520 / Dell GX520 / IP Webcam / 24 port managed switch
 
Lol @ babe.
Please get rid of the homeplugs if you can. They introduce noise into the signal. Anyone can argue this point if they want, but there are actual tests to prove it. I would say they are good for a temporary solution, but never for a permanent solution.
It all depends on how much effort you're willing to put into it. You could grab a couple ubiquiti unifi units and cover the whole house. That would be the "easy route".
While there may be an option in between my suggested easy route and my suggested solution, this is my recommendation, and you will need to do what's best for your pocket, and your network...
For the price of homeplugs, you can pay for most of your ethernet cable. Check out monoprice for their cat5e. If you are willing to put in the effort, install the wire throughout the house. This will gain you the greatest benefit. There are many great writeups throughout the Internet on this, so I will retain from expounding on the topic. However, should you choose to go this route, I can help you out with any questions you should have.
To answer your questions with the information so far:
1. Yes
2. Throw away
3. Depends on the route you take.
4. Not sure over homeplugs. Your best solution is recommended. Will the end devices be able to use wifi? If so, ubiquiti may be your total solution. If you want to be wired, we need to drop those homeplugs (did I say that enough? :D ;))
 
Thanks for your reply babe.
My house is just over a year old and the mrs would outright refuse the suggestion of wiring cat5e/6 which is a shame as I've always wanted a wires house.
There are only really 2 runs which need to be sorted which are living room to bedroom and then to garage.
Garage can stay on a homeplug as it's just for testing I guess but would prefer decent speed if I could get something which would do this.
Those access points you linked, they would also require wiring of some sort yes?
 
paulwatson5 said:
Thanks for your reply babe.
My house is just over a year old and the mrs would outright refuse the suggestion of wiring cat5e/6 which is a shame as I've always wanted a wires house.
There are only really 2 runs which need to be sorted which are living room to bedroom and then to garage.
Garage can stay on a homeplug as it's just for testing I guess but would prefer decent speed if I could get something which would do this.
Those access points you linked, they would also require wiring of some sort yes?
Click to expand...
Yes. Those will need to have a cat5 wire run to them. They already include a PoE injector, so you could put one in the attic if you wanted... One wire to the attic, mount the device, done deal. Should cover the whole house. I would go 1Gb to it if you can. Although, I personally haven't looked up the speed specifications for those units as I'm not a huge fan of wireless.
 
You have to get the pro or AC to need gigabit, and even then they won't be as fast as the Power line networking

Short of running wires which you say is a nogo I think you're as good as you're gonna get

You haven't really said what speed your internet connection is
 
FNtastic said:
You could grab a couple ubiquiti unifi units and cover the whole house. That would be the "easy route".
Click to expand...

Best advice right here ^^^

1. Get an EdgeRouter (whichever fits your budget)
2. Get a UAP-pro or UAP-AC (depending on your house sqft 1 will probably suffice)
3. This wifi will be good enough for anything, next step up is running Ethernet.
4. Adding emphesis on the fact that you NEED to ditch the HomePlugs

Goodluck!
 
Internet speed is only 3.5mb but the reason i want the extra speed/efficiency is for streaming media and running various services from different locations of the house/garage and dont want the bottle neck.

I dont mind spending cash if required and i'm now looking into the possibility of running cat5e/6 cable from the router to the server cupboard upstairs and then a run from the router to the garage.

The wife cant really kick up a fuss about 2 cables right (well, 4, fault tolerance etc...)

I dont want to rely on wireless for my whole house, although i would like to add an access point to the garage for extended coverage as it will be converted to an office/server room within the next year or 2.
 
I'd try to pull Ethernet to each location. A line for each device is preferred, but even a single line with a switch at the other end should be OK. Gigabit Ethernet should be adequate for the foreseeable future. A single gigabit link can carry multiple 4k video streams.
 
Bit of an update, ive realise that there is a coaxial ariel socket behind my TV in the living room that isnt being used. I'm hoping that the ariel socket is cabled up and "should" go to the loft.

If this is right, im going to look at removing the faceplate, tying cat5e cable to the coaxial cable and pull it up from the loft hoping that it isnt running through any wood beams etc.

Sound do-able?
 
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