New Loft [Fairly Large Pics]

T

Triath

Gawd
Joined
Apr 23, 2002
Messages
639
We will have a fairly good sized loft above the shop we are building. And I want to move up there but I want it to be all wired up for lans and such.

This is a basic idea of the loft, and the red dots are for wall plugs for the lan wires. There are Four for now, but I want like 2 on every wall. (Black dots are the windows)

basic.jpg


Anyways, my reasoning for this post is this. Right now those 4 can be plugged directly into the router, but if I wanted more what hardware do I need to have it so everyone could plug in and use the internet and lan?

I'm a networking newbie and have no idea what is compatible with what. I will be creating a cabinet type deal in the wall, which will be hidden away and putting all the hardware in it and wiring everything to there. (4ft. tall and slopes down to meet the floor)

3.jpg


And simple shots of the whole thing. If anyone can give me a fairly simple idea of what I will need I would appreciate it. Running on Cable btw.

1.jpg

2.jpg
 
Do you want two network jacks or two wall-plates full of network jacks on every wall? Mildly important, as wall-plates normally have 4 jacks on them (8 jacks total vs. 32 jacks total). I'll assume that you're only having 8-jacks for this, but you can easily adapt this for however many.

The best way to do it would be to get a patch-panel and punch down the cable runs between each wallplate and the patch panel, then run cable from the patch panel to your switch. You'll want probably an 8-port switch, and then hook that directly into your router. However, if you want to give yourself some room to grow, you could always look at a 16-port switch - they aren't terribly expensive and would give you the extra spots for if your LAN party is larger than expected.

I'd say look at LanShack for your hardware needs - I'm a fan of their stuff and use it in my own setups.

Matieral needed:
Lots of Cat5e network cable, RJ45 ends, punch-down tool, patch panel (12-port), 10/100 network switch (8, 12, or 16 port - whichever you prefer/have money for), cable stripper, crimping tool

I think that should be good enough to get started.
 
If you wanted to have more than 4, you would want a switch. You may want to watch the heat if you're rigging a cabinet, and spec it with your wire.

Ethernet cable is very, tempermental. You can't bend it too sharply, you can't staple it or even use a tight zip tie, and you have to terminate it carefuly. Nothing that's hard to do, but those will affect performance.

I'd suggest you read up on Home Networking/Automation. Nothing that would require a book IMO, you could try the folks at AVS for the best links.
 
Thanks for all your help guys, I was wondering if anyone could come up with a small quick diagram of how everything branches off from each other. Like is the switch hooked up to the router, and router is hooked up to modem and where the patches come into it all. Sorry if I'm a nuesance.
 
example.jpg


Not the greatest job, but a quick example. It's a very straightforward configuration (imagine that the A/B switchbox is actually a walljack, I couldn't find a stencil of one in a rush).
 
Thank you so much, that clarifys what I imagined. You all have been a huge help, one last further thing, anyone have any favorite switches that arnt to expensive? :D * Also this switch will work with a wireless router aswell? (Well any switch?)
 
Pretty much any switch will work for your purposes. Linksys makes good workgroup switches, and I use a lot of their equipment for home networking.

As long as the wireless router has RJ45 jacks to attach network devices to (such as Linksys wireless router), you can plug the switch into that and you should be set.
 
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