Older Home Networking....

gregnash said:
Ok so here is the next question.....
I will be having two lines run to the front room, one will be dedicated to the XBOX One and the other to all the other devices there (AppleTv, Tivo, maybe a third line to Blu-Ray player to update the firmware but its older so no streaming or anything). I will use a small switch there for the line that is handling all the other devices.
The line that will be run to the bedroom will handle multiple devices; Tivo, AppleTv, Blu-Ray Player and possibly to the TV as that is a Smart TV and has the ability to do Amazon Prime, HULU, etc.
Anyways, do you guys have a recommendation for a small, cheap gigabit switch? Was looking at this one as it seemed to get good reviews on the net.. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QUA6R...lid=1P1Z3YAEGLU4V&coliid=I146WSNTHSLI3S&psc=1
Click to expand...

Stick with anything with a decent brand name and you'll be fine. Small, unmanaged switches are pretty much interchangeable. D-Link, Netgear, TP-Link, whatever. The only thing I'd look for is a small power adapter so I don't have a huge wall-wart blocking a socket.

TP Link does have a nicer one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A128S24 for a few bucks more. Much smaller footprint and lots of good ratings.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Bandalo thanks... not really worried about the footprint of either unit or their wall plug as I have plenty of spots open on the surge protectors. For the few extra bucks though I may go with the TP-Link that you added as I currently have the V2 Archer C7. They just recently released a new firmware and I think that has improved the signal strength some as I was hitting the low 80s connection strength with maybe 20-25mbps connection on the X1 before and now while I am still in the low 80%s I am running close to 30mbps for connection. However, I have noticed that certain devices are not liking it as much, specifically the AppleTVs (both older gens), and are randomly disconnecting and reconnecting themselves OR will drop bandwidth like a hot potato for a few minutes. For instance, last night I was watching XMen Apocalypse in the front room on one AppleTV, shut it off and then went into the bedroom to finish watching. Gave myself a good 5 minutes before I turned the AppleTV on in the bedroom (brushing teeth and whatnot) and then connected. When I tried to resume the video from its start point it started to play and then went into a "buffering" phase that eventually ended in it saying it would be ready to play in 40mins. I restarted the AppleTV and that seemed to clear the connection issue up and was able to continue without hitch.

This seems to be a little more prevalent with the newest firmware but then again who knows... Once everything is wired up I shouldn't have to worry about these issues as only mobile devices will be on the router.
 
Eeyup...that's why I never run wireless unless I don't have a choice! My internet already sucks, I don't need to add wifi issues into the mix as well.
 
Yeah completely understand what you mean.. Only seems that recently as we have added more devices and the devices have become more bandwidth hungry, have I seen issues. Also probably doesn't help that I spent 2 1/2 months on the couch due to injury. Normally the xbox doesn't even get turned on until late Nov when it is just too damn cold to ride even on the warmest days. And then it is only on until the snow melts and the trails are rideable at peak times of the day, so maybe 4 months max. LOL... I have played the xbox and watched more TV in the last couple months than I have probably in the last few years.
 
Ok so here is a new question.... currently have the wireless router planned to act as the "switch" in the office. This leaves me with three runs available after having the iMac hardwired into the available four. Would having the following configuration be a better setup; modem>5/8port switch>wireless router.
Then from the switch I can run as many lines as I will ever need? So plan is that right now I am going to have two runs going to the living room, one run going to the master bedroom and since I am down there I will pull another run to the spare bedroom just to have.

Also, I got down under the house and did some poking around since I had some free time. What I found was that apparently my flooring is not the standard 16" spaced floor joists with plywood over the top, it actually seems to be joists with 2x6 or 2x8 pieces???? In the past when the house was wired for cable the guys apparently just drilled straight through the floor instead of attempting to wire through the wall. So now I am wondering if I should see if one of my buddies has a wall fish and wire through the wall up to the attic instead of through the floor and under the house. The latter would definitely be the shorter of the runs. Going to take some pics after work when I get home to show what I am talking about... This is a 1963 home and I have no floor plan nor does the city have anything on file (they said they only have stuff dating back to the early 80s).
 
You have to go modem > router > switch. If you go the way you posted, none of the devices on your switch will work properly.
 
Bandalo Thanks, Ok so next question is that preferable over just using the ports included in the router as the switch or would a dedicated switch be more preferable?
 
There's really no difference. You can put everything on the switch, put everything on the router, add in another switch, or mix and match everything. You shouldn't have any difference in performance either way.
 
Ok cool I was hoping that I wouldn't really need to run a dedicated switch for everything seeing as the Archer C7 has gigabit ports but should I need more down the line I will.
Went and got a good 9/16" installers flex bit this evening after work to deal with drilling through the floor. Started one wall part this evening and probably will slowly work on the rest tomorrow night and over the holiday weekend. Gotta love being a state worker and getting an extra day off. Already thinking that I may pull additional runs to each room, two to each bedroom, giving me the ability to expand when I feel like it. Right now there is no TV or anything is the spare so it would just be a "nice-to-have" there and the bedroom could benefit from it but that is part of the reason for the switch in there. And honestly the bedroom doesn't see as much wired internet usage.

This is what the house will look like...
- Living room
- Two dedicated runs connected, One run done but not connected
- Run One: Xbox One
- Run Two (switch): TiVo, AppleTV, Sony BD
- Run Three: not connected or terminated, just open in wall
- Master Bedroom
- Run One (switch): split by switch
- TiVo
- AppleTV
- Nintendo Wii
- Run Two: not connected or terminated, just open in wall
- Spare Bedroom
- Run One: not connected or terminated, just open in wall

That would give me six runs total.... of which only three would be utilized. Right now the livingroom gets the most "streaming" usage between the Xbox and AppleTV. Streaming of music is occasionally done through Pandora on the TiVo but that is not incredibly often. The bedroom sees about the same, majority of streaming is done through the AppleTV and TiVo pretty equally as the wife listens to Pandora through the TiVo every morning and then we will watch movies on the AppleTV at night occasionally. The Wii gets turned on about once every six months or so whens he gets a wild hair up her butt to play Mario Bros. This is part of the reason that I am thinking the switch there will be fine with the single run active. Should we ever add anything else that would spend time on the system then we could utilize the second run and be done with it.

I dont ever see a need for PoE or anything to that sort and with as old as the house is doing home automation is pretty much not going to happen nor is it needed. So I am hoping that has all may bases covered should I randomly decide that I want to upgrade a room or decide that we want to sell the house (which is highly unlikely).

Bandalo I really appreciate all the help.
 
Sounds like you've got a good plan for the wiring. Now just plan for the unexpected once you start cutting and drilling. By my luck, that's when I always find black mold, or accidentally nick a water line, or just end up doing more drywall and paint work than I was hoping to!

A single line and a switch to the TV/Entertainment center type thing will be more than enough, even if you're streaming 4k. Even if you have 3-4 devices running simultaneously somehow (like a PS4 + Xbox One + Wii all downloading updates while you stream Netflix), you're still going to be limited by the internet connection speed long before you are limited by a 1Gb line.

No problem, glad I could at least give some basic advice.
 
Oh yeah... I am taking my time doing this stuff... good thing is that the office and livingroom lines will go on an exterior wall. When I was under the house this weekend there were no lines or other items to necessarily worry about and since they are near power outlets (mounting on the opposite side of the wall joist opening) I have something to reference when under the house. Started a bit last night by cutting the office wall location and then peeking inside the wall to see what I was getting into, there was nothing there other than the insulation. The interior walls should be easy but again the cable and electrical is already run in those areas so I can reference before I start making cuts to ensure that I have adequate spacing to not hit anything else.. I am too anal retentive about this to not do stuff like that... more like measure 8 times then get ready to cut, stop measure another couple times and then finally cut.
 
As promised here are some pics... drilling the exterior walls was more of a bitch than I anticipated...
Patch panel in office ended up being three different holes, one ended up going through subflooring, between siding and outside the foundation, another went into foundation and stopped, finally attacked from below with the flex bit and that was the money shot!!



Last night got the lines pulled from the office and only ended up doing a total of four lines as I was limited on space with the 9/16 bit. Ended up pulling the two lines to the living room, one to master and final is just and extra that can be routed if I ever feel necessary. At this point the wife said to get rid of the Wii in the room (unplug and store, not toss), so that only left the TiVO and AppleTV needing connectivity for the master. Doing this on my own with a still healing leg was interesting to say the least and probably took me a lot longer that it really should have. Doesn't help that all this stuff is at the middle or front of the house and crawlspace access is at the very rear.

For now the office is wired (have one last patch cable to finish and test), lines are run to where they need and living room has been patched, with its lines run. Tonight will be cutting the hole in the wall for the master and stringing the rest of the line there and then all will be done. I will get some more pics tonight from under the house. Decent amount of room, lots of cobwebs but nothing overly bad and luckily did not see any issues (mold, unknown water leakage, etc.) from the cursory look I did.
 
Oh the other awesome thing that I forgot to mention was that last night after I got the living room finished and plugged the Xbox One into its dedicated line I am now getting ~40mbps vs. the inconsistent ~25-30mbps (this was noted while updating Elder Scrolls Online in the update)... So that is a over approximately 30+ feet of line for that is 3 sections. I noticed that there is such thing as a Cat6 RJ45 plug... wondering if there is a speed difference between the RJ45 heads that came with my monoprice lan kit and a true Cat6 head??? Did some looking yesterday between meetings and did not find anything definitive that said yes or no, just that there is a difference between the plugs.

This was in direct contrast to running speedtest on my iMac which is direct connected to the router and pulled 65mbps according to the site. I plan on going through the Xbox IE browser and doing a speed test tonight to try a better 1:1 comparison.
 
Well a few days after getting everything finished and a few glitches worked out with some bad crimps on cable work everything is working flawlessly. Decided to turn the Xbox on for a bit today and download some of the updates that have been waiting.
Like I said before, more updates over wireless where somewhere between the 20mbps to 30mbps range. If it happened to be the middle of the day with no one home I could occasionally hit 32mbps...

I just started downloading 4 different updates for games, all over a couple gig a piece and have consistently hit 50+mbps!!!! Then went to Speedtest.net on the IE app on the xbox and it is reporting the same speeds as on my hardwired iMac. So stoked that this is complete!!! Thanks again to everyone who helped, especially Bandalo
 
Regarding your other question, RJ-45 is RJ-45, here's not any special CAT5/6 plugs. Now there ARE shielded plugs meant for use with shielded cable, but that shouldn't be necessary unless you're trying to run in a very electrically noisy environment, or trying to do long runs of 10G over copper or similar.

I was going to mention you should probably check the crimps and keystones if you're getting data rate or connection problems. They're easy to make small mistakes on. I bought a cheap network tester years ago that I use every time. But it sounds like you already got it worked out.

Looks like things are working well! Congrats! I
 
Yeah the "LAN Test Kit" I purchased from Monoprice has a cheap little tester. I had been testing all the patch cables I was creating but wasn't really paying attention when I made this one apparently. When I tested again there were two lines that we not light up, thus the connection issue. When I looked at my crimp up against a light I could see where the little spades had not hit the wires completely because they weren't pushed all the way in. Ended up being a quick and easy fix, thankfully.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top