Plan of New House Network - Suggestions Needed

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EvilAlchemist

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In about 6 months, I will be building a new house.
I have been trying to get an idea of the network layout and equipment needed.

I want to have a good idea of what needs to be done & how so i can sit down the with contractor and get it configured to my needs.

Here is a rough idea of what I have planned.

(Click for full size image)


Need Advice in a couple of areas:

1) For the Router, Switch, and DNS/Backup Server was thinking of using this product or one similar. (The DNS server is in a shuttle case)

2) Ref back to this thread first photo, and trying to understand patch panels function, it goes from a switch / system to the patch panel, and then to another patch panel at a difference location to do the reverse. Correct? Is this method better then running standard lan cables threw the wall / floor to another location?


3) I need to make sure the installer uses Cat 6 cable instead of cat5e/cat 5?

4) For power to the racks, is it better to let the electrician hardwire power into the racks or have them install and outlet near the ceiling and i run a cord out to the outlet.
(Each Rack will have it own 20amp Circuit)(Photo of my racks)

Hope these do not seem dumb. Just trying to make sure it looks clean and professional.
Don't want to skimp now and regreat it for a long time.

If anyone has any suggestions, or tips ... feel free to tell me ....

Thanks
 
I recently built a house and here's what I would suggest after doing mine. I ran the network/phone/TV wiring myself, I would suggest doing the same. I did my entire house for a fraction of what the contractor would have charged. I was talking with the electrician and he said what I did would have ran me about $12K if they had done it, I paid less than $500. I did Cat6 through out (it may be overkill but I was trying to future proof it somewhat). Another suggestion is to use the structured wiring, you can find it with two Cat5e, one Coax, and a fiber all in one housing. It's about twice the cost of just the Cat6 but having fiber in place for the future would be awesome. I had the builder run a 4" conduit from my server room (in the basement) to the attic (I have a two story house) so I can run additional wires (fiber :D) in the future.

I wouldn't worry too much about the exact networking equipment at the moment, just make sure there is sufficient power for everything. I had them put an additional electrical panel in my server room so I can pull new power anytime without much issue.

Patch panels are very nice, be sure to do it that way. The way you'd have it setup is from your wallplate to the back of the patch panel. Then you'd use a patch cable from the front of the patch panel to your switch. If the servers are in the same rack as you patch panels then you'd just run a patch cable from the server to the switch, skipping the patch panel. If you have a telco rack (or similar) for you network equipment, then do cables running from the telco rack to the server rack going from patch panel to patch panel and use patch cables at each end. Doing it this way will give you a more modular setup making it so you can move servers around and all you need to do is change the patch cable.

Good luck, whatever you plan to spend won't be enough, I could have used an additional $10K-$20K :D
 
During construction of a house....is the best time to run wires..before they close up the wall. Run more cables than you think you'll possibly need....because down the road, you often wished you ran more to more locations. Once the walls are sealed up....it becomes expensive to add.

Running CAT6 is fine...have the electrician run them with the phone lines. They can use CAT5 or CAT5e for the phone lines.

Run more locations in each room than you think you need...down the road you may wish you did a cat 5 jack over in //that// corner...etc.

Have all the CAT cables come together at your "distribution" center....where you'll place your patch panel, switch, router, "modem". Have electrical system nearby for that. Have it in a decent spot. Consider the quality of your basement if you're thinking about that (humidity, spider webs, etc).

If you have no experience running lines and terminating them yourself...I don't recommend trying to do that unless you think you want to. While yes it's easy..there's an investment in equipment to do it right. And troubleshooting if issues arise. Your time spent..versus paying a contractor...that's up to you.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
During construction of a house....is the best time to run wires..before they close up the wall. Run more cables than you think you'll possibly need....because down the road, you often wished you ran more to more locations. Once the walls are sealed up....it becomes expensive to add.
Click to expand...

This is something I did. I ran two cat6 and a coax to each of my boxes and each room has 3-5 boxes. Even in the rooms I thought I would never need them (wife's scrabooking room), I did them anyways because you always come up with new plans in the future and it's nice to be prepared. I even have network ran to the box that is for my under-cabinet TV in the kitchen :D. I tired to put a box on each wall in all my rooms so that if I rearrange any of my rooms (as wives always do :p) I never have to cross a wall with a cable.

Like he said, do it now while it's "cheap" because if you don't then it gets expensive and it's a pain. I'd also (as I already mentioned) strongly suggest a piece of conduit from your basement (if you have one) to your attic for future growth.

Another thing I had done was I had power pulled to my attic for access points. I could do POE but since I was able to I figured why not. Again, one of those I may as well.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
During construction of a house....is the best time to run wires..before they close up the wall. Run more cables than you think you'll possibly need....because down the road, you often wished you ran more to more locations. Once the walls are sealed up....it becomes expensive to add.

Running CAT6 is fine...have the electrician run them with the phone lines. They can use CAT5 or CAT5e for the phone lines.

Run more locations in each room than you think you need...down the road you may wish you did a cat 5 jack over in //that// corner...etc.

Have all the CAT cables come together at your "distribution" center....where you'll place your patch panel, switch, router, "modem". Have electrical system nearby for that. Have it in a decent spot. Consider the quality of your basement if you're thinking about that (humidity, spider webs, etc).

If you have no experience running lines and terminating them yourself...I don't recommend trying to do that unless you think you want to. While yes it's easy..there's an investment in equipment to do it right. And troubleshooting if issues arise. Your time spent..versus paying a contractor...that's up to you.
Click to expand...


Agreed.

Also, don' forget that you can bridge just about ANYTHING via ethernet, HDMI, VGA, S-VIDEO, LV Power, VOIP, Computers, Phone, etc.... you can get RJ45 adapters for all these things.

So do yourself a favor and overkill, because you can always use the extra drops for other things as mentoned above.
 
Many thanks for the tip so far.

1) Trying decide if i should go with cat 6 or cat 6a or CAT 5E or a mix of both.
Cat 6a would be nice in the future but at 3x the cost of cat 6.
I do agree with Ockie to "overkill" the setup while the house is being built for future needs.
What, if any ,benefit would be in using this higher bandwidth cable or is it not worth it.

2) YeOldeStonecat stated using cat5 for the phone lines. I have not had a house phone in over 8 years, neither has the g/f. is still a good idea to run the phone lines ... or can these be used later for voip later if we wanted it.

3) Just to confirm supergper & YeOldeStonecat comments; Each room will have 2 wall plates. All those conenctions go to the wall plates in the server room.
Then I can just connect those to my switch or does it come out of the wall to a patch panel then from there connect to the switch. Os is this an either or kinda of thing.

4) What is the best way to run the lines from the switch in the back of the room to the racks (What will look the most professional)
Could Conduit be run from the switch - in the ceiling , then into the rack?

Many thanks
 
EvilAlchemist said:
Many thanks for the tip so far.

1) Trying decide if i should go with cat 6 or cat 6a or CAT 5E or a mix of both.
Cat 6a would be nice in the future but at 3x the cost of cat 6.
I do agree with Ockie to "overkill" the setup while the house is being built for future needs.
What, if any ,benefit would be in using this higher bandwidth cable or is it not worth it.

2) YeOldeStonecat stated using cat5 for the phone lines. I have not had a house phone in over 8 years, neither has the g/f. is still a good idea to run the phone lines ... or can these be used later for voip later if we wanted it.

3) Just to confirm supergper & YeOldeStonecat comments; Each room will have 2 wall plates. All those conenctions go to the wall plates in the server room.
Then I can just connect those to my switch or does it come out of the wall to a patch panel then from there connect to the switch. Os is this an either or kinda of thing.

4) What is the best way to run the lines from the switch in the back of the room to the racks (What will look the most professional)
Could Conduit be run from the switch - in the ceiling , then into the rack?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

Personally I would just go ahead with the CAT6, it will be a time coming until 10GBaseT becomes a standard in homes, but hell if you have the cash, why not and go all out.

If you're not planning on getting a regular home phone, I would still wire it up that way, you never know what you're going to need. If everything is going into the same wiring closet, you can terminate these into a switch and go the VoIP route, in the future.

For more modularity I would terminate all the lines into a patch panel, that way all it is is taking a patch cable from the panel to the switch. Makes for a neater installation, plus probably cheaper than buying the jacks for all the lines.

Unless I missed something, why not rack the switch, and router as well, keep all the gear in one location?
 
You did not miss anything.

I can push the two rack together and it would make the setup easier.
That way, the power, lan, and coax can drop down from the ceiling and all can be in the rack.

I am assuming that they can run conduit from the ceiling to the rack so that all the cabling is hidden?
 
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