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I guess Ive decided the only way to alleviate my problems with the server in my office (noise & heat) is by biting the bullet and wiring my house for Ethernet. It will be a phased project, first to get our upstairs offices wired to a central point with the networking gear, and then when we remodel the basement, the rest of the drops will go in. The second phase will include wiring a central point on the main level for a WAP, the entertainment center, and my eventual basement office.
My basement is already finished, but done poorly. We want to re-do the mess, and add a bedroom/office down there. There is a sort of unfinished area that is a cross between unfinished room and crawl space. The entry door to the room is half-height (about), and the interior is probably 5-ish feet tall. The floor in the room is dirt with a plastic vapor barrier on top of it, and someone previously added a big carpet to cover the room. We use it mostly for storing cardboard, totes, and truck parts for the restoration Im working on. It is insulated on the walls and ceiling, with one light and an HVAC vent that I keep closed. The main cable drop from the utility is redistributed from this room.
My question is, should I put all my network and comm gear inside the unfinished space, or in the finished space? Once a month I have to change out the backup drives, but otherwise have little physical interaction with the machine (Ive thought about putting a passthrough port in the wall and mounting the backup drives in the finished space). Right now I just have a tower firewall & server, switch & modem. Eventually Id like to move everything to a rack. Im a little worried about dirt and bugs, but the room isnt a dingy crawl space of old. The house was built in 96, and if it werent for the lack of actual floor, the room would pretty much be equivalent to an unfinished basement. I actually have considered putting in a floor, but probably wont go to the trouble. The office Ethernet (and probably garage) wiring will go through this room, and it would be pretty trivial to install a dedicated power circuit in the room. I wouldnt take a lot of work to mount it in the finished space, but I like the idea of having the equipment out of the way. Theres a good chance we can leave the drywall on this wall when we refinish, so it would also minimize mess during that process for the equipment.
Normally, I have seen it not recommended installing hardware in crawl spaces, but this is nicer than a typical crawl spaceand probably better than the garage that a lot of installs are in. We also live in a fairly dry environment, so I dont really expect significant humidity and temp swings as the room is mostly under grade (I think).
My basement is already finished, but done poorly. We want to re-do the mess, and add a bedroom/office down there. There is a sort of unfinished area that is a cross between unfinished room and crawl space. The entry door to the room is half-height (about), and the interior is probably 5-ish feet tall. The floor in the room is dirt with a plastic vapor barrier on top of it, and someone previously added a big carpet to cover the room. We use it mostly for storing cardboard, totes, and truck parts for the restoration Im working on. It is insulated on the walls and ceiling, with one light and an HVAC vent that I keep closed. The main cable drop from the utility is redistributed from this room.
My question is, should I put all my network and comm gear inside the unfinished space, or in the finished space? Once a month I have to change out the backup drives, but otherwise have little physical interaction with the machine (Ive thought about putting a passthrough port in the wall and mounting the backup drives in the finished space). Right now I just have a tower firewall & server, switch & modem. Eventually Id like to move everything to a rack. Im a little worried about dirt and bugs, but the room isnt a dingy crawl space of old. The house was built in 96, and if it werent for the lack of actual floor, the room would pretty much be equivalent to an unfinished basement. I actually have considered putting in a floor, but probably wont go to the trouble. The office Ethernet (and probably garage) wiring will go through this room, and it would be pretty trivial to install a dedicated power circuit in the room. I wouldnt take a lot of work to mount it in the finished space, but I like the idea of having the equipment out of the way. Theres a good chance we can leave the drywall on this wall when we refinish, so it would also minimize mess during that process for the equipment.
Normally, I have seen it not recommended installing hardware in crawl spaces, but this is nicer than a typical crawl spaceand probably better than the garage that a lot of installs are in. We also live in a fairly dry environment, so I dont really expect significant humidity and temp swings as the room is mostly under grade (I think).