dark mode light mode
6 min read
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
share this

Technology: My New Home Network Design (2017)

It’s 2017 and while there will be a collection of posts over the next few months of various house projects that I want to document, the first is purely in reference to the topology and hardware associated with this new home. You’ll see from this photo that I had electricians run Cat6 cable throughout the house. I believe there are 20 drops total which isn’t a huge amount of cable (only 500 feet) but I’m the only person that uses the hardwired network. Obviously Heather benefits when she watches things streamed from the Synology but tech is my area and she respects my space which is appreciated.

Before we get started, you can read about my 2014 & 2016 networking setups in these previous posts:

Here’s a photo of the shielded Cat6 running alongside the electrical:

1-11-2017 House Update

and here’s the primary drop:

1-11-2017 House Update

This is what I ordered for Cat6: Monoprice #13564 500FT Cat 6 Bulk Bare Copper Ethernet Network Cable STP, Solid, In-Wall Rated (CM), 550MHz, 23AWG – Blue – GENERIC

Rack-Mounted is the way to do this. There’s no better way to organize all of your home appliances and while part of this dream may not be realized, I do feel that I’ve scoped out a setup that will fit well inside of one rack and allow the house to enjoy the benefits of insanely fast speeds and remote access to everything in my life.

Here’s the MonoPrice order for those of you interested in taking this up. Note that I may do an additional order at some point as I usually don’t order everything I need the first time but this should get you started. Keep in mind as well that you have to adjust all of the totals for hour house, drops, face plates, etc:

  • Product Qty. Price Total
  • 8621 10/32 Screw for Rack, 50 pcs Black 1 $4.63 $4.63
  • 13564 500FT Cat 6 Bulk Bare Copper Ethernet Network Cable STP, Solid, In-Wall Rated (CM), 550MHz, 23AWG – Blue – GENERIC 1 $89.99 $89.99
  • 8138 RJ-11 and RJ-45 Modular Plug Tester 1 $7.43 $7.43
  • 2114 Cat6 24AWG UTP Ethernet Network Patch Cable, 3ft Blue 20 $0.91 $18.20
  • 3427 Cat6 24AWG UTP Ethernet Network Patch Cable, 5ft Blue 4 $1.33 $5.32
  • 8631 Single Sided Shelf, 3.5(H)X10(D)X19(W), 30Lbs 2 $18.48 $36.96
  • 7013 1-Gang Low Voltage Mounting Bracket 9 $1.24 $11.16
  • 7308 Premium Cable Management, Metal D-Ring, 1.75 inch (H) 1 $4.36 $4.36
  • 7253 Cat6 Patch Panel 110 Type 24 Port (568A/B Compatible) 1 $17.99 $17.99
  • 5384 Cat6 Punch Down Keystone Jack – White 18 $1.35 $24.30
  • 5779 Cable Tie Set, 1000pcs/Pack – Various Color with Cutting Tool 1 $8.61 $8.61
  • 5828 Hook & Loop Fastening Tape 5 yard/roll, 0.75-inch – Black 1 $2.79 $2.79
  • 6727 Wall Plate for Keystone, 2 Hole – White 7 $0.40 $2.80
  • 6731 Wall Plate for Keystone, 4 Hole – White 2 $0.40 $0.80
  • 18235 Tripp Lite Wall Mount 2-Post Open Frame Rack Cabinet 8U / 14U / 22U – Wall Mountable – Black – Steel – 150 lb x Maximum Weight Capacity 1 $103.99 $103.99

Item number first then name then quantity then price. It was $388 for all of the infrastructure needed with the most expensive items being the 500 feet of shielded Cat 6 along with the 22U rack which will have some issues with all of the equipment I bought but if you search online, you’ll find there are ways to add structure and rigidity to the frame.

When shopping for cable, STP isn’t required but some electricians may require it since all things being installed in a wall next to electric cable should be shielded for maximum throughput and there are other fire hazards associated with cable rated to be installed in a wall. If you’re doing this with a snake behind an existing wall, keep in mind that shielded Cat6 cable is way thicker than non-shielded or Cat5e cable. Larger cable = harder snaking. For new construction, this isn’t an issue.

———

The server rack will actually serve three purposes. The first is the home network, server and powering (via PoE) the Access Points. The next element is the location where all of my HomeKit hubs for Phillips, Lutron, Elgato and other manufacturers will live that connect to my HomeKit devices (this setup deserves its own post). Finally, this rack will hold all of the home theatre gear for the projector. The photo above has a green foam board wall opposite the 2×6 framing. At the top of the server rack, we’ll have a hole cut in the sheet rock and will throw the image on that wall w/ a projector. Below the projector will be the Xbox, Wii U, Receiver and other equipment with a Logitech Harmony Pro RF Receiver. Nintendo actually makes 50 foot sensor bar adapters as well so we can play games, adjust volume, turn on and off the setup via RF and not have any noise coming into the home theatre. In concept, I’m pretty stoked about this aspect of the setup and I do hope it works.

Here is the collection of networking equipment I already own or is on-order:

In total, we’re looking at about $3500 in parts and another $500 in labor most of which I’ll do myself as the electricians will not do testing, terminating or any cable management which is fine by me. I have a punch down tool and tester.

Finally, a Brother Laser printer will also live in the server rack and it supports AirPrint & network printing and since we don’t print much, laser is a much better choice as ink cartridges tend to dry out by the time I go to use them.

The next post will focus on setting up the server rack and getting everything in place but here’s a written overview of the topology:

  • Four Ports behind 4K TV (TV + NVIDIA Shield + AppleTV + Xbox One S)
  • Two in living area for Heather’s desk
  • Two in each bedroom, the one in the main bedroom will connect to my Samsung 1080P 60” Set + Wall mounted AppleTV
  • Two at the Kitchen Island for convenience of friends or for me to hang out and still get nice speeds wired in
  • Two in the beer cellar for the IP Camera
  • Two in the home theatre for reasons I’m not sure yet

I did not get ports in the coffee area, bathroom or wall of the kitchen and maybe I’ll regret that at some point.

Thanks so much for following along and reading. Maybe this was helpful to someone. All of the equipment I bought is middle-end for most small businesses and high-end for a home setup. If you don’t have 32 terabytes of data to store, 4 access points, 2 desktop computers, 2 laptops, a home theatre, 50+ HomeKit devices and a lot of other home services, this is all overkill.

PS: I can’t wait to write a separate posts about the “Ambient Weather WS-1001-WIFI OBSERVER Solar Powered Wireless WiFi Remote Monitoring Weather Station with Solar Radiation and UV” I just bought. It’ll be roof-mounted and feed data directly into Weather Underground.

PPS: There’s also 32 solar panels coming next week from LG. 315 Watt panels to power the house. Much excite!

Solar Installation Proposal

Share
Share
Share
Share

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.