BeantownT Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Hi, Renovating new house and would love to get your feedback on how best to set up wired/wifi network Devices: Anthem AVM70 processor Mac mini running as source for Tidal Hifi and plex NAS Smart TV (or UST projector) Wired Printer lots of iOS devices Lots of IOT devices (smart fridge, connected oven, vacuum, etc) Network dual 1GBps static ip fiber 8 port switch Mesh Wifi house is 3 floors with fiber termination in the middle floor. Ask: Can you share how you designed your wired/wifi network to get the best possible streaming in home for audio/movies thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxerfan88 Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 (edited) Sharing from my experience 10 years ago... 1. Find a central location for your switch that can be easily accessed (eg. closet, inside false ceiling near access hole). => make sure power point is installed there... 2. Arrange to install at least one pair (main+backup) of CAT6 or better cabling from each room / network point to the switch. a. work/study room probably need more network points, maybe 2 pairs. b. each TV location, better install a pair of network points. 3. When I did my reno, I converted each AC wall power point to a dual socket. => Big regret, with dual still not enough. So, install as many AC wall power point as you can. 4. You can connect WiFi point to any network point to provide wireless coverage. Lots of flexibility once your network point is in place. No need to bother about those mesh things. Wired is best! 5. In my case, it is a single floor apartment, yours is 3 floors. a. Maybe you want to have one switch for each floor. You then need to lay a pair of CAT6 cabling to link up the switches into one giant LAN. b. Depends at which level your fiber modem/home gateway comes into your house, your "master" switch should be co-located with it. c. I suggest you use 16/24-port gigabit switches. Unmanaged switches are quite cheap (eg. TPLink). => If the switches are hidden in closet or false ceiling, try to get one with a built-in fan. Edited March 27, 2021 by Boxerfan88 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CASH Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 i would suggest CAT8 Cables instead of CAT6 Cables to deal with extra Bandwidth n FutureProof Ready.. 4K or near approaching 8K... i have personally changed out all of my CAT7 cables.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxerfan88 Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 (edited) True lah. If can afford, go CAT8. I'm a pragmatic guy, most home network cables are pretty short run. I believe my CAT6 can support 10GBe when the time comes. Talking about network cables, better to go buy your own cable and ask the installer to use your supplied cable, and then return the balance. If you leave it to the installer, never know what sort of cable quality is used. Once installed into the wall, if both main+backup fails, it is going to be extremely messy to rip out and reinstall. With this in mind, I bought the 100feet reel of 3M CAT6 cable from SLT top floor, and insisted the installer use my cable. One word of caution, do the same with power cables. It was my oversight not to do the same with power cables. After about 6-7 years, my kitchen lights went crazy. Got an electrician to troubleshoot and fix, and he showed me the sh.it C-made power cables that was used, so powdery on the inside, and was told the internal copper strands probably broke away at some point. He replaced with quality cables, and all good now. Problem is, there are more such segments of the C-made power cables, that I don't know when they will fail... Big regret... Edited March 27, 2021 by Boxerfan88 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petetherock Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Very nice home TS. You may want to have more than one LAN point in important areas, and also have one at the front and rear porch, and two points at the central area where you site your router. The switch and ONT can be in your storeroom / electrical room, but is patched to the central area where your router sits. Check the costs of routing, most of the time, bottlenecks occur at the website, and the quality of the mesh will be a bigger fast if you are using wifi a lot. Ethernet backhaul will help that. Siting the router / AP higher up will help with the wifi signals. You can check out my experiences here: https://peteswrite.blogspot.com/2019/01/setting-up-mesh-network-in-your-home.html I like Google Mesh for it's simplicity, but there are newer options. However even 50 mps is more than enough for 4k videos, so don't go overboard, you may have other areas to spend on such as your hifi and the main renovations. Site the ONT early, and get your timetable for the build, so the Openet folks can coordinate with your main contractor to get your home sorted. Don't book too early, but get the appointment ahead of time as labor is in short supply now. As for the reno, if you want to talk about it, pm me and I can share more. Good luck and enjoy the build! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeantownT Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 22 hours ago, Boxerfan88 said: True lah. If can afford, go CAT8. I'm a pragmatic guy, most home network cables are pretty short run. I believe my CAT6 can support 10GBe when the time comes. Talking about network cables, better to go buy your own cable and ask the installer to use your supplied cable, and then return the balance. If you leave it to the installer, never know what sort of cable quality is used. Once installed into the wall, if both main+backup fails, it is going to be extremely messy to rip out and reinstall. With this in mind, I bought the 100feet reel of 3M CAT6 cable from SLT top floor, and insisted the installer use my cable. One word of caution, do the same with power cables. It was my oversight not to do the same with power cables. After about 6-7 years, my kitchen lights went crazy. Got an electrician to troubleshoot and fix, and he showed me the sh.it C-made power cables that was used, so powdery on the inside, and was told the internal copper strands probably broke away at some point. He replaced with quality cables, and all good now. Problem is, there are more such segments of the C-made power cables, that I don't know when they will fail... Big regret... thank you mate! I still have to purchase some HT gear so i may stick with Cat7 can you guys share where you got your Cat7 or 8 from? My last condo 7 years ago, i got Cat6 from bluejeancables. Also didnt think about crappy power cables!! can you also recommend good online store to get the power cables? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeantownT Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 22 hours ago, petetherock said: Very nice home TS. You may want to have more than one LAN point in important areas, and also have one at the front and rear porch, and two points at the central area where you site your router. The switch and ONT can be in your storeroom / electrical room, but is patched to the central area where your router sits. Check the costs of routing, most of the time, bottlenecks occur at the website, and the quality of the mesh will be a bigger fast if you are using wifi a lot. Ethernet backhaul will help that. Siting the router / AP higher up will help with the wifi signals. You can check out my experiences here: https://peteswrite.blogspot.com/2019/01/setting-up-mesh-network-in-your-home.html I like Google Mesh for it's simplicity, but there are newer options. However even 50 mps is more than enough for 4k videos, so don't go overboard, you may have other areas to spend on such as your hifi and the main renovations. Site the ONT early, and get your timetable for the build, so the Openet folks can coordinate with your main contractor to get your home sorted. Don't book too early, but get the appointment ahead of time as labor is in short supply now. As for the reno, if you want to talk about it, pm me and I can share more. Good luck and enjoy the build! thanks mate.. will ping you.. would love some advice/guidance on setting up and wiring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcking1624705747 Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 If you or your other half finds that running network cables is a bit obtrusive, you can also consider running fiber instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeantownT Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 3 hours ago, pcking1624705747 said: If you or your other half finds that running network cables is a bit obtrusive, you can also consider running fiber instead. wont you still have to "run" fiber? we probably would run the cat6 7 or 8 through the false ceiling... and isnt fiber like 2-3x cat 7/8? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcking1624705747 Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 (edited) 5 hours ago, BeantownT said: wont you still have to "run" fiber? we probably would run the cat6 7 or 8 through the false ceiling... and isnt fiber like 2-3x cat 7/8? For long runs, Fiber can be cheaper than Cat7/8 but you will need to know how to get them connected from point to point. Else just stick with Cat 7 or 8. Edited March 28, 2021 by pcking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 This is the age of 10Gb fiber ethernet. You should install a 10Gb fiber backbone between all 3 floors. I know you might not be ready for this but if you are running cables, please go to fs.com and buy several long runs of OM3 fiber cables with LC-LC terminations. Get your contractor to run the fiber along side to all the ethernet cable you are running. Just conveniently have this coiled up and ready near data points of each floor and at the fiber termination area where router and switches are required. Also run 10GB fiber to important data area, like, NAS, main workdesk, hi-fi room. Make sure you got at least 2 CAT6 or better cables installed at all data point (dual port) and then have all the ethernet cables are terminated at a switch panel at the central area, possibly at the middle level fiber termination area. I have been living in 14 years in my HDB flat and I am glad I got dual port LAN data points in every room (including kitchen) and it has been a great help for all my network need. I just install the 10Gb backbone to 4 areas, 3 months ago and they are now all link up completely. Don't ever believe or rely Mesh Wifi will solve your problem. I have issues and I need to install one mesh device per room (I used 5 units) to get everything working 100% and reliably. If you want up all the ethernet data points , you can selectively strengthen the weak spot of your mesh network. If you got 1Gb done up properly, you will have no issues with audio /movie streaming. The 10Gb provides a TEN-FOLD safeguard for future needs. (Audio) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CASH Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 Cat8 cables are the way to look forward too... dont wait till the "could have ,become, should have" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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