Home network setup guidance

[jhony]

Hi All!

I will be moving to a new 3-story home in few months, and started thinking about my home ethernet network.
I am pretty nooby and wont be needing anything too fancy.
But I do want strong and stable internet for WFH days, WIFI, Smart-TVs and gaming consoles (XBOX).

I am getting my house wired, but I wont be able to home-run all the end-points to the main network-cabinet, where the router is, at the 1st floor.
Each floor wires are all concentrated to a floor-network-cabinet, and I will be able to send few wires from there to the main cabinet on the 1st floor.

I need your help and advice both on the gear and on the setup/topology.

The topology:
As I said I will have my main network cabinet with the router at the 1st floor.
Each floor will have a dedicated switch connected directly to the router as follows:
Port 1 --> 1st floor PoE 16/24 port giga switch. This switch will be connected to 3 WAP (1 for each floor), Intercom IP camera/panel, smart-TV, and to an NVR 8 channel switch connected to security cameras.
Port 2 --> Basement 8 port giga switch. This switch will be connected to smart-TV, game console, and 2 more ports to another room in the basement.
Port 3 --> 2nd floor switch 16/24 port giga switch. 2 ports to each bedroom in the floor (for TV and PC).

The gear:
Im not that familiar with different brands and models, but from what I've been reading in the last few weeks, Aruba captured my eyes, and I thought about Aruba 1930 or 1430 switch and AP22 WIFI.
I am not sure that I really need managed-switch, especially as I have no experience what so ever with network/switch configurations.
Regarding the WAP - I think that WIFI mesh (seamless roaming) is a nice feature.

I would really be happy to get your advices...
Does my setup seems reasonable? any red-flags?
which Switches may be best for my use?

Thank you all!!

 

[bonehead123]

Wow, for somebody who says they are a "noob" and don't need anything too fancy (your words), you sure seem to be making this set-up a whole lot more complicated than it has to be Unless it is for a multi-family, very crowded house with 25-100 people all wanting to be online all at once....then that's a different story altogether

And even though I am certainly not a networking guru (although there are some here), please bear in mind the following facts:

A) Wired ethernet will always be moar stable, secure and faster than WiFi.
B) You will need a super strong, super powerful router to support all those switches, ports & connections, and possibly some signal boosters depending on the distances involved
B) None of your device connections can exceed the speed of your connection from your ISP's service... ie if you have 1GB/s service, NOTHING on your network can or will ever surpass that, even on devices that may have a 2.5/5/10Gb nics/ports... The possible exception being transfers between one INTERNAL network device to another one, like an NAS or private server..
C) The moar switches/routers/WAP's you have, the moar potential failure points there will be (not only data-wise, but power & troubleshooting too), which could bring some or all of your device's connectivity to a screeching halt....

With what you have posted, I would strongly suggest you hire a professional installer to do this work, and make sure they fully understand your goals BEFORE they start on day 1...yea it's gonna cost you some coin upfront, but it will save you a TON of headaches later on....

Good luck

 

[jhony]

Thanks for your reply!

Let me comment on your points:

A) Wired ethernet will always be moar stable, secure and faster than WiFi.

I am aware of that. That is why it is so important for me to wire all the TVs and Rooms of the house.

B) You will need a super strong, super powerful router to support all those switches, ports & connections, and possibly some signal boosters depending on the distances involved

what exactly do you mean by "super strong"? and why? is that so uncommon to have 3 switches in a house?... where did I over exaggerate?

B) None of your device connections can exceed the speed of your connection from your ISP's service... ie if you have 1GB/s service, NOTHING on your network can or will ever surpass that, even on devices that may have a 2.5/5/10Gb nics/ports... The possible exception being transfers between one INTERNAL network device to another one, like an NAS or private server..

Yes, I know that. My ISP is 1Gig, that is why I wrote Im interested in 1Gig switches. I dont plan having any NAS or something like that...

C) The moar switches/routers/WAP's you have, the moar potential failure points there will be (not only data-wise, but power & troubleshooting too), which could bring some or all of your device's connectivity to a screeching halt....

I know... I just cannot wire everything back to the main cabinet on the 1st floor. I absolutely must have a switch per floor.


So, where did I overkill? How can I simple-up my network?.. is it a matter of topology or overkill gear?... what can I do better?

Thanks again!

 

[Lost_Troll]

A) Wired ethernet will always be moar stable, secure and faster than WiFi.

I disagree, AP's have become allot better than they used to be and are more stable to the point that they are like being wired other than the latency they add due to having to buffer the data.

B) You will need a super strong, super powerful router to support all those switches, ports & connections, and possibly some signal boosters depending on the distances involved.

As with any network, a good fast and powerful router will be beneficial. It will keep up with the bandwidth that the internet connection offers.

B) None of your device connections can exceed the speed of your connection from your ISP's service... ie if you have 1GB/s service, NOTHING on your network can or will ever surpass that, even on devices that may have a 2.5/5/10Gb nics/ports... The possible exception being transfers between one INTERNAL network device to another one, like an NAS or private server.

Your ISP's connection bandwidth is time shared with the devices that you have connected to it through your router. So, the more devices on your network, the more of your ISP's bandwidth you will use and the higher the latency will become as you use up the 1Gb in bandwidth they give you.

C) The moar switches/routers/WAP's you have, the moar potential failure points there will be (not only data-wise, but power & troubleshooting too), which could bring some or all of your device's connectivity to a screeching halt.

This is true with any size of network, but I do agree that the more you add the worse it will/can get with diagnosing failures and issues within the network.

So, where did I overkill? How can I simple-up my network?.. is it a matter of topology or overkill gear?... what can I do better?

I think you went over kill thinking you need to run Ethernet cable in every room when you don't have too if you use good access points. The only places you need to run lines, is ware you are going to put your Entertaiment and main game system. EX: Xbox, PS5, Main TV and gaming PC.

I would look at a system like Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro and Access Points. They have tools that will let you lay out your house and show you what you need in hardware. You could also go with the Aruba Instant on AP's and switches and then go with somebody's else's router, like MikroTik, Zyxel, or pfSense.

The way I set my network up once I switched from using a mesh network to a wired network with two access points, is that I did it using a MikroTik RB4011 and two of their wired AC access points. Then I ran two more cat 6A lines with small RB260GS switches, one for my living room TV, Intel NUC, and one upstairs to the place where my game PC is going to be. My two other small TV's that are connected to Roukes and my surveillance cameras are all wireless. I also only ran one coax line to where my main TV is as well and ripped out the other lines that were ran to every room in the house. I did this since everything is streamed now and it would have never been used (It was also ran pretty poorly with open holes that the cable came out of.).

Things like TV's, cameras, PC's and Tablets that just surf the web and stream media, can buffer the data since latency is not an issue, unlike playing an FPS game like COD is, so they do not need to be wired. Though I was playing Eve Online on my notebook that is only connected by wireless. Most MMO's buffer their clients to keep them all in sync, so to a point, the added wifi latency does not matter.

Also, if you are going with cable internet, I would buy your modem and save the monthly fee that they will charge you for renting one.

 

[evernessince]

You should always draw a network topology map to make things easier for yourself and others. In this case you might want to include the square footage of the home as well.

I feel that I agree with the user above, this setup feels very overkill unless you have a specific use-case not mentioned as of yet.

I live in a 3 story house as well with plenty of connected devices and I can say that my single XR500 on the first floor can reach the 3rd floor with 3-4 bars. You shouldn't need an AP on each floor unless the APs you are buying are really low quality, in which case you'd be better of buying 2 better ones instead. As the other users said, the more networking devices you add the more points of failure you are creating.

The optimal solution, assuming you absolutely need 5 bars throughout the house, would be to have a mesh wireless router in the basement and on the 2nd floor and a single PoE switch for devices that require it. I assume you need the power over ethernet feature for some of your security devices. This still gives you plenty of Ethernet ports on the two routers and PoE switch for critical devices that need to be wired.

It makes sense to run wired connections to devices that can only accept wired connectors but everything else that isn't critical can be ran off wireless. I'm not sure what the point of running two ethernet lines to every bedroom is. You'd want one at best, the TV absolutely does not need to be wired. Should any particular resident of the house need more than one ethernet jack per room can buy a switch / router for that specific room, although that's extremely unlikely given that things are trending more and more wireless.

In regards to managed vs unmanged, managed will allow you far greater customization like the ability to separate ports into separate VLANs and tweaking the QoS. That said, you can also get many of the same features from a high-end router as well. An example of a benefit of a manged switch would be creating a separate network for your security devices so that wired and wireless devices do not see them on your network. Then again, if someone has access to your network you probably have bigger issues. I usually recommend unmanged switches for this reason, as for end consumers that level of security is not needed.

Also, you never specified if you are installing the ethernet cables and jacks. It would be infinitely easier if you used existing cables but that assumes existing cables are functioning. When I moved into my current house none of the existing ethernet cabling were functioning and fishing wires through walls can be neigh impossible in many instances unless you remove drywall. Installing ethernet cabling into an existing home can be quite a project. You are going to want to look at any cabling you current have or want to install and ensure that it's specified to function up to the run length you need. Some homes have older cat5 installed and you are going to want to replace that. It should be clearly labeled on the cable.