Home network help.

[Kade]

this all seems ridiculously complicated for a home network. what is the issue with wireless?

Not complicated at all. If anything, we've underestimated what's needed. ALWAYS have spares on your wall jacks. Have a computer in a room? Run 3-4 cables to the wall plate. You'll only plug the computer in, but lets say you add a device or you need to troubleshoot another device. You have those spares there for whatever reason and you'd only have to make that run once. Pull the 4 cables at the same time.

My home network has 3 computers, Smart TV, Roku, laptop(wifi), and 4 phones Wifi. I have double the amount of lines I need in every room of the house.

For wireless, Everything is on the 2.4ghz band and the router is in the center of it. My home is 1200 sq.ft. and we get coverage everywhere in and around the outside of the house. That being said, we only get 10down/1up on our connection speed. 2.4ghz band works well for that.

2.4ghz has a wider range (signal goes further), but with speed limitations. 5ghz has a more narrow range, but it can handle way higher speeds.

KiKaZz74,

First thing I'd do is get your Wifi, access point, hotspot, or whatever you want to call it to a central location in the house. This way you'll have even coverage throughout. If your Wifi is tied in with your router, you might as well make that location your data closet center/closet. Have everything centralized. Patch panel, switch, router, modem, etc. all right there.

Second thing I'd do is run cables to every stationary device(s) and double the amount of runs to it/them. In case of additions, cables getting cut, or whatever. You have a computer, run 2 lines. You have the PS3 next to the computer, run 3-4 cables.

Third, You need to split your wifi devices among the 2 bands you have to work with. Will you be doing a lot of Netflix, HD video streaming, or gaming on those wireless devices? You need to connect those on the 5ghz range. For things like facebook, surfing the SMD forums , and the occasional youtube video...Have those devices connect to the 2.4ghz range. When you set up 2 different bands, you basically have 2 different connections show up in your network table when you scan for a network. "home network 2.4ghz" and "home network 5ghz" or whatever you decide to name it. Set passwords for both to keep the peace on your network.

I read earlier that someone had said to use a hub. DO NOT USE A HUB!!! If you're having a lan party, use a hub. A hub is a dumb switch. Thing with a hub is when one device has something to say, everyone listens until the other device pipes up and is like, "wtf you want bro?". This causes a lot of packet collision and thus packet loss. Makes for a very inefficient and slower network. A switch operates a little higher on the OSI layers. It has packet forwarding. So with a hub, while you're mowing through noobs on battlefield, you get shot because your roommate just started watching Netflix and caused you to lag. Then, you got fragged and 'bagged'. So, get a cheap switch, if not a managed switch if you want to get technical. Not necessary though. I use this switch http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166058&cm_re=rosewill_switch-_-33-166-058-_-Product Works great for a home network.

I'll probably add more as I read more through the post. This was just some important stuff I wanted to clarify.

I'll post pics of my setup when I get home tonight to give you an idea. Ask any question about installation, configuring everything, crimping, cabling, color codes, brands, whatever. Ask before you do. I'm here to help.

[aculous]

this all seems ridiculously complicated for a home network. what is the issue with wireless?

Not complicated at all. If anything, we've underestimated what's needed. ALWAYS have spares on your wall jacks. Have a computer in a room? Run 3-4 cables to the wall plate. You'll only plug the computer in, but lets say you add a device or you need to troubleshoot another device. You have those spares there for whatever reason and you'd only have to make that run once. Pull the 4 cables at the same time.

My home network has 3 computers, Smart TV, Roku, laptop(wifi), and 4 phones Wifi. I have double the amount of lines I need in every room of the house.

For wireless, Everything is on the 2.4ghz band and the router is in the center of it. My home is 1200 sq.ft. and we get coverage everywhere in and around the outside of the house. That being said, we only get 10down/1up on our connection speed. 2.4ghz band works well for that.

2.4ghz has a wider range (signal goes further), but with speed limitations. 5ghz has a more narrow range, but it can handle way higher speeds.

KiKaZz74,

First thing I'd do is get your Wifi, access point, hotspot, or whatever you want to call it to a central location in the house. This way you'll have even coverage throughout. If your Wifi is tied in with your router, you might as well make that location your data closet center/closet. Have everything centralized. Patch panel, switch, router, modem, etc. all right there.

Second thing I'd do is run cables to every stationary device(s) and double the amount of runs to it/them. In case of additions, cables getting cut, or whatever. You have a computer, run 2 lines. You have the PS3 next to the computer, run 3-4 cables.

Third, You need to split your wifi devices among the 2 bands you have to work with. Will you be doing a lot of Netflix, HD video streaming, or gaming on those wireless devices? You need to connect those on the 5ghz range. For things like facebook, surfing the SMD forums , and the occasional youtube video...Have those devices connect to the 2.4ghz range. When you set up 2 different bands, you basically have 2 different connections show up in your network table when you scan for a network. "home network 2.4ghz" and "home network 5ghz" or whatever you decide to name it. Set passwords for both to keep the peace on your network.

I read earlier that someone had said to use a hub. DO NOT USE A HUB!!! If you're having a lan party, use a hub. A hub is a dumb switch. Thing with a hub is when one device has something to say, everyone listens until the other device pipes up and is like, "wtf you want bro?". This causes a lot of packet collision and thus packet loss. Makes for a very inefficient and slower network. A switch operates a little higher on the OSI layers. It has packet forwarding. So with a hub, while you're mowing through noobs on battlefield, you get shot because your roommate just started watching Netflix and caused you to lag. Then, you got fragged and 'bagged'. So, get a cheap switch, if not a managed switch if you want to get technical. Not necessary though. I use this switch http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166058&cm_re=rosewill_switch-_-33-166-058-_-Product Works great for a home network.

I'll probably add more as I read more through the post. This was just some important stuff I wanted to clarify.

I'll post pics of my setup when I get home tonight to give you an idea. Ask any question about installation, configuring everything, crimping, cabling, color codes, brands, whatever. Ask before you do. I'm here to help.

Never had any issues with packet collision with a hub, that being said my experience is not yours is not OPs so cool. Carry on!

In all fairness I use a netgear router with a gigabit switch and a gigabit 8 port switch.

[MrSkippyJ]

but he only need 3 wired connections? unless I am reading something wrong. well, the blueray player so I guess that is 4. All of that is not needed for 4 wired connections. Maybe I missed something.

[aculous]

but he only need 3 wired connections? unless I am reading something wrong. well, the blueray player so I guess that is 4. All of that is not needed for 4 wired connections. Maybe I missed something.

Don't think you did. (miss something that is)

Yea 4 wired connections and a bunch of wireless connections that will stay wireless obviously. (Sounds like he needs a better router)

I got wrapped up in the replies. Didn't read the original close enough.

[Kade]

this all seems ridiculously complicated for a home network. what is the issue with wireless?

Not complicated at all. If anything, we've underestimated what's needed. ALWAYS have spares on your wall jacks. Have a computer in a room? Run 3-4 cables to the wall plate. You'll only plug the computer in, but lets say you add a device or you need to troubleshoot another device. You have those spares there for whatever reason and you'd only have to make that run once. Pull the 4 cables at the same time.

My home network has 3 computers, Smart TV, Roku, laptop(wifi), and 4 phones Wifi. I have double the amount of lines I need in every room of the house.

For wireless, Everything is on the 2.4ghz band and the router is in the center of it. My home is 1200 sq.ft. and we get coverage everywhere in and around the outside of the house. That being said, we only get 10down/1up on our connection speed. 2.4ghz band works well for that.

2.4ghz has a wider range (signal goes further), but with speed limitations. 5ghz has a more narrow range, but it can handle way higher speeds.

KiKaZz74,

First thing I'd do is get your Wifi, access point, hotspot, or whatever you want to call it to a central location in the house. This way you'll have even coverage throughout. If your Wifi is tied in with your router, you might as well make that location your data closet center/closet. Have everything centralized. Patch panel, switch, router, modem, etc. all right there.

Second thing I'd do is run cables to every stationary device(s) and double the amount of runs to it/them. In case of additions, cables getting cut, or whatever. You have a computer, run 2 lines. You have the PS3 next to the computer, run 3-4 cables.

Third, You need to split your wifi devices among the 2 bands you have to work with. Will you be doing a lot of Netflix, HD video streaming, or gaming on those wireless devices? You need to connect those on the 5ghz range. For things like facebook, surfing the SMD forums , and the occasional youtube video...Have those devices connect to the 2.4ghz range. When you set up 2 different bands, you basically have 2 different connections show up in your network table when you scan for a network. "home network 2.4ghz" and "home network 5ghz" or whatever you decide to name it. Set passwords for both to keep the peace on your network.

I read earlier that someone had said to use a hub. DO NOT USE A HUB!!! If you're having a lan party, use a hub. A hub is a dumb switch. Thing with a hub is when one device has something to say, everyone listens until the other device pipes up and is like, "wtf you want bro?". This causes a lot of packet collision and thus packet loss. Makes for a very inefficient and slower network. A switch operates a little higher on the OSI layers. It has packet forwarding. So with a hub, while you're mowing through noobs on battlefield, you get shot because your roommate just started watching Netflix and caused you to lag. Then, you got fragged and 'bagged'. So, get a cheap switch, if not a managed switch if you want to get technical. Not necessary though. I use this switch http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166058&cm_re=rosewill_switch-_-33-166-058-_-Product Works great for a home network.

I'll probably add more as I read more through the post. This was just some important stuff I wanted to clarify.

I'll post pics of my setup when I get home tonight to give you an idea. Ask any question about installation, configuring everything, crimping, cabling, color codes, brands, whatever. Ask before you do. I'm here to help.

Never had any issues with packet collision with a hub, that being said my experience is not yours is not OPs so cool. Carry on!

In all fairness I use a netgear router with a gigabit switch and a gigabit 8 port switch.

For sure!

Hubs on smaller networks are fine, but the thought of expanding later and the price of unmanaged switches just makes sense to buy a switch now so you don't have to later. Cost effective.

A router with 2 switches? Why?

but he only need 3 wired connections? unless I am reading something wrong. well, the blueray player so I guess that is 4. All of that is not needed for 4 wired connections. Maybe I missed something.

The only thing you missed is expansion.

Once you've crawled under houses through mud and cat shit, worked in attics @ 120 degrees in the summer, or just a simple fishing cable down/up a wall...You really don't want to do it again when a customer decides he/she decided to add a xbox next to their computer. Guess what. You only ran one line to that room. Now you have to do it all over again.

On rare occasion an animal might chew or break the wire. Dog under the house or a rat in the attic. You only ran one line and now the customer is out of service until you can fix it. Wouldn't be the case if you had a spare.

Other examples are cable snagging on a nail or metal stud, getting kinked, etc. You won't know this until you test it. If you pulled multiple cables, you could take the failed one and use it as a pull string to pull a new wire instead of going through the entire process again. Always use some sort of pull string if you suspect you might want to expand later.

I'd just rather expand now and not deal with it later.

[MrSkippyJ]

So essentially we are running multiple lines and lots of extra equipment just in case of a cable going bad? All of this just feels like we are building a car with 2 engines built to racecar specs so we can make sure we get to the grocery store without issue. I mean seriously, 2 routers and a switch for 4 wired connections???

[aculous]

A router with 2 switches? Why?

Well in my application because I run more then 4 devices. Hence a router and switch (and a powerline adapter so I don't have to run cat6 to the basement). Also multiple levels/floors. Switch on one and router on the other. All wired.

[Kade]

So essentially we are running multiple lines and lots of extra equipment just in case of a cable going bad? All of this just feels like we are building a car with 2 engines built to racecar specs so we can make sure we get to the grocery store without issue. I mean seriously, 2 routers and a switch for 4 wired connections???

No need for 2 routers. Not sure where that was said.

Router typically has 4 connections. The switch I use has 8. We're taking up 1 line on each device to connect them together. So, you have 10 possible connections in the end.

You said that was a total of 4 (maybe 5 devices if laptop is used for gaming). Half as many devices as there are available ports. One spare port on the wallplate per location. If you have a location per room, that's perfect. Every room in the house would have hardwired connectivity if needed.

[Kade]

A router with 2 switches? Why?

Well in my application because I run more then 4 devices. Hence a router and switch (and a powerline adapter so I don't have to run cat6 to the basement). Also multiple levels/floors. Switch on one and router on the other. All wired.

So you have one router and one switch? Switch on the top floor and Router on the bottom for example?

Powerline adapters are very good.

[aculous]

A router with 2 switches? Why?

Well in my application because I run more then 4 devices. Hence a router and switch (and a powerline adapter so I don't have to run cat6 to the basement). Also multiple levels/floors. Switch on one and router on the other. All wired.

So you have one router and one switch? Switch on the top floor and Router on the bottom for example?

Powerline adapters are very good.

yup, router on the main floor though. pm me though, feel like we're derailing kik's thread