Technical > Home Improvement > Home network advice

Home network advice

I would suggest more cat 6 drops to the living room, for network devices, such as TV, DVD player, Game Console, AVR, Cable box, etc, unless your adding a remote switch. I would even consider a AVR Closet itself.
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Getting it Done.

reply to ingersollp
the way i did mine was to use cat5e. I also used no wiring closet but just put a bunch of PoE gigabit switches one per room and two asus rtn66u routers at either end of the house for wifi. I didnt bother with the RG6 and just used a mythtv box+ATSC decoder with HDMI out for the TV.
much cheaper this way. no downsides I have come across yet. however, YMMV. your method is the "right" way of doing it but costs a lot more in wiring and equipment.

reply to ingersollp
also took a look at your list of parts.
one crappy 56u router ? non poe gig switch ? wtf ?
get two asus RTN66Us (not the old 56U!), put tomatousb on them and get a decent HP/Cisco/whatever managed gigabit PoE switch if you want to do thing the "right" way. Also get a DCM475 unless the motorola supports the 8x4 bonding. im assuming you have a cable tester somewhere in there otherwise you can pick up a cable/ethernet/telephone cable tester from home depot for 100 bux.

reply to Daarken
forgot to mention I will be running extra drops for expansion...Thanks for the reply

reply to fluffy
The only reason I am using 56u is I currently own one. I will look at the 66u down the road.

Agree on POE switch for AP's. Don't know if I need additional AP's right now. Any 24 port Gb switches with PoE you can recommend?

The Motorola modem does support 8x4 bonding.

Don't have a cable tester but will look for one.

Thanks for help

dont start this project without a cable tester.
use the Cisco SLM2024PT-NA switch. 24 port POE gigabit.
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···33150122

reply to ingersollp
Make sure you always leave a string at each drop. It will be useful few years from now when you want to run another wire.
Don't split 8-way from the start. Think how many TVs you have, get the appropriate splitter and only connect the wires that are actually used. It's not like you move TVs every day.
Consider the switch you will need. If you only have 4-5 network devices that almost never move you don't need to keep 48 live ports.. if you catch my drift. Again, patch as needed.

reply to fluffy
Thanks for the suggestion...Looks like a nice switch. With that cost I have seriously look at whether I really need PoE right now or if it can wait awhile.

Thanks again

reply to cowboyro
String suggestion is great!

I actually have 9 TVs I want to connect but as far as I know 8 way splitters are the most there is. From what I have read, with an 8 way I should get an amp with it. If I am wrong someone please tell me.

As far as the switch, I went with 24 port because I need 14 live ports. I am open to suggestions though.

Thanks for the reply also

reply to ingersollp
I have 9 TV's, and an amplifier was a must. Cable or antenna.

The only think I would suggest is to be careful buying terminations and wire from Monoprice. While some bargains can be had, you could end up with junk.

I do this kind of stuff for a living. I don't want customers calling me back because I saved $10 on a crap box of cable or $.50 on a crap jack. I always buy a reputable brand (e.g. Belkin, Southwire, General Cable) of wire from reputable supplier.

I wouldn't waste money buying a tester for a single install. I wouldn't wast money on a fancy PoE switch unless you really need a full PoE switch. Normally a 8 port inserter will cover a household and save some serious cash.
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...because I care.

I believe that Monoprice carries Belkin keystone jacks for CAT6, so you're golden there, but I wasn't happy with their keystone plates. Spend a few extra bucks and buy Leviton plates. They worked like a charm with 3 different types/brands of keystone jacks, while the Monoprice plates were a rough fight that I didn't win. You can also get CAT6 from newegg. Monoprice has some pretty decent punchdown tools that can be had on the cheap and are great for a home user.
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If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
—George Bernard Shaw

reply to ingersollp
$600 or even $500 for a POE switch is just insane, not everyone has $500 to pay for just the switch when you can complete the entire project for that amount or not much more, obivously not including equipment.

Unless you currently need POE or will need it in the near future there is no reason spend that kind of $$ when you can get a gigabit switch for $100 to $200 and upgrade or add power inserters later. Depending on what kind of POE equipment you add a POE switch might be useless anyways. I am adding cameras from ubiquiti which are POE but can not be run off a POE switch and include their own power inserter due to the voltage they use or some mumbo jumbo.

When I did my last house I had the luxury of running cables before the drywall went up. I used keystone jacks from monoprice along with their wallplates, actually everything except for the netgear gigabit switch came from monoprice. Their cheap brand of jacks are a pain in the ass to get in the wall plates i can tell you first hand.

reply to nunya

reply to jsbaker
Yeah I don't think I can justify the cost right now but it is something I will look into down the road

reply to ingersollp

Time warner cable

Good advice...I will consult with them.

Of course that means I need to run all the wiring prior to having them come and do the install...