Networking a house

witnessmenow

Hi all, hope this is the right place for this.

I want to put a basic enough wired network into my mams house. She was getting it extended a couple of years ago and I got the electrician to run cat5 cables to a few of the rooms. (He was also ment to make off the points, but thats a story for another day!)

Hardware:

I have 2 10/100 switches that I've accumaleted over the years, one is an ancient 12 port Its a 3 com - #will edit later#, It sounds like a jet engine! Not a problem as it will be in the attic. To modify options there is a seriel port on the back , which will be a new experience for me! Havent tested it yet. If there is anything but the default password on this i might be in trouble, dont have any contact with the guy i got it off!


The other is a 16 port (3 com - #will edit later#, its much newer than the other one. Its manual is pretty poor in comaprison to the other ones, but it has no serial port so i presume it has some sort way of modifying the options over the lan. I've tested this one and it defintly works, My PC picked up a IP off it, my laptop didnt. Put when i set my laptops IP to static to match the one I got for my PC we were in business, pingin was working both ways. I got his from Dads work so if there is passwords I should be able to get them.

I have eircom BB at the house and I'd want to have that integrated into the network. will I have to do much to hook this into the network? Also is it possible to keep it the modems wireless going at the same time. I presume once the Ip addresses arent conflicting it will be ok?

Also have a Dell network printer, but i presume it wont be too hard to setup.

Wiring

I presume its just a case of making off one end with a Rj45 male head, which plugs into the switch, and then the other with the RJ45 socket ?


If there is anythign i missed out if you could let me know that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Dardania

Sounds like those switches you have are active devices that are actually routers as well...which is beyond what you need for a basic network install with an eircom router providing wan internet connectivity

What I'd reckon your best bet is to have the eircom router linked to one of your active switches, which then distributes to all your lan points around the house. Which switch uses lest power? Can you switch off the routing function on the switch and leave it to the netopia.

Re wiring you're right just terminate each end of the cables in rj45

witnessmenow

Dardania wrote: »

Sounds like those switches you have are active devices that are actually routers as well...which is beyond what you need for a basic network install with an eircom router providing wan internet connectivity

I forgot to get the names of them when I got home

From memory one of them ,the older, louder one is this guy here: 3com superstack ii

The other one is a 3com Baseline something or other i think

What I'd reckon your best bet is to have the eircom router linked to one of your active switches, which then distributes to all your lan points around the house. Which switch uses lest power? Can you switch off the routing function on the switch and leave it to the netopia.

I'll have a look at the options I have if i get a chance later this evening.

The newer must use less power, honestly if you put my car in my room it would nearly make less noise than the older one.

I ment to mention in my first post, dont need both of the switches, I can use either or.

I need about 12 points so the 12 port should do:

1. Eircom bb
2. Tv 1
3. Tv 1
4. Tv 2
5. Tv 2
6. Bedroom 1
7. Bedroom 2
8. Bedroom 2 - Printer
9. Bedroom 3
10. Bedroom 4
11. Bedroom 5
12. Bedroom 6

Wired already


A couple of those later bedrooms would even be surplus to requirement so If i needed another connection for something else I coould take one or two of them, Might even add another one to bedroom 2 (can you guess its mine :P ).

I have a few xboxs running xbmc so that is why I have 2 at each TV, one for Xbmc another for the ps3 or whatever.

Re wiring you're right just terminate each end of the cables in rj45

Thats great, thanks.

Dardania

fans are moving parts that are just crying out to get clogged and die on you!

I'd be interested to know how you get on RE configuring the newer switch - I've never used layer 2 with layer 3 type switches before although I think in your application the simplest configuration would be to jsut rely on the netopia for routing etc. makes it easier when introducing wifi clients tot he same network / opening ports for devices to the internet etc...

witnessmenow

Yeah I'll have to open the older one up and give it a clean, one problem is my alergies to dust, and that thing is probably 12-13 years old , might need to dig out the dust mask :pac:


I'd be pretty new to networking, so it'll be a new experience for me anyways, fingers crossed :P .

Thanks for the advice

Paulw

I did my apt recently. Networked in 20 points (loads of expansion scope). RJ45 terminated ends at the switch (in the attic), and then plug points in the rooms.

The switch I have is a pile of crap. It's old and many ports don't work. But, it's enough to get my setup running until I get a new switch in place.

It was a lot of hard work, but will be so worth it in a short while. Even my girlfriend is making the most of it.

witnessmenow

Hi guys,

I finally got around to making a go of this :P

As recommended my Eircom netopia is doing the wireless and the DHCP for the network and im using the newer of the two switches i mentioned before to connect all the points up. It was just plug and play, to be honest when i posted this a few months ago i dont think i was aware of the differences between switches and routers.

I have the bedrooms done(mostly), bedroom 1 &2 are finished (bedroom 2 had no cable run, and bedroom 1 had a cable that dissapeared under the floor board of the attic and didnt seem to come out anywhere So i had to run cable for both of them.) The rest have the cat5e running to blank wallboxes and are terminated in the attic.

I have a couple more questions though if thats ok.

Cheapest place to buy the wall sockets? I need 5 more singles (possibly 6 as bedroom 2 has a double with only one socket in it.) and two doubles.

Thinking of getting a 1gb switch, not including just transferring, is there much that will benefit from the step up? (say the best quality video i stream is 720p)

And if I was to add in a second wireless point what would be the best way in going about it


Cheers in advance

Rew

Ebay is cheap for wall plates. Assuming your wiring will do gigabit and you have gigabit devices it will speed up transfer a good bit. gig switches are quite cheap these days.

FusionNet

How many say double plates and modules do you need?

witnessmenow

hey Fusion,

I need 1 double plate
And 6 single plates (or double plates with a cover for the second slot or something)

And 9 (actually say 10) connectors

FusionNet

Does the 10 connectors (modules) include both ends? As in 5 at each side or whatever? Is it Cat6 or Cat5e?

witnessmenow

The cable is crimped and put directly into the switch up in the attic so the 10 modules is just what i need around the rest of the house.

Its cat5e