Wiring Up My House (LAN)

Tony

Staff member
So now that the whole water issue is taken care of, I have been looking into doing another project. Yeah, I know. I'm sure you all know, I have more computers than I know what to do with. Even my Tv is a mini computer. So with that, I'm wanting to wire up my house to have everything plug in to a centralized location where I can work on the network in one spot, and everything is very clean.

To do this, I'm wanting to run wires from each of the locations where I want an ethernet jack, back to my closet where I will put my router and switch. Everything will run through a patch panel that will make the install very clean and tidy. From the patch, it will go into the switch, then into the router. And the router is setup as a bridge to communicate with the router in the other house which is where the IP's will be assigned (DHCP for those that don't know). It's a great config if I do say so myself lol.

I know that wherever I have my desk, I want at least 4 ports to plug into. My TV will have a jack that has a power outlet, ethernet and coax in a single gang, then I will have another one with HDMI and RCA jacks. My plan is to use nothing but Keystone jacks to do this to make things very modular. Well, everything except the power outlet.

I will even be running an ethernet outlet over to my aquarium so that I can control it with my phone. Right now, I have to run a cable from my switch, across the living room to the aquarium to control it. Not a fun project lol. Someone is always tripping over it.

I would also like to put two to four plugs in my bedroom as well just in case. But this can hold off until later.

The patch panel that I'm going to order is a 24 port patch that is made to be rack mountable, but I'm going to attach it to the wall for a nice clean install where you see no wires running out of the wall. Only the wires going from the patch to the switch will be visible. But even then, it's in my closet so no one will see it.

At this time, I have an 8 port unmanaged switch, a WRT54G V8 router with DD-WRT installed that has 5 ports giving me a total of 13 ports. You can actually knock that down to 11 since you have to connect the two. How does the router have 5 ports you ask? Because DD-WRT allows you to turn the WAN port into a LAN port. I am actively looking for a 24 port switch, but it has to be a full gigabit switch, not just "fast" ethernet.

All in all, I"m looking at about $100 to wire up my house the way I want it. When I get it done, Everything will be clean, and most importantly, everything will be connected. This is going to be fun.

Now to get the money to do it all lol. And yes, I'm going to get "Mr. Network" over here (Matt) to help with it. Dont' really need his help with the install per say, but he will be very useful to terminate the wires. I'm sure he is much faster than I am. And, if I score a deal on some bitchin switches, he can set those up as well lol.

Oh yeah, and I just purchased two WRT54GS V7 routers with DD-WRT already installed on them. I'm going to be using one of them in my old "hole" where I will have the server running. It will not only allow me to play with a VM, but it will also keep these damn rabbits warm... It's a win/win. I wonder what else I can hook up in this network... Yay me lmao.
 

Stambo

Well-Known Member
Hard wiring a house is becoming less common now with gigabit wireless capability.

I still like cables though. My house was wired when it was built.
I just had to terminate everything.
 

Tony

Staff member
The problem with wireless is it's still VERY expensive. Not only do you have to get the AC router, but you need AC wireless cards for everything in your house. And when you are talking about Xbox, PS3, Tv, you can't do it. My aquarium also is not wireless, and lets not even get into replacing teh 6 laptops that I have in my house. So hard wiring is the best way still. If you go to a server farm, there is no wireless, everything is done with wires. This is because it's still the most reliable way to transfer data. And its a LOT more secure than wireless. Any router can be hacked, but it's hard as hell to hack a wired LAN.

I'm not going to have fun running all of the wires through the walls though. That is going to suck...
 

murankar

Staff member
Good luck and get ready to make lots of cable. Should be a lot nicer and it will be more secure that way. Is this going to be the beginning of RCH being self hosted?
 

Tony

Staff member
At this time, I only have about 6 wires planned, but I'm sure there will be more in the future. Once I have all of the holes drilled, it will be a lot easier to run the wires. And yes, there is going to be a LOT of cable lol. Two for every connection at least.

and yes, this is the start of hosting the websites myself. I will start with TonysReef.com • Index page since it's the newest and by far the smallest, then I will try BA if the reef site works out. Once all of the bugs are worked out, then I will be moving RCH over. But, that is a ways off yet. It will be nice to save those server costs, that's for sure. Just a couple months of not having to pay for the server will pay for this entire install.
 

murankar

Staff member
Really the only thing you need to be worried about is the overhead at your end. In the end you can still save money, then your advertising dollars can be put towards the overhead.
 

Tony

Staff member
Overhead? You mean things like my internet that I'm already paying for and electricity? My figures have the electricity cost running about $20 a month. And if I invest in some solar and wind energy, that will be paying me lol. As for the internet, that could run up there. I'm more than likely going ot have to run a second dedicated line just for RCH. I'm running some tests to see just how much I'm going to need as far as speed goes, but I'm sure I have enough to handle it for a few years.
 

murankar

Staff member
Overhead yes all the extra costs like electric internet and maintenance on the hardware. One thing with internet just make sure your provider will allow you to run a web server, usually port 80. I was able to only because I never had real high bandwidth usage.
 

Tony

Staff member
All I have to do is order a static IP and I can do whatever I want. I'm just worried about speeds. which is why I still need to do all of the testing after I get it all up and going.
 

Tony

Staff member
Received my new routers today. They won't be used as routers, but as a bridge. Yup, this is going to be fun. That makes 3 of these bridges that I will have setup in my house! w00t!

newrouter.jpg

newrouter.jpg
 

Tony

Staff member
Alight, so I have installed the two routers, both as a repeater bridge. Now, any time you do anything as a repeater, you are going to lose half of your bandwidth, but I'm only able to move files at 100KB/ps so my computer says. Yes, I have things in inaccessible areas that I"m connected to, but dammit, this slow crap sucks lmao.

As of right now, this is how my network is setup.

The internet comes directly into my Asus router that is still on stock firmware. I have one computer (my grandmas) connected to this router as is the security cameras. I have .0.2 DD-WRT router on my desk, and that has an 8 port switch connected to it. From there, I have my computer. don't worry, I will have much more later on.

.0.3 is on top of my aquarium and is giving me access to control the tank. Before, I had to run a cat5e across the living room, and you can ask Matt how well that worked lmao. The tank is the only thing connected to this DD-WRT bridge.

.0.4 is in the "Hole" and I have the server running VMware connected to it, as well as my NAS. This is where the issue comes into play with speed. It takes forever to move files to and from that server. But, I guess it's faster than the internet lol.

That is now my house is "wired" now. Lots of wireless going on here which is helping out a lot seeing as I can't get an internet signal here at my house. But my grandma can so I'm just bouncing it over here. No, I'm not stealing it, I'm paying quite a LOT of money every month for this internet, she is paying nothing lol.

Oh how I need some money to get my patch and everything else to wire this house up. I also need some BNC patch panels for my cameras. That will make this install so much easier. Maybe I just need to run wireless cameras... Anyone want to buy them for me? lmao.
 

Tony

Staff member
Here is a graphical representation of my network. It looks a lot more busy in person lmao.

mynetworkmap.jpg

mynetworkmap.jpg
 

Tony

Staff member
Actually, here is an updated version showing the 3 virtual machines that I have running and playing with.

mynetworkmap.jpg

mynetworkmap.jpg
 

murankar

Staff member
The only thing I could see as being a choke point is the main router. Your "intranet" is going to be busy but not enough to slow things down. Is the bandwidth maximized to its fullest? Also one thing I just remembered your vmWare servers are going to be a little slow due to sharing the same Ethernet/wireless card. Unless that is optimized you may still see slow rates.
 
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Tony

Staff member
I have tested this setup on all of the bridges and it's the same everywhere. And I can assure you, it's not the main router lol. I'm running one of the new Asus dual band AC routers. But I will go in and see if there is a setting choking it down a bit.
 
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