Super excited for new home cat6 network

Decided one day that my home network is lacking(for me). The only room in my house that has available ethernet connections is in the media room where the routers and modem are. Have always liked the idea of a whole house cat6 network, and finally decided I couldn't wait any longer after I saw my hefty bonus and upgrading to 50mbps internet. Did a bit of research as to what I wanted, and bought a Cisco/Linksys SR2024 24-port 10/100/1000 Gigabit switch, 1000ft of cat6 plenum cabling, 2 netgear n600 routers(waiting to order these in person because I have not made up my mind yet on what to get), and a whole bunch of other things needed to finish it off(ends, boots, tools, keystones, etc). I will be relocating main cable line for the modem into the basement. It will have its own dedicated line from the box. I will be making a rack to house the switch as well as neatly organizing the cables. I tend to be a neat freak when it comes to wire organization, so I might be also looking into getting a patch panel, but I'm not sure if it will add to the possibility of future problems. Any advice on network patch panels would be helpful as I have 0 experience with them.

So, my plan, as I somewhat described above, is to re-route the cable line into the basement. The main model/router will go in the basement, somewhere close to the center of the basement. The switch will be located next to the furnace chimney due to it having a clear path between the chimney bricks and surrounding wood structure. The basement will give me access to the first floor. From the basement, I will bring the cables through the attic and drop them down between the walls of the second floor. Dropping will be done after the appropriate hole is drilled in the fire stop. Once in the attic, I will place two Netgear n600 routers that will get setup to similar network info so you will automatically get shifted to the next router that has the best connection.

The 2 attic routers are the only things I have not ordered yet. I have yet to make up my mind as to what specs I want on them.

Words cannot explain how excited I am for this

Wow, that is impressive (to me) that you're able to lay all the cable, etc. by yourself. And 50mbps is impressive too. You'll be soaring through the interwebsnets before ya know it.

Pics of the installation, or it isn't happening!

Good luck!

Doug

Sorry, but you're going to have to wait a few days. I just ordered that stuff yesterday.
I also just finished ordering a TRENDnet TC-P24C6 patch panel, and some management panels and brackets. Didn't feel like waiting any longer. Still undecided on the routers.

Got some parts in and started working on the switch-

Some miscellaneous parts that came:
RJ45 shielded ends, red boots, cable tacks, and cat6 patch cables.


Testing it. Everything worked great:


Taking it apart:


Priming panels and brackets:



The mounting rack will be metallic black. Cat6 cables will be red. The switch will be cobalt metallic blue with two rows of blue led's. Going to come out nice!
Couldn't find a rack that fit my size needs that wasn't a ripoff, so I'm going to see how it will come out with some wood. I was planning on fabricating a rack from steel, but I won't be able to make it for a while, so the wood will have to do for now since it has to be done by the end of this week.

Still waiting on some more parts that is stoping me from moving farther.

Have 3 layers of blue painted on top of 2 layers of primer at this point:



Have it cooking in the oven.

Quite a project you got there. It will be interesting to hear how everything turns out when the install is complete...and your upgraded internet service is turned on!

- Nick

Finished the switch, and rack today. Have it ready to mount. My 1000ft of cat6 came as I started typing this.

Mounting the switch was a PAIN! Literally. Cut my thumb to the point that the skin was moving in two directions. Because the 4 mounts I had were identical, when you turned 2 of them to mount the opposite side, the screws were just in the perfect position to interfere with the board. I had to break the 8 welds that held the two fans in place so I could attach the mounts in the back of the frame(as apposed to the stock rack location holes). Then stuck the fans back on with JB weld, threw 2 LED strips in, and put it back together. Looks awesome in person...the images are crap. The black high gloss enamel on the wood looks sweet. I tried taking a decent phone pic, but the flash is too much, and no flash is not enough light...so...this is it for now.







I have eveerything needed. Only problem is I'm in the couch potato mood.

Glad to see you got a patch panel. That is the only way to go here, and to be truly certified (which you may not care about) it is required. Don't skimp on your punch tool or the crimpers for your CAT ends. Also, get a crimper that has interchange dies that you can get later to do COAX, RJ11, etc.

Throw those **** red cable boots in the trash, they are more of a pain than they are worth.

Managed to finish everything, or at least wired everything that is needed so far. Took longer than expected. Ran into a new problem as soon as another problem was fixed. Cable line that I needed for the modem was frayed, so I had to install a new line. While installing that line, I thought what the heck, might as well fix all the coax cables in the house. Upgraded all switches above 7db loss to 3.5db just for peace of mind. Got rid of all junk coax cables and switches, and tidied up everything. Then realized that I don't have a telephone jack in that area for the magicjack, so I had to run a new phone line. At this point, I thought, why not just turn this area into the main hub for all coax, phone line, and cat6 cabling? So, I just reworked some connections and now there's quick access to anything right there, as well as a pathway that leads to all rooms for a clean setup.

Oh yeah, wiring solid copper cat6, in 568b standard, into a shielded rj45 ends, proved a little tricky. Ended up smashing a few out of anger.

This is the finished product:
I'm really happy with the way everything turned out. I don't have a picture of the attic setup, which includes the Netgear n600 router and NAS setup. I might update to include one later.


I only have 11 conecctions into the switch so far. The other rooms will get connected as I go on. Connected all the patch cables to the panel and switch just because it looks good.