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enjaytee88 · 12-29-2009, 04:26 PM

My project is gathering pace... (so much so I haven't had time to take any pics :-/).

Phase 1- Creation of office space in downstairs cupboard = replacing central heating boiler and moving it to the loft. - Completed 04-12-09

Phase 2 - Building of false wall in office for cable runs. Used 3no 8ftx4ft 18mm MDF sheets & 20m 47x47 timber. Created a cable duct to the loft space utilising the route that the old boiler's flue took - Completed 15-12-09.

Phase 3 - Run 300m in Cat6 UTP from loft to ground floor. 4runs to office teminating at end of duct, 2runs to tv, 4runs to AV unit, 2 runs to dining room, 3runs to kitchen, 2runs spare. Plus run in 2runs of sat co-ax all under the floor. - Completed 20-12-09

Hope this is enough...

Phase 3a - Run in 100m in Cat6 UTP from loft to 1st floor bedrooms - To be started. Blush

Phase 4 - Wire in lights and sockets in office utilising existing downstairs ring main, clipping where possible and avoiding ethernet cabling. Completed 26-12-09.

Phase 5 - Moved WHS pc to loft space as now need a new install and Windows Home Server licence (see seperate WHS post lol). Still to fit out sockets & ADSL line for modem router.

My question is this, as I am trying to be as furture proof as possible when building a network (hence the Cat6) I am looking for advice on a gigabit patch panel and switch that will suport spanning tree protocol, I mean for both wireless and wired paths between components, or is this necessary (i am still a noob to this).
I don't want to spend a lot of money on something to find that it is no good (as I have had my fingers (or wallet) burned in the past and I would really appreciate some advice).

My main objective in puting in a cat6 ethernet is to allow seamless HD video streaming (from skyHD and from BluRay content on the server) around the house using MediaCenter extenders and the like. Cool

***elootos*** · 12-29-2009, 10:25 PM

(12-29-2009 04:26 PM)enjaytee88 Wrote: My project is gathering pace... (so much so I haven't had time to take any pics :-/).

Er, you what, no pictures?!?

OK, first rule of Media Center House is take pictures. Second rule of Media Center House is take pict... you get the idea.

It certainly sounds like you're wired for the future! As good as Cat6 is, you can still get lightening speeds over Cat5e so you could have saved a bit by ordering cheaper cable. I've seen 65Mb/sec on my network at its peak with any old naff cat5e cabling I can lay my hands on.

Still, if its a house for keeping then you've done the right thing.

You mention Spanning Tree Protocol (quickly looks up wikipedia...), and I think you refer to getting all the cabling running off the same hymn sheet?

That should just require some gigabit network switches, so get hold of some 8 port (or 16) switches and plug all your wires in. Then everything will be connected. I can only really see patch panels being used when sending AV converters over the wiring runs rather than PC data (so Sky extender to one room etc, etc). For that I'd look on ebay for any old 19" network rack interface.

And please do get some shots of your work sorted out, ASAP!!

dunks517 · (This post was last modified: 12-30-2009 09:38 AM by dunks517.)

(12-29-2009 10:25 PM)elootos Wrote:
(12-29-2009 04:26 PM)enjaytee88 Wrote: My project is gathering pace... (so much so I haven't had time to take any pics :-/).

Er, you what, no pictures?!?

OK, first rule of Media Center House is take pictures. Second rule of Media Center House is take pict... you get the idea.

It certainly sounds like you're wired for the future! As good as Cat6 is, you can still get lightening speeds over Cat5e so you could have saved a bit by ordering cheaper cable. I've seen 65Mb/sec on my network at its peak with any old naff cat5e cabling I can lay my hands on.

Still, if its a house for keeping then you've done the right thing.

You mention Spanning Tree Protocol (quickly looks up wikipedia...), and I think you refer to getting all the cabling running off the same hymn sheet?

That should just require some gigabit network switches, so get hold of some 8 port (or 16) switches and plug all your wires in. Then everything will be connected. I can only really see patch panels being used when sending AV converters over the wiring runs rather than PC data (so Sky extender to one room etc, etc). For that I'd look on ebay for any old 19" network rack interface.

And please do get some shots of your work sorted out, ASAP!!

My house has Cat5e and a Netgear Router D384G connected to a 'Newlink' 24 port 10/100Mbps switch. When I check the network connections it says that the speed is 100Mbps, right then, is this the bog standard answer or is there something else I can check?

Duncs

northan · 12-30-2009, 01:17 AM

I need to be more aware if I need cat6 or cat5e for gigabit network.
I don't really want to go one way if the wired infrastructure cant handle the bandwidth.
Any thoughts?

andyrite · 12-30-2009, 12:53 PM

Cat5e will be fine for gigabit. If you can install Cat6 for future proofing.

I would avoiding spanning tree. Its a pain to setup. It is used for redundant links between switches. If you only have one switch it will just stop you creating aloop on your network.

***elootos*** · 12-30-2009, 04:29 PM

(12-30-2009 01:17 AM)northan Wrote: I need to be more aware if I need cat6 or cat5e for gigabit network.
I don't really want to go one way if the wired infrastructure cant handle the bandwidth.
Any thoughts?

Gigabit is aprox 100Mb/sec. Cat5e can go upto 70Mb/sec +. A Blu-ray film can run at about 4Mb/sec. So a couple of films watching, TV recording, internet browsing, music etc all happening in the house at once would only peak at about 15Mb/sec. Bandwidth of Cat5e is more than adequate for a modern home. I suppose the next jump would be fibre-optics, but the bandwidth that supports would assume you were running a server farm in your house Biggrin

(12-30-2009 12:53 PM)andyrite Wrote: Cat5e will be fine for gigabit. If you can install Cat6 for future proofing.

I would avoiding spanning tree. Its a pain to setup. It is used for redundant links between switches. If you only have one switch it will just stop you creating aloop on your network.

Spanning tree makes sense now. As you say, if you've only one 'server' area then it's out of context of what is needed in the home.

enjaytee88 · 01-16-2010, 03:59 AM

Hi guys,

Latest on Project Loft.

Gigabit Ethernet is now up and running, abet with some moderate investment having to be made.

New Hardware consists of one Netgear 608 8port Gigabit unmanaged switch, one D-Link N-series 4 port gigabit ethernet router & one Netgear 111 ASDL2+ modem one gigbit PCI NIC for Server and one gigabit PCIe NIC for media PC.
Alll this new kit was as a result of discovering that my DGN2000 Netgear Modem Router was 100/10 only on ethernet and 3off the 4 ports were goosed and the ASUS Realtek onboard LAN is pants on both machines.

Server back on line, Media centre PC relocated to new office and up and running. (pic to follow - promise).

The Ethernet is fast but not sure in real terms yet as I have yet to stream over it.
Cat 6 terminations are a bit of nightmare, very fiddley, I think will be looking for a frequency tester to determine line loss & S/N ratio as I want to know how much difference the terminations (only on plugs (no sockets in install))I have made to the cat6 make to data transfer speed.

After I upload the saved dataset to the WHS the next job is to try the Lynksys Media extender and the squeezebox on the ethernet.

Also, the next phase is HD video streaming to whole houuse but not using matrix switching and baluns but on HDMI on IP and VLAN. Some fairly new technology here and before i buy into it I wondered if anyone else has any experiences they would like to share.

:shy:

northan · 01-16-2010, 10:47 AM

(01-16-2010 03:59 AM)enjaytee88 Wrote: Also, the next phase is HD video streaming to whole houuse but not using matrix switching and baluns but on HDMI on IP and VLAN. Some fairly new technology here and before i buy into it I wondered if anyone else has any experiences they would like to share.

:shy:

ooo Dark magic hey.
I looked into this before, mainly because once you setup with intial cost, it's quite cheap to expand afterwards.

I think it was a cisco system that got me intrested at first or project connector, can't remember.
It basically encodes hd signal at the signal, sends them out in packets over the ip and then a receiver would decode them at the tv end. Correct? Also includes ir controll right?
It's a great idea, but I decided that you would need a few rooms for it to be cost wise and a few other incompatibilitys that didnt sit well for me in my current situation.
But hey give it a go, I would love to see a system like this up and running.

***elootos*** · 01-18-2010, 10:11 PM

(01-16-2010 03:59 AM)enjaytee88 Wrote: Also, the next phase is HD video streaming to whole houuse but not using matrix switching and baluns but on HDMI on IP and VLAN. Some fairly new technology here and before i buy into it I wondered if anyone else has any experiences they would like to share.

Well it seems you may be the only one attempting such a thing! It'll be good to see how it works out for you and also how easily you manage to implement it.

It certainly seems that a modern 'media centre house' needs a decent network. For those after a quickie alternative, I guess homeplug could be implemented. Rolleyes

northan · 01-19-2010, 12:05 AM

I hope I don't hijack this.

Found this on mydigitallife.com

WiFi is one of the most preferred LAN communication protocol due to its easy compatibility and convenience for usage in digital home. While consumer PC products have just started to migrate to much higher bandwidth 802.11n, now the work on next generation WLAN standard definition is already in progress. Named as 802.11ac, it is expect to boost the network bandwidth up to 1Gbps, on par with what can be achieved by wired networking in today’s PC world.

However, you may still need for quite a while before it is ready by 2013

Not that long in doggy years