Home Networking Advice

wierdal

Hi all.

I'm in the process of buying my first house and wanted some advice on setting up the network in it. The house was built in the 50s I believe so a lot of brick and concrete. However, it's in need of renovation so I have a bit of flexibility for running cables throughout the place.

Some stuff I need help with:

• Where would you recommend I locate my server rack(6U is all I should need)? Are there benefits to having it in the attic other than it being out of the way?
• Hoping to install Ubituiti. I have some kit that I bought second hand already, just need to get the APs really. Any limitations with providers using Ubiquiti? It looks like it works well with Eir and VF (maybe just FTTH?) but I've seen mixed comments on VM. Hoping to go whole hog with Ubiquiti with the routing as well as LAN/WLAN if possible.
• It doesn't look like FTTH is available in the area (it's marker as green on the map but entering the address into openair says it's not available). With this in mind should I run ethernet and coax from the point of demarc to the server cabinet or leave whatever kit the provider gives me at the point of demarc and then just run ethernet?

Appreciate any help offer.

Johnboy1951

I see only disadvantages by having the gear in the attic and no advantages except if you are extremely short on space and need to use the attic space.
This applies particularly if the attic access is via a ladder of some sort.
You might not have full use of all your limbs when you need to access the gear .... what then?
As we age we are less nimble and attics and crawl spaces are not very attractive at that stage.
You might well wish, at some future time, to change some of the gear and do some tests ..... multiple trips up and down an attic ladder are not very convenient or conducive to good working practice.
IMO, try to find a more convenient location during the renovation, to house your gear.

I brought coax into media press (and no further) and have all tuners there.
The media - live Radio & TV and stored media - are all distributed over ethernet cable to all rooms.
In addition any device that connects to the LAN can access the same media ...... laptop, phone, tablet, PC etc. via wired or wireless connection.

I doubled up on the ethernet connections .... one never knows when a room's use will change or its layout be altered, so having several ethernet sockets there is a good idea. Cable is cheap so best to run more than you think you need when doing the job and never have to do it again.

Plan well ..... making changes midway through causes lots of hassle

coley

use https://www.airwire.ie/index.php/avail to check availability their database is updated more frequently than Openeir.

wierdal

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I see only disadvantages by having the gear in the attic and no advantages except if you are extremely short on space and need to use the attic space.
This applies particularly if the attic access is via a ladder of some sort.
You might not have full use of all your limbs when you need to access the gear .... what then?
As we age we are less nimble and attics and crawl spaces are not very attractive at that stage.
You might well wish, at some future time, to change some of the gear and do some tests ..... multiple trips up and down an attic ladder are not very convenient or conducive to good working practice.
IMO, try to find a more convenient location during the renovation, to house your gear.

I brought coax into media press (and no further) and have all tuners there.
The media - live Radio & TV and stored media - are all distributed over ethernet cable to all rooms.
In addition any device that connects to the LAN can access the same media ...... laptop, phone, tablet, PC etc. via wired or wireless connection.

I doubled up on the ethernet connections .... one never knows when a room's use will change or its layout be altered, so having several ethernet sockets there is a good idea. Cable is cheap so best to run more than you think you need when doing the job and never have to do it again.

Plan well ..... making changes midway through causes lots of hassle

That makes a lot of sense about the attic. I guess I need to figure out what I want in the rack. If it's just Ubiquiti stuff and maybe a NAS then it won't be too loud and it doesn't need to be hidden away in a dark corner somewhere.

I'll run COAX and Ethernet from the point of demarc just to future proof if I get FTTH. Then can use a IR Extender for the TV if I get cable television in.

I only count 5 access points needed so was going to double up and have a redundant one at each AP. With a 24 port patch panel I still have 14 so I'll do a walk around and figure out some extra places that could benefit from it. The main TV I was only going to have the 1 connection and them use a dumb switch for the Playstation, TV, etc. I'll have a good think about it tho. Cheers for the input.

use https://www.airwire.ie/index.php/avail to check availability their database is updated more frequently than Openeir.

Yeah no joy there either. Only VDSL. Not sure what the map means being green so. Cheers tho.

dam099

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I see only disadvantages by having the gear in the attic and no advantages except if you are extremely short on space and need to use the attic space.
This applies particularly if the attic access is via a ladder of some sort.
You might not have full use of all your limbs when you need to access the gear .... what then?
As we age we are less nimble and attics and crawl spaces are not very attractive at that stage.
You might well wish, at some future time, to change some of the gear and do some tests ..... multiple trips up and down an attic ladder are not very convenient or conducive to good working practice.
IMO, try to find a more convenient location during the renovation, to house your gear.

+1 to this. Not quite the same but I put my patch panel on top of some (high) kitchen cabinets with about only 30cm space between them and the ceiling.

Most my gear was also centralised there and its been such a pain getting at them that I recently relocated the router and ISP modem etc to another location (which fortunately has 4 Ethernet ports so I was able to go from patch panel to there and back again to feed other locations).

Still had to leave the patch panel, a switch and one mesh point up there but they are less frequently accessed so its not as bad now but wish I had chosen differently at the start.

dam099

wierdal wrote: »

I'll run COAX and Ethernet from the point of demarc just to future proof if I get FTTH. Then can use a IR Extender for the TV if I get cable television in.
.

Do you expect when it comes for FTTH to be from OpenEir? SIRO dont use the existing demarcation points from the phone days so if they are a possibility in the future you might want to think about where they are likely to enter the house from (possibly drilling through near to the meter box if ducted, others may be able to advise where an overhead install will come in).