Advice on Home Network for New Build with Security Cameras, POE Floodlights etc

blobert

Hello,

We've just finished a new build house that's got Cat 6 network cable going to sockets in each room, and to external camera points in the walls for POE cameras.

I also want to have cameras/video doorbell at the gate (about 60m from the house) and internet to an office at the end of the garden (about 50m away).

I want to have a switch for internet to the points in the house/office and plug smart TVs etc into them. The house is a big bungalow with concrete walls so I will need some wireless access points for the main house and my office at the end of the garden also.

In total I probably want to have about 10-12 cameras and some POE floodlights also. I had issues with floodlights in the past where they kept getting set off by foxes animals so I'm hoping by using the Reolink cameras with smart detection the Reolink floodlights will only come on if a person/car is detected and not going off all night.

I had initially planned to do this using Unifi/Ubiquiti equipment but it's seriously expensive by the time you add it all up and their cameras don't seem to be great.

So I was looking at Reolink gear as a cheaper alternative for the cameras.

As a general plan if I were to plug from our Virgin Media router into one of these or similar:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-24-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B08MKWYN5T/

I then have one of these to power the wireless access points:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged-GS108LP/dp/B07FMCH3WX/

Not sure if you can use Ubiquiti stuff with Netgear but in theory have a few of these for wireless:

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/category/wifi-flagship/products/u6-lite

Then for Reolink cameras what I was thinking was if I got one of these:

https://reolink.com/product/rln16-410/

In theory this powers up to 16 devices but it does not give mention of its total power so not sure if it can actually power 12 cameras and a few floodlights, I've asked on a Reolink forum about this so will see.

Again I'm not sure if I can integrated this with other networking equipment and if it will work.

I'm assuming if I plug this into the main switch it work fine in terms of will I still be able to connect to it via Reolink App, web access etc?

This is not my area of expertise so any advice would be much appreciated.

Finally the network cables all terminate with no plugs on in my plant room. And the external cables for cameras have no sockets on either.

What's the cheapest way of finding someone to put sockets on these cables? From looking on Youtube it sounds like somthing you could do DIY but it would probably take me ages. I suspect someone that knows what they were doing could put all the plugs on in a half day so I'd sooner go this route. Let me know who I could get to do this. I'm comfortable attaching all the cameras and setting up the networking gear myself, just not with the plugs part.

Anyway any advice on this would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Robert

niallb

Hi Robert.

If you're fairly handy, it could be well worth dealing with it yourself. Don't go putting plugs on the end of the cables in the attic. Use a patch panel. It'll be much clearer and neater when you're finished.

Arrange the labelled cables in an order that makes sense to you with the layout of the house and punch them down. If one of them is going to be where your internet feed comes into the attic, maybe put it as number 1. The modules in the patch panel are individually colour coded for every single wire - you just need to work slowly and make sure they're all right before you punch down. Then you can use short premade ethernet cables to join whichever rooms you need to your switch. Either label the patchpanel itself or leave a sheet with it saying where everything goes. You'll thank yourself half a dozen times over the next few years in the house. A dozen patch leads will cost half the price of a cable crimper.

Depending on how many cables are going to your attic you should probably get a rack frame of some sort to keep the ethernet switch, patchpanel and other devices together, but if you don't have one to start with one of IKEAs €12 LACK square tables upside down are exactly the right size to screw into.

A 24 port patch panel with modules should be had for about €100

Be aware before you start that if everything isn't perfect at the end, your lack of experience will bite you hardest when you need to find out what's wrong!

Cyrus

id go unifi, its expensive but its good equipment and youll have central control of it all, cameras are good, where do you see they arent?

do you need 10-12 cameras thats an awful lot? youd need to see if you can power all those via POE.