Home Network - Thinking of going Ubiquity

omri

Hi there,

Couple of questions as I am looking to run ethernet cable from my attic (where virgin media modem is located - 2nd floor) to two rooms - first is a gaming room on the same 2nd floor as the modem is right now and another to the office located on the floor below (1st floor). After that I want two wifi access points for 1st floor and ground floor - so we have good wifi signal everywhere. I know it's a bit of an overkill but we are going to stay in this house for next 10 years - so might as well run some cables now before we get all the furniture in etc.

So my initial idea was to connect VM modem to a POE Switch and then run ethernet cables to a console and PCs in the gaming room and the office and to the two access points. However I'm not sure if I need to get the Gateway/Router and then connect it to VM modem ? I think I have seen some comment claiming I need to use VM modem in order to use their internet.

I think this set up will allow me to have some flexibility to connect maybe a 2nd gaming PC or a NAS. On top of that I might be installing a security camera + ring style doorbell (but I might go wireless for the doorbell).

I've never done any kind of network before but thought I might give it a go. I have some cash to throw at it and now it's time to do it. Any thoughts on this set up. Can I skip the Ubiquity router or is that a must for this to work?

Cheers

mayto

I would run two cat6a shielded f/ftp cables from patch panel attic to each room if possible as its not a lot more work than a single cable. I used Siemon shielded f/ftp cat6a myself. Outdoor rated cat6a can be handy linking floors of the house. Amazon is flooded with copper coated aluminium cable, stay away from that and make sure its good quality solid core copper you use. Shielded cable is said to be better for POE and is not much harder to terminate that unshielded. Tool-less cat6a shielded keystones are pretty easy to terminate with a bit of practice. You could just get a gigabit switch to link all the cables at the patch panel and use the VM modem.

omri

I have made a diagram of my planned network. Please bear in mind I'm a complete novice and I am learning as I go.

We have 3 ipads, 2 iphones and 1 laptop for personal use and one work laptop and iphone. So these 8 devices will move around the each floor of the house and hopefully switch between the AP on each floor for best connection. The rest will have a cable connection. And as our needs grow then I can just plug another PC with the cat6+ cable.

From the research so far - if I want to use Ubiquity cameras I need to use their Gateway NVR or Cloudkey.

Also I want the VM box to work in modem only mode - which I don't see any option in the admin panel. I'm not exactly sure why I need it just yet but perhaps the rest of the network might not work with VM box?

@mayto thanks for the reply, yes I will use cat7a cables throughout the house as I will have some work done on the walls in the rooms I want to have wired sockets.

mayto

It is a bit of work running network cable but well worth it when it is done. A basic £10 lan cable tester will do just fine confirming keystone jacks are wired correctly. Good luck with it.

omri

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123047297#Comment_123047297

That part is not a problem. It's more if it will work with VM box.

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123047201#Comment_123047201

I wouldn't be connecting both the VM and Ubiquiti Router to the same switch, without fairly advanced setup that's asking for conflicts.

I would either

a) Just use the VM Router for routing only and connect it directly to the switch, with all the additional switches and AP's off of it (ideally switch off WiFi and just use the Ubiquiti AP's for more seamless roaming)

b) Use the VM Router in Modem mode (if available) and next connect a Ubiquiti Router for routing and connect all switches and AP's off of it

c) If you cannot use the VM Router in Modem mode then switch off DHCP and WiFi and next connect a Ubiquiti Router for routing (also might help to put this router in the DMZ of the Virgin Router) and connect all switches and AP's off of it

omri

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123047867#Comment_123047867

So the main issue here seems to be that VM box either doesn't have or VM is not allowing it to work in bridge mode / modem only. Not sure if there is any way around this.

I only included UB Gateway under assumption that it can take over VM functions or if it's redundant in this design then maybe I won't need it and just use PoE switch to distribute the inetrnet to where I need it to go.