I am curious to know everyone's home networking implementations to include the design, topology, hardware, configuration, and monitoring applications. I'm also looking for new ideas.
Post up what you got
Basic setup,
Modem, Wireless Router, GigE switch, PC, and HP 4500DN Color Laserjet downstairs.
Wireless Router (used as an Access Point), GigE and 10/100 switches, Main Rig, HTPC, 2 Xbox 360's, wireless Brother MFC Printer, Panasonic Blu Ray Player upstairs.
the 2 GigE switches are connected together for faster transfers between machines since 10/100 is soooo slow.
No monitoring software or anything, we don't' really need it for our simple network.
Internet<->Cable modem<->Mikrotik router<->8 port gigabit switch<->4 PCs + 1 AP +iPhone + 3 laptops/netbooks
zzz2496
So you guys are also plugging in a switch to your router? I assume that is just to multiply the ports for more devices?
I'm trying to figure out what would be the best route to take for wiring a home network... to have a 8 or 10 port switch at the router and then route all those lines to different rooms, or just route the 4 or so lines from the router ports to different rooms and then use a switch in each room as necessary.
I'd go with a managed gigabit switch as a "core switch" which will be connected to another switch that will provide connection in each section of your house. That is if you do have that many computers at home. Having a "smart" switch will help you in monitoring which part of the house use how many bandwidth in any given time. Having a smart router will show you the actual traffic as it goes through from your network to the internet and vice versa. Some smarter routers (like Mikrotik) can even report what connection goes where at what speed, what protocol, what port number, and many other information. Even smarter, you can "tag" a connection and put it into a "queue" so that it doesn't eat too much bandwidth (fine grained traffic shaping, even QoS), and Mikrotik has integrated traffic grapher in it, so you can see your bandwidth utilization as a graph...
zzz2496
Mine:-
Router downstairs -> cat6 to roof space where I have a small network cab with patch panel and 24 port gigabit switch which then distributes my network via cat6 (external) cable to every room and to two 'N' access points (one at each side of the house).
No monitoring.
I was considering using a Linksys WRT54GL as my main router. Then I could put a hub right behind it for the connections to all rooms, or just route the 4 ports to 4 diff rooms of the house and then put a hub/switch at each of those as necessary.
Also, I'm not too keen on patch panels, so I'm not too sure what they offer me as compared to piecing things together with other networking components.
A patch panel basically is a splice to multiply the amount of ports you'll have available to connect your hardware to
(There are also intelligent/managed types available that double as a switch...i.e. a switch with more ports than usual)
-DG
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