How is your home network designed?

[FliGi7]

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

 

[Zepher]

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.

 

[zzz2496]

Internet<->Cable modem<->Mikrotik router<->8 port gigabit switch<->4 PCs + 1 AP +iPhone + 3 laptops/netbooks

zzz2496

 

[FliGi7]

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.

 

[zzz2496]

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

 

[z3r010]

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.

 

[SledgeDG]

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 would think in a setting like this (multiple storie building) it would be more efficient to run a "backbone" to the top floor with a switch on each level and spread it out from there.

-DG

 

[FliGi7]

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.

 

[FliGi7]

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.

 

[SledgeDG]

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

 

[chev65]

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.

That router has limited specs and is outdated by todays standards.

I highly recommend you go with a router that has Gigabyte LAN and WAN with wireless N, they don't cost much more and won't be limiting your file transfers and connection speeds like the 54Mbps wireless G router will. If you go that route also get switches that are gigabyte capible.

As for the switch locations and wires. For the longest runs try going with just one eithernet wire with a switch at the end of the run then divide up the shorter runs from the switch to the other rooms. I would really need a floor plan of the house to give you the best possible lay out.

 

[FliGi7]

I've heard and seen good things about TP-Link and they happen to have a Gigabit Wireless B/G/N router I was also considering. I am just unsure if DD-WRT can be flashed onto it at the moment.

 

[chev65]

Those look ok but... I don't see them with Gigabyte LAN which is a big one for me. They seem to be limited to 10/100 LAN rather than todays standard 10/100/1000 LAN which pretty much all PC's have these days, or maybe I just can't find the gigabyte version?

ok found it I think, looks a lot like my D-link Dir-655 but costs less which is good.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch_v3.asp?scriteria=AA97469&pagetitle=TP-LINK

 

[FliGi7]

Yep, that's the one.

 

[Phone Man]

I have a rather simple setup. I have 12Mb cable with a SB6120 modem. It feeds a D-Link DGL-4100 router with 4 GigE Lan ports. My main PC is in the same room and has Cat5e to the router. Also have my Vonage box run to the router. I then feed a Powerline device to the other room for the wife's laptop. Had too many problems with WiFi so went with Powerline. I recently bought a Brother laser printer with Lan connection but use it on the main PC via usb, but plan to try and hook it to the router to network it. Nothing fancy but works great so far. In my other life I did a lot of network setups with my job so now I keep it simple.

Jim

 

[zzz2496]

A reminder, network gears measures in bits not bytes, the difference is eight fold... 1 byte = 8 bits. A GigE interface can transfer as much as 90 MBytes to 95 MBytes per second (with good NIC that has ToE).

zzz2496

 

[LiquidSnak]

Cable >modem >Dlink gaming router >in wall switch >wall ports throughout the house (two xbox360's, a Ps3, 3 laptops, 5 desktops...)

 

[pparks1]

My setup is pretty straight forward and simple. Cable modem plugs into my Linksys WRT54GL wireless router. Wireless router plugs into a 16 port Netgear 10/100 switch that I keep in my back room for testing. My file server is connected directly into that switch From that switch, I uplink to 2 different 5 port 10/100 Linksys switches (one on my desk) and another upstairs in my living room. On my switch on my desk, I plug in my Win7 box, and my Linux box. On the switch in my living room, I attach to my Xbox360 and my BluRay player. My laptop and my wife's laptop connect via wireless at 54g....and my Droid and her iPhone connect to our wireless as well. oh yeah, our kid's Wii also connects to wireless.

I don't monitor my internal home network.

 

[jayun]

I have a little enviroment at home I play around with...

WRT54GL (The Linux version, old school) - Wireless, DHCP for wireless - limited #

8PT gigabit (servers), 2 PC's
16PT 10/100 (junk, 2nd NIC's in servers)

Wired systems all have manually assigned IP's

Server 2008 Ent. - Domain Controller, DNS, WSUS
Server 2008 R2 Ent. - File server (4TB), Remote Desktop Services/RD WebApps
Server 2008 Ent. - Sandbox, MS server stuff
Windows 7 - Sandbox/remote access/Backup GFI +Mozy

This is a picture from a few years back. It basically still looks like this, except all the computers are cleaned up and have newer parts.