Home networking planning advice, please.

[Just1n]

I have 1,000ft of Cat5e plenum cable given to me by an electrician I worked with this summer. My father would like to use it in his home.

The problems more or less are the house size, extending wireless access, and Comcast's existing equipment. I know what hardware I will need for the wiring installation (i.e. keystones, patch panel, switch) but I am looking for advice on how to manage these problems.

Here's a quick overview of the house and projected runs/drops:

Three floors (including finished basement) at about 4,100 sq ft.. Basement finished with tile ceiling at 14ft high (double foundation) with easy access to builder's 3" PVC conduit that runs from basement to attic for future additions (god bless him!). Also houses electrical/boiler room. Comcast service has Motorola SBV5220 cable modem, though it's only used for Comcast phone service (?). They have a 2-way splitter before this modem, the other cable goes to a powered splitter w/ runs through the house for TV. This floor would only need 2 runs of ethernet.

First floor has kitchen, living, dining, office, family rooms. The office is where they currently have a cable modem and Linksys WRT310n v2. Would have 2 drops of 2 runs each to family and office rooms

Second floor has 4 bedrooms, each of which I would suggest 2 runs to my father. Therefore 8 runs.

So we have 16 runs to 8 rooms on all three floors, check. But what about the wireless? It's my understanding that the wireless router needs to be placed between the modem and switch for managing IP addresses, DHCP, etc. Obviously their wireless router signal cannot reach the 2nd floor from the basement. How can I get wireless to the 2nd floor when it barely reaches already? Bridge/Repeater/Access Point?

And I may have to ask Comcast, but would we need both cable modems anymore? If one can handle the phone and internet services, could we use that by itself and mount a wireless router next to it on the same panel with the circuit breaker, etc?

Apologize for the long post, just like to keep it to one thread. Thanks for reading, and if there is any necessary information I neglected to add let me know.

Justin

 

[thiggins]

First, this series might be helpful How To: Diary of a New Home Network- Part 1.

I suspect Comcast installed two cable modems because their installers can install coax runs and not networking cable. If Comcast is charging you for only one account, you should be able to eliminate one of the cable modems once you get your network installed.

You can separate routing (Internet sharing and firewall) and wireless functions, or add additional access points, connected via Ethernet, to improve wireless coverage. The router is usually located at the central point where all your drops converge, next to your modem. But if the modem had to be somewhere else, all you need is a dedicated drop for it to connect to wherever your router (and external switch to handle the extra drops) will be.

 

[Just1n]

Thanks T,

I stumbled upon that article series some time ago and simply forgotten it. I'll give it another read through this week. I still have another 4 weeks working this summer job and won't be in my home state. Just trying to think through what we need/want and how to accomplish it.

I'm going to look into access points since losing wireless freedom is the family's main concern. Don't know much of anything about them.

Justin

 

[Jesse B]

Since you're already running numerous drops, why not run another drop or two for an AP on one or two of the other floors?

 

[Just1n]

I was thinking about that Jesse. It would take some discussion with my father deciding where to put APs. I'd also like to keep it as maintenance free as possible for them. My parents are the type of people that call me when the cable box is on but the TV is not and they can't figure out why the power all button on the Comcast remote isn't working properly. My brother, on the other hand, could probably figure out a networking problem. Have a lot more research than I expected to streamline the process. Luckily, we're in no hurry to install.

 

[thiggins]

You only need to run multiple drops to a location if you need to send something back to the central location. For example, if you wanted to put your cable modem in one location, your router in another and the central patchboard in yet another, you would
need two drops to the location where you wanted the router.

You can always add more ports in a location by using a switch.