Need help revamping my network

[zicoz]

Hi, I'm having stability problems with my network atm, and I hope that someone here can help me build a new and better network.

I recently bought 2xHP 1810 to replace 2x Netgear 8-port switches. These are the first managed switches I've been in contact with.

At the moment my network looks something like this:


Sorry for my bad Visio drawing, but as you can see most of the stuff is connected directly to the HP 1810 which is then connected to the modem that works as the DHCP server. The only exceptoion is the Work Desktop and Fileserver that is connected to another switch which is then connected to the HP 1810 the and all the laptops are connected wirlessly to the Netgear WNDR3700.

In addition to what is shown I also have a bunch of small wireles items such as Ipods, Zunes, Kindles and smartphones.

The most importnt part of the setup is the connection between the fileserver, tvserver, HTPC1 and HTPC2. Those 4 items needs a "perfect connection".

How would you rebuild this network? I put together one drawing that looks like this:



As you can see both the HP switches are now in the network, one is a central switch while the other links the server-room with the other one. I was thinking of maybe pulling 2x cat 5 cables between the 2 HP switches just to make sure.

Another thing I'd like to do is to have 2 wireless networks, one for laptops and one for all the small wireless items. And I'd also like to have a separate network in another room where I can build an repair computers, but to do those two things I probably need a new DHCP with VLAN support.

What do you guys think? Any ideas?

 

[thiggins]

For highest bandwidth among devices, put them on the same switch. Otherwise you are creating a bottleneck via the single Gigabit uplink port.

For another wireless network, just add an access point or router converted to an access point. Set it to a different channel (1, 6, 11 for 2.4 GHz, any other channel for 5 GHz).

Define what you mean by "separate" network.

 

[zicoz]

Thanks for the responce, The problem I have with having all the HTPCs/servers on the same switch is that I'm in an old house where I don't have a good way of pulling cat5 cables over large distanses in the house. But I'm working on finding a good solution for it.

What I mean by separate network is one room (switch) where anything I connect can not access any other part of the network, but still has internett access. I'm thinking a solution might be something like the following:



DSLmodem - PFsense computer - switch 1 (VLAN 1) - Home network
************************- switch 2 (VLAN 2) - Work room
************************- AP (VLAN 3) - Phone and media players

 

[thiggins]

Yes, you can use VLANs to separate networks.

 

[zicoz]

Thank you once again, do you have any suggestions for some sort of device that can work as the "brain" in my network? I think PFsense should be able to do the job, but I would prefer just having a non-PC box if that makes any sense. Something that can keep track of say 40-50 devices and 3 VLANs and not mess things up.

Should I be looking at routers or something else?

 

[thiggins]

You just need a "smart" switch to create the VLANs. I have no specific recommendation. You don't need anything special for a router.