Best cabling configuration for a villa

[SedoSan]

Hello all,

So, we're building a villa for the whole family and it consists of 3 floors, first floor has 5 large areas for meetings, business dining room etc... 2nd floor has 4 master bed room with their own living rooms (total of 8 big rooms) and the 3rd floor has 2 master bedrooms with their own living rooms as well so a total of 4 big rooms.

I'm planning to have 2 Ethernet outlets from the wall in each room so I can be fixable to where I can connect the desktop PC or a wireless AP in the room and have 3 Ethernet outlets in the large rooms in the first floor. Also I'm planning to make a NAS or probably make a whole server but not sure where to station it best. I'm the "IT" individual of the household (not educationally) but as more informative through experience and searches I do over the net, and I will be located on the 3rd floor so I thought it might be best to have the server on the 3rd floor? Also another thing to consider, i'm running 5 Ethernet ports from my main PC (NIC teaming) and planning to install NAS server with Raid 5 or 6 with 12+ HDD and a 4+ Ethernet ports to it so I can get advanrage of the writing speed without hitting the bottleneck, So I am guessing to get full advantage of the transfer rate, my PC and this NAS should be connected the same switch, right?

so thats a total of around:
11 outlets in the first floor
16 outlets in the 2nd floor
8 (+4 for NIC teaming) outlets in the 3rd floor

So what is the best layout for this? Do I put 2x-16 port switches in the first and second floor connecting them to the 3rd floor where the server will be?

All networks and cables are going to be Gigabit speed Cat6.

I might also add security cameras (IP cam) around the house recording the main doors where they gonna store records to the NAS through FTP.

I'd appreciated it a lot of I can get some information and help about this.

one more point is, should I get a firewall like this one here, and how will my server rack look like ultimately? whats on my mind is starting from top :Main router which gets the internet cable to it, then an output to the firewall router?, then to the switches down to the NAS and finally the APS on bottom?...

And thanks a lot

 

[thiggins]

It sounds like you have money to spend. So get a NAS that supports 10 GbE and an all-gigabit switch that supports a 10 GbE uplink port. That will serve you better than aggregating four ports.

The topology of your network depends on data flow. Highest traffic devices should be on the same switch to avoid bottlenecking at the uplink port.

To provide the maximum flexibility and to allow reconfiguration for changing needs, run all cabling to a central point and install your primary switching there. If you need more ports in a room, then add a switch there.

If you want a UTM class router, that's fine. But you don't need two routers. What are you expecting the "firewall' router to provide vs. a standard router.

What do you plan for wireless coverage?

For your IP cameras, consider models that support Power over Ethernet (PoE). That will make installation easier (one cable vs. two). Of course, then your switches will need to be PoE.

For the investment you are considering making, you might consider getting professional help.

 

[SedoSan]

Thanks a lot for the reply Thiggins!
I would like to get professional help however where I live its hard to get a decent honest one, I might get some after getting the initial setup.

I'm taking this opportunity to learn from trial and error, I really enjoy doing projects that include tech and stuff...

I was looking around for the 10GbE NAS and I found this, I was thinking of building my own NAS from scratch as I enjoy doing that more than getting a ready built one, but this one is really tempting me. I have some questions though about this.

I already have this 1GbE netgear safepro managed switch so I'm guessing if I get that 10GbE NAS I'll have to upgrade this switch? I was searching for switches and found some with 24 1GbE ports + 4 10GbE ports, however these ports are "SFP", I never used these, I'm assuming they are Fiber cables? How are they connected to the NAS? I saw only ethernet "RJ45" output on them (maybe with the add-on NIC cards?), can you enlighten me about this please? I'm guessing by now 10GbE doesn't work with RJ45?

I'll just state the purpose of this network:

• This is a home network, not a business (yet )
• This househole will be running around 10+ (desktops + laptops)
• over 20+ wireless devices (phones, portable devices)
• over 10 other devices connect to lan (TVs, BD-players, PVRs, Gaming consoles, etc...)
• Doing a small intranet for the house.
• doing home theatre so any user can stream from the NAS to his PC/TV (HD+ steaming for multiple users at the same time without lag)
• Daily backup for all users without losing speed performance
• Since I'm the one who copy all the media I get to the NAS I'd wish to copy them as fast as possible (so maybe only 1 switch with few 10GbE ports to save some money?)
• Making a gaming server for LAN party
• Maybe making a gaming server where user can stream the game from the server rather than installing it to his PC? (is this possible?)
• MIGHT make an email server
• Continuous recording from security cameras to NAS
• I like to experiment with stuff so I might do stuff like doing a database or other stuff that I can do with a network (just for the kick of it)
• The more HDD space I can get the better, I want something that can expand with no problems since this is gonna probably be my lifetime home which means i'm gonna be stuck with it for a really long time

Also about the wireless plan, I'm not sure how to plan it exactly, what I was planning was that since the areas are big and wide with many walls i'd just connect a cheap wireless AP in every single room that will be using wireless devices. (please don't facepalm, lol)~ guidance will be appreciated

*EDIT*: I found that there are RJ-45 10GbE NIC ports, so what are the differences between RJ and SFP?

 

[devnull]

SFP ports use SFP transceivers. An SFP transceiver can have RJ45 for gigabit or 10 gigabit ethernet, or any of the multitude of fiber optic connectors.

The purpose of this design is so that network equipment manufacturers can build performance switches without making separate products for each type of backbone connection.

You can have different media types on the same switch with SFP ports as well. (i.e. 1 RJ45 and 1 fiber). Again SFP ports make it so you wouldn't have to buy a switch with that specific configuration.

 

[SedoSan]

SFP ports use SFP transceivers. An SFP transceiver can have RJ45 for gigabit or 10 gigabit ethernet, or any of the multitude of fiber optic connectors.

The purpose of this design is so that network equipment manufacturers can build performance switches without making separate products for each type of backbone connection.

You can have different media types on the same switch with SFP ports as well. (i.e. 1 RJ45 and 1 fiber). Again SFP ports make it so you wouldn't have to buy a switch with that specific configuration.

Ok I have a small question, lets say I got a NAS with 10GE and a switch with 24 1GE + 4x 10GE SFP+ ports, Now I will connect the NAS with the SFP+ ports no problem, but now when I want to connect it to my PC (to get full 10GE transfer speed) i'll have to get a 10GE NIC and if I got an RJ-45 one, is it possible to connect my (RJ45) PC to the 10GE SFP+ port in the switch? if yes, how so?

 

[devnull]

You would connect your PC in the same way as the NAS. The NAS will be using an RJ45 Ethernet connector for its 10Gb connection, so you would use a 10Gb Ethernet SFP transceiver in the switch. For the PC, add another SFP transceiver to the switch and a 10Gb Ethernet NIC to the PC.

Attached is a picture of an Ethernet SFP transceiver.

You would simply have two of those plugged into the SFP ports on the switch. One for the NAS and one for your PC.

 

[SedoSan]

You would connect your PC in the same way as the NAS. The NAS will be using an RJ45 Ethernet connector for its 10Gb connection, so you would use a 10Gb Ethernet SFP transceiver in the switch. For the PC, add another SFP transceiver to the switch and a 10Gb Ethernet NIC to the PC.

Attached is a picture of an Ethernet SFP transceiver.

You would simply have two of those plugged into the SFP ports on the switch. One for the NAS and one for your PC.

I looked everywhere for this transceiver in the picture and could only find 1Gb Ethernet ones and never was able to find a 10Gb one, can you show me a link to one that supports 10Gb?

However it looks cheaper to just use a direct SFP+ cable instead of converting to RJ45 and and to SFP again, these transceivers look so expensive >.>;
I'm guessing to get 2 cards of these since the Synology NAS support it and install one on the NAS and one on my PC and connect them with an SFP cable to the switch on the 10GbE ports and for the rest of the network i'll just get a 1GbE RJ45 cables, I think it will be cheaper, however if I do this, which cables do I use best? I looked around for SFP cables and found LC, FC, SC, etc... which one to use?

*EDIT*: I realize by now that to use an SFP port a transceiver is must be used... I thought it was already a kind of port of its own cables like the RJ-45... So anyways, If I do get the card that supports SFP+, which transceiver + cable is best to use for 10GbE for performance and budget? Thanks.

 

[devnull]

Yeah, as far as I can tell 10Gig over twisted-pair was never popular. I was having trouble finding SFPs for 10Gig with RJ-45 connectors as well.

There are cables that have SFP+ connectors on each end.
The correct cable for direct-attach SFP+ 10Gig is one like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812128002&name=Network-Ethernet-Cables

With that cable you don't need transceivers, but you won't find cables over 10 meters long. Direct-attach SFP cables are meant for high-speed links within the same room.

LC, FC, and SC are connectors for fiber optic cables. Fiber optic is still quite expensive for 10Gig, but it's the best for a 10Gig link running between rooms.

 

[SlingJ]

Just throwing something out there out there for you see if this helps you out.


http://www.ubnt.com/unifi

 

[upnorth]

pull all your cables to one spot usually the demarcation point