Advise for Home Media Network: NAS, Gigabit Switch, Media Streamer/ Player 3D DIAGRAM

[crashnburn]

Advise for Home Media Network: NAS, Gigabit Switch, Media Streamer/ Player

PHYSICAL REAL ESTATE:
These are 2 condos belonging to our family. Condo 1 & Condo 2 have similar square footage. Condo 1 is split in 2 parts on levels 3 & 4. Condo 2 is on top of Condo 1 such that one half is right above Condo 1.
The building is Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) for all the slabs shown above in the diagram. The Pink dotted lines signify brick walls and in some cases RCC sheet boards where brick walls might be too thick. They are definitely not great for wireless signals.

Q. What is RCC?
If a concrete mix is placed in and around a cage of steel rods, it is called Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC).

3D DIAGRAM: FULL IMAGE - CAN ZOOM IN:
http://picasaweb.google.com/AbhiGlo...photo?authkey=fBw1U6n6fPs#5220566434434913138

HOME NETWORK ALREADY WIRED & INSTALLED:
CAT6 cabling has been used for both the internal Ethernet network as well as the EPABX driven phone system.

NETWORK MEDIA STREAMERS:
Xbox XBMC is a modified Classic Xbox that allows stream of all kinds of Media from a Central Server / NAS / RAID. I currently have one being modified and am looking at getting 1 or 2 more.
In 2009, when the Media Streamers (Popcorn Hour, TVix) mature further I will review and consider them again. Of course, the main point of going for them over the Xbox XBMC is lack of HDMI / HD. Now, we do have to realize that at that point the assumption is that we’ll have a lot more HD Content (Blu-Ray & remaining HD-DVD Rips).

[ NETWORK & STORAGE ADVISE NEEDED: ]

The “Green” & “Orange” marked items are the areas where I need help / advice on the most right now. I’d like to
focus on the 3 MAJOR areas with these “marked” items.

I’d like some Network Traffic Management – QoS, Banning etc. if possible. I was thinking QoS in terms of Network Services QoS. To be able to set & reserve QoS for different kinds of services (VoIP, Media, Torrents, various devices, users (I get high priority vs others in family ) For within network and outside network traffic ...Thoughts?

( I ) EXTERNAL UPLINK:

Some sort of QoS for Services over the Internet / ISP: Internet to LAN Device / Application QoS:
- VoIP (Maybe reserve some ISP bandwidth for the ‘dedicated’ services / have higher QoS priority over other traffic flowing to the Internet)
- Media Streamer (Occasional - Online YouTube, Picasa, Online News, Weather on NMT, Maybe HULU)
- 2-3 Laptops, 1 Desktop (Simultaneous active: 2 or 3)

Now, I’d like to be able to the following with a single device or multiple devices that can be put together to do the
following:

[ Bridge/ Gateway/ Router/ Firewall Device: ]
- Bridge the LANs / Subnets in Condo 1 & Condo 2 into Single or Multiple LANs
(So they could also use the Media Server)
- Load Share / Load Balance the 2 ISPs coming into Condo 1 & Condo 2 so that:
o Best / Maximum Bandwidth could be utilized
o Have a connection even if one of the ISPs goes down
- Firewall protecting from the internet of both the ISPs

I want to be able to have the following network features if at all possible:
1. Share / Load balance the ISP1 & ISP2 for both Building Levels. That way if one of the ISPs is down or slow or overloaded we can load balance / utilize capacity on the other. What hardware / Firmware / Configuration would be the best for this?
2. Be able to assign QoS to various clients accessing the Combined Bandwidth:
3. One VoIP line (typically used for International calls only) - Currently attached to WR1 and usable by a VoIP attached Phone only. I am thinking of plugging it into EPABX1 to use it througout Building Level 4.
4. 2-3 Desktop PCs. Currently PC1 & PC2. Some of the kids have a tendency to DOWNLOAD and INSTALL crappy games from the web / flash games so if I could CAP that Bandwidth hog. Nice to have.
5. Ability to CAP bandwidth for several users / laptops / categories of users.
6. Have "super admin" bandwidth for yours truely.
7. Be able to access the MFC7820 N from Level 4 or Level 5.
8. Some way to network enable / USB Router enable the Local USB Printers without having to turn on the PCs and doing Printer Sharing (PS: I understand that would mean them not directly plugged into the PCs but via some USB device to share).

( II ) CENTRAL CORE:

[ NAS Hardware]
Central Server / NAS/ RAID. The central store for all the Media, File Share Data and Content
Media: DVD ISOs, MPEG, AVI, mp3, FLAC, Pictures / Photos
Data: Application Setup / Installable, Personal Backups, Work / Career/ Etc, Family Backups

Currently considering Synology CS 407 / 407e and QNAP 407 but am not sure. They are close $500+ for 4 x 1TB. I am curious what kinds of implementations are they doing here?
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#Implementations )
Is there a way to do a similar implementation using a Motherboard & Case with Free / Open Source Software RAID for lesser price?

[ Gigabit Networking ]

[ Gigabit Switch ]

- Supports following Media scenarios:
Scenarios for within LAN QoS reservation for certain types of application services:
(Some kind of QoS reservation to ensure Media Streaming to consumers without jitter)
- NAS > Media Streamer: XBMC (DVD ISOs, HD DivX, AVI, MPG, MP3, Photos)
- NAS (media & file / data serving) > 2-3 Laptops, 1 Desktop

- Supports these devices by Hardwire
9 CAT6s (Internally Wired / Pulled) > 5/6 Used, Remaining Unused
1 CAT6 (Internal - Pulled for Telephone originally)
3 CAT6s (Local: Near / part of the Central Core): Wireless Router, Server / NAS / RAID, Network Printer (MFC 7820N)

[ Patch Panel ] (??)

(Should I even bother buying one? What purpose would it serve? Under what scenario would I want to have a Patch Panel)

[Wireless Router]
(I might end up moving it into the Bedroom depending on signal)
WR 1 – Wireless N Router

[Network Printer / Scanner]
Brother MFC 7820N

( III ) BEDROOM:

- T61 with Adv Mini Dock
- X61 with Ultrabase Dock
- Xbox XBMC

[ Desktop Switch ]
(Preferably something low profile, small size, low noise, low heat / power)

One oversight that I had when we got the wiring done was that I did not think I’ll need multiple Ethernet lines coming to my bedroom (ThinkPads). I am currently looking at 3 devices there with a Single CAT6 from the Central Location coming through terminated at an RJ-45.

I do have the possibility of using another CAT6 that comes through to the same desk but was terminated into a RJ- 11. I am guessing I can leverage that for another Ethernet Line since I have another CAT6 coming to the bedside table into an RJ-11. This would give me a second RJ-45 termination.

Lots of possibilities arise but I have 2 questions:
- Is it possible to use the same Phone CAT6 cable for Ethernet as well as phone line? EPABX + Gigabit Switch? What would be the Bandwidth loss / fallback in this case?
- What would be a decent Desktop switch to expand the number of Ethernet ports I have? What kind of Bandwidth loss / fallback in this case? Especially v/s the previous case? (Note the major likelihood of using multiple devices for HIGH BANDWIDTH usage from “Central Core” simultaneously is low)

 

[scotty]

Wow, that's quite the post and planning you've done. I'll admit, I didn't read it word for word, but I'll tackle a few questions you had:

QoS / Load Balancing / Dual WAN / Bandwidth Management - You're definately looking for a router of some kind that has these features. Given you varied requirements, my best recommendation would be pfsense. Pfsense is a very popular, free, BSD based router that has the features of a $2000+ router. It's really easy to set up and manage, and can be put on virtually any old PC you have sitting around (or a cheap, $300 new PC if you choose). It will support virtually everything you're doing here really well - and it's free. A Linksys RV0 series router can do most of what you need as well. With one of these kinds of products, you can manage bandwidth, QoS, etc to your heart's content.

QoS - One small note about QoS, once the packets of data leave your home and go to your ISP, any QoS information is stripped. Basically, you can manage QoS from within your network, but not outside your network. You can't tell your ISP give priority to VOIP for example. You can still do QoS, but just keep this in mind, it's not 100% end-to-end QoS. But for what you're doing, you're fine.

Bridging Multiple Subnets / Condos - Couple ways to do this. Pfsense will have this capability right out of the box, but there's still ways to do it otherwise. You'll need a router that supports routing multiple subnets, multiple DHCP pools, etc. Did I mention pfsense?

Open Sourced NAS - Yes, there's a product called OpenNAS which is pretty decent. There's a review of it sitting somewhere here on SNB.

Print Servers - This is exactly what you're looking for, a USB print server (to put your USB printers directly on the network). Tons of brands here, everyone makes them. I find HP's print servers most reliable by far, but Linksys, Dlink all have them. You can get wireless ones too.

Patch Panel - IMO, use one! You don't 'have' to have one, but they definately make things a lot easier. It will terminate all of your condo's Cat5/6 connections into a panel and will give you a lot more flexibility and ease of changing things around. They're really not expensive and are super easy to install so I don't see why you wouldn't, especially in such a connected home. If electricians are doing the wiring, it's a no brainer - have them put on in. They're really cheap. Also cleans things up quite nicely.

RJ-11/Cat6 Wiring - Yes, you can use Cat6(or5) for phones, but not BOTH phones AND PC's at the same time. Phones only use 1 pair and Cat5/6 has of course 4 pairs. What you 'could' do, is use up to 4 phones on 1 cat6 cable. If you're already running a bunch of Cat6, you probably don't need to be running RJ-11 as well. In most new homes these days they'll just wire it for a crapload of Cat5 and be done with it. When building my house which I take posession of soon, I didn't bother with RJ-11 anywhere.

Switches - Even in your scenario, you're not sending absolutely massive amounts of data across the wire at any given time. Streaming a movie, the odd phone call, internet access, and a game or two isn't going to make your network puke by any means. Since you're obivously going for a bit of a higher end setup, you'd probably be better off going with a bit of a higher end switch. I personally like HP's ProCurve line (business class switch). Something like the 1800 series would probably do you pretty good. I would definately go with a switch of this class over a D-Link or Linksys. I'm just not a huge fan of their switches no matter how you look at it .

That should answer a lot of your questions, lots of smart peeps on this forum though so they'll chime in soon with some good recommendations too.

 

[crashnburn]

Thanks a lot for the detailed response. I inserted my thoughts inline with your reply.

Wow, that's quite the post and planning you've done. I'll admit, I didn't read it word for word, but I'll tackle a few questions you had:

Currently its far from where I want it to be.

The key items I need to purchase / build that I need advise on.
- Gigabit Switch: Suggest some please?
- Desktop Switch:
- Gigabit Patch Panel: The wiring is already done. I do not see the purpose of a Patch Panel. Maybe you can enlighten me.
- Gigabit NAS / Media Server / RAID:
- Bridge / Router / QoS:


QoS / Load Balancing / Dual WAN / Bandwidth Management - You're definately looking for a router of some kind that has these features. Given you varied requirements, my best recommendation would be pfsense. Pfsense is a very popular, free, BSD based router that has the features of a $2000+ router. It's really easy to set up and manage, and can be put on virtually any old PC you have sitting around (or a cheap, $300 new PC if you choose). It will support virtually everything you're doing here really well - and it's free. A Linksys RV0 series router can do most of what you need as well. With one of these kinds of products, you can manage bandwidth, QoS, etc to your heart's content.

QoS - One small note about QoS, once the packets of data leave your home and go to your ISP, any QoS information is stripped. Basically, you can manage QoS from within your network, but not outside your network. You can't tell your ISP give priority to VOIP for example. You can still do QoS, but just keep this in mind, it's not 100% end-to-end QoS. But for what you're doing, you're fine.

Bridging Multiple Subnets / Condos - Couple ways to do this. Pfsense will have this capability right out of the box, but there's still ways to do it otherwise. You'll need a router that supports routing multiple subnets, multiple DHCP pools, etc. Did I mention pfsense?

QoS THOUGHTS:

I am trying to ensure 3 kinds of QoS.
1) INTERNAL QoS:
How different kinds of traffic flow inside the network. There is a bunch of traffic that would almost never need to go out. e.g. Media Streaming from NAS to Xbox XBMC. This is INTERNAL only.

2) EXTERNAL QoS:
There is a lot of traffic that would be EXTERNAL. Internet Traffic (VoIP, Email, Web Browsing, VoIP, Youtube, Online Radio, Torrents). Even though we have no control over QoS once we hit the ISP, I'd like to atleast GATEKEEP and assign / reserve some Bandwidth by Absolute BW or Percentage BW. Is this kind of fine tuning even possible?

3) User Priority QoS:
There are "kids" in the house who might over indulge the bandwidth so it would be great to have the ability to CAP bandwidth for those people / machines on the network.

ROUTER / FIREWALL OPTIONS:
Are all of the above something i could do with PFSense? Could I do it ALL with the Linksys RV Router? I would've preferred a BOX like the Router you suggested but I am guessing it would turn out to be more expensive?
ONE ISSUE: It is 4 - 10/100. I guess I lose out on the Gigabit functionality.
Thoughts?

Do you think it might be possible to get a "Slim" / Rack Mount Like 'Box' that has Gigabit Ethernet (Atleast Dual WAN) for cheap (er) than the Linksys RV Router? Since I want to keep it a FULL / PROPER Gigabit Ethernet I'd need 4 Gigabit cards / ports on the Motherboard?

From what I hear the PCI based cards dont give full performance. They have to be on the Motherboard or PCI-e. What do you think? I am a little out of synch on hardware.

Which one would become more expensive?

SUBNETS:
I would prefer to actually be able to INTEGRATE and create a Single Subnet that includes both Condo 1 and Condo 2. Is that possible?

The idea of creating multiple VNets came to me after realizing that I might need some restricted parts if at all for TESTING or ISOLATION sometime. I have no current thoughts / immediate need on that at this front.



Open Sourced NAS - Yes, there's a product called OpenNAS which is pretty decent. There's a review of it sitting somewhere here on SNB.

I'll look through some and get back with some questions.

Are there any Boxes / Motherboards that might be good options for this. Something that would have:
- RAID
- Gig E
- Small Form Factor
- Low Power Profile etc.



Print Servers - This is exactly what you're looking for, a USB print server (to put your USB printers directly on the network). Tons of brands here, everyone makes them. I find HP's print servers most reliable by far, but Linksys, Dlink all have them. You can get wireless ones too.

Not the most major concern right now.

Switches - Even in your scenario, you're not sending absolutely massive amounts of data across the wire at any given time. Streaming a movie, the odd phone call, internet access, and a game or two isn't going to make your network puke by any means. Since you're obivously going for a bit of a higher end setup, you'd probably be better off going with a bit of a higher end switch. I personally like HP's ProCurve line (business class switch). Something like the 1800 series would probably do you pretty good. I would definately go with a switch of this class over a D-Link or Linksys. I'm just not a huge fan of their switches no matter how you look at it .

Actually from what I heard Streaming DVD ISOs over the network, and maybe HD Content sometime soon might be "quite a bit of data". Couple that with Torrent Downloads and possibly DVR recording in the future..

This all in addition to the typical internet usage.

Any reason why the DLinks and Linksys dont make the cut for you?
Could you point out some other switches as well - Just in case I want to go for a cheaper alternative? The prices seem to be a bit high or maybe I've just seen the prices of too many cheap ones.

What would be the price / performance advantage?


Patch Panel - IMO, use one! You don't 'have' to have one, but they definately make things a lot easier. It will terminate all of your condo's Cat5/6 connections into a panel and will give you a lot more flexibility and ease of changing things around. They're really not expensive and are super easy to install so I don't see why you wouldn't, especially in such a connected home. If electricians are doing the wiring, it's a no brainer - have them put on in. They're really cheap. Also cleans things up quite nicely.

WHY ??
They are all currently terminated into RJ-45 (male) plug that currently go into an ordinary wireless router. They could easily go into a "Switch".

I am trying to understand the scenario under which it would help / makes sense to add another "termination point" in between. Did I not read that lesser the termination points in between the better.

When / how would it make sense?


RJ-11/Cat6 Wiring - Yes, you can use Cat6(or5) for phones, but not BOTH phones AND PC's at the same time. Phones only use 1 pair and Cat5/6 has of course 4 pairs. What you 'could' do, is use up to 4 phones on 1 cat6 cable. If you're already running a bunch of Cat6, you probably don't need to be running RJ-11 as well. In most new homes these days they'll just wire it for a crapload of Cat5 and be done with it. When building my house which I take posession of soon, I didn't bother with RJ-11 anywhere.

I was talking about this.

HOW TO: Wire An Ethernet And Phone Jack Using A Single Cat5e Cable

The place is already WIRED. CAT6 for Ethernet and CAT6 even for Phones. I do not have intentions of using most of the Phone CAT6.

The only one that I am considering is one that comes from the Center Core to my Bedroom desk in Condo 1. I am planning to change the termination on this from RJ-11 Female Socket to an RJ-45.

All the phone lines use CAT6 but terminate into RJ-11 Female Sockets. THE THING is.. we do not need all the Twisted Pairs since the phone system is driven off an EPABX at the Central Core.

The question I had is, could this still be leveraged for both Ethernet & Phone Jack both. If so, what kind of Bandwith / Signal / Ethernet speed loss would I be facing? I am guessing it would not be a pure Gigabit then? Would it become a 10/100 Ethernet line? Bandwidth implications?



That should answer a lot of your questions, lots of smart peeps on this forum though so they'll chime in soon with some good recommendations too.

Thanks again for taking the time to read through.

 

[scotty]

To clarify what you mentioned:

QoS - Internal QoS is pretty straight forward. External is like you mentioned, all you can really do is basic gatekeeping. And yes, with PFsense you can resverve bandwidth for users or protocols, etc. As far as user QoS goes - general speaking it's doable. QoS can be a little tricky to set up properly, so it will take a bit of time, planning, and tweaking. I'd recommend looking further into the documentation or jumping onto the pfsense forum if you have really specific questions there, but what you're wanting is very achievable.

Router / Firewall options. Pretty much everything you want to do, pfsense can do. The Linksys RV will do some of it, but not all. I can't speak to deeply to this as i haven't used a ton of RV's in depth. I haven't touched one for two years so the firmware is probably totally different now. There's probably a lot more features. There's other people here who know a lot more about the RV's specific capabilities than I do. And PFsense is only as expensive as you make it. A router doesn't need that much horsepower, so you could throw pfsense on any old box you have sitting around. All you need to do is generally throw in a few extra NIC's. You can buy GigE nics now for like $15. Simple enough. You say you want something 'slim' like the RV. Here you're only limited to the kinds of PC cases you can find. Performance-wise PCI cards would do fine. The switch is going to be handling a lot of the traffic. The router's cards are typically only handling traffic from interface to interface (nic to nic), so generally this isn't going to come close to the capabilities of 10/100 let alone GigE.

Which would be more expensive? Depends on what you end up doing. Throw pfsense on any old box and add a few Nics and you're only out $40 bucks or so for nics.

1 subnet for the 2 condo's - not a problem. Creating temporary subnets or testing zones is pretty easy. No biggy.

Why am I not fond of Dlink and Linksys switches - personal experience. I hail primarily from a business IT background and I've replaced far too many of them. I just generally am not fond of them on multiple levels. I know lots of people like them so all the power to them. To each his own. I like HP's because they're a little more robust (built with business in mind), lifetime warranty, straight forward to configure, reliable, and so on. And yes, they generally start at about $300. You'd be looking for something in the $300 to $450 range. Will it make a performance difference? Probably not, just my preference. If I was doing what you're doing, I'd personally spend a bit more on a more reliable unit. Again, that's just me, call me crazy if you like.

Patch panels - Again, some of it is experience and personal preference. Generally I like them becuase they're a single termination point, they clean things up, easier to re-wire stuff or extend cables, just easier all around. You could certainly keep it as-is with the ends on there, I just wouldn't personally. I'm a type A personality and if you've ever seen any of my server rooms or worked with me you'd know I like clean and tidy wiring. Plus, if you ever have to extend a cable then you need couplers, and it starts to get messy. At the end of the day, a good leviton patch panel is like $75 and they're easy-peasy to wire. My argument here isn't 'why', but 'why not'? I've seen environments where there's just a bunch of terminated cables, and more times than not once things start to change and move around, spending that extra $50 or $75 on a patch panel and 20 minutes to wire pays itself off instantly.

 

[Tamarin]

I second Scotty's remarks on the patch panel. Too many times I've gone in to resolve some problem, and it is aggravated because all the wiring is a rat's nest. Patch Panels go a long way to cleaning things up. Plus, if and when things change, having it on a patch panel makes things easier. If you've got a closet, put it on a panel. You could look into a little wall-mounted 6-8U rack, put your switch, router, patch panel, and anything else on it. Depending on what else you put in your closet, maybe get even more space.

Tam

 

[crashnburn]

To clarify what you mentioned:

QoS - Internal QoS is pretty straight forward. External is like you mentioned, all you can really do is basic gatekeeping. And yes, with PFsense you can resverve bandwidth for users or protocols, etc. As far as user QoS goes - general speaking it's doable. QoS can be a little tricky to set up properly, so it will take a bit of time, planning, and tweaking. I'd recommend looking further into the documentation or jumping onto the pfsense forum if you have really specific questions there, but what you're wanting is very achievable.

// Sounds good. I guess PFSense is the swiss army knife so I dont have to worry whats possible. Is this achievable with the Linksys RV Series? To this extent?

Router / Firewall options. Pretty much everything you want to do, pfsense can do. The Linksys RV will do some of it, but not all. I can't speak to deeply to this as i haven't used a ton of RV's in depth. I haven't touched one for two years so the firmware is probably totally different now. There's probably a lot more features. There's other people here who know a lot more about the RV's specific capabilities than I do.

// Who would know? Do let me know and I'll ask them. . And if there is another forum as well I shall post there too.

And PFsense is only as expensive as you make it. A router doesn't need that much horsepower, so you could throw pfsense on any old box you have sitting around. All you need to do is generally throw in a few extra NIC's. You can buy GigE nics now for like $15. Simple enough. You say you want something 'slim' like the RV. Here you're only limited to the kinds of PC cases you can find. Performance-wise PCI cards would do fine. The switch is going to be handling a lot of the traffic. The router's cards are typically only handling traffic from interface to interface (nic to nic), so generally this isn't going to come close to the capabilities of 10/100 let alone GigE.

// Hmm.. Will it be that much slower? Then how do I achieve a GigE Link/ bridge between 2 physically isolated networks / LANs. The way I am thinking is to find a spot near the "ISP line exit points" of both Condo's (near doors) and figure out where to place the said item.

So would any PFSense or Linksys RV box succumb to the same less than GigE issue?

Or do I add another GigE Switch to be a parent on the Spanning Tree and later have the (QoS + Gateway + Router) Box connect to the final parent GigE and manage from there. Do I lose out on the 'internal' GigE speeds at that point?

Which would be more expensive? Depends on what you end up doing. Throw pfsense on any old box and add a few Nics and you're only out $40 bucks or so for nics.

I'll look to see what I can find on PFSense Forums.
Is there any PFSense hardware out there that you might recommend?

1 subnet for the 2 condo's - not a problem. Creating temporary subnets or testing zones is pretty easy. No biggy.

Why am I not fond of Dlink and Linksys switches - personal experience. I hail primarily from a business IT background and I've replaced far too many of them. I just generally am not fond of them on multiple levels. I know lots of people like them so all the power to them. To each his own. I like HP's because they're a little more robust (built with business in mind), lifetime warranty, straight forward to configure, reliable, and so on. And yes, they generally start at about $300. You'd be looking for something in the $300 to $450 range. Will it make a performance difference? Probably not, just my preference. If I was doing what you're doing, I'd personally spend a bit more on a more reliable unit. Again, that's just me, call me crazy if you like.

// I appreciate the insight. I might start with a cheaper one and move that to my desktop and then go for the better switch as I get through this - I guess right now in STAGES.

Note - A lot of Gigabit Switch reviews have been done on SNB. I did not see any on the HP ones. I wish they would make a comprehensive chart just like wireless routers. Arent any of the authors / reviewers / experts active on these forums? and vice versa - the experts here take up some article opportunities?

The HP Switches - http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/index.htm
How does the 1400 series look?

SIDE NOTE:
What would you say if i started off with a cheaper 8 port to currently be the Central Gigabit Switch. As my Home Media Network matures more, (Currently only one XBox XBMC hacked to stream media) with more media streamers etc, I'd possible move to a more expensive GigE Switch with MORE ports.
Thoughts? Advise?

PS: I have an Enterprise IT background as well. Its just that over time I've moved UP the application stack...


Patch panels - Again, some of it is experience and personal preference. Generally I like them becuase they're a single termination point, they clean things up, easier to re-wire stuff or extend cables, just easier all around. You could certainly keep it as-is with the ends on there, I just wouldn't personally. I'm a type A personality and if you've ever seen any of my server rooms or worked with me you'd know I like clean and tidy wiring. Plus, if you ever have to extend a cable then you need couplers, and it starts to get messy. At the end of the day, a good leviton patch panel is like $75 and they're easy-peasy to wire. My argument here isn't 'why', but 'why not'? I've seen environments where there's just a bunch of terminated cables, and more times than not once things start to change and move around, spending that extra $50 or $75 on a patch panel and 20 minutes to wire pays itself off instantly.

I guess one possible scenario of trouble where I see the use. I'll look it up for sure. I guess I'll have to break this down into PHASES but I'd like as much KNOWN and PLANNED before hand.

PS: Do you estimate the "better" GigE Switches to have lower prices by the end of 2008 / mid of 2009 ? Since my need is not as immediate to have the network full blown.

I guess I do not want to go overboard on everything right away in one shot.

I second Scotty's remarks on the patch panel. Too many times I've gone in to resolve some problem, and it is aggravated because all the wiring is a rat's nest. Patch Panels go a long way to cleaning things up. Plus, if and when things change, having it on a patch panel makes things easier.

If you've got a closet, put it on a panel. You could look into a little wall-mounted 6-8U rack, put your switch, router, patch panel, and anything else on it. Depending on what else you put in your closet, maybe get even more space.

Tam

The Central Core for Condo 1 will be going into a Closet. Its not huge but I am sure I'd have to better organize the whole thing. What would be a good place to look up wall mounted 6-8U racks online?

 

[thiggins]

Internal QoS is pretty straight forward.

It's straightforward if you have the right equipment. This would require a smart / managed switch with per-port bandwidth controls, right?

Also, you need to be careful with router-based QoS. PFsense may handle both up and downstream traffic, but many consumer and "prosumer" routers do QoS on uplink traffic only.

 

[crashnburn]

It's straightforward if you have the right equipment. This would require a smart / managed switch with per-port bandwidth controls, right?

Also, you need to be careful with router-based QoS. PFsense may handle both up and downstream traffic, but many consumer and "prosumer" routers do QoS on uplink traffic only.

Interesting. I might have to lookup more detailed info on the Linksys RV02.

I found its possible to do per port throttling on some Routers.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=18206