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bking7997

New Around Here
Hey everyone. My name is Brian and I am new here. We are getting ready to break ground on a new home and I want to wire it correctly and have a great home network. My plan so far is to run 2 CAT6 lines to every TV and computer location. I will have at least 2 Cat 6 run from the unfinished basement (where my rack will go and all wires homerun to) to the outside of the house to the ISP to hook to. I will also be running lies for doorbells and exterior cameras. Basically anything that can be plugged in I want plugged in. I will also run lines to a couple of places in the ceiling so I can hook up access points for WiFi.

I am looking for suggestions on wiring if what I have proposed isn't ideal. I am also looking for equipment suggestions. We will have Google Fiber for internet. I want to be able to access any of the WiFi access points without any additional passwords. I think that is a mesh network? I will be needing a router, a POE switch with 20 - 30 ports and the access points. Again, I want a strong WiFi network but most computers and TV's and stuff will be plugged in. Any other ideas that I'm not thinking of will be great.

I am also going to use a attic antenna and will have coax runs to the attic from homerun and to all tv locations. Any other ideas on this will be great too.

Thanks for your help,
 
Welcome to the forums @bking7997.

How large is your home in SqFt? What kind of construction is it?

If less than 5,000 SqFt on three floors or less and of drywall construction, consider that a single current router may be all you need if it is properly located (central to the areas needing coverage). Having as many cables run as possible to that central location will give you the greatest flexibility today and into the future with needs that you can't predict/foresee today.

In the rooms where most LAN/data activity is expected, consider running additional cables (even 10 runs is not overkill in my experience).

If you could run two (or more) separate (wired) networks into each room, that is ideal, today. For example, IoT, Security/Health, Backhaul, Main and Guest networks would each be a physically separate network 'ideally'.

The cost is minimal for these extra runs if you're running the wires yourself with a friend or two. The value to the home will be immense.

I would also consider running Cat6a STP cables instead too.

To clarify and emphasize the ideas here: you want to have as many runs into each (or at least main) room as possible to have as many physically separate networks as possible. Not only does this give you built-in redundancy, but with proper planning (including making each run as short as possible to a central point), will give you a network that can reach far above the 10GbE nominal it is currently spec'd for.
 
Welcome to the forums @bking7997.

How large is your home in SqFt? What kind of construction is it?

If less than 5,000 SqFt on three floors or less and of drywall construction, consider that a single current router may be all you need if it is properly located (central to the areas needing coverage). Having as many cables run as possible to that central location will give you the greatest flexibility today and into the future with needs that you can't predict/foresee today.

In the rooms where most LAN/data activity is expected, consider running additional cables (even 10 runs is not overkill in my experience).

If you could run two (or more) separate (wired) networks into each room, that is ideal, today. For example, IoT, Security/Health, Backhaul, Main and Guest networks would each be a physically separate network 'ideally'.

The cost is minimal for these extra runs if you're running the wires yourself with a friend or two. The value to the home will be immense.

I would also consider running Cat6a STP cables instead too.

To clarify and emphasize the ideas here: you want to have as many runs into each (or at least main) room as possible to have as many physically separate networks as possible. Not only does this give you built-in redundancy, but with proper planning (including making each run as short as possible to a central point), will give you a network that can reach far above the 10GbE nominal it is currently spec'd for.
Thanks for the reply. The home is standard frame construction and will be a split level house with around 2500SqFt. The router will be located in the lowest basement where I will Homerun all the cables. There will be a floor and a half above it and it will be in the front corner of the house so I don't think the WiFi will reach all of the upper areas which is why I thought I would add in ceiling wired extenders.
Do you have any equipment suggestions? Router, POE switch for 20-30 ports and extenders?
Thanks again for your info
 
For a 2,500 SqFt home, a centrally located RT-AX88U or RT-AX86U will be more than enough Wi-Fi for a 'consumer' router solution.

Two RT-AX86U's will saturate the area very effectively in wired backhaul mode while also giving access to a 2.5GbE port on each.

AiMesh Ideal Placement
 
For a 2,500 SqFt home, a centrally located RT-AX88U or RT-AX86U will be more than enough Wi-Fi for a 'consumer' router solution.

Two RT-AX86U's will saturate the area very effectively in wired backhaul mode while also giving access to a 2.5GbE port on each.

AiMesh Ideal Placement
So you mean using an RT-AX86U in the basement area where my wiring and switch will be and then using a second one on the main floor to "boost" that signal to the other areas?
Thanks,
 
So you mean using an RT-AX86U in the basement area where my wiring and switch will be and then using a second one on the main floor to "boost" that signal to the other areas?
Thanks,
And do you have any suggestions on a PoE switch. 20-30 ports. Will use for TV's, gaming, computers and cameras/doorbells.
 
Hi Brian. Welcome. You're definitely thinking in the right direction. Let me give you a bit more of a integrator's perspective here.

Cabling - First off, it never hurts to centrally home-run as much of the house with wired ethernet as possible. The more of that you can do, the more reliable your connectivity for stationary endpoints and more optimal your placement of wifi. I would do at least one, if not two, wall drops to any room hosting one or more stationary endpoints or access swiches, plus a ceiling drop in any location that a wifi access point or smart fixture might go. If you're thinking of further home automation with physical controls (beyond phone apps), then add to that an ethernet run for those items -- door bell, thermostat, light control, etc. Also, consider a run to any inside or outside corner eve and/or spot that could play host to a security camera, motion sensor and/or outdoor wifi access point. Some of that may seem like overkill, but having a few more runs than are needed beats having to knock out holes, fish wires and patch drywall and trim later on.

Cable Category - At 2,500 square feet, I'd presume no run would push much beyond 100-150 feet, which means quality Cat6 is all you need (commercial-grade, 23AWG solid-core, from the likes of FalconTech.com or a local electrical supplier). Cat6 will do 10Gb up to 180 feet and 100W of PoE to max length, equal to Cat6a in both regards, while being more economical and usually lighter and easier to work with. An additional point on shielded vs unshielded cabling: especially since this is a new build, where you can control the cable routing, it's likely not worth monkeying with shielded cable (STP or FTP), and instead going with unshielded (UTP). Unless the situation really demands it (almost never), a fully-shielded install tends to be more trouble than it's worth, as it requires every single physical item in the cable path, plus all connected gear, be properly grounded, no exceptions; in that vein, I've seen the attempt to use shielded cabling just for the sake it often cause more trouble than it prevents. So stick with Cat6 UTP, avoid Chinese whitelabel brands off Amazon and get a quality commercial brand (Berk-Tek, CommScope, General, Vertical, etc.) -- you'll be fine.

Terminations - I would also heavily recommend investing in quality keystone jacks and an accompanying rapid-connect tool, ideally one that guides all pairs into a color-coded insert, then punches down and cleaves the conductors all in one motion, to ensure proper terminations every time. I personally prefer Belden REVConnect, but there are several equivalents out there from the likes of Leviton, Ortronics, ICC, etc. Just get one of them and stick with it. Bad terminations are the single most common failure point during installs, especially at Cat6 and higher spec. Pay the extra money for the good keystones, and for a system like REVConnect (FalconTech has great pricing). TRUST ME, you'll thank me later.

Gear Strategy - With all that understood, now to get on to hooking up and picking gear. With Cat6 cabling routed, you'd home-run them all back to a rack location (as you were thinking), where you'd terminate them into a keystone patch panel (or two), then patch those ports into a PoE switch (managed, if doing VLAN-capable wifi), then finally shelve and patch in the ISP gateway and any central LAN items (NAS, etc). From there, you'd essentially have two options for routing and wifi: 1) a consumer all-in-one router or mesh product (wired into a dedicated port(s) upstairs, locally plug-powered), or 2) an SMB-grade wired router (in the rack) and one or more controller-based, PoE-powered wifi APs upstairs. The consumer gear may work well enough as an "easy button" solution, especially if you don't need fancy network segmentation or any gateway services to run at line-rate (VPN, etc.). On the other hand, the SMB-grade stack will usually be more robust/reliable, more easily upgradeable, have a higher performance ceiling, give you PoE-powered wifi and offer big-boy network control such as VLANs (for proper segmentation, ie. Private, Guest, IoT, etc) and more granular firewall control.

Summing up, I'm usually apt to recommend the discrete components route, as I do a lot of setups where the stuff just needs to be set-and-forget, and I personally don't like dealing with flaky gear (the bulk of which is consumer stuff), but I do understand the want to K.I.S.S., and in that vein, some consumer gear here or there is not the worst thing in the world, especially if it's vetted well enough (example: most Asus models running Merlin for stability, or Eero/Eero Pro). Whatever route you choose, I would at least heed my suggestions on cabling and terminations, and get a good quality PoE switch (Cisco CBS, HPE, etc.). Beyond that, I can get into more suggestions on SMB-grade components (routers, switches, wifi APs, etc.) if you think you want to go that direction.

I hope that helps paint the picture for you. Any questions, feel free.
 
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So you mean using an RT-AX86U in the basement area where my wiring and switch will be and then using a second one on the main floor to "boost" that signal to the other areas?
Thanks,

No, for a mere 2,500 SqFt area, a single, well-located router is all you need. Easier to run a few extra cables up to this central location for a single router (now), than to play around with mesh setups later.
 

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