ToughButterCup Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Working through our cabling plan, I realised that we are going to have to have a network cabinet. I bumped into this idea . Neat, I thought. But I bet The Nerd Herd ( @Onoff's term) can do better. An IKEA shoe rack used as a network cabinet: I mean ... come on we can think of something more elegant cant we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Hmmm.... At a minimum you'll have a patch panel where all your Cat 5/6 is terminated (at rear, sockets at front) and an ethernet switch (I have a 24 port one but I do have a lot of Cat 5 sockets). You'll then have some internet source, maybe the actual DSL/Cable router or you may choose to patch this into one of your room Cat5 sockets up to your patch panel and then into the switch I do this as the BT Hub is on my desk in study).. You then do some old school telephone exchange style patching of external socket terminations to the switch to make them live. Patch panels and all but the smallest switches use 19" racks. You can mount your rack in a cupboard somewhere (where all your cat5 cables terminate) or you can wall mount it in a unit with a door. Mine is in the loft eaves. You may also choose to put other gubbins in there = Sky boxes, RF splitters etc but they will have different cabling requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Don't go 19" rack it is far to big this switch has 26 ports, includes PoE, and is only 8" deep so with 4" of cable room out front you need no more than 1' depth. If you are up for it you could terminate all your cat5/6 cables to a plug and then do away with the patch panel as well but that is relatively tedious. However before you go putting loads of CAT6 everywhere you might like to wonder how it is that 200 students can be happily watching youtube in the refectory (never happens in lectures you understand) in a world without wires using the amazing eduroam! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 1 hour ago, MikeSharp01 said: Don't go 19" rack it is far to big this switch has 26 ports, includes PoE, and is only 8" deep so with 4" of cable room out front you need no more than 1' depth... 19" is width, not depth. You can get different depths of 19" cabinets/racks to suit your needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Davies Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 1 hour ago, MikeSharp01 said: Don't go 19" rack it is far to big this switch … That switch is clearly intended to go in a 19" rack. Its dimensions are 440x204x43 so approx 17.3" wide before adding ears for mounting (IIRC, 19" is the total width of the front panel/ears) and the standard unit of rack mount dimensions is 1.752" (44.5mm) so 1U with 1.5mm of wiggle room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 I thought about putting a patch panel in, then decided against it, as it seemed to be a lot of additional leads and connectors that would, in all probability, rarely, if ever, be changed around. What I have done is grouped things so that I have enough wired Ethernet connections where I need them, so the area in one of the eaves spaces where all the external Ethernet cables come in has an 8 port switch, that has a single cable (with PoE to power the switch) back to my study. In my study I have a few Ethernet sockets that are wired out to other locations, like the TV points, my wife's study, the services room etc, as well as one that is just a cable from one side of the study to the other. I have a router that connects to this batch of ports, with PoE injection to a few of them, to power the fibre modem, the switch in the eaves space and another PoE 8 port switch switch on the wall behind my desk that's easy to get at. That switch has short leads to PCs, the printer, a couple of Raspberry Pis etc, with a few spare ports. Most of these connections are pretty permanent, the only ones that get played with are those on the 8 port switch by my desk. I couldn't think of a way of neatly running everything from a single network cabinet, especially as the chances are that anything I put in there I'd need to fiddle about with. I can fiddle about with stuff that's plugged into the switch by my desk without interfering with the connections to the set top boxes, my wife's PC, external stuff, etc. My only regret is that I didn't run an Ethernet cable underground to the garage/workshop, as I've had to faff about with a directional antenna and additional AP to be able to get a decent wifi connection down there. The house seems to screen out RF remarkably well for something made of timber; it seems that cellulose insulation is rather better than block or brick at RF screening, not sure why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 1 hour ago, jack said: 19" is width, not depth. You can get different depths of 19" cabinets/racks to suit your needs. I know this but the standard rack is also very deep, although I agree you can get them with less depth, as they want to accomodate all the gubins behind and in front if the devices and then add a door. I have several shoe stands that are more than wide and deep enough for the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 (edited) Our electrician did the cat 6 terminations to the 19" patch panel - seemed logical to have them all come to one point - the switch just lights up individual ethernet sockets in the house. They all share the same internet connection - the BT hub takes care of all of the IP address assignment automatically. 19" rack just keeps things nice and neat - 20cm ethernet path cables are cheap as chips. If you're using your DSL provider modem as a wifi node (e.g. BT Home Hub) then you probably don't want this stuck in a cupboard or in the attic. We have the BT master immediately where the cable comes into the house (in basement) and then have an extension line run to the study where the Hub is plugged in. The hub ethernet is sent to the switch using one of the Cat6 runs to the patch panel and then into the switch. We have a few old BT Hubs that act as wifi repeaters through the house (one on each floor). Agree that you need to think on what you're using them for but a good rule of thumb is that things that do not move (TVs, printers, routers, NAS drives, streaming units, internet radios, PV controller etc) should have a fixed connection and things that move (laptops, phones, tablets etc) should rely on WiFi. Edited September 25, 2019 by Bitpipe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted September 25, 2019 Author Share Posted September 25, 2019 Thank you everyone. Yetanuvver steep learning curve. I need to go away and translate all your responses. Like Arnie said ... "I will be back " 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 19 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said: wonder how it is that 200 students can be happily watching youtube in the refectory (never happens in lectures you understand) in a world without wires using the amazing eduroam! Remember these Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 5 hours ago, SteamyTea said: Yep, must have several 1000 about the house, do you remember these? Probably got a few of these about the place as well.... (Pic source: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/media.html ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 My final year engineering project went missing when the Winchester Drive got switched off at the mains, that was in early 80s. Thankfully it happened, my project was shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 What do you people with network cabinets and patch panels actually plug into the hard wired network? I have just 3 things on the wired network: The printer, my desktop PC, and my Raspberry Pi music box. Those just plug into 3 ethernet ports on the broadband router. I guess if I ever find anything else I need to plug into a wired network I could add a switch, but it would be a small one mounted on the shelf next to the router, not a 19" cabinet. This is a genuine question. I installed a lot of network cabling on a "just in case" and because it was so easy and cheap at first fix, but so far, the only bit of buried in the wall network cable in use is the one up to my desktop pc in my office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 PoE cameras, access points, internet radio to name three Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMagic Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Hardwired - Router - Switch 1 -- Wireless AP 1 -- Wireless AP 2 -- RPi 1 - VoIP PBX -- RPi 2 - Home Assistant -- CCTV NVR -- Honeywell Evohome Gateway -- CCTV Camera 1 (PoE) -- VoIP Phone - Switch 2 -- Wireless AP 3 -- Security System -- NAS -- VMWare Server -- Laptop -- CCTV Camera 2 (PoE) -- CCTV Camera 3 (PoE) -- CCTV Camera 4 (PoE) Wireless... too many devices to count! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 10 hours ago, ProDave said: What do you people with network cabinets and patch panels actually plug into the hard wired network? I have just 3 things on the wired network: The printer, my desktop PC, and my Raspberry Pi music box. Those just plug into 3 ethernet ports on the broadband router. I guess if I ever find anything else I need to plug into a wired network I could add a switch, but it would be a small one mounted on the shelf next to the router, not a 19" cabinet. This is a genuine question. I installed a lot of network cabling on a "just in case" and because it was so easy and cheap at first fix, but so far, the only bit of buried in the wall network cable in use is the one up to my desktop pc in my office. Everything that connects to the internet, except for three things that connect using wifi, a laptop, an iPad and a portable internet radio. Wherever possible I avoid using wifi, just because wired connections are more reliable, faster and don't need faffing around setting up passwords etc. Ethernet is really the ultimate in "plug and play", in that no setting up at all is needed, just plug something in and it connects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Um Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 10 hours ago, ProDave said: What do you people with network cabinets and patch panels actually plug into the hard wired network? I have just 3 things on the wired network: The printer, my desktop PC, and my Raspberry Pi music box. Those just plug into 3 ethernet ports on the broadband router. I guess if I ever find anything else I need to plug into a wired network I could add a switch, but it would be a small one mounted on the shelf next to the router, not a 19" cabinet. This is a genuine question. I installed a lot of network cabling on a "just in case" and because it was so easy and cheap at first fix, but so far, the only bit of buried in the wall network cable in use is the one up to my desktop pc in my office. 3 internet TVs, XBox, NAS drive, PV controller. I'd have plugged in put internet radio / streaming thingy but it's in the one corner of the living room that has no cat6 socket and the wifi is weak there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSniff Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Three UniFi access points (one for each floor - concrete construction is not conducive to WiFi signal), printer, NAS, Hue hub and Tradfri hub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadnaught Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 (edited) 4 minutes ago, MrSniff said: Hue hub and Tradfri hub Way off topic: can't the Ikea Tradfri items connect to the Philips Hue hub? Edited September 27, 2019 by Dreadnaught Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSniff Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Dreadnaught said: Way off topic: can't the Ikea Tradfri items connect to the Philips Hue hub? I believe they can although I haven’t tried it, but I also understood that a Tradfri item needs to be set up on Tradfri hub first. The reason for the two hubs is that the connection between the Hue hub and lamps on one floor and lamps on the floor above was intermittent at best, with nowhere to put an intermediate device to daisy chain it all together, hence a Hue zone and a Tradfri zone pulled together using HomeKit. Edited September 27, 2019 by MrSniff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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