Network cabling

[guddler]

So, if I knock up a topology diagram with approx. cable run lengths could someone have a nose and let me know if I'm going to achieve what I want or hit any problems? (gigabit speeds).

I've started the cable runs as the decorator is going to get to doing the ceiling while I'm away working this week so I wanted him to be able to chase the cables in. But at the moment nothing's too set in stone. I've gone way over on the estimations and it's all just coiled up under the floorboards at the top of the stairs until next weekend or the weekend after. I've not even ordered the switches yet.

I'll do that diagram in a bit.

 

[guddler]

Diagram...

 

[guddler]

PS: GS-108 and GS-105 are unmanaged, powered gigabit switches. The Draytel is an ADSL Max router with built in 4 port 100Mbit hub or switch (don't know which). The Time Capsule should be self explanatory. All the little boxes are sockets that have 0.5m patch cables in. LR1 is the games PC that I want to gave as fast access as possible to the Time Capsule.

Draytek also supplies wireless N networks 1 & 2, Time Capsule supplies wireless N network 3.
guddler2011-01-31 00:20:37

 

[andyman]

Crossover between the two Netgear's ?

Andy.

 

[G-man]

I believe the Netgears are MDI-X compatible, so a crossover cable shouldn't be required. I know the router I used to use had this, not 100% on the switches.

 

[guddler]

Yes, they're auto sensing for everything including uplink / crossover. Not a problem though as there's no plugs on the end of the cables yet

How about run lengths and mixing speeds? Is that all ok?

 

[trm]

Cable runs and switch positioning all look fine by default.

My two initial questions would be:

1) If you're running three 802.11n in close proximity I'd wonder what throughput you'd get - do you do this currently or is it a "to be done". -n is frequency agile so it leaps all over the allocated range looking for channels that aren't busy. Which is a good way of getting more bandwidth but not so good if you've got multiple -n gear in close proximity. If you already do this and are happy with the performance, ignore this point.

2) GR1-3 & time capsule - you're not going to break any length limits if you run a single wire up to the - doh, just read these 4 pair are already in place. Ignore

Performance-wise I don't think you'll have any nasties between LR1 and the Time Capsule. You have a gigabit backbone throughout and a pair of switches that will probably be doing store and forward which will add only microseconds to the latency.

Given that LR1 is the only device with a gig connection that uses that route to the TC (LR1 - GS-105 - GS-108 - TC) then you only have LR2 piggybacking on that route to the TC, and as LR2 is 100Mbit then you're not going to have much contention between the two. If LR2 was gigabit *and* busy then I'd look at trunking/channel bonding between GS-105 and GS-108 just to make sure neither LR1 or LR2 could saturate the backhaul between the two switches.

Go build it!

ps Something in the back of my head is reminding me about differing earth potentials when you're cabling between buildings, but I'm sure this was shielded twisted pair so we'd got a screen which needed grounding.

 

[guddler]

Some good points here!

LR2 is my Sonos ZP-120 .(http://www.sonos.com/products/zoneplayers/zp120/default.aspx?rdr=true&LangType=2057). He's streaming music from the Time Capsule and is only 100mbit. But for practical reasons he needs to through the ADSL router's ports anyway so I couldn't get it to be gigabit if I tried. It has a mini 2 port hub in it so if I ever needed the consoles under the telly to be hard wired again I could use the spare port on that (neat feature that!)

Wireless. The three networks are games room (from the Time Capsule), House and House Guest. Games room and House barely overlap. They appear and disappear every now and again. The other two are served up by the Draytek so I assume it's handling the channels happily by itself? I could realistically switch off the guest one though. It's just handy not having to give mates my password. I could just log them in instead though.

I did forget that there's a fourth! The Sonos ZP-120 links to the Sonos S5 in the kitchen via wireless. The specs have this to say about it "SonosNet 2.0, a secure AES encrypted, peer-to-peer wireless mesh network". Don't really know what that is but I suspect it's just standard wireless. One advantage of all of this is that I will be able to hard wire that through the wall into the cupboard under the stairs and get that into the GS-105 though so if there's a setting, I can probably switch the wireless off in the Sonos.

Generally speaking, the wireless performance is woeful!

Oh, don't think ground potentials apply here as we ran the earth up to the shed from the house iirc. If we hadn't then it would have had to have gone via fibre or you'd pop any network cards whenever there was an electrical storm!

Martin.

 

[trm]

From my perspective I'd say your wired eth plans are fine. I'll be able to come up with some ideas for improving your wireless performance if you're interested in that at some point. ISTR seeing quite a few available APs when connecting to your guest net, so I suspect that most of the channels are in use within interference range of your house. But if the majority of your gear is going to be wired then I doubt wifi throughput is a problem as long as it's always connectable.

And you've covered the ground worry I had - everything will be at the same potential so you won't get any zaps. As a young work experience fool I had to diddle with some inter-building comms links once and wondered why there was this massive great earth bonding strap coming from the cable sheath. Learnt a lesson that day