Maximum PC

I hope that I am posting this in the right place. I need some good advice on getting the right equipment to wire a house. I am planning to run cat6 wires to seven different rooms in the house. One of the rooms has a wireless router in it. I have DSL at the moment but will be switching to cable next week. I am guessing what I should do is get an 8 port 10/100/1000 switch to put next to the broadband modem in the utility room. From there I would run the cat6 cable to the rest of the house. Yes, I know wireless is easier, but I have multiple laptops, smart phones, and a Wii already on the wireless DSL network and have two desktops, a network printer, and an Xbox 360 connected to the router. Not to mention that wired is more secure and transfer speeds are far more consistent than wireless. I plan on adding another desktop by the end of 2011. My goal is to have one network that has full share capabilities as the Xbox 360 is used as a media extender and the printer needs to be shared by all. So what say you?

The network has to go Modem-----> Router ------> Switch. The physical location of the devices doesn't really matter as long as they are connected in that order.

For example if your Router is in Room A, and your modem and switch are in Room B, You would have to have two Cat 5/6 cables that ran from Room A to Room B. Cable 1 would connect the modem to the router and cable 2 would connect the router to the switch. It's the same concept as if they were in the same room right next to each other, you just have longer cable runs.

I have the same setup in my apartment here in Korea. The Apartment is pre-wired, but where the switch location is next to the front door in the entryway, at the other end of the apartment from where the computers are. Luckily every room had two drops, so I just had to move one cable from the switch to the modem.

This is the guide I used when I wired my house back in the states, a few years ago. It should give you some good ideas.

Thank you, that helped a lot, i didn't even think through the router or switch orientation issue. What would you recommend I look for in a switch?

Always buy a switch with more ports than you need. This will allow you to expand your network without buying new equipment. I highly suggest a gigabit switch, they are coming down in price so there is no reason not to. If you are going to Stream HD content or transfer large file you will notice a big difference over 100Mbps I use the DLINK DGS-2208 but Netgear and Linksys also make good switches.

The first thing you might want to get is a 1U wall mount rack so when you run the cables back they will be going to a central locaion. You're also going to need a simple switch. Make sure you have enough cable. CAT 6 is prob over kill but it would be future proof. Also need wall plates


http://www.racksolutions.com/server-rac ... racks.html

http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-JGS516-Pr ... 503&sr=1-4

http://www.ehow.com/how_5679137_wire-ca ... lates.html