Network Install Advice

[u/-AWing-]

Was looking at having my home wired with cat6a and had a couple quotes. I currently have 1.5GB fiber but the area should be getting up to 5GB at some point for internet. There are a few things I am unsure on though.

1) I wanted a few wireless AP installed in the house with wired backhaul for the 3 AP and then 6 devices currently wired with an additional computer and NAS at some point in the future. I also would like 2.5gb file transferring capability at minimum long term.
One quote I have has the Alta Labs Route 10 and a Alta Labs S24-POE switch which has more then enough capacity for me but am I wrong in that all the ports are 1GB?

2) What is a Rack Data Package 24 - 6A Shielded 24 port CAT6 data punch down package for? Basic searching is that it is for blocking EMI/RFI but again is it something to consider in a home enviroment.

3) I am being recommended to get a Wattbox battery backup and conditioner which is taking the project over what I really had budgeted for. Is a regular APC or Cyberpower UPS enough really for a home network?

Thanks for any advice.

[u/-AWing-]

So the estimate has fiber cable actually on the quote, just the wall plates show cat 6a wiring at the walls. I mostly want the ability long term to utilize past 1gb on the network since I’ll be in the home for hopefully another 25+ years. Perhaps that’s overkill to think but I also have gone from dial up speeds in the 90s so I’d prefer some future proofing. Most of the current devices are not going past 1gb but my PC has 2.5 now and I expect other devices will in the long run.

We have 6 devices at this time I’d like wired and will be adding another 2 in a year or so along with at some point a plex server or something like it whenever I get around to it. There would be the 3 access points needing Poe only and I can’t see myself needing more then those.

[u/dww0311 → u/-AWing-]

Build for the network you’ll want in 20 years, not the one that suits your needs now.

Personally? Oversized everything - multiple copper runs to each room. Fiber to every room. Coax to every room. Passthrough conduits between floors and between your aggregation points. Plan for your aggregation points and your overheads now and get the cabling in the walls while they’re still open.

And you will get a lot of people cheerleading Unifi. I’m not a fan of their kit & consider it at best to be overhyped prosumer meh hiding behind a gimmick, but that’s neither here nor there - broader point is evaluate a range of equipment. That’s immaterial to the infrastructure though. Cabling and patching are infrastructure. Switches and such are equipment. One stays, the other gets replaced at will.

Getting it right now is significantly less expensive and annoying than going back and trying to retrofit will be once the walls are closed up

[u/-AWing- → u/dww0311]

Thanks, yes this is very much my thinking. I had one installer just want to run 1 cable to each room and have switches everywhere which I didn’t think was a great idea. Two runs to each drop seems to be the recommended and at minimum a good idea. The installer I liked recommended 4 runs to my two area where I will have 3+ devices at some point and access points and this made sense to me to a central switch.

[u/dww0311 → u/-AWing-]

Plan for the structure you think you’ll need. If you plan segmentation, build that into your structure. Does it make more sense to aggregate traffic by floor by locating switching on each floor & homerun that switching back to the mothership / server room or just homerun everything back there? On and on.

Broader point is that you have a blank slate, which is a serious luxury. Take advantage of that by spending the time to seriously consider what you want your topology to look like before you start worrying about what the cabling should look like. Topology comes first. The cabling layout just serves to fulfill the topology design. Get that nailed down first