Cat 6 Cabling originating from home office: configuration and component questions

Little hard to read keyed like that so I may miss some.

You must go modem-router-switch. You can not hook the switch directly to the modem...you generally only get 1 ip address from the ISP and that is the key function of a router to share that with your machines.

There are routers that have more than 4 gig ports but it is cheaper to buy a switch and a router..and it very much limits your choice of routers.

I assume you know you can get the boxes and jacks for the walls in the rooms from home depot. They may also sell a patch panel for the office side but you could just put in 2 boxes with 8 jacks each. You can use cat5e jacks if they do not have the cat6. It will make no difference since both are rated to 1g. The key to installing wall jacks is to not untwist the wire any more than you have to and be very sure to match the colors.

That ASUS router is a ok router but the 802.11ac standard is not yet finalized. This runs the risk it is not compatible with other equipment just like all the junk PRE-N stuff that was on the market. You will find there are routers but very very few nics. Even after the standard is set it will be a very long time before you see 802.11AC be the default device. I suspect it will be many years before we see a apple device with on in. What will end up happening is all these expensive routers will drop back into compatibility mode to support the 802.11n or worse 802.11g and you will get little advantage. We see this problem even with 802.11n these many years later supporting old 802.11g
If you like the asus the n66u is pretty much the same router without the AC radio

My 2 cents: I just bought a house about a month ago and wanted to do something similar to what you are suggesting, and currently am in the middle of doing all the crimping as this is my first big networking install(it is quite time consuming). I ran 16 cables to 4 different rooms, and as suggested above, have a good gigabit cable modem, leading to the router and then to several 8 port switches to serve all the lines.

Check *bay for items similar to this & make sure they are cat6 rated(I got 50 of them for a little over $1 ea.):
http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202813996?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051&N=5yc1vZc32z&R=202813996

Get a crimper & punchdown tool (if you don't already have them), I grabbed a cheapie and so far it's doing the job:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1NV0K68193

For the patch cables, either make sure you get the ones with the inserts to pre-judge the length of the wires or just buy them pre-made. I bought some off the egg that were listed as "cat 6" and they are really cat5e without the inserts (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812996022). Found the correct ones on *bay and they are MUCH easier to use, and result in far fewer wasted ends.

I actually just found this category that I missed when I was buying my stuff, it will give you a good idea of what you can pick up as far as wallplates, jacks, etc.
http://www.newegg.com/Wired-Accessories/SubCategory/ID-293

The last thing I would suggest is that if you are not familiar with crimping the ends or punching down the jacks (like I wasn't when I started) is watch a few videos online of people making them to get the jist of it. Will save you alot of time/trouble, and help you understand what you need to prioritize in order to get a good end with minimal wire exposure for best signal/speed.

Hope that helped. ^^

For what it's worth, which isn't much, but your first few sentences pretty much write off WiFi, so don't bother with AC routers... Very few WiFi devices use 5ghz band Wireless N let alone the draft standard AC. (The Wireless AC standard has NOT been finalized and is subject to change...).

Not knowing much about your setup other than what you stated. I would...

#1. Go with a good quality DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem. I have the Zoom Telephonics 5341J and it has been spot on for me. MUCH better performance than the rented Comcast piece of junk.
#2. Use a good quality router. I am personally drooling over the Buffalo AirStation High Power N600 WZR-600DHP. All the features I want. Plenty of fine tuning options, USB drive port, and 4 gigabit ports.
#3. At LEAST a 16 port gigabit switch. Minimum of 24 ports if you are going to wire in IP cameras as part of your security system. For example, in my application, The living room, the front BR, and the master BR each have 3 ethernet ports... 1 for a SmartTV, 1 for a game console, and 1 for a PC. So if you have these common items and want to take advantage of the internet, and can't do much wirelessly due to construction... well you see where port count is important... I can highly recommend the TrendNET TEG-S16Dg and TEG-S24Dg switches. I own both (I have a MUCH more complex network than I have time to describe here...). They are reasonably priced, energy efficient, silent, and do exactly what a gigabit ethernet switch should do... Both operate at non blocking line speed (so 32GB/s for the 16 port, 48GB/s for the 24 port....). This means that each port can talk 1GB each direction all at the same time...

Make sure when your ethernet cable is run that all cable is Category 6, with category 6 keystones, category 6 patch panels, and category 6 patch cables.

There is no actual signal loss. The main concern would be if the end devices could together exceed the speed of the up link going back to the main switch. If for example you used 10/100 switches you would only have 100m total for the 3 devices to share. If you used gig switches then you would share a 1g uplink. Highly unlikely you will have any issue with even 100m port.

Yeah that will work, but you will pay a performance penalty for it. Not that huge of a deal with a small network, but it CAN be a big problem when you have say that 5 port switch uplinking and fully loaded. You will have 4 devices, all trying to talk through a single gigabit cable to the main switch. This can cause congestion. If the devices are to be used concurrently, and talk over the network I wouldn't do it... I like to let my router handle the traffic mangling... The typical 4 port switch on a router is bottleneck enough... The good thing is that all four ports trying to pull from the one gig WAN port can at max if evenly distributed pull 250mb/s, which is still faster than the overwhelming majority of people's internet service. I have freakishly fast service on the 50/10 tier and can't come even close to taxing it. I keep my cable pulls centralized for a couple of good reasons...

#1. Reduced power consumption. Only one switch to power instead of 5.
#2. Easier to manage network connections. Only one switch to potentially fail instead of 5.
#3. Not to be understated, but looks. Most switches rarely match interior decor. Take up space in an entertainment console etc... It is FAR easier to hide say the cables for your smart TV, and game consoles than those AND the switch. (not to mention the added switch can be just one more thing in an already crowded power strip).
#4. Running the pull string to get that first cable run to a wall outlet is the hard part, pulling 1, 2, or 3 more cables to that same outlet box / bracket is just a matter of reusing the pull string X number of times until you are done, and terminating X number more cables...
#5. A cleanly run, centralized ethernet network, coaxial network, and telephone network along with other home automation and security networks, is known as "Structured Wiring" and can actually improve the resale value of a thusly retrofitted home. Most new homes are being built with structured wiring in place. I have friends, and family in real estate, and they actually recommend folks trying to sell older homes have at least a minimal structured wiring installation done to make the home more marketable, stand out from the crowd.

The big disadvantage I can see to going all centralized is the the increase in cost for the added cat 6 cable, keystones, and a patch panel.

By the way, if you have time to do this and are looking for some decent budget pieces, such as the cable, keystones, patch panels etc... message me. I have been through this project recently and can recommend some good value items that really are working splendidly for me.

Mind you, I am not trying to talk you out of a multi switch approach. Just pointing out the advantages / disadvantages of each approach...