home vid, game network

[slowboy]

hi all.really hoping someone can help me out. ive just built a house and had the forethought of laying cat6 cable to every room from a nook under the stairs. i have always wanted to have a system where i could access a main library of films or music vids from anywhere in the house.so if someone could let me know where to look or tell me what i need. for ex. a keyboard linked in each room. how do i do that?. as you can tell i am a newbie at all this but would love to complete it now i have the wiring sorted.hoping someone can assist.thanks in advance.noel.oh and possibly gaming off pc for the kids etc.

 

[vibe]

few ways of doing this,

1st off where do you want the movies etc to be saved? do you want a server with lots of hard drive space and just have everyone read off of that? or do you just want to share all the files on each PC?


LAN gaming is easy these day, all you need is a reasonable quality router, personaly I recomend the D-link 655 but youll find more details on routers all over the place. You will need to config firewalls so PCs can talk to each other. Thats all their is to it really.

router will dish out IP address to your PCs (DHCP this is called)

you can then setup shares on the drives/folders you want everyone to use.

You may want to look at running a home server, I have one stashed under my stairs with 4TB of storgae that my other PCs share, the are many other things you can do with a server like control user accounts.

 

[slowboy]

hi vibe thanks for the reply. i imagined one main server/store which i could then access from each room. i didnt realise i would need a pc in each room though. had visions of accessing using a lcd screen and keyboard arrangement, though how would i link both these through one cat6 cable?. oh dear maybe back to the drawing board. yes i hope to stash mine under the stairs also, this is where my cat6 patch panel is. would just love to sit in a room and call a movie onto a large screen. 4tb wow.

 

[vibe]

Oh I see, your after a network KVM then.

they do exist, basicaly KB mouse and moniter plug in to an adapter, this goes on to your cat6, then into a KVM switch, then into the "server" PC.

I have only seen them used for business setups for access to server rooms without having to go into the serverroom. Kind of like using remote desktop only without the need for software and not having to wait for windows to boot.

Normaly, they are for 1 keybord mouse and screen with multiple cumpters, you talking about the other way round but I'm sure you can do it.

my concern would be with the video quality, only seen this done for basic GUI stuff nothing for games of HD video.

How many rooms do you want to have a screen in?

 

[vibe]

Oh congrats on building a house BTW

 

[slowboy]

hi vibe. not completely tied down to number of rooms. the "games" room being the essential. it has 3 seperate cat6 cables going in+1 coax. all other rooms have 1 cat6 and one coax. the prob is the coax has been bundled from each room to the attic for sky etc so not sure i can incorporate it into my network dream. my electrician seemed to think cat6 was sufficient.maybe not though?.what you were saying sounded perfect if i can look into it. must try to do it well. dont intend to move. thanks again vibe for your time.

 

[vibe]

Do a google search for "KVM over IP" you'll find the kind of hardware you are after but its not cheap kit - £300 for basic switch and you probably need something a bit better for what your talking about.

 

[slowboy]

cheers vibe. will do. thanks for the direction.