How to connect 12 cat6 cables into a network

thegreendesigner

Distinguished
Nov 1, 2010
2
0
18,510
Hi,

I'm moving into a new house which needs rewiring so I was going to take the opportunity to network my home.

I want to run cat6 cable from 4 rooms upstairs and 4 rooms downstairs (one of the rooms will have 5 separate cables coming from it), using face plates on the room walls, into my garage (connected to the house) where I have my modem and NAS box.

The only bit I'm not sure of is how to connect all the cat6 cables (12 separate cables in total) to enable any devices such as laptop, sonos, xbox, etc. when connected to any of the face plates in any of the rooms to be able to connect to the internet and listen to music or watch movies stored on my NAS.

I'm guessing I need a router or switch but not sure which, can anyone how I complete the final step?

Thanks in advance,

Xander
 

Plumble

Distinguished
Oct 11, 2010
402
0
18,810
Took me ages to set up my gigabit home lan. I had to install the cables under carpets.

I'll agree with Emerald's set up. The equipment suggested are reliable brands. I My home LAN consists of 7 desktops, 2 servers and six WiFi devices (shared house, only five of us).

We have all wired client devices connecting to switches, the switches are connected to the router which also provides the WiFi.
 

thegreendesigner

Distinguished
Nov 1, 2010
2
0
18,510


Could I use one 16 port switch instead of two 8 port switches? Also, why do I need a router as well as the switch? I don't know the difference between the two.

Thanks in advance,

Xander
 

riser

Illustrious
The switch will connect all the cables together and allow communication on what will be your 'private local area network' (Private LAN).

The router connects your private LAN to the Internet (ISP). The router takes a single IP address it will obtain from the Internet (your ISP) and use that to allow all your devices to have internet access. Without a router, only one computer will get access to the internet. The rest would not without additional painful configuration.

The router is a worthwhile investment. $100 you can get a nice wireless router. Modem connects to the router. Each switch then would have a connection back to the router and/or to each switch. I would probably connect one switch the router and connect the two switches together.

Yes, you can use a 16 port switch as well. I would look towards what is more cost effective.

A benefit of having two switches is that you can have a switch on either side of the house. A single cable between the switches would connect them. From there, you would only need to run a cable from the switch to the room or device. then again, having a switch in the center of your house may also be beneficial.

It really comes down to planning this out and how you want the cabling to be run. Having two switches means you might only need to run one long cable, the rest can be short to that half of the house. Otherwise, all the cables might be long to run back to a switch.
 
JSYK cat6 is not standard so you need to make sure the equipment you buy will work with cat6 cables. If you buy cat5e cables you won't have any problems.


 
if he has 16 ports in his house all connected to the switch with all the ports used up what port will he use to connect the switches together? then he needs to connect the switch to the router?

He needs a 24 port switch not a 16 port.

8p Switch -> 8p switch -> Router -> modem ...> ISP where "->" is a required patch cable. Not sure if the modem he has is also a router so he needs to find out.

You're forgetting you need to link up the switches as well and usally the last port is the uplink port so there is only 7 ports on each 8port switch. on a 16 there's only 15. The last port is always the uplink port.

best option is to get a 24 port switch uplink to router uplink to modem. assuming router and modem are separate but again you need to find out.


 

Plumble

Distinguished
Oct 11, 2010
402
0
18,810


He has twelve cables to connect plus Router and modem.