planning my network cabling - keystone jack vs. singe jack + switch?

[high_revs]

since i'm planning on running cabling for my network to move stuff around, i'm now stuck deciding on the multi-port keystone jack vs. a single port and running a switch.

pros of something like a 4-port keystone jack:
- no switch to deal with by appliances (2 switches in my design below)
- clean, 1 less cable. one less power cord for switch
- less load on router since the 8-port switch would route internal network traffic, right?
cons:
- run more cabling (one for each port, right?)
- would need a 8-port switch somewhere by router since router only has 4 ports and i need more than that.

pros of single keystone jack and use switch by appliances:
- one single cable to/from router
- still clean
con:
- need switches where i would need multiple hardwired devices
- not sure if it'll add unnecessary load on router if i'm moving from say laptop 3 to nas having to route that traffic.
- another power supply to feed the switches + extra short cabling (minor, but just clutter)

how much speed is lost with sharing of a single cable carrying the traffic from a switch to the router? granted and in my diagram below, tv and bluray won't be used concurrently. but laptop3 might if i'm xferring files to it from nas, until i can figure out the whole media server thing since that laptop is what plays my media. (still sorting out dlna and media server so i can just play directly on tv connected to media server, instead of serving it up via hdmi from laptop)

the group of machines at the top would be sharing traffic in a single line to the router though since all 3 would be running stuff from the web.

i guess an alternative, i can install multi-port keystone jack in 2 rooms connected to 8-port switch that is connected to router. instead of one 4-port switch per room? that 8-port would connect to the router then like the ooma and printer. just more cabling though.

not sure what is better network design here.

[meaty-btz]

Depends on the quality of your switches and cables. In practice we route upwards of 60 ports across a single Gbix between IDFs and MDFs. Hell back in the days of 10/100 we would do the same with a 100MB lane and it worked well enough for corporate networking. The real choke points are the switches and their backplane bandwidth and throughput.

In a home system on a HOME WAN connection you should have no problems, that being your choke point regardless of your infrastructure on your LAN. However most homes can be run with a single MDF and drops run straight out to the rooms, this is more cost effective than your setup with quality components.

Also, get your bloody NAS off the IDF and on your MDF ( what you call router). It is best to have your SAN/NAS/SERVERS all at the core switch.

To be frank, in a home system both will work. I just think corporate even at home and try to run enterprise switching in the home as well. You would be shocked at the performance differences between consumer and enterprise switching.

[high_revs]

i didn't think about that (nas on mdf) since it's torrenting also. i did that since i was under teh mindset of not loading the router unnecessarily and let a switch do it for internal traffic for data transfers

the single mdf was where i was leaning at (8-port switch that goes to 2 keystone jacks connected to router). unsure of pricing of multi-port keystone jacks + more cabling vs. single port ones and using switches.

still have to find what "better" wallplates are in this thread on cat cables

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=471652&highlight=cat5

[meaty-btz]

having your NAS on a leg off the main switch to an IDF does not "offload" any traffic as your traffic routes are even longer and still pass through the core switch. All you are doing is adding a hop between TV/BLUE-RAY/LAPTOP3 and the NAS.

I suppose the real question is length of runs. How long is the run from the core switch to the IDFs at either end? If your core switch isn't up to the task for running the NAS off it, then it isnt up to the task with the NAS at one of the IDFs.

Also, retrofitting an old house for data runs is a PITA so if you already have the single data runs to the IDFs I would keep that model of operation.

If you are running new, dump the switched and go multiple drops per location all run off a quality core switch.

[MFortie]

i didn't think about that (nas on mdf) since it's torrenting also. i did that since i was under teh mindset of not loading the router unnecessarily and let a switch do it for internal traffic for data transfers

the single mdf was where i was leaning at (8-port switch that goes to 2 keystone jacks connected to router). unsure of pricing of multi-port keystone jacks + more cabling vs. single port ones and using switches.

still have to find what "better" wallplates are in this thread on cat cables

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...highlight=cat5

It's not the wall plates, it's the modular jack that you need to be concerned with. I'd stick with the major vendors, AMP, Ortronics, Leviton, etc. -- although CAT6 is CAT6 as far as certification goes.

I'd be more inclined to put a decent quality switch at the 'MDF' and run cabling to the rooms/face plates rather than buying three 'cheaper' switches. Use it as your 'core' switch let it handle the internal routing.

On a side note -- the terms 'MDF' and 'IDF' were being 'phased out' for 'MCC' (main cross-connect) and 'ICC' (intermediate cross-connect) when I got my RCDD way back when. Now my son, who is studying for his RCDD, tells me there's newer terminology that BICSI wants to incorporate (forget what they are at the moment...)

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

[meaty-btz]

It's not the wall plates, it's the modular jack that you need to be concerned with. I'd stick with the major vendors, AMP, Ortronics, Leviton, etc. -- although CAT6 is CAT6 as far as certification goes.

I'd be more inclined to put a decent quality switch at the 'MDF' and run cabling to the rooms/face plates rather than buying three 'cheaper' switches. Use it as your 'core' switch let it handle the internal routing.

On a side note -- the terms 'MDF' and 'IDF' were being 'phased out' for 'MCC' (main cross-connect) and 'ICC' (intermediate cross-connect) when I got my RCDD way back when. Now my son, who is studying for his RCDD, tells me there's newer terminology that BICSI wants to incorporate (forget what they are at the moment...)

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

LOL damn them and changing terminology.. just to make us old timers feel old or something! DAMN KIDS!

[sholling]

The single cable to a switch at each location as described in the diagram will work fine for what you appear to be trying to do. Unless you're doing a lot of large simultaneous transfers to a single location you won't see any performance difference from splitting the load between two cables. Only large PC to PC and server to PC transfers come close to maxing out a gigabit connection. How often are two or more laptops doing large simultaneous transfers? BTW I would plug the NAS directly into the router or central switch.

On the other hand if you're running cabling you may as well run several Cat5e or Cat6 cables to each location with all RJ45 jacks. You may still eventually need a switch (I have 5* - soon to be 6 networked devices in my family room A/V rack and 5 in my bedroom rack) but if you pull enough cables the first time you won't likely have to crawl under the house again redo it later.

[smird]

LOL damn them and changing terminology.. just to make us old timers feel old or something! DAMN KIDS!

Get off my token ring

[sholling]

Get off my token ring

I remember them days. And let's not forget the fun of thicknet and vampire taps.

[high_revs]

yeah.. i see your point since the most often transfer will be from nas to laptop3/lcd tv to serve up media to watch re: core switch vs. smaller ones. i'm kinda trying to treat my laptop2 as a media server but still not quite there yet. (old laptop, just torrenting right now). length of runs will be around 25' ft to one room (tv/bluray/laptop3), and another 35 ft' to another (laptop1/nas/cable modem). i'm moving the router to a central place. i'll put my core switch (only 1 switch in this design) next to router to handle internal traffic. i need more ports anyway from my 4-port asus rt-56u, then using a star pattern from switch, max leghth will be 35'-40' (extra just in case of crimping challenges.

no cabling existing right now as i'm using a bridged repeater for wifi. so this will all fresh cabling.

having your NAS on a leg off the main switch to an IDF does not "offload" any traffic as your traffic routes are even longer and still pass through the core switch. All you are doing is adding a hop between TV/BLUE-RAY/LAPTOP3 and the NAS.

I suppose the real question is length of runs. How long is the run from the core switch to the IDFs at either end? If your core switch isn't up to the task for running the NAS off it, then it isnt up to the task with the NAS at one of the IDFs.

Also, retrofitting an old house for data runs is a PITA so if you already have the single data runs to the IDFs I would keep that model of operation.

If you are running new, dump the switched and go multiple drops per location all run off a quality core switch.

kewl. i've not gotten to this part yet as i'm figuring out my layout. i might as well cable for the future - cat6.

It's not the wall plates, it's the modular jack that you need to be concerned with. I'd stick with the major vendors, AMP, Ortronics, Leviton, etc. -- although CAT6 is CAT6 as far as certification goes.

I'd be more inclined to put a decent quality switch at the 'MDF' and run cabling to the rooms/face plates rather than buying three 'cheaper' switches. Use it as your 'core' switch let it handle the internal routing.

man sholling... i kill my network moving a 7gb file from nas to laptop 3 above. nothing else works in the network but i am using a bridged repeater though when data is moving from the nas (connected to a 8-port switch) to laptop 3. so basically, the route is nas -> switch -> main router -> bridged repeater -> laptop 3. chokes the network.

race season is done. so transfers won't happen often until next year, either just copying the file from nas to laptop 3 to play to tv via hdmi, or until i get the media server and jsut stream off the network. the latter, i'd prefer to do over hardwire of course. i'm hoping this will be a 1-time thing.

The single cable to a switch at each location as described in the diagram will work fine for what you appear to be trying to do. Unless you're doing a lot of large simultaneous transfers to a single location you won't see any performance difference from splitting the load between two cables. Only large PC to PC and server to PC transfers come close to maxing out a gigabit connection. How often are two or more laptops doing large simultaneous transfers? BTW I would plug the NAS directly into the router or central switch.

On the other hand if you're running cabling you may as well run several Cat5e or Cat6 cables to each location with all RJ45 jacks. You may still eventually need a switch (I have 5* - soon to be 6 networked devices in my family room A/V rack and 5 in my bedroom rack) but if you pull enough cables the first time you won't likely have to crawl under the house again redo it later.

based on feedback, i guess this is my new layout? the grouped appliances to the cable modem is 1 room, then the laptop3/tv/bluray in another room. all 4 ports on rt-56u are used up by ooma, printer, switch and nas.

[high_revs]

one question for the gurus here.. upon installing keystone jacks, did y'all use work bracket like this? i figure you installed the keystone jacks next to a stud, rigth? and not just thru the dry wall? plugging in and out.. i don't think the drywall is sturdy enough.

[MFortie]

one question for the gurus here.. upon installing keystone jacks, did y'all use work bracket like this? i figure you installed the keystone jacks next to a stud, rigth? and not just thru the dry wall? plugging in and out.. i don't think the drywall is sturdy enough.

Those work fine.

You're not planning on playing tug-o-war with the patch cord are you? Don't think you'll have any problems with the drywall not being strong enough...

[high_revs]

nah.. not tug of war. if any, i'll probably never unplug it unless i have to move something. was just wondering what y'all do for best practices, like if i have to mount unto a stud.

[meaty-btz]

A properly mounted box of the type designed for free-floating drywall mount will be fine.

Also, did you upgrade your router? Your switch? Or are you still operating on some cheap slow garbage?

[hcbr]

High_revs, if i were you, i'd relocate the switch where the router is, that way then you can interconnect the RT-56 and the switch and have more ports available for your ooma/wired printer/nas/cable modem. Then all your cables are also centralized and going into one room or one area. anything beyond the cable's distance limitation, you're going to have to put another switch there.