Advice for whole house network (new construction)

[smedhavi]

Even if you are not interested in Video, Gigiabit ports are still required for tasks like transferring data to a NAS.

As @haisaikat suggested, I too have 3 WiFi access points connected to each other with cables. DHCP is switched off in 2 of them. So there is only one router which is connected to the load balancer that automatically switches between the multiple internet connections. That way there is only one LAN, so UPNP and other sharing protocols work well, while everyone still able to use the right internet connections without switching the LAN.

Regards,
Sharad Medhavi

 

[arunkvivek]

@arunkvivek, what do you mean by a separate ground line?

I was referring to the earth. usually, all the network are connected to a single earth line which is drawn for earthing. Operating Mixie, Washing machine would cause problems to AV.
If you can have a separate power network drawn from main for the room and have a separate earthline taken down, it should isolate it from other electrical interference. Power conditioners do solve the same problem but doing it as a separate power network would be better.

 

[sam9s]

@sam9s @sandeepmohan, with my strong bias toward stereo, would I really need Gigabit at this moment? Maybe a later upgrade? I don’t have 4K and may not get it in near future at least. Also there will never be more than two video streamings at a time.
.

Always have room for buffer ... even if today you think you will not need, you never know what the need will be in future. Gigabit hardware is not expensive in comparison but the network you will have will be robust and with no stuttering ...... especially when there are multiple streams ..... trust me....get gigabit hardware and quality. You network is the backbone of your entire setup dont compromise on that ....

 

[raghupb]

For such area individual access point (WiFi) for each floor is best suited. Try going for lower cost routers so that you do not regret abusing them if required and can replace easily at end of life. And don't use repeaters unless absolutely required. Note that in multiple Access point design you will have a single WiFi signal, it will be transparent to user which access point is being connected

3,1,1 is standard cable for audio video and power for CCTV, get copper version

Smart Home and Garden Automatic WiFi Drip Irrigation Water Timer-Works with Smartphone and Alexa (White) https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07D68NMNG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_2laqCb3DMSHZA here you go. But look online, tons more available for smart garden

@haisaikat
Hasn't the CCTV and security systems market space moved on to Power-over-Ethernet?
3,1,1 is for older gen cameras and tech.
In 2017, I coordinated the installation of CCTV in our apartment complex. It's all PoE

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[haisaikat]

@haisaikat
Hasn't the CCTV and security systems market space moved on to Power-over-Ethernet?
3,1,1 is for older gen cameras and tech.
In 2017, I coordinated the installation of CCTV in our apartment complex. It's all PoE

Cheers,
Raghu

You are right, it makes more sense for commercial purposes. But for ones individual house where the networking is for audio video streaming / entertainment, unless the hardwares put are for 24/7 operations, I think it is better to decouple the 24/7 video streams from the regular home network backbone for regular operation. But again you have done the right thing by pointing out POE as an option, would be another consideration for OP. Note that POE based APs are way costlier than standard routers and APs

 

[cha_indian]

I would say that laying wires is old school! The future is wireless (Think about 5G) and probably the weak point of wireless is range. You can probably create a very strong backbone connecting the Top floor, Second Floor and Ground floor. This way all the devices on each floor have a strong backbone to the each other as well the ISP. Laying out wires for each and every switch box may not be needed.

I have a few other non-related suggestions

1. I would suggest you build a separate, secured, safe location for batteries/battery packs. I feel that maybe in the next 10 years, our main source of energy will be solar (and maybe wind). There will be no need to have a power grid line as we may be producing our our power and storing it in 'Powerwall' kind of devices. The battery packs need ventilation and need to be cool. The BMS systems are just electronics and they need to be kept out of water and moisture.

2. Try to create a location/space for solar hot water solution for the entire house. I feel we always neglect this and we retrofit it and with it we spoil the building. The water source for solar hot water system should be continuous i.e there should not be any need for a motor to pump water into solar heater.

3. In electrical part, create a strong and robust 'Earthing' for the entire house.

 

[Dr.Lakshay]

@Dr.Lakshay, what is a Broadlink bridge?

Google for broadlink rm mini and broadlink rm Pro. Also search for my smart home thread on the forum to see how it works.

 

[haisaikat]

Google for broadlink rm mini and broadlink rm Pro. Also search for my smart home thread on the forum to see how it works

An off topic question. Have you used the broadlink pro to control Philips Hue bulbs? I am evaluating getting one but wondering for products like broadlink mini is the compatibility database is as extensive as the Logitech Harmony

 

[deep_blues]

Wired always trumps wireless. Since you have the opportunity to do it from scratch go for it.
You will need a simple switch/router to do this.
You don't need to wire it up now. Just have pvc pipes in walls/ceiling for any later use.
Apart from regular electrical wiring, explore if you can have a separate 3/4 or 1 inch conduit running through the house for future use.
You can run CAT5/6 or speaker wire easily thru them when necessary.
With wired networking, cheap Wi-Fi repeaters can be tacked on for last leg connectivity and convenience.

I just discovered this recently. My new LG TV can access media files from my laptop/PC if on the same network.
Don't know about other content.

With the proliferation of Chromecast, firestick, etc there may be opportunities to buy multiple of these and make do for multiple rooms.
New AVRs are network enabled. So you can switch them on/off and operate them via app.
If your AVR has zone2/zone3 capability, then music can be provisioned in main/zone2/zone3 from a single AVR.
All you will need are speakers and wiring (see above)

Security systems are on PoE these days (Power over Ethernet) and they are going IoT way.
A single switch can connect up to 16/24 cameras or IoT devices (door video, alarms).
This switch can be used for AV/Home networking too. Talk to somebody local who handles home security + networking.
They can point you in the right direction.

Cheers,
Raghu

Wow, this is very informative Raghu, both for networking as well as security. Going to pretty much follow this. Do add anything you feel you may have missed out.

 

[Dr.Lakshay]

An off topic question. Have you used the broadlink pro to control Philips Hue bulbs? I am evaluating getting one but wondering for products like broadlink mini is the compatibility database is as extensive as the Logitech Harmony

I don't own Philips hue and neither do I own rmpro. I have the rm mini. And instead of Philips hue I got some chinese led color changing bulbs with ir remote. And they work great. Will update my thread when I get the time.

 

[deep_blues]

I don't own Philips hue and neither do I own rmpro. I have the rm mini. And instead of Philips hue I got some chinese led color changing bulbs with ir remote. And they work great. Will update my thread when I get the time.

If it helps, I have the broadlink mini too & have successfully connected it to my daikin split, sony tv, blu ray & set top box. The mini’s connected to the echo so automatically all voice controlled.
Have connected all the lights (incl couple Wipro bulbs) & fan to Alexa via some stuff bought off AliExpress.

 

[eriek_halenx]

@Naturelover , what option did you choose?

My suggestion is for laying a high quality ethernet backbone between floors, as suggested above by some...

 

[Enkay78]

I was also in the same boat with wired network.

Now I just use two Netgear devices : Nighthawk X6S and Nighthawk AX8. Covers my whole house which is G+4.

I use HDD as NAS connected to these devices. AX8 has 2 usb3, X6s has 1 usb3 + 1 usb 2.


And the AX8 is WiFi 6.....to future proof.


No mess for the wire mess.

0.2

 

[Naturelover]

@Naturelover , what option did you choose?

My suggestion is for laying a high quality ethernet backbone between floors, as suggested above by some...

Thanks. Which post are you referring to?
I am gong with wired ethernet and one ceiling mounted access point on each floor.
Still work in progress. The network cabling will be done shortly.

I was also in the same boat with wired network.

Now I just use two Netgear devices : Nighthawk X6S and Nighthawk AX8. Covers my whole house which is G+4.

I use HDD as NAS connected to these devices. AX8 has 2 usb3, X6s has 1 usb3 + 1 usb 2.

And the AX8 is WiFi 6.....to future proof.

Thanks.
Can you give exact location of the Netgear devices? Which floors? What's the floor areas of your house?

 

[Enkay78]

Thanks. Which post are you referring to?
I am gong with wired ethernet and one ceiling mounted access point on each floor.
Still work in progress. The network cabling will be done shortly.


Thanks.
Can you give exact location of the Netgear devices? Which floors? What's the floor areas of your house?

The AX8 is on the first floor. The X6s is on the 3rd floor.

The 2.4 GHz range is good and covers whole house, the 5ghz optimally covers two floor each. (In fact I can access my AX8 5ghz on third and fourth albeit little decrease in bar. Vice versa the X6s). I can access my NAS with AX8 from fourth floor and watch 4k movies.

 

[superczar]

I mucked around with various combinations of wired combined with cheap routers/access points for years.
Finally found my optimal solution with a Orbi RBK50 - Two units (with a wireless backhaul between them ) connect a G+1 house (3200 sqft) with 5ghz in almost every room
2.4 ghz coverage is available in balconies and back yard
The front yard is rather large so I added a wired TP-Link outdoor Access point to cover that as well.

Reason to recommend a mesh vs multiple wired Access points: Roaming experience is significantly better - With discrete access points, you will often need to toggle your device wifi as AP1 will continue to stick (albeit with a weaker link) when you move away from it and are close to AP2 or AP3

With the inside of the house covered by Orbi , I don't have this issue although I do face it when I step out into the garden (as the interior AP won't drop the connection/hand it over to the outdoor AP unless I switch my wifi off and on)

Having said that, I used in-wall wired CAT5e for nearly all my physically static devices

PS: Mine is a fairly complex network with 60+ devices in always on state- I haven't faced any slowdowns yet

 

[sam9s]

I am gong with wired ethernet and one ceiling mounted access point on each floor.
Still work in progress. The network cabling will be done shortly.

Which AP have you decided, if Ubiquity then make sure you configure it as mesh network via control point, so that moving between them is seamless

 

[Naturelover]

I mucked around with various combinations of wired combined with cheap routers/access points for years.
Finally found my optimal solution with a Orbi RBK50 - Two units (with a wireless backhaul between them ) connect a G+1 house (3200 sqft) with 5ghz in almost every room
2.4 ghz coverage is available in balconies and back yard
The front yard is rather large so I added a wired TP-Link outdoor Access point to cover that as well.

Reason to recommend a mesh vs multiple wired Access points: Roaming experience is significantly better - With discrete access points, you will often need to toggle your device wifi as AP1 will continue to stick (albeit with a weaker link) when you move away from it and are close to AP2 or AP3

With the inside of the house covered by Orbi , I don't have this issue although I do face it when I step out into the garden (as the interior AP won't drop the connection/hand it over to the outdoor AP unless I switch my wifi off and on)

Having said that, I used in-wall wired CAT5e for nearly all my physically static devices

PS: Mine is a fairly complex network with 60+ devices in always on state- I haven't faced any slowdowns yet

Thanks. Mine is a G+2 house. Floor area including stairs is around 900 sqft. What would you suggest (as detailed as you can)? There will be very few wireless devices. Each floor is planned to have a separate ceiling mounted AP. Can the need to toggle still arise?

Which AP have you decided, if Ubiquity then make sure you configure it as mesh network via control point, so that moving between them is seamless

Thanks Sam. Not yet decided on the AP. Which other brand APs be configured as mesh?

 

[superczar]

Thanks. Mine is a G+2 house. Floor area including stairs is around 900 sqft. What would you suggest (as detailed as you can)? There will be very few wireless devices. Each floor is planned to have a separate ceiling mounted AP. Can the need to toggle still arise?


Thanks Sam. Not yet decided on the AP. Which other brand APs be configured as mesh?

The need to toggle will probably still arise. The issue is that different devices have different RSSI (signal strength) thresholds before they start looking for an alternate connection.
What ends up happening due to this is that say your phone is connected to ground floor AP (AP1) and you walk upstairs.
As the signal strength from AP1 falls, your device as well as access points need to be aware that roaming options exist so that they can switch over to AP2
For this to happen, both the device and APs need to be 802.11r compliant
Most new devices are but many standalone APs aren’t.. AFAIK, velocity, orbi and some Ubiquiti APs support it but there could be more.

In the absence of this, your device will continue to stick to AP1 even at link speeds as low as 1mbps and suffer packet drops/bad pings before it looks for another network

I know someone who meticulously tweaked the location of three standalone APs as well as their transmit power to get around this issue but IMO, you are much better off getting 802.11r compliant APs/mesh
(The config menu will typically term as fast roaming)
As for your use case, 1 AP for each floor should be good enough
While I do like the Orbi, I suppose Velop/UBNT and others should also be equally good

 

[sud98]

In my house, I have primarily a mesh network, and added a wap for one tricky area where the mesh doesn't work with full network. However, I have kept the same name for the ap as the mesh, so devices automatically pick up the stronger of the two. Let me know if there is an issue with this.