An uneducated question re Apple Airport Extreme and home network

mike79

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I am moving into a new house and have a few days to get cabling into the house before the painters arrive. I have set up wi-fi networks in a house before, but have always found weak signals to be a frustration, which is why I want to have ports available in the new house.

The main idea for this has come from a plan to run 3 x Cat 6 cables into the lounge for video streaming for PS3, Apple TV and a spare up to the TV. I then thought of adding a 4th cable in the lounge for additional "growth" hence the neet for a switch and then started thinking of the upstairs rooms. As usual I have gone from something simple to something far bigger!

Other than the study which will be the starting point, I plan to feed cables to lounge, kitchen and 4 bedrooms. I was thinking of running 4 cables to the lounge and 2 to each other room.

I will be with Virgin Media who provide 30Mb broadband via their Super Hub. I plan to run the Super Hub as a modem only, and connect this to the Airport Extreme. The Airport Extreme will therefore by my router.

I am thinking of running Cat 6 cable through the house. On the Airport Extreme there are 3 ethernet ports; I would plan to keep 2 free in the study, and use the 3rd to connect to an ethernet switch to feed the rest of the house. I would have a brush wall plate in the study, and terminate each of the other ends in the rooms with ethernet wall plates.

Any advice that I should keep in mind when doing this? Alternate suggestions (eg use of Airport Express in the upstairs to boost the signal rather than cable)?

Many thanks
Mike
 
Unless the signal is really weak and/or slow there isn't much point in throwing an airport express extension into the mix and your better off with ethernet links to devices in general.
 
thanks next010

I just got approval from the boss to go with ethernet links, so am off shopping!

My thought is to start with a 16 port switch, having 2 to each bedroom and 4 to lounge (12 ports used). This allows for additional growth such as 2 ports to kitchen and 2 to an additional room shoud we extend. Would it be worthwhile going for 24 ports to begin with? I think 16 may be enough for now...

I then need 300m CAT6 cable, 12 terminators for the study and wall plates for the rooms.

Any idea of places that offer packages for this stuff?
 
I could not find any CAT6 packages, so have bought 305m of CAT6, a pack of RJ45 connectors, crimpers, stripping/push down tool, a whole lot of trunking, some wall plates for each bedroom (2 ports) and a double plate for lounge (4 ports) along with the back boxes.

I'm almost there with the switch (Netgear 16 port gigabit) but will hold off to see how much of the cabling I can do now versus how much will wait for an extension, then get the switch that fits the near term needs.
 
Do let us know how you get on. There's a few members here who've posted up write-ups of their experiences doing DIY home cabling jobs.

Even for those of us "in the business" it's interesting to hear of the obsticles people enounter and how they overcome them. Sometimes novices will highlight things professionals take for granted, yet it could be an invaluable little nugget for another novice.
 

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