If you have any way to pull cables between floors, try pulling DAC cables. They give you 10+G, require no splicing (hardware can be found cheap now), and generally just work as you'd expect. With a 10G backbone, you can get away with basement->main and main->upstairs in a three-floor house, with a small bridge on your main floor.
Why DAC cables over Cat6a or Cat7
They are the lowest power way to connect SFP. And they are cheap.
Though I'm not sure I would pull them as they tend to max out at around 6-7 meters. I use them to connect systems within the same rack/room.
> Only a single ethernet port in the basement. Then the kid wanted a gaming station and we moved where the TV was. I should have put like 4 down there. Just drop a switch down there.
I have, but now I have cable running along the base boards. That isn't optimal. Also I have 10G networking, so the ethernet switches are hot and expensive.
You don't need an expensive switch. Five port 2.5G + SFP+ with poe can be pretty affordable and shouldn't run very hot.
> Only a single ethernet port in the basement. Then the kid wanted a gaming station and we moved where the TV was. I should have put like 4 down there. Just drop a switch down there.
I have, but now I have cable running along the base boards. That isn't optimal. Also I have 10G networking, so the ethernet switches are hot and expensive.
I was thinking about this and it is very expensive. And do I need 10G really? I do not think so. I did calculated few things when I was thinking about 10G and most probably I will not saturate 1G for few years.
And with phones ans laptops mostly WiFi is used anyways.
So can I ask you what is the advantage for using 10G equipment in your case? Even something really dull like network card costs around 100€.
> A family member who's doing better in life than I am purchased a house built within the last 5 years, and it didn't even _have_ Ethernet run anywhere. WHY!?! I can't fathom how it's possible anyone would find that a negative. I'm less sure. Are there any 40 year old cables that you'd consider a positive in your house today? 20 year old cables? I wouldn't be too excited about having a house full of Coax, 10Base-T, a…
Yeah, conduit makes sense. The future in homes - from this current vantage point - is likely all wireless via multiple APs around the house that have short range but very high bandwidth. Only us power users will have wired ethernet.
Wireless will _never_ have the bandwidth nor wall-penetration people want. If it has the latter all the neighboring houses / apartment units will bleed through, and if it doesn't even the limited frequency domain won't be enough unless you're in the same room as an AP that doesn't penetrate walls... at which point everyone will want drops running to the rooms they stay in anyway.
Yeah, conduits with pull strings and super-gentle curves (to safely satisfy minimum bends) are ideal... but at least run the lines there!
Re: Copper / Fiber. Fiber's a PITA for all users, even powerusers probably don't want it outside of the rack / enclosed areas. Delicate cables / connections.
I have, but now I have cable running along the base boards. That isn't optimal. Also I have 10G networking, so the ethernet switches are hot and expensive.
I was thinking about this and it is very expensive. And do I need 10G really? I do not think so. I did calculated few things when I was thinking about 10G and most probably I will not saturate 1G for few years. And with phones ans laptops mostly WiFi is used anyways. So can I ask you what is the advantage for using 10G equipment in your case? Even something really dull like network card costs around 100€.
10G is awesome for (1) downloading steam games - many are +50GB these days, (2) downloading Ollama models, (3) downloading ISOs, (4) downloading app/OS updates and (5) I have a NAS also on the 10G network for media backups.
I have symmetric 3Gbps fibre to the home via Bell Canada and it reports 4.5Gbps via fast.com.
I have, but now I have cable running along the base boards. That isn't optimal. Also I have 10G networking, so the ethernet switches are hot and expensive.
You don't need an expensive switch. Five port 2.5G + SFP+ with poe can be pretty affordable and shouldn't run very hot.
That downgrades transfer speeds though to just 2.5G.
My business is fiber broadband, and we are laying as much as we can! Fortunately the legislative environment in the UK is conducive to this goal. For now we provide XGS PON (10Gbs minus overhead), with 50G PON becoming available in some locations later this year. Unlike regular point-to-point, it is point-to-multipoint through the use of optical splitters with one head-end port capable of servicing up to 256 clients. With the UK being so far behind most other developed countries, it means it can take advances in all of the R&D from the last twenty years. It has also led to the strange situation where there are some properties that have a choice between 4 or even more fibre network providers. Some fiber networks are tied to a single ISP whereas others are open to wholesale. I am not sure if there are any ISP's that support multiple connections to the same property via different fiber networks - but I think you would generally want to use a different ISP for each network anyway. IPv6 is supposed to make that easier, though in practice there are still no protocols (a la MEF 17 Service OAM) for the ONT to signal to the router that there is a fault condition. This is one circumstance where PPPoE is useful. As the UK has been slow to deploy fiber there are many ISPs still using it. I found this out the hard way when I made the switch. My trusty old Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite (Cavium silicon) is not capable of hardware offload for ipv6+pppoe+vlan at the same time, so anything particularly demanding on IPv6 (e.g. Steam) essentially locks up the router. I will be trying out an Alta Labs Route10 this week to see if it provides any improvement.
Originally thought this was excessive, but at least 4 per outlet/room. Saves buying a bunch of smaller switches. 1 for a switch (Although VLans can help) 1 for telephony if required 1 for media devices / peripherals 1 extra Optional fun use of HDMI over ethernet for more runs. Behind TVs, you can break it down, or just run a bunch of runs.
I routinely wish someone had designed a power outlet shaped switch that runs on POE. But some brands would run too hot for an enclosed space and a Netgear one would burn your fucking house down.
I've been pretty happy with Unifi's "In-Wall" AP (e.g. https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/wifi-wall/products/u6-iw): PoE powered, has four downstream RJ45 ports (one with PoE itself), and is a side-firing WiFi AP as well. Like the sibling comment said, they're made for hotel rooms, but I've never been in a hotel fancy enough to use them (possibly because the RJ45 sockets aren't particularly discoverable, being on the bottom). It doesn't live in a power outlet, but it's meant to be mounted at the same height. Worked great for my home office. (I'm not associated with Unifi, just happy with their gear)
If you have any way to pull cables between floors, try pulling DAC cables. They give you 10+G, require no splicing (hardware can be found cheap now), and generally just work as you'd expect. With a 10G backbone, you can get away with basement->main and main->upstairs in a three-floor house, with a small bridge on your main floor.
Why DAC cables over Cat6a or Cat7
10G Ethernet seems to be really hot, all my SPF+ connectors are hot, my TP-Link 10G switch is hot. It seems not be efficient anymore in that regards.
While my 10G fiber and 10G SPF+ DAC cables are perfectly cool.
I hope this is temporary but 10G Ethernet seems hot. I haven't seen anyone write on this topic yet but it is my findings.
minimum bend _radius_ A straight cable has an infinite radius, the more bend the smaller the radius
Though if it is on or under the surface of the earth, “straight” will be a bend radius of around 6,370km. We don’t make a lot of buildings that deal with this but transcontinental or transoceanic cables certainly do. If someone designed a fiber that required absolutely no bend in order to work you’d have to use it in buildings or dig much deeper holes. There was an encoding mechanism proposed about 10-15 years ago th…
If you’re using the planet as your “flat surface” then sure. If, however, you’re willing to deal with exiting the atmosphere at each end, you can use Real Straightness. But I don’t know anyone running a single segment for that distance.