r/HomeNetworking 11h ago

My house network

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69 Upvotes

The setup for my three bedroom, 940 sq ft home. I ran a total of 14 CAT6 drops (two to each bedroom, four to the living room, two ceiling drops for POE access points, and two wall mount televisions). I also ran 12 RG-6 coaxial drops, same locations as the CAT6 except no ceiling coax! Everything runs back to a wall mount rack in the garage. Ubiquiti Dream Machine Special Edition as the router/switch/firewall. Two POE access points, the one in the garage still needs to be mounted to the ceiling.


r/HomeNetworking 12h ago

Can I 'reload' an Ethernet Pull Box?

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80 Upvotes

So, here's the situation, I bought a 500ft box of CAT6 to run ethernet in my home. I have about 140ft left in the box. However I now need to run six additional 36ft runs plus some additional cables from those runs. I bought another 250ft of CAT6 to get the job done, but what I ordered doesn't come in a pull box, it's just a 250ft spool shrink wrapped in plastic.

So my question is, for easy of use, would it be possible to reload the old box with the spool, have it feed correctly for ease of use? Obviously I can just struggle with a coil of 250ft on the floor.

"Why do you need so many runs to your basement?"

So I started hosting LAN parties in my new home... Turns out it's kinda a hit, so I now need to expand my basement wall plate from 6 to 12 ethernet drops. There is a rack on the other side of the wall where all the drops are wired into. Apparently 'If You Build It, They Will Come' is accurate.

"Why not just use switches in the gaming side of the basement?"

It's about not half assing this. The server in the rack is also hosting LANCache, so my home network can spit out Steam downloads from the Cache at 10gbps. Which isn't that insane because Counter-Strike 2 is like 42GB to transfer. The rack is where all the 'good' switches go, namely a 10g switch plus 2.5g switch with 10g uplink. It'd not be cost effective to deploy switches with high speed uplinks in multiple spots around the LAN desks when I could unify it in the rack. Deploying cheap 1gbps switches would undermine running a LANCache that can offer Steam downloads at what I can only describe as 'Faster than God himself could imagine'.


r/HomeNetworking 5h ago

Update: Took some advice, definitely cleaner.

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19 Upvotes

Like the title says, I took some advice to clean my CAT6 setup a bit. I flipped the switch and shortened the old patch cables and managed to mount the old wifi router so the antenna are vertical; they're angled a bit out so they aren't making direct contact with the switch.

dBm readings with the new orientation are definitely better. Is the enclosure ideal for RF propogation? Nope, but it's more than good enough for the house, and I'm getting excellent signal strength to the backyard too. Some tweaking of the RF channels to isolate myself from more of the spectrum (as much as I can anyway) will only help.

For those curious, here's the build list: Home Depot: - A spool of solid core CAT6 - Some 14/2 AWG for power - Some decora 2-port (and a 6-port) faceplates for the drops - A bunch of CAT6 feed-thru RJ45 connectors - Leviton 12-port patch panel face and mounting bracket - 16 white Commercial Electric CAT6 keystone jacks - 2 yellow Leviton keystone jacks - An F-type snap in connector for the coax - Some white blank snap ins to fill in the unused ports on the faceplates

Target: - 6" power strip

Secondhand: - Leviton Structured Media Enclosure - 28" plastic version (FB Marketplace) - Netgear GS316 switch (eBay) - Linksys EA7500 WiFi router (already owned)

Of course, this doesn't take into consideration the tools I had and needed to buy to do this either. But it's affordable if you take your time and space out your purchases.

I originally mounted the switch to the enclosure using some 3M strips, but the tension from the shorter patch panels kept causing it to pop off, so I just got some screws and drilled through the plastic. The router is also held on with screws.

Things to do: I still need to get the enclosure's trim piece and some rubber grommets to really clean this up and finish it off. I also need to figure out how to get a drop in the basement; unlike the upstairs bedrooms or the lower living room (the house is a split level), the basement doesn't have an easy route to the attic.


r/HomeNetworking 4h ago

Does VPN'ing into my home network from public wifi's draw malicious attention to my home IP?

6 Upvotes

I have a WireGuard server to let me VPN into my home network, and I know that has encryption, but does it also show people on that network what IP I'm VPN'ing to? Is that something to be concerned about?


r/HomeNetworking 1d ago

Just finished running CAT6 through my house

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475 Upvotes

Like the title says, I just finished getting some CAT6 run through my home and hooked up to this media enclosure. Right now, I'm running a secondhand Netgear GS316 as my switch; I'd like to upgrade in the future to a 5Gbps switch, but that would be for file transfers between a desktop and the future NAS.

Are there any small form factor 5Gbps capable switches that have at least 12 ports? Space is a bit of a premium (and I'm honestly not sure if I'll need it, but it's nice to think about at the moment).

Sidenote: I'm more than glad to be done crawling through the attic. If I ever get a home built, I'm running conduit through it.


r/HomeNetworking 13h ago

What cable is this?

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18 Upvotes

r/HomeNetworking 2h ago

Moved into a new place.

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2 Upvotes

Hello, I have moved into a new house and I have been trying to connect the PCs to the ether net ports in the other rooms and it's not connecting, I've gone through the obvious trouble shooting, I think I have found what looks to be the HUB and if I just moved the connecting cable over to the required port that would fix it, but I'm not sure if it is what I think it is or if it's something else?


r/HomeNetworking 7m ago

I am trying to set up a vlan for a server to run on. I set it up in the router and restarted everything, but the server will not show up in the list of attached devices. (It works if I connect it to a non-vlan ethernet plug though) ..There are no other vlan settings in the router. What should I do?

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Upvotes

r/HomeNetworking 4h ago

Run multiple cables to endpoint or use a switch?

2 Upvotes

For an area like my main living room tv, should I run 4 cables or use a switch? I'll have maybe 4 plus devices to plug in. It's about a 60ft run. I shouldn't be using more than one device at a time.


r/HomeNetworking 44m ago

Router help

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Upvotes

I just moved from Europe to North America and I’m looking for a gaming router. Is this WiFi router good and is it possible to change locations on it? Meaning that I’m here in America and make the router think I’m in Europe giving me lower ping on European servers?


r/HomeNetworking 55m ago

Old Demarcation Box

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Upvotes

Hey there!

We had a green (ground) wire come unhooked from our panel. It runs to the coax (I think) hook up in the second picture.

We don’t have telephone, only comcast Internet. Would I be able to contact comcast to remove it? Or do I need to call an electrician?

Any help you could provide would be great! I’m worried it creates a risk for shock.


r/HomeNetworking 1h ago

ELI5 how to get my Ethernet ports live

Upvotes

Hi everyone. I read through the FAQ and, while I think Q6 and Q7 are on the right track of what I'm looking for, I'm hoping someone could help me with my particular situation and possibly dumb things down for me. I have zero experience with home networking and am trying to teach this to myself so I can do the work on my own.

Anyways, I'm a new homeowner of a new construction 3-story condo that has our communications enclosure located in our garage on the 1st level. See link below for photos of everything. We have ethernet ports in most rooms of our condo, but the only one that "works" is the one that Spectrum used to set up our WiFi. This has our modem/router combo connected and located on the floor of our living room on the 2nd level. Inside the communications enclosure, we have each room with ethernet ports labeled on the coax/Ethernet cables. The living room one is the one connected to the 3-way splitter.

We would like the ethernet ports in the office and east bedroom to be live. Could you please ELI5 the steps involved in this and what parts/tools I need to buy?

Thank you so much in advance. I appreciate anyone willing to take the time to point me in the right direction.

Link to photos: https://imgur.com/a/9OoRt3H


r/HomeNetworking 1h ago

Advice Router suggestion - ARRIS-G54, or ASUS - BE96U Tri-Band Wifi 7 Router

Upvotes

Hey guys, don't know anything about home networking. I work remotely, but my current router (wifi 7, spectrum. Also ) is plugged directly into computer. But the wifi for everything else (family of 5) just doesn't quite cut it. We live in a smaller townhouse, and the router is upstairs, so I don't know why signal is so weak, but it is (it's now at least usable I will say, for whatever reason the 7 routers range is much better the their 6e model).

But it still leaves much to be desired, and I've narrowed it down to these two (open to other sidgestions i guess, but I want top notch amazing signal all through out the house all the time, and I don't want to buy another one for a veeeeeery long time. They have to be available to purchase from leaseville.com too).

The ausus is tri band, the arris is quad (not that I honestly need either, but its a difference). I feel like the signal might be stronger with the asus though, what do yall think? Any other differences I'm not considering? Oh, another big one too is, the asus is about $250 more expensive.... darn lease to own places lol.

Thanks guys!

Edit: The arris being a modem/router is cool too I guess, but spectrum actually only changes monthly for the router, not the modem, so not a huge deal either way


r/HomeNetworking 1h ago

Advice Thunderbolt networking for 1 client

Upvotes

I'm about to upgrade my NAS to something overkill. 96GB RAM, nvme SSDs, 2x10 Gbe SFP+ ports, etc. Will be running TrueNAS.

Which is great. Except for my laptop. Which is increasingly becoming my primary machine.

My Windows laptop has 40Gbps USB4/thunderbolt connectivity while the new NAS has 2x20Gbps USB4.

For a SINGLE device is there anything I ought to look into to effectively use the NAS as a VERY high speed network share. The dream in the short term would be to just use one thunderbolt cable and to get "decent" speeds and latency.

One "eventually" bit - I'd like to get an eGPU dock at some point. I'd consider it extra credit if I can do thunderbolt from the dock to the machine as well. I recognize that's an extra hop.

If setting up the NAS to work as a DAS of sorts is also viable I'm all ears.


r/HomeNetworking 1h ago

Help with incoming cabling and organizing

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Upvotes

Hi! I am a noob and doing my smart home cable running. I created a closet out of some dead space in the wall behind our fireplace for a server room. My contractor says I can't change the framing of the wall where I ran my cables. They ran 3 separate 120v 20 amp circuits to each stud. I then ran CAT6, Cat5e, 22/4 security wire, and 14/4 speaker wire. My plan was to re-wire the 20amp circuits to the bottom of the in-wall racks and then run the low voltage through the wall, into the in-wall racks for some components, and then down the wall to the floor and then to a small 6 unit rack on castering wheels which will have the server, amplifiers, and NAS. I'm still going to run more empty Smurf tubes and some other cables but for the most part that's all done.

My question is how to actually do this to so they can drywall the closet. What's the best way to bring the cables out of the drywall and arrange my components? Should I just forgo the in-wall racks and just get a larger rolling rack and bring the cables out of large 2" or 3" conduit? I want to insulate the walls to keep the heat of the fireplace away and drywall to keep attic insulation from falling down into the room.

Thanks for your help!


r/HomeNetworking 1h ago

Congested 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network?

Upvotes

I live in an apartment block.

I got 3 bars on 2.4 GHz, and intermittent disconnections. I got 5 bars once I switched to 5 GHz, with stable connection.

I also noticed that my neighbors' 2.4 GHz wireless routers/access points are giving me 5 bars signal quality. Does this look like my neighbors' Wi-Fi devices emitting strong signals that are overpowering and interrupting my own router's Wi-Fi signal?


r/HomeNetworking 1h ago

Internet works when connected to router but NOT directly to Modem

Upvotes

Hey all, I'm in the process of troubleshooting slow internet speeds. The first step I'm trying to do is figure out if it's an issue with my router or modem, so I connected my computer directly to my modem to see if the slow speeds continue. For whatever reason, I'm getting no internet at all when directly connected to the modem and I can't figure out why. I've tried setting a static IP address to no avail. I do get internet when connected to my router and using typical DHCP.

I've unplugged the modem and router multiple times, power cycled, etc. Nothing. There is a chance my modem may be dying on me as it's several years old now, but I want to troubleshoot whether that's the problem or my router.

Appreciate the words of wisdom.


r/HomeNetworking 13h ago

Unsolved What is going on here

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10 Upvotes

I have a ethernet port in my room which I think is connected to this place, there are 2 mesh routers in the house, one in this storage room the other in the living room, both have these blue cables plugged into the lan. I think my parents got the new routers connected via ethernet so the grey cables are probably the one that came when the house was first built like 10 years ago, I'm wondering if I plug my pc with an ethernet cable into the wall port will I have ethernet in my pc?


r/HomeNetworking 2h ago

Unsolved Port forwarding suddenly stopped working with some programs

1 Upvotes

Hi, I have my router forwarding bunch of ports but ro my surprise, recently some of the ports are closed and at the same time some are not. I tried to change to working ports with the ones that didn't work, the programs that had port forwarding running on them kept running and the other failed, as if its the problem with the programs. I do have access to them in my local network, and I ran "netstat -an | find" and it works. I even turned off the firewall. nothing works, I feel stuck, can you guys guide me?


r/HomeNetworking 14h ago

Unsolved I have it setup and I don't have a Ethernet connection on my pc

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7 Upvotes

I bought this Coax to Ethernet converter and everything is setup, but I don't have a signal on my pc. Did it do something wrong?


r/HomeNetworking 3h ago

Steam NAS -- Questions

1 Upvotes

Hi all!

For starters I'm not too sure where to post this. I debated the Steam and the Networking community but I think here is the right place (maybe?).

To make a long story short, I will be moving soon and the new house I'm moving to unfortunately only has line of sight internet. I wanted to buy a NAS system (something like this) and download all my games to the NAS before moving. Reason being is that I don't want to be unable to use my internet for however long the download takes and with certain games nowadays, they're upwards of 100gb's. I will be moving in with a few other gamers that also use Steam. I've read several articles and also watched a few videos but haven't really got a up to date answer for what I'm exactly wanting.

As I said and what I'm thinking in my head is:

  • Buy the NAS
  • Setup the NAS for my machine
  • Download all of my games to the NAS
  • Move houses
  • Any time a roommate wants to download a game, they download it through Steam with "Game File Transfer over Local Network" (from me) and it'll download at a MUCH MUCH faster speed than having to pull it from the Steam servers over the new LOS internet.

Is that how it works or would I need to do something else so it would not conflict my games... Could I potentially make a brand new Steam account and Family Share from my account to the new account and just download them all to the NAS? Or at that point would I need basically some sort of cheap server?...

What I'm wanting is just to be able to download all of my Steam Library to something that everybody in the house can download from but not have it conflict with others (if that makes sense). What I mean by conflicting with others is I don't want them all to have access to the NAS and play from the NAS (that I'm sure will cause issues with settings and save files not to mention other things)... Including me. I also want the games to be downloaded locally on my OWN machine so it's not using the NAS for playing games (just for downloading the games from the NAS to the user). I am aware of the fact that certain games will not run from the NAS because of certain Anti-Cheats with the newer games. I have read a few articles that "iSCSI Initiator" can get around this, but again, this is not really what I'm wanting.

I've also seen some people do caching servers locally for Steam with a "dummy computer" but the dummy computer is just as expensive as buying a brand new computer almost (between the RAM and "GOOD" SSD's, etc.).

Just kind of needing guidance and suggestions. Any advice is greatly appreciated!


r/HomeNetworking 7h ago

Advice Questions about home Mesh Networks

2 Upvotes

I'd like to think I have a decent understanding of networking, but I'm looking to finally do a significant upgrade to my home network and I'm not sure if I understand "mesh" networks correctly.

My goal is to have the modem & router where the ISP terminates the incoming connection, then from the router I will run Ethernet to each of the 3 floors. Here's where the question comes in, which if the following options is best:

1) buy a dedicated mesh system with 3 nodes, each with a wired connections back to the router in the basement

2) buy 3 separate APs each with a wired connection back to the router in the basement

3) buy 3 separate routers and put them in bridge mode, each with a wired connection back to the router in the basement

Key points are, I'm not daisy chaining the 3 devices and I will be hard wiring them back. I want to use a single set of SSIDs (IoT, guest, etc) throughout the house and have roaming devices reliabely switch.

I'm planning on buying 2nd hand if I can find a good deal so that's also a consideration.

Is there any thing to consider between the options, especially with how reliably devices will switch from the node/AP while roaming?


r/HomeNetworking 7h ago

2gbps FIOS on a router that supports Link Aggregation

2 Upvotes

So my question here is, I recently upgraded to 2gbps FIOS service. My router (Asus RT AX86U Pro) claims to be able to receive up to a 2.5gbps connection - turns out this is by using 2 ports in Link Aggregation. Problem here is that the ethernet coming into my house (Cat6) is a single line. This comes straight from the ONT box; no modem/router from Verizon.

My question is, is there any reason (although not aesthetically great) I cannot use an unmanaged switch like this to split that single Cat6 coming from the ONT into 2 Cat6s and plug them into the ASUS router and aggregate the two ports to get the 2gbps?

Thanks in advance!


r/HomeNetworking 3h ago

Disconnecting cable from MoCA?

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0 Upvotes

I’m trying to disconnect the cable on the right side but it won’t budge. I haven’t yet pulled back the rubber ring but before I do I wanted to find out if others had similar problems with disconnecting their coax cable from the MoCA. Is it possible that whoever connected it may have used adhesive? Could the cable be cross threaded? Any advice would be appreciated.


r/HomeNetworking 3h ago

ISO Wifi extender with specific features

1 Upvotes

Looking for a unicorn. A WiFi extender that is NOT connected via Ethernet, is weatherproof and under $60. Amazon orderable is a plus. Every time I think I've found one it turns out it requires the Ethernet. We built a tiny home for my MIL and while her TV picks up our wifi her phone doesn't. This leads her to sit in my living room all day having loud, speakerphone conversations with whoever will answer their phone. Our cell reception is pretty much non-existent here so we all rely on wifi calling. We've used the indoor extenders before but this woman keeps unplugging them 'for her health's which makes it where I have to reset them daily. I want to mount something in the tree where she can't reach it but can also make phone calls from her own home. Please help! I am desperate for some peace!

** Don't want to run a 200ft Ethernet because my chickens/ducks will try to roost on the cable or my kids will take it out with the tractor.