Day 930: Some serious networking

A well kept secret .. I used to install computer networks professionally. Well not such a well kept secret now that I just told you. So of course now that I have my own house to tinker with, I'd need to install a proper network in it. The only surprise was that it took me so long.

The issue - and there is always one - is that houses, particularly Victorian houses were not built to house computer networks. Unlike commercial properties which have been built (or modified) with fancy things like cable conduits and network closets. Nope, the Victorians we all about normal mail, newspapers and carrier pigeons. Where I'm going with this is that installing a proper network in an old house was going to be a bit of work.

Wireless is great, but range/interference becomes an issue - especially when all your neighbours have wireless networks too. It makes for the annoying pause during the playback of the latest Grand Tour episode (and always at the exciting bits). It makes blogging difficult when the connection goes down and you lose all your work (hoping people will buy this lame excuse). The Victorians didn't have that problem I can assure you. 

The solution was to wire everything up with Ethernet cable and connect it all together into a switch. When doing this, there are a couple of options 1) just run a bunch of patch cables between computers like we did in Uni or 2) terminate everything into wall plates and a patch panel like the pro's do. Any guess what I went for? 

 So first the materials:

• Ethernet patch panel
• Power Over Ethernet Gigabit Switch
• Unshielded solid core Cat 6e cable x 100m - the solid core is needed for the patch panel (vs braided which is better for clips)
• Unshielded RG6 coax cable x 100m
• Flexible plastic conduit

My first activity was to build out the network panel to go under the stairs. It made for a perfect network closet - mostly because it was hidden away and there wasn't any young wizards sleeping there. I used an old piece of 18mm ply to mount everything. I think this was an off-cut from the bathroom floor. Still, it fit everything that I needed it to. In spite of being completely hidden from the view of visitors, I knew it was there and I had a couple of hours to spare. I decided to 1) fill in the notch that was cut out and 2) give it a good splattering of white wood primer. Both of these were of course completely unnecessary - unless you're writing a blog and want to show off 😁
BEFORE 

AFTER

And AFTER with everything mounted. Looks pretty professional I must admit.

And here's what it looks like under the stairs. I ran another outlet as well underneath to provide power to all the equipment. 

With the patch panel ready, it was time to start running cables. With the floor unfinished, this was a whole lot easier to fish everything through. Not knowing how long the cables needed to be, I first ran the coax cable and a string (you'll see why in a minute) along the length that I wanted to go. In this case it was from the network closet to the TV room to a junction box that I made just for this purpose.   

When I ran the cable/string the full length, I tied the string on both ends and pulled the coax cable back out. This gave me an exact'ish measurement on the cable length. I used this to cut the Cat6 cable to size (3 lengths as we're going to have a lot of tech in the TV room) and then I pushed them through the conduit (10m). This was easier than I expected. Just lay the conduit flat and push, push, push ... eventually the wires came out on the other end. It looked like I had a couple of black 10m long snakes wiggling around my garden for a while. 

And now for the purpose of the string. I fastened both sets of conduit/wires to one end of the string with electrical tape and just pulled everything through. And presto, one run of network cables complete. The ends were then pulled though the junction box on one end and run to the patch panel on the other. I haven't bothered to terminate and test them yet as I never seem to have time and have bigger priorities to go after. Anyway, finally I can start putting the finished floors down. Stay tuned.