Building a home network from the ground up

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elleana

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My current home network consists of 2 Airport Extreme base stations hooked up to each other which sorta kinda works fine, but isn't all that reliable when streaming HD video. I'm moving into a new place early next year, so I figured that this would be a good chance to set up a wired network (and to learn some basic networking along the way as well of course).

I got the contractor doing the renovation work to wire every room with cat 6 cable, except that I didn't really specify where I would like my patch panel so he placed it with the circuit breaker and switchboard. This is where my cable modem will be too, so looks like this will be where I will be siting my server + switch/router. I'm a bit vague about what exactly I want to do with things, but so far I figure it will be internet -> cable modem -> server -> switch (do I need a managed switch?) -> patch panel -> the rest of the house. I currently have a WHS box, but I'm thinking that might not be suitable as a general purpose server so will probably pick up something else. No idea what though.

One of the things I would like to experiment with is to have 2 separate networks - one for regular everyday use and the other for trying stuff out and testing with. Where would be the best place to 'split' this? Would I need a server with 2 (or 3?) ethernet cards, or is there some other way to do this? What would be the easiest platform to set something like this up? I've heard about things like untangle and what not - would love to give that a shot as well.

I guess my question to you guys is - what would you do, given a clean slate? Firewall, file sharing, traffic management, the works. Am already spending a fair bit on renovations and furniture and whatnot so please don't suggest something industrial strength, but suggestions on what I should get for a server and a switch would be good.
 
Place a proper rack in place, Place your server hardware into a rackmountable case. Connect as follows:

Modem->pfSense/untangle server->managed gigabit layer three switch->patch panel->network clients throughout house.
 
Shadowspawn said:
Place a proper rack in place, Place your server hardware into a rackmountable case. Connect as follows:

Modem->pfSense/untangle server->managed gigabit layer three switch->patch panel->network clients throughout house.
Click to expand...

Okay, so I've looked into some switches. Layer 3 switches cost a heck more than layer 2 / 2+. Any reason why I would need a Layer 3 switch over a layer 2 one?
 
You do not need a layer 3 switch for at home, a managed L2 is cool for home, but even that is unnecessary.
 
Wouldnt a layer 3 switch give him the ability to set up VLANs? This sort of satisfying his requirement for a "seperate network".

Just incase the OP doesn't know what a VLAN is. It is a way for saying certain ports on a switch are part of one distinct network and other ports on the switch are part of another. You can adjust this dynamically (allowing you to grow or shrink your test network at will, without changing the hardware).
 
Last edited:
Shadowspawn said:
Place a proper rack in place, Place your server hardware into a rackmountable case. Connect as follows:

Modem->pfSense/untangle server->managed gigabit layer three switch->patch panel->network clients throughout house.
Click to expand...

++1

With a layer 2 switch, you will be able to create vlans just fine. You are interested to assign machines to the vlan by port or by mac.

A layer 3 switch will forward the trafic by looking at the mac. Also, a l3 switch can act as a dhcp server, relay, it have a routing engine -> can use rip; osp; bgrp, etc.
 
IMO l3 switching is overkill for a home network - I'd go w/ something along the lines of:

Modem > Router/UTM > L2 Switch > Patch Panel > Host Devices/servers

Plenty of options for a Router/UTM devices - Cisco 871 to pfSense to Untangle. Really depends on your needs and experience with networking.

I'd use an HP 1810g for the l2 switch, seems to be the best combo of price/features.
 
elleana said:
My current home network consists of 2 Airport Extreme base stations hooked up to each other which sorta kinda works fine, but isn't all that reliable when streaming HD video. I'm moving into a new place early next year, so I figured that this would be a good chance to set up a wired network (and to learn some basic networking along the way as well of course).

I got the contractor doing the renovation work to wire every room with cat 6 cable, except that I didn't really specify where I would like my patch panel so he placed it with the circuit breaker and switchboard. This is where my cable modem will be too, so looks like this will be where I will be siting my server + switch/router. I'm a bit vague about what exactly I want to do with things, but so far I figure it will be internet -> cable modem -> server -> switch (do I need a managed switch?) -> patch panel -> the rest of the house. I currently have a WHS box, but I'm thinking that might not be suitable as a general purpose server so will probably pick up something else. No idea what though.

One of the things I would like to experiment with is to have 2 separate networks - one for regular everyday use and the other for trying stuff out and testing with. Where would be the best place to 'split' this? Would I need a server with 2 (or 3?) ethernet cards, or is there some other way to do this? What would be the easiest platform to set something like this up? I've heard about things like untangle and what not - would love to give that a shot as well.

I guess my question to you guys is - what would you do, given a clean slate? Firewall, file sharing, traffic management, the works. Am already spending a fair bit on renovations and furniture and whatnot so please don't suggest something industrial strength, but suggestions on what I should get for a server and a switch would be good.
Click to expand...

My ideal state isn't too far away from my current state other than I don't have a patch panel and I'm stuck with using wireless when I should be using wired, this is mostly for HD streaming to my PS3.

It would look like this:
Internet -> Untangle ->
Gigabit Switch ( I bought an inexpensive unmanaged on, see here )
-> Wired Devices(PC's, PS3)
-> Server for hosting files and UPnP streaming
-> Wireless G\N Access -> Wireless Devices (Laptops, Handhelds, Wii, etc)

I just set up an Untangle box this week, it was suprisingly simple with the right hardware, see thread here.

Also, while streaming the highest possible resolution HD content, I rarely ever see more than 100Mb per sec.
 
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Just add a 3rd nic. Alternatively, depending on how pfSense/untangle handle virtual interfaces, you could set up a virtual interface and just trunk vlans down the line going to your inside switch.
 
Thanks for the response everyone. Am still somewhat confused on the differences between a layer 2 and a layer 3 switch - could anyone enlighten me please? The cost differential is, shall we say, substantial.

Also, if I'm just looking at 2 separate VLANS - would it make more sense (would it work, even!) to setup VMWare server on hardware with three NICs - one for the uplink, and two going to two different LANs, and setting up virtual machines accordingly? I have most of the gear for this already.
 
Layer 3 switches can route IP, hence the name layer 3.

Layer 2 switches can only forward at layer 2.

Just install 3 nics in your vmhost. One for the uplink, and two going to different lans.
 
The reason I suggested the layer 3 switch is because you asked what we would do in the same situation. That is my ideal situation. The layer 3 switch would allow you to create the VLANs on it instead of the pfSense/Untangle box. You could easily create ACLs which would limit the type of traffic flowing between the VLANs. Traffic flowing between VLANs would change at the core switch (the layer 3) and not be forced to hit the server and then back into the LAN.

Alternatively, you can use a layer 2 switch as your core as long as it supports VLANs. You would be forced to configure the VLANs at the server and any traffic that flows between the VLANs will cross the same wire twice as it hits the server and goes back into the LAN. This makes the server a bottleneck and could affect large file transfers, streaming video, etc.
 
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