Netgear Gigabit Switch
In part two of this article I am going to be talking about each piece of networking equipment and how it interacts with the network and its importance.
The basic goal for any network is to create a reliable, fast and easy to maintain infrastructure. Our network had the following criteria:
All Television, Telephone, and Internet is to be powered by Time Warner Cable (TW).
- Telephone via TW VOIP, Using the 66 block all house phone jacks work.
- Television via TW Digital Cable, our house has two High Definition, and two Standard Definition TV’s.
- Internet via TW High Speed Internet, by setting up a simple network we can share this with our 6 computers and have network enabled backups.
In the last article we talked about our goals for the network and outlined the network map. Below we talk about each device and what it does.
Cable Modem
- A cable modem is a type of modem that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a cable television (CATV) infrastructure. Cable modems are primarily used to deliver broadband Internet access in the form of cable Internet, taking advantage of the high bandwidthof a cable television network. They are commonly deployed in Australia,Europe, and North and South America. In the USA alone there were 22.5 million cable modem users during the first quarter of 2005, up from 17.4 million in the first quarter of 2004.
Voice Over IP / ATA
- An analog telephony adapter, or analog telephone adapter, (ATA) is a device used to connect one or more standard analog telephones to a digital and/or non-standard telephone system such as a Voice over IP based network.
Patch Panel
- Patch panels offer the convenience of allowing technicians to quickly change the path of select signals, without the expense of dedicatedswitching equipment.
Network Switch
- A network switch is a computer networking device that connectsnetwork segments.
- The term commonly refers to a Network bridge that processes and routes data at the Data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model. Switches that additionally process data at the Network layer (layer 3 and above) are often referred to as Layer 3 switches orMultilayer switches.
- The term network switch does not generally encompass unintelligent or passive network devices such as hubs andrepeaters.
- The first Ethernet switch was introduced by Kalpana in 1990.
WiFi Router
- Wi-Fi (pronounced /?wa?fa?/) is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance for certified products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. This certification warrants interoperability between different wireless devices.
- Wi-Fi is supported by most personal computer operating systems, many game consoles, laptops, smartphones,printers, and other peripherals.
Apple Airport Express
- AirPort and AirPort Extreme are local area wireless networkingproducts from Apple Inc. based on the IEEE 802.11 standard (also known as Wi-Fi).
- AirPort and AirPort Extreme in common usage can refer to theprotocol (802.11b, and 802.11g and 802.11 Draft-N, respectively), the expansion card or the base station.
Now that we know what each device does I will explain how each one is connected to each-other.
Starting with the feed coming into the house, we have a single RG6 drop from the utility pole and from there it goes into the garage utility room where it is then split off into its appropriate places. It first goes into a 3 way -5.5db splitter where it goes to the Cable Modem, Telephone ATA, and Television Amplifier.
Television Splitters and Amplifier.
Television
The signal coming into the 3 way splitter is low to begin with and is causing some of our HD channels to come in pixelated at times, so the only way to combat that was to install a Multimedia Drop Amplifier that has a +20db output signal. After the amp I have a 8 way splitter with 5 rooms connected, leaving 3 ports free, on those 3 I put terminators on to prevent signal loss and interference. With the new amp and splitter installed, the televisions are all now working much better and very rarely do they go blocky.
Phone
66 Block
Since we are using VOIP for our phone service I wanted to have the phone signal going though to all the wall jacks just like a normal POTS (Plan Old Telephone Service) does I decided it was best to use a 66 block and by using the new wiring I installed previously I was able to connect every room that has a phone to the VOIP service. This also allows for us to easily upgrade and add additional lines of phone and or digital extensions if we decide to install a PBX phone system.
Ethernet
Patch Panel
I connected the Cable Modem to the Patch Panel where it then goes up into the office and is connected to our Belkin WiFi Router, I setup the WiFi with a secure WEP password and MAC address authentication. I then connected one of the LAN ports to the second ethernet wall jack returning to the Patch Panel, this is where I have my 5 port Gigabit Switch located, from the Patch Panel I have one port as the uplink and then the four remaining ports plugged into the three remaining rooms and the fourth connected to my Ubuntu File Server (Future Article).
You may be wondering why I decided to place the Belkin Router up in the house? Well I did that because as with most consumer networking equipment, it will randomly lockup and need the occasional reboot and by having it in the house it saves a trip down to the garage.
In one of the bedrooms I then have a AirPort Express connected to the ethernet wall jack, this is used for printing and wireless music playing. One advantage of having two WiFi routers is the possibility of setting up a Guest Network, with this we can have it open and not secured, but we can isolate the WiFi network from the Physical Wired Network and Computers.
