In todays day in age almost everything we use is a small computer, and while devices are getting smallerand smaller every day they are also getting more complex and require all sorts of connections.

In this article i will talk about setting up a home network and centralizing the entire home telecommunications into one central location out of the way of normal life.

This article is based on my house and a few years ago I had spent 2 weeks completely rewiring all the telecommunications of the house and relocating it from outside the house to the utility room in our garage, this required installing over 1000 ft of Cat5e ethernet cable used for both Ethernet and Telephones and 500 ft of RG6 television cable. Each room received three Cat5e cables and two RG6 cables, this provided for 2 Ethernet, 2 Telephone and two Cable Television ports.

The reason I choose the utility closet to use for the telecommunications room was done after careful research and planning, the garage is on the lower level of the house and stays cool year round allowing the equipment to stay cool and not worry about overheating. The second reason for this was the ease of running wires to the attic, In this setup I have a 2.5“ bundle of wires running into the attic where it then is split to each room. Another advantage of having the networking equipment located out of the normal day to day area is the network becomes seamless and you don’t see networking cables and tv cables running all over the house, It gives the house a much nicer feel.

I will not be going much into the actual installation of the network, but more the hardware and the reason it is hooked up this particular way.

To start here is a breakdown of the network setup and the requirements:

• 2 Ethernet, 2 Telephone, 2 Cable TV ports / per room.
• Central location for Patch Panels, Splitters, Amplifiers, Switches, Modems, and File Servers.
• Provide Battery backup for VOIP Telephone (Voice Over IP) Service.
• Gigabit Wired & 802.11 b,g,n Wireless Networks.

The list of equipment currently installed (in order from Time Warner Cable -> Computers / Telephones):

1. 3 Way Splitter -5.5db
2. Port 1 Cable Modem, Port 2 Telephone VOIP ATA, and Port 3 +20db Multimedia Drop Amplifier
3. Amplifier to -> 8 Way Splitter to televisions
4. Telephone VOIP ATA -> Telephone 66 Block
5. Cable Modem -> Patch Panel
6. Patch Panel -> Belkin WiFi router (located in office)
7. Belkin Router -> Patch Panel
8. Patch Panel -> Netgear Prosafe Gigabit Switch
9. Switch -> Patch Panel (one switch port for each additional room)

In Part 2 I will talk about each component and its relationship to other components on the network, and why each one is important.