New home build network/Wi-Fi infrastructure

[redhat]

My FIL is building a new house. Pole barn construction, metal roof and siding, 30x50 garage with metal siding on the walls and house 54x32. Basically two pole barns put together.

We wanted to make sure the place had excellent Wi-Fi coverage and a robust network backbone. During the rough-in electrical, he ran two runs of some very nice 23 AWG solid copper CAT6 to:

- all three bedrooms, where wall mounted TVs will be located
- Living Room TV
- Garage/Shop TV
- 2 outdoors access points, front and rear patio
- 2 indoor access points, Living Room ceiling and Hallway ceiling
- Garage/Shop Access Point
- 2 outdoor PoE cameras, front and rear patio

This week I spent some good time installing, terminating, connecting, and configuring the entire infrastructure. This location is being served by a 300 x 10 Mbps Spectrum connection over RG6 copper coax.

- All cable runs were terminated at a 24-port Cable Matters CAT6 patch panel as T568B
- All TV runs were terminated to RJ45 CAT6 keystone jacks as T568B with decorator 2-port plates
- All Access Point and camera runs were terminated to RJ45 CAT6 connectors as T568B
- Every cable run, except the cameras, were ran to a single gang outlet box.

The majority of the cable runs, especially the cameras and access points, at this time, will only utilize one run. I terminated both -- my thoughts, perhaps in the future we'll need LACP or some port aggregation for future bandwidth requirements. However, all of these runs should support 10Gig if needed. The TV areas however, my brain goes to "What if a gaming console, or Xbox/PS". So having two there is handy. Maybe an Apple TV/Streaming Box and a SmartTV? But that'd be redundant. Either way, they're there. Or maybe a spare run if something stupid happens. You never know.

On-to equipment. I am a HUGE fan of Aruba Instant On in home, prosumer, small/medium business arenas. I also love the stupid cheap, power efficient Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X. This was no exception.

- Modem is Spectrum provided. It has a 2.5Gig WAN port on it (which gave me a bee-yatch of a time trying to negotiate gigabit, kept negotiating only 100BaseT).
- Main router/firewall is a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X configured as a zone-based firewall.
-Four VLANs, management, Home, Camera, and Guest/DMZ.
- Switch is an Aruba Instant On 1830, 24-port switch with 12 of the ports able to supply 802.3at PoE.
-All bedroom drops are turned up with the Home VLAN as the default tag, any un-used port is disabled.
- Indoor and Garage/Shop access points are Aruba Instant On AP22 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6.
- Outdoor access points are Aruba Instant On AP17 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5.
- One Reolink RLN8-410 4K 8 channel NVR.
- Cameras are Reolink RLC-520A in black.

For the interior Access Point installation, I used the usual Aruba combination ceiling tile grid/screw mount and affixed them to blank single gang box wall plates. I have a 1/2" hole drilled to feed the CAT6 cable through. The wall plate is then fastened to the single gang box and the Access Point is connected to its mount.

For the outdoor Access Points, they are mounted in close proximity to the single gang box. I took some metal single gang outdoor weather proof covers and drilled a hole large for a weatherproof RJ45 bulkhead. This was fastened to the plate. The Aruba AP17 comes with a similar RJ45 bulkhead for it's CAT6 connection. Between the weatherproof cover and the AP is a cut-to-length section of direct burial/UV resistant/gel-filled 23AWG CAT6. Then both bulkheads are tightly fastened... and we now have a reliable weatherproof connection.

Camera base mounts are fastened to the eves. They also included some weather proof bulkheads which I fastened onto their cables once installed. However, the cable is pushed back up into the eves, so I am not concerned with any exposure or degradation/cable integrity.

All hardware is on a Vertiv Liebart UPS which should be able to keep the site up for well over 30-45 minutes. The house does have a Generac backup generator so I am truly only concerned with "weathering" the blip, that of which this should do no problem. All cables were thoroughly managed, tied up with velcro ties and secured. I keep looking at the patch panel and switch trying to figure out ways to make it even neater... But I gotta tell myself "It's good enough at some point".

I am very pleased and proud of this build... and happy to do it for my FIL. In my testing, everything performed well. Excellent 5GHz Wi-Fi coverage, indoor and outdoor. Perhaps slightly overkill, but I wanted the home to have excellent 5GHz coverage. Additionally, with metal siding on the interior of the Garage/Shop, and metal siding exterior, I did not want any sort "lets see how it works" and expect coverage from only indoor APs.

Enjoy some pics.

Network rack, patch panel, switch, router, modem and NVR

UPS

Cable management

Living Room AP

Living Room AP closeup

Hallway AP

Hallway AP closeup

Garage/Shop AP

Garage/Shop AP closeup

Front Patio AP

 

[redhat]

Front Patio AP closeup

Rear Patio AP

Rear Patio AP closeup

Front Patio Camera

Rear Camera

 

[VTECOverRated]

As an IT professional who does stuff like this for my company...this is some fantastic work. More people need to take into consideration networking when building a new home. My whole house (some 5 bedrooms ++) was (back in '08 when building was practically free compared to today) is cat5e networked AND coax (because at the time cable was still a big deal).

 

[redhat]

As an IT professional who does stuff like this for my company...this is some fantastic work. More people need to take into consideration networking when building a new home. My whole house (some 5 bedrooms ++) was (back in '08 when building was practically free compared to today) is cat5e networked AND coax (because at the time cable was still a big deal).

Thank you! And I agree, new homes absolutely need an infrastructure. I couldn't imagine how poorly it'd be trying to rely on a Spectrum connection put in after the fact with their Spectrum Pods.

 

[fsdork]

I wish the previous owner of my house had asked for two runs to each location. I won't bore you with a long-winded explanation, but let's just say the combination of router, DVR cable box, and secondary mesh network locations would have been far easier. Thank goodness for MoCA.

 

[autoapprentice]

This is so cool. I have my Xfinity modem/router and that's it. Super jealous. Great work!

 

[OVERKILL]

Great work! And good choice on equipment.

Those orange patch cords really stick out!

I typically colour code wiring per the type of run to make it easier to identify "at a glance". So, AP's could be purple for example, with normal connections black and the internet links red. You can of course simplify or expand that as much as you want. I find it's easier if I'm walking somebody through something over the phone (say they have to reboot an AP) I tell them to look for the purple cord going into port 26...etc.

Anyways, as I said, great work! I'm sure he's very impressed with it!

 

[redhat]

Great work! And good choice on equipment.

Those orange patch cords really stick out!

I typically colour code wiring per the type of run to make it easier to identify "at a glance". So, AP's could be purple for example, with normal connections black and the internet links red. You can of course simplify or expand that as much as you want. I find it's easier if I'm walking somebody through something over the phone (say they have to reboot an AP) I tell them to look for the purple cord going into port 26...etc.

Anyways, as I said, great work! I'm sure he's very impressed with it!

Thank you, I appreciate the compliments. Yes, he is very pleased. Blanketing the place in super quick, low latency 5GHz Wi-Fi makes everyone happier. Also, he's pleased that the Smart TVs are now much snappier than before when running them off of a Spectrum Wi-Fi modem.

I agree totally on color coding. In work environments I usually have a rubric located in each network closet with the color coding. A while back I acquired probably 300-400 of these Monoprice orange 1ft CAT6 patch cables for free. So for personal/family use, I can't help but use the free. But I totally agree other wise.

Some other tidbits that I did for this build, which you might be able to see in some pictures -- I labeled the patch panel, I did a [Room+DropNumber] labeling. So you might have MB01 for master bedroom 01 or OU05 for outdoor 05. Small situations in this, I will do that. If this was a huge office or building, I'd probably be inclined to do just numbers. Every cable is also labeled the same at connector ends, and wall plates with keystone jacks are labeled as well. Just to make it easy and quickly locate things if ever needed. Also, I took a blueprint of his and drew where each drop is located, created a chart with a patch panel number to drop name matrix, and then also documented the every living snots out of the whole site configuration - VLANs, firewall config, passwords, usernames, etc.

I told my FIL... I'll always work on this, but if something stupid happens, here is the total configuration that anyone should be able to understand.

I created QR codes to join to the normal home and guest Wi-Fi networks. They thought that was cool.

My only last issue I have to work out... which I think I know what I'm gonna do is -- the junk POS Spectrum modem keeps going down. I am really starting to hate their equipment. I have a buddy who works for Spectrum and he'll routinely tell me "their stuff is fine it works". I have the complete opposite experience. Plus, the modem has a hard time negotating Gigabit. I think I'm going to replace it with my own Arris SB8200. I have the same modem and it's a reliable unit!

 

[andrew_j]

Glad you went cable route. I did before Wi-Fi was decent with mesh in old home and have 16 drops across my home. Makes installing a mesh with Ethernet backhaul dead easy.

 

[redhat]

Today I am swapping out the Spectrum provided cable modem for a tried and true Arris SB8200. 2x daily service drops have been occuring meanwhile technicians have confirmed that the line signals are good.

Probably could get a new modem from Spectrum, but I'd rather run one of these.

 

[redhat]

Got the Arris SURFboard SB8200 modem swapped in yesterday. Called Spectrum and had it added to the account. Once it was provisioned by Spectrum it connected to their network and seemed to get an IP right away.

Looking at the indicator lights on the front, it appears as if it’s running in DOCSIS 3.0 mode instead of DOCSIS 3.1. I’m pretty sure mine at my house runs in 3.1. Could be my FIL neighborhood is on an older infrastructure.

So far so good. This modem makes the internet seem way snappier and overall less lethargic. The old modem (Spectrum ET2251) got the same speeds, but seemed to struggle to get there.

Only had one drop last night around 12:56am, however, I’ve had drops around that time and I wonder if that’s a Spectrum maintenance window. When the technician did connect this service, he said that they (maintenance department) would have to install a new tap at the pole as it was already maxed out and the signal we’d receive at this house would be lower than preferred until this was fixed. I called Spectrum today to verify that was completed and they confirmed that two new taps were put on the pole.

I am no expert on cable ISP infrastructure so I’m hoping they have done their due diligence and what have you to ensure my site here has the appropriate “power” to ensure good SNR for my modems channels. On a side note, I love to find some documentation or something to read up on to better understand the pieces of cable ISP from home/pole to “where ever it goes”. Like… is it really miles of coax to a central office? That blows my mind.

Anyways, it seems to be working well, I have wayyy more faith in this modem than the black box junk, and some indicator lights and it’s size looks way better to boot!

 

[Blueshound]

Very impressive.

 

[redhat]

Very impressive.

Thank you!

 

[Pew]

I'm a sucker for a rack, switches, and cables everywhere. I just like to stand back and look at them.

 

[brianl703]

meanwhile technicians have confirmed that the line signals are good

Now that cell carriers are using 700MHz, problems with intermittent ingress are becoming more common. Just because the signal "looks good" doesn't mean it's good when a cellphone using the 700MHz band is transmitting nearby. I see this on my cablemodem as a bunch of uncorrectable errors on some of the frequencies in that range. It has never caused the modem to drop, but that's probably only because those cellphones are in vehicles driving by and so the interference is of short duration.

 

[redhat]

I'm a sucker for a rack, switches, and cables everywhere. I just like to stand back and look at them.

I get mesmerized. It sure feels good watching it all blink and exist knowing it’s working well and serving your family well!

 

[redhat]

Had a Spectrum tech come out again today. Have been still been experiencing a couple drop outs per day. But the frequency has been getting less and less.

The tech did see their (old) modem and my (new) modem having a couple T3 timeouts every day. He checked other houses on the street and did not see any drops. Tested line at the tap, pole and at my modem and all signals and noise looked excellent he said.

His thoughts were that someone in my neighborhood may have some POS device connected to their coax that is inserting some noise onto the line. After hearing that, I’m thinking maybe someone has some janky MoCA adapters?

He installed a filter after the grounding block and told me to see how it goes. He was polite and did what we could. He suggested if it happens again, to call up and get it escalated. I also thought perhaps file an FCC complaint if this keeps up.

Overall the site runs well beyond these dumb drop outs. I just want the place to be perfect considering it’s all new. I could understand a dump out a week or month, but not two to three per day.

 

[brianl703]

The tech did see their (old) modem and my (new) modem having a couple T3 timeouts every day. He checked other houses on the street and did not see any drops. Tested line at the tap, pole and at my modem and all signals and noise looked excellent he said.

Look for this in your cablemodem signal page. Last two columns are corrected errors, and uncorrected errors.

A high number of corrected and uncorrected errors on frequencies in the 700MHz range is almost definitely ingress from cell phones. I have no idea how cable companies are finding the source of ingress for this and correcting it, since it's an intermittent problem. I suppose IF you have a cellphone on a carrier that uses 700MHz AND that cellphone is using 700MHz consistently, you could make a call and bring that cellphone near all of the cable connections and look for an increase in errors.

 

[redhat]

Look for this in your cablemodem signal page. Last two columns are corrected errors, and uncorrected errors.

A high number of corrected and uncorrected errors on frequencies in the 700MHz range is almost definitely ingress from cell phones. I have no idea how cable companies are finding the source of ingress for this and correcting it, since it's an intermittent problem. I suppose IF you have a cellphone on a carrier that uses 700MHz AND that cellphone is using 700MHz consistently, you could make a call and bring that cellphone near all of the cable connections and look for an increase in errors.

View attachment 177973

Thanks. I’m gonna check that. So far it has been good. No drops yet!

 

[meep]

Nothing keeps a switch flashing like POE security cameras. As another guy who’s labeled and terminated a few RJ45s, truly beautiful work. I didn’t do nearly as nice of a job in my home - got it up and running for the fam just enough and kept going. I ran UniFi APs and a small Cisco soho poe switch, which I’ve come to really appreciate.

I will say this - the free Endian UTM router/firewall software is fabulous if one wants to DIY it with a rack mount machine such as a 1U supermicro intel or atom-based server. I’ve had a hard time using anything else there.

again, wonderful job.

m!