Everything rides the network—but the infrastructure has to be there before anything can ride it.
Yeah, I know… corny. But it’s true.
This month, I’m planning to share two posts. This first one is just a short project update.
Lately, I’ve been running low-voltage CAT6 cabling throughout my home to consolidate my network setup into the basement and a closet, instead of having everything crammed into my spare bedroom. With the help of a friend, I’ve completed two runs that will link the basement—where I plan to relocate all the equipment—to the upstairs closet. Right now, the gear is still living on a shelf in the spare bedroom, taking up way too much space alongside my old server rack and a Dell R720 I still need to get rid of.
I installed a structured media cabinet in an upstairs closet and had an electrician run power to it. The cabinet will house my TP-Link SG108 8-port managed switch and my Netgear GS308EP managed PoE switch, which powers my cameras and two Unifi access points.
The closet currently has two homeruns running down to the basement, where all of the gear shown above will eventually be installed. These homeruns will connect the TP-Link switch in the media cabinet to my MikroTik core switch downstairs. I’ll be configuring the links as trunk ports to allow all traffic to pass through and be routed properly.
Down in the basement, I’ll have my NVR, Ring Station, and a mini PC that runs several containers in Portainer—including my AdGuard DNS server. The remaining six ports on the patch panel will connect to Ethernet drops in the bedrooms and living room.
An added bonus: it’s much cooler in the basement, which should help the equipment run more efficiently—and keep the spare bedroom from heating up like it used to now that all of the equipment’s been relocated.
I hope in the next few weeks I’ll have an updated post showing the final result.