I hate cables. Seriously. There is a lot of trouble with them. Cables are constantly interconnecting, they are too short, can’t find them or do not have the proper cord.
From the beginning I was thinking that it would be possible to setup home without a network cable. But while I was planning where my equipment will be placed and where it will be plugged in, it turned out that network wiring will be needed. And I really needed a lot of cables.
I planned to carry out the wiring only where it is really needed, that is: for the security CCTV cameras, WiFi base stations, TV in the living room and in the kitchen, an IPTV box, that is used with the TV also requires a cable, to the heating system control nodes, the door and the garage door, and maybe a couple of wires just in case. I did not lay them near every power outlet, to the bedrooms, and so on. And I used 3 boxes of network cable, 305 meters each! 915 meters of LAN cable at all! And I already see that maybe I will be missing the cable in one place or another… So, in those places, it will be necessary to return to the original idea that everything is about to be wireless.
So, the cables are already laid and hidden in the walls, and now what remains is to fix the ends of the wires. There are 30 wires in the rack. To keep cables in rack sorted and in places I use patch panel. Ends of cables are securely and neatly attached to the board and fixed in place with a special tool for that purpose.
All the cables in places looks like this:
And the rack now looks neat and organized. Those 6 cables on the bottom of the rack will be used for not-networking equipment, so they are left lose.
Next, to the rack goes little, but very useful part – cable management tray. It is needed to organize and hide cables which are going from the patch panel to switch of router. Next down the cable management tray, goes switch and router. All network equipment is connected to UPS, for stable power supply.
And now all required connections are done, I hope that in the future I will not find that I can’t connect something where there is no LAN cable. Next for my smart home to go online I need to configure router and WiFi base stations. Stay tuned.
