I’ve had network cable run to various rooms in the house, all ending up in my office but I’ve not setup the actual network yet. I’m looking into what hardware to get for a switch and patch panel.

I already had the ASUS XT8 mesh (with 1 node), so I’m just keeping it and having a hard wired backhaul for the node.

I can just plug the XT8 node into the switch and it’ll work with the main router?I think I need panel/switch with 17 ports. I have 4 cables that aren’t likley to be used for years, I ran 2 cables to loft and 2 to garage, just in case while the floors were up. I don’t need to terminate them now.

I looked at the UI stuff but its more money than I’d like to spend right now. Any other alternatives? Just looking at an unmanaged switch.

I’ve got a thin bookshelf from ikea for my data area, so I’m looking for switch/panel I can just have sat on a shelf rather than mounting in a rack.

Silly question, does the patch panel need to be powered? I’m guessing the switch does?

The network cables are thick tough ones, hence the patch panel. Terminate into a keystone rather than punch down panel? I’ve not done this before, electrician will terminate and test all the sockets in each room to make sure there is signal. Not much I can do if theres an issue as the walls/flooring are all back in place now.

I’m guessing there is a basic firewall on the XT8. Is it worth trying to get some piece of hardware to help firewall wise?

I was going to avoid a rack, as trying to keep it simple and cheap for now. I could always change it later. I dont have cameras that require poe for example.

Thanks

https://preview.redd.it/lu8sqy9yzp1c1.png?width=1986&format=png&auto=webp&s=5aeccff1fde56e6f05f2c242bc8a3a24447aaacf

  • thedude42@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’ve got a thin bookshelf from ikea for my data area, so I’m looking for switch/panel I can just have sat on a shelf rather than mounting in a rack

    My thoughts on this are, why use a patch panel at all at this point? Are you actually wiring the cable runs to a punch-down at the patch panel, or is there going to be a bunch of keystone jacks in the “data area” (which would basically make the wall a patch-panel of sorts)?

    • dadsomerset@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      At the moment the cables are coming into the room and not connected to anything. They are quite thick heavy rigid cables. I’ve read it’s better to have a patch panel with softer cables going to the switch, rather than stick rj45 on the end of the cables running through the house and connecting those straight into the switch