Home Networking Projects

I’m just about to revamp our networking setup to add a second 24 port Cat6 patch panel - I need extra connections for our soon to be installed solar PV system (inverter and Tesla Powerwall), I’m going to finally cable SWMBO’s office (PC + 2 x Sonos Play 1 + spare), add a cable for the TV in her gym room (for casting KinoMap) + spare, plus add 2 more IP cameras, and cable the last 2 Sonos Play 1 speakers in the kitchen.

Reckon I have nearly a kilometre of Cat 6 cable in the house/garden, plus 40m of 8-core OM3 fibre connecting the Synology Rackstation/Roon Core (20 Gbit), Desktop PC (10Gbit) and secondary switch (10Gbit) in my Mancave to the primary switch in the house.

When I’m done, only phones, tablets and our Google devices will connect via Wi-Fi.

Cabling is almost always possible; it just takes effort and sometimes a degree of creativity to be able to route it from point A to point B…

DIY temperature-controlled, fan-cooled rack enclosure (TIG welded from 2mm 5754H22 chequer plate)

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I’m headed down that road, too. In fact, that’s exactly what I’m testing at the moment.

I know we are going off topic here.

My data network is in here for LAN, NAS which also run my IP cameras using POE.
My Roon NUC is in my hi-fi cabinet which houses my broadband router with the NUC and LUMIN streamer plugged directly into it.

I keep thinking of a VLAN for the IP cameras to separate that traffic.

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I’m not sure separating your IP cam traffic on a separate VLAN will bring any tangible benefits. What benefits were you looking for/expecting?

The only separate VLAN I have is the guest Wi-Fi - I don’t want any devices not under our control having access to the inner workings of our network.

I not set one up before , seemed like and interesting thing to look at, but I guess as the nas and ip cameras are on the same switch the traffic is contained on that switch unless I access it remotely to view the footage.

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Ah, OK that makes sense. For remote access, it’s more secure on a separate VLAN to protect the rest of your network from internet intrusion.

My home network is much more modest than all of yours. One Fractal Design Node 304 box running 6x 8TB WD Red drives via ZFS and two AsRock Deskmini X300. Node 304 serves as the storage server and Docker host while the DeskMini are currently used as testing sandboxes. All three machines are managed via PiKVM connected to the Ezcoo 4x1 KVM switch which gives me remote access down to uefi level. On the roadmap:

  • Adding a PfSense router, an external managed switch and a PoE AP
  • Transitioning from using docker-compose for container management to a Kubernetes distro (probably k3s)
  • Replacing the Ezcoo switch with an 8x1 or 16x1 TESmart one if I decide I need more remote management ports


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