Home network / video server

LASTOLITE

LASTOLITE

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In the near future I may be in a position to move home. The move will be to a new build, and we will have an opportunity to equip the house with a network, all hidden, Now I know a little but alas not enough to know what I need to supply what I want for the future.

I would like to have available to all TV's in the house a way of retrieving video content from a central location, maybe also connected to a home security camera system and linked to the net would be good too.

I was thinking some kind of server in the under the stairs cupboard. I would digitize all my DVD and BD's and then put them in the loft in boxes to save space

Anyone done this and what are the capabilities of the system you have installed, I am looking to not have anything other than a TV on the wall in family room, lounge, and two bedrooms - thats where the TV outlets that are standard are.

Any ideas / help appreciated
 
LASTOLITE said:
The move will be to a new build, and we will have an opportunity to equip the house with a network, all hidden
Click to expand...

Just to be clear are you intimating that you want guidance specifying a wired network for a new build (please forgive me if I'm taking this the wrong way)?

Assuming that is the case, I'd use CAT 6 cable and if it's possible to install conduit in the walls/floors that is suitable to pull cable through post build - that's the most future proof way to do it. In terms of the networking gear, it's honestly hard to say without more detail on devices/usage. If it were me, in abstract, I'd go with something like a pfSense gateway, gigabit switch & some Ubiquiti access points. It depends what you want to achieve though.

As far as serving media and CCTV a Synology NAS would be my recommendation. There's lots of other options of course, you can build your own server running FreeNAS, unRAID, Windows Server, or a flavour of Linux and add what you require on top etc... However from what you've said, for serving media and CCTV, an appropriate size Synology NAS running Plex would be a simple and robust solution IMO (and it will of course do so much more too if you need it).

Personally I use Plex running on my unRAID server for media distribution across all our devices.
 
avforums is a pretty good place for this kind of information.

I've gone different way, I really like how the Apple TV user interface integrates. As such we have several of those dotted around as clients, and a Mac Mini as the server. Behind the server there are several 1U data expansion units (effectively running sun solaris with ZFS to make one big expandable cluster, running into 20TB now).

Now with the Synology NAS that I've got I've also tried it a different way, use the build in DLNA client in the devices, and link to the video server, or where possible with a plex client and link to the plex server on the synology. I can't stand DNLA, it is too based for my liking and not a great user experience. Whilst Plex is nice it is also no where near as stable as the Apple TV solution. I mean sometimes the data is there, sometimes it is not. It is annoying as it is great when it is working and Multiplatform, but not stable enough for me to rely on it all the time without intervention.

It all depends on the clients, as the OP states it is just the TV and nothing else. Then it depends on which TV and what applications are available for it. Personally I'd probably go the Synology as a server and Plex as a client route, but be prepared that you have to poke it at times to get it to work again.
 
neil_g said:
gig land
Click to expand...


Lost me there Neil I assume a Gigabit network rather than wifi...



Because of limited time I will have during first fix and not being able to run conduit - I am going to get in as much CAT6 cable to all points I know and some I dont know, but will be good for future if needed, Thats about all I can do now, I assume once I have the cable in I can decide on what the hardware application will be.

Its been a faf just getting the cable install without them wanting a specialist company that charges install by the metre....


What is the best Cat 6 cable to buy? is there an industry used recommended make? I would like shielded cable as it will be running close to mains feeds or is this a total no no?


Thanks for replies so far appreciated!
 
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Buy LSZH cable. It needs to be solid core rather than stranded.
Kennable are a pretty good place to buy.
http://www.kenable.co.uk/

If you are running cables around the home, using conduit/trunking inside the walls is really a very good idea because it makes pulling through new cables, should the need arise, much easier.

You will need a suitable place for your equipment, ideally close to your phone/broadband connection. You might want to look at a rack in which you can put a patch panel for terminating your internal structured network cabling, a switch and then your NAS boxes/servers.

When positioning the sockets, you may want to have them located conveniently for:
PCs/desks
TVs
Hi-Fi/music streaming devices
IP Cameras
Wireless Access Points

You could ask an electrician to run the cables for you and install the backplates for the network sockets. Punching down the Cat6 into face plates/patch panels is tedious but not much more complicated than wiring a plug.

I've just (finally) rackmounted my hardware. Next year I will be looking to structurally cable the house and add a patch panel.
Here's the current set-up, still a work in progress:

oKVHOcc.jpg
 
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LASTOLITE said:
I am going to get in as much CAT6 cable to all points I know and some I dont know, but will be good for future if needed, Thats about all I can do now, I assume once I have the cable in I can decide on what the hardware application will be.
Click to expand...
Sounds good to me, Cat 6 is good for 10GbE up to 55meters as it stands, so it's pretty "future proof".
LASTOLITE said:
What is the best Cat 6 cable to buy? is there an industry used recommended make? I would like shielded cable as it will be running close to mains feeds or is this a total no no?
Click to expand...
I used Connectix Cat 6 UTP LSZH (solid core) for our house, bought from a company called Cable Monkey if I remember correctly, worked very well.

Depends how close, I'd say actually bundling them tight together with the mains feeds in long parallel runs is a total no-no. I think if you can keep them at least a foot apart you shouldn't have any problems as long as you're not doing massive parallel runs. As far as I know shielded cable isn't conducive to a home installation, it requires isolated grounding, it's really for more extreme environments.
 
Excel CAT6 is what I usually use, best to note that shielded cable will require you to use shielded patch cables, and termination points (Ethernet points or RJ45 connectors)
 
And to be honest the only place where I've had to use shielded cable has been in an old building with a lot of 3-phase and limited accessibility for cable run separation.
 
Apologies, I miss read new build as self build, for some reason.
Don't house come with structural cabling these days?
 
I've recently moved into a new-build, it came with 2 network points, one in the living room and one in one of the bedrooms, both incorrectly wired by the electrician and using faceplates that were simply s***e.

I've now reterminated and in the process of adding more points as I need 4 in the living room, a minimum of 1 per bedroom and a minimum of 2 in the study.
 
afasoas said:
Apologies, I miss read new build as self build, for some reason.
Don't house come with structural cabling these days?
Click to expand...


a nope to that one, there is some coax cabling and Phone cables for Sky but little else, and our builder is very good. Had a chat with the MD today she is very intrested in maybe using ours as a model for a scheme for other new builds.

Some great stuff here everyone much appreciated The wall finish on external walls is dot and dab plasterboard and stud walls on internal so trunking is not possible for the sparks who will be doing the cable runs so I need to get it as best
I can from the get go....Time has almost run out as they need to price it up and first fix is back end of next week.
afasoas said:
Buy LSZH cable. It needs to be solid core rather than stranded.
Kennable are a pretty good place to buy.
http://www.kenable.co.uk/

If you are running cables around the home, using conduit/trunking inside the walls is really a very good idea because it makes pulling through new cables, should the need arise, much easier.

You will need a suitable place for your equipment, ideally close to your phone/broadband connection. You might want to look at a rack in which you can put a patch panel for terminating your internal structured network cabling, a switch and then your NAS boxes/servers.

When positioning the sockets, you may want to have them located conveniently for:
PCs/desks
TVs
Hi-Fi/music streaming devices
IP Cameras
Wireless Access Points

You could ask an electrician to run the cables for you and install the backplates for the network sockets. Punching down the Cat6 into face plates/patch panels is tedious but not much more complicated than wiring a plug.

I've just (finally) rackmounted my hardware. Next year I will be looking to structurally cable the house and add a patch panel.
Here's the current set-up, still a work in progress:

oKVHOcc.jpg
Click to expand...





Thanks,

Kenable is about 6 miles from us so good shout, I have used them before too! I had forgotten they do all this clobber, thanks!
 
To be honest, you will end up with 7 differing opinions on this.

Personally in terms of cabling, I would run CAT6 and run a spare cable towards each room, leave it coiled up somewhere for future use as you are bound to need one at some point.

I prefer the option of a NAS and Kodi running on multiple Raspberry Pi boxes, seems to work well for me but that is down to personal preference.

I have CAT6 running to the lounge, the office, the main bedroom and the garage with three Cisco switches in total, two are PoE for CCTV cameras and my phones.
 
I have a reprieve as the first fix has been delayed, so I have been looking at the POE switches for everything that needs power, saves running 240v too for WIFI access points in loft and outside ect, Can I rout CCTV into that too then?
 
Some cameras such as Hikvision support PoE, others require an adapter. If you are asking whether non-PoE devices can still use a PoE switch, then yes no problem, they simply won't draw power from the switch.
 
I've got a Buffalo NAS streaming to my home cinema amp and Samsung Smart TV's upstairs and also to Amazon Fire sticks running Kodi Very stable streaming both hi res audio and MKV files.
 
Don't want to put you off servers, but you need a lot of storage space (IME) or have a lot of time/processing power to re-compress the video.

A film on Bluray takes up around 30-50GB so 1TB will store around 30 movies. And (in my experience) there is no point having a server unless you are willing to spend the time to transfer all or at least most of your media to it.

Plex gets my recommendation though if you do go that route.
 
don't bother digitising your discs, just get some wallets and file the boxes in the bin.
 
PS. Don't forget you'll need to consider how to backup your video server...
 
Pan, Tilt, & Zoom (PTZ) CCTV cameras draw a lot more power than POE can provide so they may need a separate power supply. Otherwise look at the power load capacity of POE switches & make sure they can handle whatever you attach. IP CCTV cameras are typically 5-7 watts each, lots of POE ports often mean internal PSU & fans for switches, which can make them hot & noisy. There are lots of cheap ex-enterprise POE hot & noisy switches for sale cheap used. Smaller 8 port POE switches tend to use external brick PSUs & run quiet.

Also, consider the energy consumption of all of this kit, ex-enterprise servers & switches can be bought cheaply used, but they tend to be energy hogs, especially the older XEON CPU based servers!

My 'low powered' Intel i3 home server which runs CCTV, backups & file serving uses around £100 electricity per year according to my UPS.
 
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broc said:
Pan, Tilt, & Zoom (PTZ) CCTV cameras draw a lot more power than POE can provide so they may need a separate power supply. Otherwise look at the power load capacity of POE switches & make sure they can handle whatever you attach. IP CCTV cameras are typically 5-7 watts each, lots of POE ports often mean internal PSU & fans for switches, which can make them hot & noisy. There are lots of cheap ex-enterprise POE hot & noisy switches for sale cheap used. Smaller 8 port POE switches tend to use external brick PSUs & run quiet.

Also, consider the energy consumption of all of this kit, ex-enterprise servers & switches can be bought cheaply used, but they tend to be energy hogs, especially the older XEON CPU based servers!

My 'low powered' Intel i3 home server which runs CCTV, backups & file serving uses around £100 electricity per year according to my UPS.
Click to expand...

I run three Cisco switches, all with fans.

Four PoE cameras, two PoE access points. Plus an i3 CCTV PC and my electric bill is still <£50 a month.

Yeah newer switches are cheaper to run but unless you have tens of them it's not much difference.

Even the Philips hue bulbs have barely made a difference.

Handy to have a garage with a pointed roof with timber frame, have built a mini comms cabinet into the roof of it. Noise doesn't matter then :)
 
Choice of POE switches can make a big difference...... even one......

A typical modern enterprise 24 port POE switch draws 100W doing nothing, and could draw up to 300W if driving a load of POE devices, that's a minimum of 2.4KW a day, x 365 is 876 units of electricity per year at 14p per unit that works out at £122 per year just for one switch doing nothing............

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc...-gigabit-switch-poe/data_sheet_c78-502070.pdf

Whereas a smaller low powered switch draws 5.5W doing nothing, which means around 48 units of electricity per year at 14p per unit which works out at less than £7 per year for the switch also doing nothing..........

http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/cat-5072_TL-SG1008P.html#specifications

When I was a network manager I had several server rooms full of enterprise servers & switches which cost a fortune to power & cool & they were very noisy to work in. I like my peace & quiet now
 
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This is a great thread. We're currently undergoing some extensive house surgery by way of an extension - currently have no back to the house. It's an old building (1935), one of the jobs on the list is to future proof the network, have ethernet ports in each room and have a managed switch under the stairs along with my NAS and Media servers to get them out of my office. Already got a good idea what I need being a techy, but I'm not infrastructure so not a pro by any means. Some great little nuggets in this thread. My thanks to those who've contributed.. and the OP for raising it!!
 
LizTheKid said:
This is a great thread. We're currently undergoing some extensive house surgery by way of an extension - currently have no back to the house. It's an old building (1935), one of the jobs on the list is to future proof the network, have ethernet ports in each room and have a managed switch under the stairs along with my NAS and Media servers to get them out of my office. Already got a good idea what I need being a techy, but I'm not infrastructure so not a pro by any means. Some great little nuggets in this thread. My thanks to those who've contributed.. and the OP for raising it!!
Click to expand...

Any questions, feel free to ask as there is a few IT techies on here by the look of it.
 
There are some seriously complicated answers here!

If setting up some TV's with some NAS capability (without various webcams etc) then POE switches and CAT6 sounds a bit extreme.
Dependent on the size of your house and age of TVs, fast AC wifi can suffice. Also Cat6 is thick and unwieldily. Cat 5E is more than enough bandwidth for anything you will push to your televisions. >1Gbit.

2 Years back I had a cheaper Netgear RAID1 NAS transcoding on the fly, running via cable though a Netgear AC R9000 router, which delivered the service via 5GHZ to my various appliances at around 40MB/S. The throughput and transcode speed were fine, without the unnecessary complications.
 
afasoas said:
Buy LSZH cable. It needs to be solid core rather than stranded.
Click to expand...

Stranded is easier to terminate, and run. Never really needed to run solid core.
And your description was doing so well until you posted a pic. A TP-Link switch - really? Why skimp on the important part.
Also all that expense to rack everything, servers, yet no UPS?
 
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broc said:
Choice of POE switches can make a big difference...... even one......

A typical modern enterprise 24 port POE switch draws 100W doing nothing, and could draw up to 300W if driving a load of POE devices, that's a minimum of 2.4KW a day, x 365 is 876 units of electricity per year at 14p per unit that works out at £122 per year just for one switch doing nothing............

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc...-gigabit-switch-poe/data_sheet_c78-502070.pdf

Whereas a smaller low powered switch draws 5.5W doing nothing, which means around 48 units of electricity per year at 14p per unit which works out at less than £7 per year for the switch also doing nothing..........

http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/cat-5072_TL-SG1008P.html#specifications

When I was a network manager I had several server rooms full of enterprise servers & switches which cost a fortune to power & cool & they were very noisy to work in. I like my peace & quiet now
Click to expand...


We've used 16 port rack mounted POE injectors for some of our recent projects for adding Wifi points to buildings to keep the cost down on the switches. Works well and is a cheap solution.
 
Oh and Synology NAS are good, unless your CCTV software requires windows. I'm running a HP mini server, they often come around for £130 with a 3 year next day warranty. Add a few WD red disks (4-5 slots available) and you've a file server/backup/cctv server.
 
Byker28i said:
Oh and Synology NAS are good, unless your CCTV software requires windows. I'm running a HP mini server, they often come around for £130 with a 3 year next day warranty. Add a few WD red disks (4-5 slots available) and you've a file server/backup/cctv server.
Click to expand...

Synology seem to be the best pick from the reviews I have seen.

I use Blue Iris so needs windows to run, seems to be a decent programme for my Cameras and the PC costs a couple of quid a month to run.

At the end of the day, if you want a fully networked house with CCTV, Wifi, Switches, Home automation etc then prepare for your electric bill to cost more.

I use Cat5e, don't see the point of 6 for a home setup.
 
Eloise said:
Solid core should be used for install ... stranded for patch cables.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you use the corresponding RJ45's, they are different for Stranded and Solid, I only use Solid as all of the patch-leads we use are pre-terminated.
 
Eloise said:
Solid core should be used for install ... stranded for patch cables.
Click to expand...
True for long runs, datacentre installs etc, then I'd suggest the same. For small runs around a house, then stranded means it's easier to run, flex, etc
 
rich_ said:
There are some seriously complicated answers here!

If setting up some TV's with some NAS capability (without various webcams etc) then POE switches and CAT6 sounds a bit extreme.
Dependent on the size of your house and age of TVs, fast AC wifi can suffice. Also Cat6 is thick and unwieldily. Cat 5E is more than enough bandwidth for anything you will push to your televisions. >1Gbit.

2 Years back I had a cheaper Netgear RAID1 NAS transcoding on the fly, running via cable though a Netgear AC R9000 router, which delivered the service via 5GHZ to my various appliances at around 40MB/S. The throughput and transcode speed were fine, without the unnecessary complications.
Click to expand...
That certainly is true for now, but due to the effort of running new network cables around a house I would imagine that most people will aim for >10years worth of future-proofing, so Cat6 is probably quite a smart move.
 
For TV's and general media streaming then yes, wireless can suffice, but I cable wherever I can, far less hassle [emoji3]
 
For CCTV I would use cable, given that disrupting Wi-Fi connected devices is childs play.

Byker28i said:
Stranded is easier to terminate, and run. Never really needed to run solid core.
And your description was doing so well until you posted a pic. A TP-Link switch - really? Why skimp on the important part.
Also all that expense to rack everything, servers, yet no UPS?
Click to expand...

I did a job once where the chap I was doing it for bought stranded cable. About 40 drops. I had to re-run a few of them to ge a reliable connection. Never again..

And yes, the TP-Link switches are fine for domestic setups. I wouldn't use one in a data centre but for home or small business on a budget, they are fine. If one has the cash,I wouldn't deter from buying a Cisco or HP but it's hard for me to justify when the TP-Link is less than half the price, has more features and scores well on energy efficiency.

Unfortunately I have little disposal income to spend on projets like this. The rack was a cheap second hand one which I repaired. The servers, aside from the cases, some of the disks and RAM are all secondhand or new old stock parts.

And there is a 1300VA line interactive UPS at the bottom of the rack with >1 hours runtime.

Power consumption for all the IT infrastructure in the house is now down to about 80-85 Watts so costs IRO £100 a year to run.
 
afasoas said:
For CCTV I would use cable, given that disrupting Wi-Fi connected devices is childs play.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I would always use a cable for CCTV, its the only way to virtually guarantee reliability.
I have Cisco Access points and they are very reliable but I wouldn't run CCTV wirelessly.

I suppose you could argue that somebody could cut the cable going to the cameras from the switch is they are mounted outside etc but even Wifi ones need Power so its much of a muchness.
 
Eloise said:
Solid core should be used for install ... stranded for patch cables.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I also recommend only terminating to sockets or a patch panel rather than plugs. Sockets are much easier to terminate and patch cables more flexible and simple to replace.

Bulk Ethernet cable is pretty cheap, so I always run cables in pairs. You don't have to terminate both, but saves running extra when you realise you're short.
 
Andy Taylor said:
Absolutely. I also recommend only terminating to sockets or a patch panel rather than plugs. Sockets are much easier to terminate and patch cables more flexible and simple to replace.

Bulk Ethernet cable is pretty cheap, so I always run cables in pairs. You don't have to terminate both, but saves running extra when you realise you're short.
Click to expand...
Good plan, terminating cables with RJ45 plugs is fiddly, especially when working on a ladder outside when it is 0C as I found out last week while fitting a CCTV camera on my garage wall.

Running spare cables is also a good idea in case a cable fails ..... which they can do.
 
afasoas said:
Kennable are a pretty good place to buy.
http://www.kenable.co.uk/
Click to expand...

Seeing this post I thought I give Kenable a try... more so because they were cheapest I could find for all the components I want. Initially, I was very impressed. Good comms throughout, emails at every stage. Placed the order and 20 mins later the parts picked and order dispatched via DPD. Order arrives the following day. Great stuff.

1 issue. After unboxing everything it transpired part of the order was missing (parts are on the invoice, just not in the box) but I can't get hold of anyone and nobody's answering the phones.

I'm sure I'll get it sorted, just a shame as they seemed very good to that point.

So close, but so far.
 
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