home networking in pre-wired house

[warriorfan23]

My house is pre-wired with cat5e cabling that terminates in a small box outside my garage. I plan on moving these wires back into my garage and setting up a patch panel in there. I'm not really that knowledgeable on networking, but I have ideas of what I want. Ideally, I would keep a storage server, my cable internet modem, and the router in the garage but it gets super hot in the summer.

Can I just set up the patch panel and switch in the garage, and put my media server, modem, and router in one of my rooms and still be able to share data/internet to the other rooms?

If someone has a better solution, I welcome it!

Thanks!

 

[lopri]

Can I just set up the patch panel and switch in the garage, and put my media server, modem, and router in one of my rooms and still be able to share data/internet to the other rooms?

Sure. That's what I do. You just need the modem/router and a switch in the garage. All ports from the switch are equal and it doesn't matter whether you connect from the attic or the basement. (unless you go with more specialized switches, which I don't think is necessary)

 

[warriorfan23]

oops

 

[warriorfan23]

Thanks lopri.

Here are some pics of what is outside my garage. I plan on taking those cables and routing them to inside my garage and terminating them to a patch panel. Does that sound right?

This is what I see when I open the panel:


This is inside that box where the cables go:


And this is in the inner thing in the box:

 

[warriorfan23]

So do I take the blue cat5e cables and attach them to the patch panel? And then plug the switch into the panel?

Heres the panel I plan on getting: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...d=1051402&p_id=976&seq=1&format=2#description

And I will mount the panel to this bracket: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...s_id=1051602&p_id=998&seq=1&format=4#feedback

The switch: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122111

 

[warriorfan23]

Question: Will I be able to just put the router and cable modem in my room upstairs and be able to share the internet connection? Or does the router and cable modem need to be next to the switch?

 

[seepy83]

Router and cable modem dont need to be next to the switch. They just need to be:
1) where a cable connection terminates, and
2) cable modem needs to be connected to the router, and
3) router needs to be connected back to the switch

You should also check all of the jacks that have been wired with Cat5e. From those pictures, it is wired for telephone, and they are just using Cat5e cabled for it. Chances are that the jacks are phone jacks and only have the Blue/Blue-White cables terminated. You'll want to double-check them if you will be using them for ethernet.

 

[warriorfan23]

Router and cable modem dont need to be next to the switch. They just need to be:
1) where a cable connection terminates, and
2) cable modem needs to be connected to the router, and
3) router needs to be connected back to the switch

You should also check all of the jacks that have been wired with Cat5e. From those pictures, it is wired for telephone, and they are just using Cat5e cabled for it. Chances are that the jacks are phone jacks and only have the Blue/Blue-White cables terminated. You'll want to double-check them if you will be using them for ethernet.

Yeah the jacks are wired for telephone, and I plan on fixing those up with keystones.