How to properly build a network for my new house?

[lsquare]

So I have a bunch of issues to take before I move into my new house. First of all, it's been wired, but because I was away as the house was being constructed, things didn't happen as I had hoped. My parents didn't understood what I had asked for and as a result I have two network cables going into each room of the house. Sounds great until I discovered that one of the ports is a Cat 5e and the other is a Cat 3. I wanted both ports to be Cat 6. Unfortunately no conduit was installed so it'll be a very expensive job to do it all over again. I'll have to it with it for the foreseeable future.

Now here's the problem. I don't like where the network jacks are in some of the rooms. As a result I'll have to use a long network cable to attach the electronics to the jack just to get it into the right position in the room. The problem with that approach is that it's going to appear messy. Are there any conduits that attaches to the wall in which it'll easily cover up the network cable? Any suggestions on how to properly do this?

As stated, there's only 1 Cat 5e cable going into each room. For some members of my family that will be fine. However, for me it's not going to be ok as I want to attach both my Xbox 360 and computer into the port. With 1 only Cat 5 jack, what can I possibly do?

The house has 3 floors and there needs to be wireless access on all 3 floors. I think in 2011, I need to deploy a dual band wireless N network. My question is, which wireless routers do you recommend to get this job done? All of the wiring reaches a terminal in the third floor of the house. I'm pretty sure I'll need at least two routers so that one will act as a repeater to ensure that there is indeed total coverage in the house. Where should I place the routers?

As mentioned that all of the cables reaches a terminal on the third floor. However, the network cables aren't attached to anything. There are no switches or routers in that terminal area yet. Do I buy a switch to attach all of those cables to and then connect the switch to the modem and then to the router?

Since I'll have a tenant living in the basement, I think it'll be best to keep him to another wireless network. I have an existing Linksys WRT54L that can be used. Would you guys recommend that I use that to create a second wireless network just for the tenant? If so, how do I integrate that into my existing setup?

Thanks a lot for the help in advance!

 

[tomt4535]

Hide the cables using a cable raceway: http://cableorganizer.com/surface-raceways/

Buy a small switch for the room you have more than one device in. Plug in a short patch cable from the wall jack to any port on the switch and plug in the devices to the other free switch ports.

You can use multiple Wireless APs with the same SSID with different channel numbers set on each. Put one on each floor. The clients would connect to the AP giving out the best signal. The clients would be able to roam between APs, but this isn't always seamless with consumer grade hardware. You would need access points, not routers, but you can buy a router and configure it to just be an AP.

Buy a switch with as many ports as you need to connect all of the jacks from the patch panel, plus a a few more. Use short patch cables from the patch panel to the switch. Plug in any switch port to one of the LAN ports on the router. Plug in the modem to the WAN port on the router.

Personally, I would have the tenant get their own internet connection. Much less hassle when they start downloading all sorts of torrents and slow down your connection. Of course there are ways to configure multiple LANs and use QoS and all that, but it all depends on how much you trust your tenant and what kind of terms you put into the lease.

 

[mammador]

Use wi-fi on all three floors, with a wired connection linked to a switch for the XBox/PC.

You can give the tenant his own wi-fi connection, and add the monthly cost to his rent. Have this as a separate ISP account.