I'm having gigabit Sonic Fiber installed soon in a newly purchased, remodeled house, and I need to figure out how best to configure my networking setup to distribute a wired (& wireless) connection throughout the house.
- House has individual Cat5e jacks in several rooms (over 3 levels)
- All the cable runs appear to end in the garage, coiled up unterminated in a white box
- Fiber install location TBD, but probably into garage, near my unterminated cat5e cables
- Previous owner had cable internet, which came into an interior (house) closet via Coax and was distributed wirelessly; same closet has a single Cat5e jack (leading to garage, I presume)
I need to prep cables & get the right equipment so that it's ready to test/use when the fiber installer comes, so I'd love any & all advice/suggestions on the best way to set up my network.
What I want to end up with:
- Wired connections to all the rooms with jacks
- Ability to connect multiple wired devices in some rooms (via switch plugged into wall?)
- Wifi throughout house (3 levels), ideally via hard-wired routers in bridge mode
- I do NOT want to use the wifi capability of the Sonic-provided gateway/modem (not least because it won't be powerful enough for the whole house from the garage). I want to use my own wifi devices (likely wired Eeros, unless you have a better suggestion)
- Fiber drop to transition box to ONT in garage
- ONT to Gateway (modem) in garage
- Gateway(modem) to Eero (or other router??) - in garage
- Eero (router) to Switch (garage)
- Terminate & plug cat5e cables into Switch (garage)
In theory this should distribute wired connections to each jack in house, and I can attach additional Eeros and switches to jacks in the house to distribute further.
Questions:
- I'm not a fan of putting all of my networking equipment (ONT, gateway, router, switch) in the garage. I'd prefer to have most (if not all) in the house, but I can't think of a way to get a wired connection inside and then back out again to all the cables dangling in the garage.
- Does it even matter if I have all my networking equipment in an (insulated) garage? What's the best way to enclose/protect it?
- Any suggested improvements or modifications to my plan above? (see attached diagram for tentative plan)
Thanks a million.