[TriLUG] structured wiring switch

[Joseph Mack NA3T via TriLUG]

On Wed, 8 Dec 2021, Thomas Ingram via TriLUG wrote:

> We're in the process of building a new house, and our builder includes
> structured wiring for four ethernet ports as standard. The wires

I assume the house is twisted pair ethernet.

People are giving me their 1Gbps switches and cat6 cables. They've gone to 
fiber. Presumably these are cutting edge TriLUG people. I don't know how 
fast the rest of the world is going to follow, but consider in 20 years 
what networking hardware might look like by remembering what we had 20 
years ago (10Mbps coax). You may not be able to easily buy twisted pair 
ethernet cable or switches.

> all terminate in a panel in the garage (inside on the outside wall), 
> along with a fiber optic line from outside. When closed the panel 
> resembles a breaker box mounted in the wall. There's no shelving with 
> the panel for extra equipment.

this is for the convenience of the builder not you.

My garage has no cars, just lanes of packed shelves, with the walking 
space between the shelves full too.

The breaker box is in the furthest corner, which requires moving stuff to 
check it. It would have been just as easy to put the breaker box next to 
the door to the garage from the house.

Your network box is going to be blocked by a wheelbarrow and lawn mower 
at least.

I doubt if hot/cold will affect any switch/modem in the garage. However

o the box will get spiders

o dirt (ie sand) which will get its way into connectors and you'll have 
intermittant connectivity problems.

o the house twisted pairs are protected from induced current from nearby 
lightning strikes by the Faraday cage of the house's aluminum backed 
insulation. The run of twisted pair from the network box to the house will 
not be protected. Expect the devices at the ends of the exposed twisted 
pairs to go silent in an electrical storm.

Debugging problems is going to be hell. In winter you'll have to get all 
rugged up and take your debugging laptop with you, open the garage door 
to the house, and yell through the door to your wife who's in the closet 
on the 2nd floor

"Honey is the 3rd green light from the left flashing now?"

indecipherable

"the 3rd green light?"

no reply

"the 3rd green light!!!!"

go inside, walk upstairs and look yourself.

compare this to having all your hardware in sight of where you are at the 
kbd. If something happens, you can cast your eyes on the flashing lights. 
If there's a problem you can debug it in your underwear.

If you can't do anything about the location of this box, can you plug 
fibre into it and run that to your computer work area in the house (or 
through the house fibre networking).

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) trilug (dot) org - azimuthal equidistant
map generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!