Home Network Upgrade and Cleanup | 1000Mb Fiber, Google WiFi, TP-Link Switches (Vlog)

It's been long over due. I'm Upgrading my ENTIRE home network with a mesh wi-fi router from Google Nest and network switches from TP-Link

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[MeatChurchBBQ]

As a former VP of IT - Infrastructure….and now you’re wearing my shirt…..Thank you!!!!

[bentheguru]

A couple of tips stood out like a Stallion in a paddock full of fine fillies. Home-made cables should always have jacket pinched inside the crimp for strength but also to keep the twists all the way to the end as much as possible. Those pictured there are crap. Switches, any that are passively cooled, mount sideways to allow convective airflow to move through, they have holes on the sides for a reason. Active cooled can be side or with ports facing down. Facing to top like yours just catches dust and crap.

[InternationalKarl]

Nice setup. Now time to clean up the closest.


What this video shows is what s simple setup on newerbuild houses can look like without buying racks and stuff like that

[zito]

You should have someone who knows what they are doing come and re-terminate those ethernet cables. The wires shouldn't be exposed outside the connector. Having them terminated like that means anytime you move any cable it's gonna put tension on the individual wires and it's very likely you'll have a wire fail on you at some point. The outer protective sleeve should extend up into the connector so the pressure is on the sleeve of the cable instead of the individual wires. I'd also recommend sticking the rubber strain relief boots on them for an extra preventative measure.

[nocturnal]

Great setup. One suggestion if I may. I have the same router and you are correct, it gets pretty hot. So much that it was having a problem keeping cool in my setup. I solved the issue by installing a laptop chill pad underneath the router and it is powered via USB which is the router has USB ports. It's been working great for the past 2 years. The chill pad is fairly quiet and I understand it runs constantly, but the good thing is it's fairly cheap to replace if needed.

[PeterHonig.]

Your cable organization looks very nice and clean. However, though it might not look as pretty in your particular configuration, it is a best practice to install wall mounted networking/telecom equipment with the connectors pointing DOWNWARD toward the floor. Otherwise any debris that falls from above could fall into the RJ-45 keystones and create a faulty connection when plugged into. Thus, your switch is currently upside-down.

My personal preference is to mount all my network switches and servers in racks and make use of patch panels to keep cables nicely organized. Being that my home network is actually for our commercial farm and creamery, I use Cisco enterprise and business equipment plus a management station to monitor the health of the system.

[grizzlypaws]

This video was great. Good work! Still relevant in mid 2023!

[absolutium]

Your mesh access point should be set next to the NAS as its likely to use beamforming to increase performance.. a confined space is worst case scenario for beamforming.

[RLJSlick]

Steve if you want to get to the 1000Mb speed, you may want to check your cabling make sure it's either CAT 5E or CAT 6. You will need that to get to the maximum speed that you can.. You also really want to re-do those RJ-45 jacks going into your hub, they are really poorly done. The 6 wires coming out of your jack shouldn't be exposed like that, you will have issues with something called "crosstalk" which just means that cables are getting outside interference. Those tiny wires should be completely in shielding (in this case plastic cover) right into the RJ-45 jack. That will help fight the "crosstalk" issue. I'm not a network tech, but an multimedia tech and we deal with this kinda thing all the time. Great video, keep up the great work!

[aaron]

That setup can be improved greatly. Remove that google AP from that cabinet. Its essentially a faraday cage, then having an electrical outlet on either side of it you are destroying your wifi signal off that particular AP. If your other AP's are have a wired backbone to the main unit you may not notice wifi issues but if the slave AP's connect wifi to the master then you will have issues when on wifi.

[TheMewzak]

OOOOF THOSE CAT TERMINATIONS
Make sure your jacket seats inside the crimp lock. Secure your cables with strain relief at the rj45 crystal.

[jagsidhu]

Steve you have the most practical content. Thanks.

[wildcatphd]

I just got my Google fiber tv to new google tv conversion kit and was at a loss as to how I was going to connect all of my smart home things since my fiber jack is not anywhere near all the boxes!!! Thank you for making this so simple!!!

[slntchas]

Your network makes the networking nerd in me want to cry.

[manslayerdbzgt]

Those cables aren't terminated correctly the sheathing should be inside the connector

[thetroothhurtz]

Yay for Frontier Fiber! It's cheap too.. We ended up "downgrading" from 1Gig to 500Mbps just because of the cost. It's only $44.99/month!

[davidunwin]

I was also going to say the network cable terminations are woeful. The cable going into the AT&T, after the network cabinet has been cleaned up, looks like its about to snap!

[James_Knott]

A few points from a guy who has done this sort of thing for a living.
1) I'd consider your install a mess and I'm not OCD.
2) Terminate those cables on a patch panel.
3) Instead of using an all in one router and mesh, go right to proper router and access points
4) Why are you calling switches "hubs"? Hubs are obsolete gear which are half duplex and almost all run at only 10 Mb, though some do 100 Mb.
5) I would not go with TP-Link, as some of their gear has problems with multicasts and VLANs, where multicasts from the native LAN leak into the VLANs.
6) I noticed you plugged power into that mesh device. With proper APs you can use Power over Ethernet (PoE), so you don't have to worry about finding AC power nearby.
7) Also, with proper APs you can have mulitple SSIDs (with VLANs back to the router) to support guest Wifi and more
8) As someone else mentioned, your connections are crap. Instead of doing that, terminate on a patch panel and use pre-made patch cords.

In my network, I have a cable modem with a 500/20 connection, though I get much better than that. I also have Pfsense running on a Qotom mini PC for my router. I have a Cisco 8 port Gb switch and a Ubiquiti Unifi AC-Lite access point, which is mounted in my laundry room, where it's roughly in the middle of my condo. I also have a 5 port switch in the living room for the devices there.

[EscapeEFT]

Ok the RJ-45 connectors not crimped properly on the cable kind of killed this video, since there are plenty of "pros" out there who do that.

[thomasottvideos]

Hey, Steve:
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.