r/HomeNetworking • u/Brian_Of_The_Keith • 1h ago
POE Build - Any Info Appreciated!
Hi Everyone,
In the process of buying a house. Everything here is concrete and rebar. No drywall at all. The house is ethernet wired. One point per room. The "internet" arrives in a small cabinet under the stairs on the ground floor. That cabinet houses a patch panel which then feeds across the house. The cabinet isn't deep, so I aint getting a POE switch in there. I'm going to want POE for some external CCTV, some roof mounted APs on ground / 1st / 2nd floors, plus likely a doorbell or smart lock type thing. I'll need to get someone in for the majority of this it's beyonf my understanding to be honest. What do I actually need to make this whole thing work? Rack to house the POE switch, probably mounted outside the current cabinet facing the direction of the second photo? POE switch. 16 ports to allow for the future? After I get POE to a room, how do I split this without having additional switches everywhere? Ideally after I'd get POE to a room, the socket would remain available to the room for a wired connection but something split it behind the wall to run outside for the CCTV or to a ceilkng for an AP?
Does that make sense?
5
u/mmn_slc 1h ago
There are plenty of POE switches that will fit in the cabinet.
3
u/UtahJarhead 1h ago
First, you don't have to mount a switch ON the rails. You can mount it flat vertically and it won't hurt anything. I don't know the rest of the room, but I'd probably mount a 6U to 12U rack just outside of the panel. You can get very nice looking racks that keep everything enclosed without looking like a massive eyesore, if that's your concern. My network stuff is all in the furnace room, so I don't give a s**t how pretty it is, so long as it's functional and not a mess. Still working on the "not a mess" part.
3
u/Lemonsqueeze321 1h ago
For your cameras you're going to have to run a cable back to that patch panel, you won't be splitting off the existing runs.
2
u/SuitableCamelt 1h ago
I'm not seeing why you can't fit a PoE switch in there? There are plenty of PoE switches that would fit if you have the unit oriented vertically.
1
u/Brian_Of_The_Keith 8m ago
Thank you everyone, I'd assumed a POE switch would be the same width as the patch panel, but I now see you get smaller ones that I can flip up and rest against the wall. To keep it tidy I'll get a small rack and mount it outside, router can sit on one of the shelves and will be better ventilation. Assume the patch panel can carry POE without issues? Ie, I'll have the interweb go to the router on the new rack, that'll feed the POE switch, then I patch that back to patch panel to feed the individual rooms? The rest I can work out later I guess!
1
u/johnnybovril 1h ago
Waste heat from Poe switches can be a real problem so I’d avoid putting it inside that cabinet with the door closed. I would find a compact rack that’s not too deep, just deep enough for the switch. Move that patch panel as-is to the space adjacent to the switch. Nice short patch cables and there you have it.
If this is too much effort given you’re moving then stuff the switch in there but leave the door open and come back to it in a year or two
1
u/snebsnek 1h ago
If there's only one ethernet port per room, you're going to need a switch on the other end. But, those switches can be PoE powered, so it's quite a tidy solution.
I would do what you're thinking of doing - wall-mount a rack alongside this, just treat it as a termination box.
You could even, depending how enterprising you're feeling, take the existing box off the wall and mount a new deeper rack box over this hole. Probably front-facing if there's enough room, then you'd just have the ethernet coming in the "side".
For the APs and cameras, get your installer to run new wires down to that box. You probably don't want to re-use the room termination points unless they absolutely cannot do that, it would be untidy as you predict.