New house Network Layout

[Ajax]

Good morning! Figured there might be some experts hanging out here. Just finished the house and in the process of setting up some racks etc. Wanted this house to have a cleaner look instead of throwing everything on a shelf (I still want to keep cost down.) Attached is a picture of what I am thinking. I am no expert when it comes to networking, but I get by with the help of Google. Main questions are is there are a better way I should be looking at? And should I get a managed or unmanaged switch (I would have no idea how to run a managed switch) Thanks!

 

[jec6613]

Well, a few things come to mind.

Your RJ45 feed comes in from the city to the basement, so why run a line up to the router, then back down to the basement to distribute everything?  Just stick the router in the basement, and run a line up to a small switch upstairs. You don't specify where any battery backups will be, but but it removes one UPS from the requirements.  It also removes the need for your main floor rack entirely.

For small switches, I'd suggest a PoE powered switch for the smaller switches; this means the switch draws power from your central large switch, so always stays up so long as that has power.  I use the Netgear GS108Tv2 for that use myself, but there are others.

For the large switch, yes, get a PoE switch, and at rack mount size they're almost all smart switches at minimum.  The inexpensive smart switches allow you to segment your network into VLANs using an app, but it's functionality you don't have to use; though it does allow you to have a guest WiFi network and keep traffic fully segmented.  Above the smart switches are managed switches also add a bunch of other options, such as monitoring with a network management system and similar, management over ssh, and some of them even L3/L4 routing capability.

 

Lastly, are you using WiFi?  I don't see a single WiFi access point on your diagram.

[Ajax]

Yes I should have been more specific why the city line runs from the basement to the main floor router-That is my wireless router (Only router), I do not want that in the basement due to signal loss. From my understanding you should always have your router first then your switch. For a managed switch do you have the option to have it default to unmanaged? That way I have the option of how I would like to use it