We’re still 9+ months away from moving into our new home, but it’s never too early to start thinking about the network requirements.  It’s likely that I’ll go overboard.. ok, I WILL go overboard.  But, the geeky, tech guy in me wants to create an enterprise level network and I’m getting increasingly giddy about it. There are a few considerations that are important to me and my family:

Security
Obviously.  But, I’m interested in taking it to the next level with VLANs for guests and isolated IoT devices.  I don’t have a lot of experience in building secure networks, so this will take a lot of research and I’ll probably mess up along the way.

Access
I’m interested in locating a good number of CAT6 wired outlets and wifi access points throughout the property.   We have an odd floorplan and ~3800 sqft. to account for, so this oughta be fun.

Management

I’ve been using Google Wifi in my current home, but I want more control and analytics.

Dream Machine Pro

Below is a blueprint with network locations that the networking company and I outlined.  As you can see, I’m adding CAT6 to many of the rooms (not all, hmm) with the center of the network located in the game room’s attached closet.  This setup will hardwire a few key areas like the game room, office, family room, bedroom 4 (more on this later), and the master.  I may ask for a few more wired wall outlets and possibly even a few ceiling outlets to use for wifi access points.   I also plan to connect more switches/computers to each one of these outlets via POE.

At this early stage, I’m leaning toward Unifi network gear with the Dream Machine Pro as the starting point.

Let the games begin!

House Network