Deciding Where to Put the Concentrator
The concentrator is the core of the network; everything travels to it (and flows from it). You should place the concentrator in a location that reduces the amount of cable you need to schlep through the house. For example, a reasonably logical person can count on the following scenarios:
- If you have two computers on the second floor and one on the first floor, putting the concentrator on the second floor means you'll have only one long cable run.
- If all your computers are on one floor, the logical place for the concentrator is at a midpoint among all the computers.
- If the same number of computers are on the first floor as are on the second floor, find a location that's as close as possible to being equidistant from each computer.
Where you decide to locate the concentrator requires a couple of other important considerations, so logical thinking doesn't always work (much like applying logical thinking to politics or economic theories, or to guessing what "that look" on your spouse's face really means). The following sections help you work through the not-so-logical considerations you need to take into account.
In this tutorial:
- Installing Ethernet Cable
- Ready, Set, Run
- Ethernet cable has many aliases
- Concerning the concentrator
- Deciding Where to Put the Concentrator
- Concentrators are environmentally fussy
- Concentrators are innately powerless
- Distance Depends on What You Choose to Measure
- Handling Cable Correctly
- Connecting two patch cables
- Making your own patch cables
- The Chase Is On: Running the Cable
- Cabling within a room
- Cabling between adjacent rooms
- Cabling between nonadjacent rooms on the same floor
- Keeping your drill holes in the closet
- Cable that's all walled up
- Cabling between Floors
- Adding cable faceplates
- Using floor cable covers
- Curing Your Network's Growing Pains
- Don't add another router
- Getting into the Zone
