It finally came to that point, where you have tons of cables sitting around and the mess comes to a breaking point. My home network is fairly complicated including a rack with various components, but for this article we will concentrate on the connections that interconnect in the Attic.
I have one main Ethernet line that goes from the switch in the basement to the attic, and from there it feeds a couple bedrooms and a couple Cisco Access Points using PoE. This setup was initially done over a little bit of time, adding one room after another, and one Access Point after another, which lead to wires scattered throughout the attic. My goal here was to fix all the clutter and clean that up.
My game plane was the following:
- Reroute all the random lines, and put them in the wall thus removing the clutter.
- Terminate all the existing lines on a patch panel (Cable Matters 12-Port), along with the main line from the basement.
- Install a network switch with PoE support (TP-Link 8 Port PoE Switch), and clean up wire connections.
Well, it is all done, so here are some pictures of the rerouted lines, and the new patch panel/switch installed.
Network Wires Routed in Studs
Patch Panel Installed with Switch