What hardware to get for a small "cabinet"?
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Hi,
I recently bought an apartment.
It is already wired-up (although it seems only with 100MBit cabling!).It has a small cabinet:
There are 12 ports, six are wired for ethernet (1, 2, 3, 6) and six are wired for ISDN (3, 4, 5, 6), according to $work's cable-tester.
The single power on the front is where "internet" comes up from the basement.The usable size is about 25cm x 30cm x 8cm (give or take).
I am currently using pfSense on an APU1 (I think), because the APU2 kernel panics at boot.
I get a 50/50 VDSL from work, there may be fibre available sometime next year or so.
I "need" to fit in there:
- the pfSense appliance
- a bridge (I assume, the SG-devices don't come with one either?)
- some sort of switch
- all the PSUs
- all the cables
On the top end of the picture, you can see that there are four "small" sockets for power-cables.
If any of the devices has a "thicc" plug (like the PSU of the APU), it won't fit there.
I doubt I can fit a multi-outlet power-strip in there, too.The cables you see are coax for TV, I currently do not use it (and I don't see myself using it in the future either) - I could unplug them - but they'd still be there. I am not going to cut them.
Because of the cabling, my HP ProCurve switch does not "get" a link at all. I've got a 100MBit switch that $work gave me that I will try over the weekend.
Maybe I need to re-cable the whole thing so that I actually get GBit on every port. Or at least on six of them.
I was initially thinking about getting a POE-switch - but I'm now leaning against this, mostly due to thermal constraints. Especially the Ubiquity gear seems to get so hot you can almost fry an egg with it.
The building is from 2007 - I'm glad it actually has everything but the right cabling in place already.
I was thinking about getting a 4100 and it might actually fit in there. But I'm not sure if I can fit all the rest in.
In case this is relevant: Location = Switzerland
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I am unsure what 100Mb cabling looks like. 1Gb is just fine on CAT5. CAT5e is better. CAT6 is really not needed for 1Gb. I did 1Gb with PoE to an AP on a 60-foot CAT5 cable for years until the cable was damaged.
I have seen those small wiring things in the US also. The inventor should get jail time.
If I were buying for that small space, I would look at a 4100 and a switch with no more ports than needed. I would also consider adding a USB powered fan if heat becomes a problem. I would be concerned doing PoE out of it due to heat unless it has better air flow than one would think.
A picture of the finished install would be useful to others.Good luck
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@andyrh There are only 4 wires connected (1, 2, 3 and 6), out of 8.
I haven't asked for a quote for re-wiring this thing with "proper" cables. This being Switzerland, no doubt it will be eye-wateringly expensive
The people who do networking at work agree that 5e is enough.I'm not sure a fan will make much difference - simply because it's such a small, enclosed space.
Currently, it's a mess with all the stuff sitting on the floor outside the cabinet :-(
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100Mb cabling is the same like 1Gb cabling (from an "optical" view), you cant see a difference.
But 1Gb uses a different cable and all 8 pins are connected. 100Mb uses only four pins, so my guess is that if OP wrotes six ports are wired for Ethernet (1,2,3,6) these are the pins, not the ports!
So only 100Mb is possible. The other ports with 3,4,5,6 are for phone.In such a small cabinet a SG-3100 (EOL) will fit, currently I am not aware about the SG-4100 dimensions.
A Draytek modem will also fit, a small 5 or 8 port switch too. But it will be a challenge to fit all properly and include the PSUs.Regards
Edit: OP just explains the wirering...
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@fsc830 Yeah, I was imprecise with the wording....
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The dimensions of the 4100, I found here:
https://www.erdineering.ch/pi/Shop/Firewalls/netgate-sg-4100.html
So, the 4100 would fill up the cabinet alone, mostly :-(
Meh.
But I found these:
https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/product/steffen-verlaengerungskabel-025-m-typ-13-verlaengerungskabel-8762826
This should allow me to fit the "thicc" plugs with the PSU to the power-sockets in the cabinet at least...
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Mmm, that's fun.
Yeah, are those cables actually 4 wires (or 6 common for phones) or are they just terminated for 2 pairs? You might just be able to retermonate them for 4 pairs which would be relatively easy/cheap. I doubt a building from 2007 would have been using a lower cat cable than 5. Unless they were phone specific.
A small fan will probably make a huge difference. Especially if you can use some ducting to the existing vents or mount it in the door directly.
If you get fibre do you know what speed it will be? It will probably be supplied with an ONT of some sort that could be much larger. Though it might be able to be sited remotely at the end of one of those links.
Where is the VDSL suppplied? On port marked 'IN'?
You can get some pretty small DSL modems, for example: https://forum.netgate.com/post/994426A 2100 would work fine there for a 50Mbps WAN but not a 1G fibre.
Steve
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@stephenw10 If I get fiber, it will most likely be 1GBit symmetric. It's unclear though, if I ever get FTTH.
Currently, fiber seems to end at the DSLAM and I get max 300/70.VDSL is received at the "IN" port, yes.
Thanks for the link to the Proscend device.
So this "thing" can replace my Zyxel bridge (it's really a router that I run in bridge-mode, so I can run pfSense)?
Interesting.
Of course I didn't know these things existed ;-)My co-worker also suggested to just re-wire the 2x4 pairs of into one RJ45 socket again.
I'm not really a wire-person... -
If there is excess cable re-terminating the patch panel is just about having the right tools (or an excuse to go buy some!).
Sounds like you might have some colleagues you could bribe with a few beers/coffees.
I would do that first because if they really are 100M only cables that limits your options significantly.
I feel your FTTH pain. I periodically check the roll-out announcements here in the UK and then go back to VDSL.
Steve
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Bumping...
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Well, after spending over 2500 CHF on the re-cabling with 6E, I got a 2100.
$work gave me this:
However, I don't quite understand how this is supposed to work?
If I insert it into the GBIC port, I get no link on it.
I can't force it to some media-setting, because PPPoE simply doesn't have that setting.
So, I still use the old bridge so far.
This of course does not leave enough room for the small TP-Link 105 POE switch I'm eyeing (and which I kind of need for the EAP660HD that I got shrink-wrapped but less than half-price from a guy in the next village who has his new house wired up like a pro).
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There is a thread discussing using that module with a 2100, it can work. However IIRC it has an unfortunate bug in that the module will only work if it's inserted (or reinserted) after boot. It also has a very odd method to set the VCI/VPI profile used by configuring a VLAN.
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@stephenw10 Ahhhh....well.
I'll try the insert-after-boot-thing. I don't boot too often, so if that's what it's gonna take....
Would be soooo cool to get rid of the dumb bridge and the associated PSU.
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Switches with 10 GBit/s ports
- Netgear GS110MX ~200 €
Unmanaged 10 Port Switch - Netgear GS110EMX ~200 €
Managed 10 Port Switch
PoE Switch
- Netgear GS310TP ~160 €
Managed 10 Port PoE Switch with SFP ports
Switch that can be powered over PoE
- Netgear GS108Tv3 ~90€
8 Port GB Switch can route the VLANs if needed self
Multi-GIG Switch
- QNAP QSW-1105-5T ~90 €
5 Ports mit 2,5 G/1 G/100 M Unmanaged Switch - QNAP QSW-2104-2S ~150 €
2 ports SFP+ & 5 Ports mit 2,5 G/1 G/100 M - QNAP QSW-2104-2T ~159 €
2 ports 10GbE RJ45 & 4 Ports mit 2,5 G/1 G/100 M
They are all silent without fans or moving parts.
- Netgear GS110MX ~200 €
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It actually works when I insert the module once the system has booted!
As it's not remote and I rarely need to reboot, I think I'll live with that. Certainly worth removing a small PSU and that bridge-box from the cabinet.Now, does anyone know where I can source the shortest RJ11 to RJ45 cable? That would be great ;-)
Also, are there shorter cables from/to the PSU available?
Before I moved, I had the VDSL-connection (from $work) upgraded to 50/50 (from 20/20). My old APU2 router died in the move and I used its predecessor, an ALIX. I recently checked and it still showed 20/20 more or less. It seems like the change never went through. They did upgrade it to 50/50 though when I told them ;-)
BTW: does the 2100 have some sort of temperature sensor and can this be displayed on the start-page?
There's no direct sunlight in that spot, but it can get pretty warm in the apartment during the summer.All together, I'm very pleased with the outcome so far. The 2100 is enough for the foreseeable future and it's also nicely compact.
Fun fact: the people that did the recabling told me I needed to clean the floor because they used a lot of lube to get the cables in and out. And truly, it was extremely slippery in some places.
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@rainer_d said in What hardware to get for a small "cabinet"?:
Now, does anyone know where I can source the shortest RJ11 to RJ45 cable? That would be great ;-)
What are you connecting that is RJ11? That's a 6-wire (at most) phone connector... Most phones use 2 of the 4 wires (BYRG) in the set -- they're completely not compatible.
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@rcoleman-netgate I don't know what it is. It's the thing that connects from the DSL-bridge to the socket that DSL comes out of (the socket with the green cables underneath).
I assumed it was a telephone jack (basically).
On the one side it's definitely RJ45, on the other side it isn't and it looks like the cable that my old (POTS)-phone used.
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@rainer_d If this is on the TELCO side of the DSL then you just need a phone line. Any normal RJ11 cable will do
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I'm sure you could buy a shorter lead but for something really short I'd be making it myself. If you have the crimp tools to do so; or know someone who does.
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@rcoleman-netgate said in What hardware to get for a small "cabinet"?:
@rainer_d If this is on the TELCO side of the DSL then you just need a phone line. Any normal RJ11 cable will do
Yes and no
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Sure, in most cases it works, but... I recommend never to plug a RJ11 into a RJ45.
The jack matches of course, but I have seen some issues, in which the RJ45 was damaged afterwards. When plugging in a RJ45 cable again, some contacts did not have a proper contact, because they have been bend by the RJ11 jack.As far as I remember, the shortest RJ11 to RJ45 was 3m.
Regards
Edit: Did see some shorter cables at the "big river"...
