Welcome back to the home lab series. So far I've knocked out the big foundational pieces: the gateway, the switch, and the storage. The next part is to start connecting Things. tWiring, cameras, a second access point, and one door lock.
I wanted every major component in this environment hardwired. No debate there, but I'll be honest with you up front. I absolutely have no interest in opening up walls and fishing cable through the house. Part of that is simply time.
Between work, creating content, and everything else going on, I didn't have the energy to turn this into a full renovation project. The other part was that in-wall wiring just wasn't practical for this house. So instead of forcing the "perfect" solution, I had to find one that actually worked for my situation.
Picking the Cable & Wiring Standards
Since the long-term goal for this network is a 10 Gig backbone, I decided to wire everything with Cat6A. It handles up to 10 gigs, and If I'm going to do this once, I want to do it for the speed I want later, not the speed I need today. I bought a single box of it, which turned out to be more than enough for the house with plenty left over for the office.
Before you crimp a single connector, you need to know that there are two wiring standards, T568A and T568B. Both use the same eight wires and both give you identical performance and speed. The only real difference is the arrangement of the green and orange pairs.
I'm using T568B, which is the more common of the two. There's no performance reason to pick one over the other. The reason to choose is compatibility and consistency with whatever wiring already exists in your environment.
Be consistent on both ends of the cable. If you use T568A on one end and T568B on the other, you've made a crossover cable, which was traditionally used to connect similar devices directly to each other, like two computers. That's not what you want for a standard network run. Pick one standard and stick with it everywhere.
Tools
You'll need RJ45 connectors to terminate the cable, and you want connectors rated for the cable you're using. If you're running Cat6A, get Cat6A connectors. Cat6A is slightly thicker than Cat6, and using an undersized connector makes termination frustrating enough that you'll want to throw something out of a window. Save yourself the aggravation and match them properly.
I used two types on this project. Toolless connectors, which make termination much easier but are a little bulky, and standard RJ45 connectors for everywhere the bulk would be a problem.
On the tool side, the minimum kit is a cable stripper, a crimping tool, and a cable tester so you can verify a run before you go mounting anything to a wall. You can usually find all of that bundled together in one inexpensive kit. It doesn't need to be fancy. It just needs to work.
The Switch
The first move was a single long run down to the lower level. The idea was simple: instead of pulling multiple cables down there, pull one and put a switch at the end of it. One cable, then expand locally from there.
I terminated both ends and used toolless connectors for this run since it was feeding a switch and bulk wasn't an issue in that spot. The switch I picked was a 2.5 gig PoE model. PoE was non-negotiable because everything down there needed power over the same cable, and it also has two 10 gig ports, one SFP+ and one RJ45. That means I can keep the 10 gig backbone alive down there if I ever need to, while still having plenty of ports to power devices.
Once I found a good spot for it, I terminated the far end, tested the run, and plugged everything in. Power came up, data came up, and just like that the lower level was live and ready for devices.
The Cameras
With the switch in place, the cameras came next. For the main camera I went with a 4K PoE camera with enhanced AI detection, plus the enhancer module because I wanted the LED and speaker and a few features I'll grow into later.
That meant a fresh run from the mounting point back to the switch, terminated and tested on both ends. I was a little worried the camera would be too heavy for the mount since it has real weight to it, but it held up fine.
For the second camera, the 4K bullet did the job. The last two are entry cameras, one at a main door and one covering a secondary entry. I went with the standard entry model rather than the pro, since I didn't need the extra touchscreen and the standard version covers what I actually use.
The Door Lock
The last piece was a lock on of my interior door, and this one needed a few extra parts. The main one is the door hub, which handles communication between the lock and the entry camera and gives me remote lock and unlock along with a handful of other features. I paired it with another entry camera, and I needed a fail secure strike lock to replace the existing hardware.
That distinction is worth pausing on, because it's a decision you make once and live with:
- A fail secure lock stays locked during a power outage.
- A fail safe lock stays unlocked during a power outage.
Neither is automatically the right answer. It depends entirely on what you're protecting and how you'd get back in if the power dropped. Cutting out the space for the strike took an oscillating multi-tool and a few attempts to get it exactly right, but the included template and marking guide made it far less painful than it could have been.
What's Next
There's still cleanup to do. Holes to patch, cable to hide, paint to touch up. But the hard part is done and the home lab is really starting to come together.
This one was focused on the setup process, so I'm planning individual deep dives on each piece from here, starting with the cameras. Plenty more coming in this series. As always, stay geeking, stay curious, and I'll catch you in the next one.
