Home network router question

emergingsoul

I have a have modem hardwired to a router with various Ethernet cables feeding to network switches. I have one audio grade network switch that has an ethernet cable running to my streamer.

That's exactly what I do, although I'm not sure I'm using an "audio grade" network switch. This system is super simple and rock stable.

 

 

impaler

18 posts

10-29-2024 at 11:11am

Question for the IT guys, isn’t a mesh network supported by nodes in a hierarchy with each node connected by WIFI? So if you Ethernet cable to a node, you are still ultimately using an RF signal (WIFI) rather than a direct Ethernet connection to your cable modem, is that correct?

Correct - the nodes communicate with each other wirelessly. However, you’re using Ethernet cable to connect the node to your streamer. This gives you ability to minimize EMI and RFI by moving the node as far away from the streamer as possible.
The data was transferred from the hard-wired gateway node to the node feeding your streamer via wifi and those data packets are intact correct? The data is essentially identical to what your router is pushing?
The data handled by the satellite node is 1 to 1 with the router. You’re now feeding that data thru Ethernet cable to your streamer. So are you still using wifi to feed your streamer in this configuration or is the streamer hard-wired? I’m asking you now…

People here are using different terminology than I am used to, but it sounds to me like you can move the modem to a new place and the usual setup is then modem to router to switch, with CAT-6 cable running hard wired from the switch to your preferred places. Cat6 cables or higher can allow power over ethernet (POE) which is "a technology for delivering DC power to devices over copper Ethernet cabling, without separate power supplies or outlets." (from Cisco). These wires can terminate in mini switches to allow for a media center (I have runs to three such places) as well as to a computer, a storage system like a Synology NAS, and to WIFI devices to allow you to create a much more reliable Wi-Fi network than using a Wi-Fi/router combination, with other areas only being connected to the router via Wi-Fi.

The primary advantage of moving the modem-router-switch (and the NAS) to one place is that they create noise and heat and require some degree of ventilation, so coming into an area where you listen to music is not so cool IMHO. If you have other stuff like a home security NVR then that too should be hidden away.

The PoE Cat 6 runs to your listening areas can then be plugged directly into those things you have that need that ethernet, and those are going to perform far better than anything connected via Wi-Fi.

@erik_squires An optical link is a great way to not only protect your system from lightnings/storms but, depending on where in your network you place it, to also reduce the amount of RFI noise reaching your system. Have you tried one and rueld it out? A couple of Fiber/Fibre Media Converters with SFP ports to accept an optica/lectrical transceiver module is all you need; the FMCs are built into some routers/modems but standalone units are inexpensive.

@emergingsoul @cleeds I prefer hard-wired too but some people don't have the option.

Networked audio is one of those unusual areas in which you're really not better off solving a problem at its source; it's better to address noise as close to the streamer as possible. Whether a switch used for audio is "audiophile" or not is actually less important than where it is! If you want to use it to kill RFI noise, rather than as a port replicator to give you more ports, it needs to be the shortest possible length of cable from your streamer (say 1ft to 3ft).

 The switch-streamer cable should either be unshielded (like Cat 6) or ideally be known/measured to have the shield grounded only at one end (there are precious few of the latter); most big name audiophile cables and Cat 8 (it's part of the spec) have in common that the shield is grounded to both plugs and this allows RFI stopped by the switch to travel down the shield and reach the streamer, exactly what we don't want.