Recently moved into a house wired with Cat5e and want lots of smart lights & speakers - eviltoast

I’m a complete noob when it comes to networking. I want a very simple setup.

Here’s what I want to do, but have no idea how practical it is.

I want to put a modern tri-band modem in the main spot where the cable comes into the house. There’s a spot right next to there where there are more than a half dozen Cat5e endpoints (for lack of a better word) that run to various “drops” (I think that’s what they’re called) throughout the house.

The house is 2 story and 2400 sq feet.

- Can I just get a modern modem and connect the Cat5e endpoints/plugs directly to the router’s LAN ports?

- Do I need a special router?

- Can I plug something into the “drops” in various rooms to get devices in those rooms faster wifi speeds without needing a wifi mesh network?

- Are there any special considerations for running potentially 2 dozen smart lights, a half dozen smart speakers (to start), and having multiple people (3 - 5) streaming and/or gaming on various devices?

  • StanleyDards@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Maybe. You’ll need to check to see if the cabling is set up for Ethernet or Telephone. Most houses have it set up for telephone. A tester can help validate the Cat wiring situation.