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I'm new to networking. I have designed my network for the ground floor of a building. I have a router with fibre coming in, then an L2 and L3 switch. L2 going to 6 clients while the L3 goes to 2 clients, 2 phones, WAP and 2 printers. I also have a server connected to router.

I now need to connect this to 6 clients, 1 WAP and 2 more printers on the 1st floor.

Do I just bring up cable from the router and connect that to a third switch (L2?) on the 1st floor using cat5 cable? Is that an acceptable solution? Or should I be bringing in more fibre from outside and connecting to a router etc. again for a different floor?

Bob
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    You haven’t described your use case, or what the “1st floor” is. Is this your house, an apartment building, a hotel, etc.? – Appleoddity Nov 27 '17 at 13:48

3 Answers3

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Assuming you meant you need to connect the 6 clients, WAP, and 2 printers on the 2nd floor instead of the first...

Typically the way most enterprises would handle this would be:

Service from telecom/ISP which terminates at the "Demarcation". From here your MDF (Main dist. frame) is built out (This sounds like your R1 and your two switches). From here you would connect IDFs (Intermediate dist. frames) by wiring through the walls and going into closets/server rooms.

If the distance is <100m, you can run cat6 (though make sure you use the proper grade, e.g. plenum if in a plenum space) to the second floor IDF closet. From there, connect your 6 hardwired clients; the AP; and the printers.

It can be as simple or complicated as you want. Many of the "Options" for what should be in your frames depends on your use case. Hope this helps!

Edit: It should be made explicit that at the IDF you will want/need more infra. (e.g. another switch). Run the appropriate media from your MDF to IDF and within the IDF closet have a small racked switch that from there gets patched out to the AP, clients wall termination, printers, etc.

Also, if this is your first time doing such work I would look into getting a contractor to consult with; plenty of people do this kind of work professionally and will likely be able to do it better than you could going in blindly - good luck!

kilrainebc
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Keep it simple. Get switches on each floor with SPF+ ports. THen you can bridge them with a 10GB SPF module.

ChatGPT
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With such a small network, you're fine with layer 2 switches unless you do want to separate subnets and route between them (layer 3 switching). An L3 switch isn't better than an L2 switch if you don't use its additional features.

So, unless you have something sophisticated in mind, you simple run a cable to the 2nd floor and connect the switch there to any switch downstairs. You'd probably want to use gigabit ports if speed is an issue. Gigabit Ethernet requires Cat-5e cabling or better.

Zac67
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