Modem, mesh system, CAT8 cable

[AccidentalTeki]

I own a duplex where our network is set up in the garage between both homes. We have an Arris 6102 modem connected to an Eero in the garage, which is connected to a 5 port Netgear Prosafe GS105 switch. The ports are connected (by cable) as follow: 1 to the garage Eero, 2 & 3 to solar panel monitors,  4 to the Eero in the south house and 5 to the Eero in our cabin (a buried cable a couple hundred feet up a wooded hill). We also have an eero set up in the north house that picks up WiFi (from the garage Eero) but is not hard wired.  I've decided to replace the 5 port with an 8 port so the north house can be hardwired and will reach a larger WiFi area with get a faster speed speed. We usually get 117mbs in the south house while the north side is lucky to get 30mbs. 
My problem is someone suggested I might as well upgrade our cables so I purchased CAT8 to replace everything except the one Spectrum has from their pole into the modem.  Now that I'm looking at the 8;port switches I'm wondering if I need to buy a 10GbE or  the 1Gb.  And I'm second guessing whether the CAT8 will even make a difference if the the modem's cable hasn't been upgraded as well.  

Alternatively, I could probably add a split to use as ports for the 2 solar monitors....they use very little bandwidth....this would give me the extra port for the north house.

I would appreciate suggestions!

[AccidentalTeki · Accepted solution]

I own a duplex where our network is set up in the garage between both homes. We have an Arris 6102 modem connected to an Eero in the garage, which is connected to a 5 port Netgear Prosafe GS105 switch. The ports are connected (by cable) as follow: 1 to the garage Eero, 2 & 3 to solar panel monitors,  4 to the Eero in the south house and 5 to the Eero in our cabin (a buried cable a couple hundred feet up a wooded hill)----couple hundred? max run should be around 300ft for ethernet. Actually it is closer to 300' than 200'!  We have an Eero up there and it works great ( but would not had we tried to get a direct wireless signal...hence the cable, inside 3/4" pvc & buried. The signal is great for the various devices up there...that are used off & on.
We also have an eero set up in the north house that picks up WiFi (from the garage Eero) but is not hard wired.  I've decided to replace the 5 port with an 8 port so the north house can be hardwired and will reach a larger WiFi area with get a faster speed speed. We usually get 117mbs in the south house while the north side is lucky to get 30mbs. ----Over wifi or over the hardwired connection?  

 We have a wired Eero in our south side that provides WiFi to our whole house...much better than having the Eero connecting wirelessly to the main unit in the garage, which is what we have in the north side. I need a larger switch (8 port) so I can connect from the garage into the north side to

My problem is someone suggested I might as well upgrade our cables so I purchased CAT8 to replace everything except the one Spectrum has from their pole into the modem.----leave that for spectrum.They don't even offer speeds >1gbps right now and they're responsible for it.   Right! They actually replaced the wiring from the house to the pole about a month ago when they discovered our chronic off & on pixelation was because the existing cable was originally meant for above ground not in the ground. That helped, but he thinks there's also a problem with the connection from across our road to our pole and he scheduled that for spring.  I'll ask them to replace the connecting cable to our modem when/if they show up!

 Now that I'm looking at the 8;port switches I'm wondering if I need to buy a 10GbE or  the 1Gb.------I'd go 1g. 10gbe are expensive and your not currently running anything >1gb right now. 

I just bought the Netgear ProSafe GS108 to replace the GS105.

And I'm second guessing whether the CAT8 will even make a difference if the the modem's cable hasn't been upgraded as well.  ------correct. CAT8 is designed for the upgrade to 25/40 gbps. it'll still work with lower speeds but unless you're planning on running 10g+ speeds, cat6/7 would be fine. At least cat 6/7 can be upgraded to 10gbps if needed in the future. You don't need to get a 10gb switch just because you have cat8/7/6 cable. If you've already bought it and installed it, I wouldn't remove it. but it is significantly more expensive than cat 6/7. 

Gotcha!

Alternatively, I could probably add a split to use as ports for the 2 solar monitors....they use very little bandwidth....this would give me the extra port for the north house.-----don't do this. You can get unmanaged switches pretty cheap. This would only create issues/headaches. usually around $15 for a unmanaged 5 port and $20 for a 8 port.  I bought a used 16 port managed for $50 just because I wanted the management features. If you don't need managed, unmanaged are cheap.

I'm embarrassed for not doing the research on this before I wrote this! 🥴

 Thank you for taking the time to help me with this...no one but me here has networking experience...I retired in 2014 and have forgotten just about everything I learned before that!

[plemans]

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@AccidentalTeki wrote:

I own a duplex where our network is set up in the garage between both homes. We have an Arris 6102 modem connected to an Eero in the garage, which is connected to a 5 port Netgear Prosafe GS105 switch. The ports are connected (by cable) as follow: 1 to the garage Eero, 2 & 3 to solar panel monitors,  4 to the Eero in the south house and 5 to the Eero in our cabin (a buried cable a couple hundred feet up a wooded hill)----couple hundred? max run should be around 300ft for ethernet. We also have an eero set up in the north house that picks up WiFi (from the garage Eero) but is not hard wired.  I've decided to replace the 5 port with an 8 port so the north house can be hardwired and will reach a larger WiFi area with get a faster speed speed. We usually get 117mbs in the south house while the north side is lucky to get 30mbs. ----Over wifi or over the hardwired connection?
My problem is someone suggested I might as well upgrade our cables so I purchased CAT8 to replace everything except the one Spectrum has from their pole into the modem.----leave that for spectrum.They don't even offer speeds >1gbps right now and they're responsible for it.   Now that I'm looking at the 8;port switches I'm wondering if I need to buy a 10GbE or  the 1Gb.------I'd go 1g. 10gbe are expensive and your not currently running anything >1gb right now.  And I'm second guessing whether the CAT8 will even make a difference if the the modem's cable hasn't been upgraded as well.  ------correct. CAT8 is designed for the upgrade to 25/40 gbps. it'll still work with lower speeds but unless you're planning on running 10g+ speeds, cat6/7 would be fine. At least cat 6/7 can be upgraded to 10gbps if needed in the future. You don't need to get a 10gb switch just because you have cat8/7/6 cable. If you've already bought it and installed it, I wouldn't remove it. but it is significantly more expensive than cat 6/7. 

Alternatively, I could probably add a split to use as ports for the 2 solar monitors....they use very little bandwidth....this would give me the extra port for the north house.-----don't do this. You can get unmanaged switches pretty cheap. This would only create issues/headaches. usually around $15 for a unmanaged 5 port and $20 for a 8 port.  I bought a used 16 port managed for $50 just because I wanted the management features. If you don't need managed, unmanaged are cheap.

I would appreciate suggestions!

---

[AccidentalTeki · Accepted solution]

I own a duplex where our network is set up in the garage between both homes. We have an Arris 6102 modem connected to an Eero in the garage, which is connected to a 5 port Netgear Prosafe GS105 switch. The ports are connected (by cable) as follow: 1 to the garage Eero, 2 & 3 to solar panel monitors,  4 to the Eero in the south house and 5 to the Eero in our cabin (a buried cable a couple hundred feet up a wooded hill)----couple hundred? max run should be around 300ft for ethernet. Actually it is closer to 300' than 200'!  We have an Eero up there and it works great ( but would not had we tried to get a direct wireless signal...hence the cable, inside 3/4" pvc & buried. The signal is great for the various devices up there...that are used off & on.
We also have an eero set up in the north house that picks up WiFi (from the garage Eero) but is not hard wired.  I've decided to replace the 5 port with an 8 port so the north house can be hardwired and will reach a larger WiFi area with get a faster speed speed. We usually get 117mbs in the south house while the north side is lucky to get 30mbs. ----Over wifi or over the hardwired connection?  

 We have a wired Eero in our south side that provides WiFi to our whole house...much better than having the Eero connecting wirelessly to the main unit in the garage, which is what we have in the north side. I need a larger switch (8 port) so I can connect from the garage into the north side to

My problem is someone suggested I might as well upgrade our cables so I purchased CAT8 to replace everything except the one Spectrum has from their pole into the modem.----leave that for spectrum.They don't even offer speeds >1gbps right now and they're responsible for it.   Right! They actually replaced the wiring from the house to the pole about a month ago when they discovered our chronic off & on pixelation was because the existing cable was originally meant for above ground not in the ground. That helped, but he thinks there's also a problem with the connection from across our road to our pole and he scheduled that for spring.  I'll ask them to replace the connecting cable to our modem when/if they show up!

 Now that I'm looking at the 8;port switches I'm wondering if I need to buy a 10GbE or  the 1Gb.------I'd go 1g. 10gbe are expensive and your not currently running anything >1gb right now. 

I just bought the Netgear ProSafe GS108 to replace the GS105.

And I'm second guessing whether the CAT8 will even make a difference if the the modem's cable hasn't been upgraded as well.  ------correct. CAT8 is designed for the upgrade to 25/40 gbps. it'll still work with lower speeds but unless you're planning on running 10g+ speeds, cat6/7 would be fine. At least cat 6/7 can be upgraded to 10gbps if needed in the future. You don't need to get a 10gb switch just because you have cat8/7/6 cable. If you've already bought it and installed it, I wouldn't remove it. but it is significantly more expensive than cat 6/7. 

Gotcha!

Alternatively, I could probably add a split to use as ports for the 2 solar monitors....they use very little bandwidth....this would give me the extra port for the north house.-----don't do this. You can get unmanaged switches pretty cheap. This would only create issues/headaches. usually around $15 for a unmanaged 5 port and $20 for a 8 port.  I bought a used 16 port managed for $50 just because I wanted the management features. If you don't need managed, unmanaged are cheap.

I'm embarrassed for not doing the research on this before I wrote this! 🥴

 Thank you for taking the time to help me with this...no one but me here has networking experience...I retired in 2014 and have forgotten just about everything I learned before that!

[plemans]

Glad to hear that you went with the GS108. its a pretty solid switch. Plus you have the 5 port now you can use for a different area if you need it. 

Let us you if you have further problems and we'd be happy to help!