Hello, thanks for taking the time to read this. I just bought my first home, and as the techy of my new family I am faced with the task of wiring our home. I have never been more excited about anything in my life! Unfortunately we needed a bed and a few other high dollar items first. So I am faced with a limited budget of around 200 dollars, i might be able to pull 500 together if its worth it. So no sever closer yet. Back in point, I have not been paying attention to the way the tech as changed in a while so I am hot sure where to start. Any good places you no read up on things would be great. The only things I have found so far is people really like ubiquiti and pfsence. I think a pfsence box will hurt the pocket to much to get what I need. When I have looked at the system requirements in the past I needed more ram the. I could afford. The main thing I want from it is the anti vires. I will likely have a TV, 2 to 4 phones or tablets and a gaming/ pretend to work on computer. As for the ubiquiti stuff i cant tell what products would fit my needs. Any idea as to good but cheap hardware would be great. One more qustion before I go crawling in my attic, I have a attic yay me. All the walls were redone before ingot the house. How hard is it to run a wire down where there is already a switch or coaxial cable. Thanks again. Sorry this is so long.
Tldr: my first home needs internet and networking things.
So you need a Router and an Access Point?
Ubiquiti AC Lite $80
Old Dell box from ebay with an i3 off ebay for around $80 shipped to the house.
Intel Dual port gigabit pci card $20 buck.
You now should have working internet and really good wifi that should cover around 4000sq ft.
Not sure if you were saying you wanted antivirus on pfsense on the box so please clarify that.
I would also budget for at least some CAT 5e cable at the very least, CAT 6A if you don’t want to have to redo it down the road when you want 10Gb. If you don’t have network tools (crimper mostly), then you could buy pre-terminated cables but I really recommend getting some basic tools for future expansion. I see people put all their budget into sexy stuff like routers and WAPs and forget about the cabling that is the backbone of the whole network.
I’m going to recommend something slightly different then everyone else… Watch some Cisco/Meraki webinars, and get a free, REALLY GOOD AP, Firewall, and Switch. Use these for as long as you can (up to the 3 years. After 3 years, the item is basically a brick unless you pay like $300+ a year). By that point, you should have the budget to make a good PFSense box, along with get a good AP (pls not router), and route some wired cable through your walls.
To get the free gear you need to use company email and be an IT pro. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that the OP is involved in IT professionally. Could try it though if OP has a non-public email domain.
You are correct, @DigitalBytes , but in my eyes, everyone is an “IT Pro” on this forum, can quickly make a website, and can quickly get a company email. Don’t forget to say that your home address is your business office, because us “IT Pro’s” have the capability to work from home!
https://meraki.cisco.com/tc/freeap
Business Email: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/free-business-email-address/
Company Website: http://www.hostingadvice.com/how-to/free-web-hosting/