I just bought a house (closing in < 2 weeks!) and want to set up a better network than I have right now.  Having never wired a house or anything substantial for internet, I'd like some validation on what I'm planning. 

I've done some math and figured out that there would be 7 ports throughout the house that I'd want to set up:
* 1 in each of 3 bedrooms
* 1 in an outside "bonus" room
* 1 in a living area
* 2 in a common area - 1 for the Xbox and 1 for general use (like a desk)

I currently have a 4-port Linksys wireless N router, but I don't believe I want to use this as a primary router for a couple reasons:
* I want to install the networking hub in my utility room inside of cabinets.  This would put the wireless signal coming from a non-central part of the house, AND it would be close to electronics that could disrupt it, specifically, the washer/dryer.
* It only has 4 ports; to get this setup I'd need at least 7.

I still want people plugging into wired networking to get a dynamic IP address unless otherwise configured, so here's the final setup I've come up with:

Cable company -> Cable modem -> Wired router -> 8-port switch

The switch has cabling to each room connected to it and is the central point.  However, with an 8-port switch I'm not able to connect any additional devices (7 rooms plus connection to the router).  The connection to the Xbox will then go through my wireless-N router which will be configured as a gateway (so DHCP functions are disabled).  All DHCP assignment should be handled through the main wired router.

Ultimately, connections might look like this:

* Cable company -> Modem -> Wired router -> Switch -> PC
* Cable company -> Modem -> Wired router -> Switch -> Wireless Router -> Wireless Network -> PC
* Cable company -> Modem -> Wired router -> Switch -> Wireless Router -> Wired port -> Xbox

Is this correct?

I don't see why that shouldn't work besides the obvious switch port count being lower than desired. I think it all depends how "fancy" you want to get with your network. From my experience working in data centers for my college and for a bank, I find that you would want to keep things simple in this situation, but not to simple that people can break your network. The more complexity that you put into it, the more robust it generally becomes, but I think it's a double-edged sword, in the fact that the more complex you make something, the more security becomes a concern.

I like this quote,

"Complexity is the worst enemy of security. Secure systems should be cut to the bone and made simple as possible. There is no substitute for simplicity. Unfortunately, simplicity goes against everything our digital future stands for."

I also might just buy a 24 port Cisco Catalyst 3550 Switch off ebay for a 100 dollars. It's not much more than your 8 port switch and not to mention is has an enormous amount of features that you can play with (Routing, QoS, VPNs, VLANs, NBAR, Security).

Where are you going to place the Wireless router, near the xbox? If you purchase the 3550 and plug the xbox into it, you can set wireless traffic as high priority, xbox as second, and filesharing(?) third and all other fourth.

Just some things to think about and a lot of this depends on how well you can configure a router. Ask and I can supply some configuration files for you. Oh and this justt popped into my head, you can even create an IP-based security system with cameras, etc to watch your house and connect it to your switch.

[quote author=MrRaza link=topic=17726.msg180599#msg180599 date=1228163105]
I also might just buy a 24 port Cisco Catalyst 3550 Switch off ebay for a 100 dollars. It's not much more than your 8 port switch and not to mention is has an enormous amount of features that you can play with (Routing, QoS, VPNs, VLANs, NBAR, Security).
[/quote]

You bastard. My dad bought a slightly lower end model switch and paid full price. That was a pretty penny. :'(

The one thing I'd change is at your xbox/desk pc just have a switch there instead of using WiFi.

So -- Cable company -> Modem -> Wired router -> Switch -> Common Area Switch -> Xbox/PC

I do that when I have multiple devices in one area to avoid multiple cable runs or using WiFi for devices that can be hardwired. Also I use CAT6 instead of CAT5 so that I can transfer files quickly throughout the network.

Also on my network I installed FreeBSD on my older computer so that I could use it as a router, the advantage here is that it's very versatile, powerful, stable, and I can still use an otherwise useless PC.

I'm going to use Cat5e which still supports gigabit.  It's about half the price of Cat6.

I also want the wifi connection so I don't have to do the silly thing to plug in my laptop when, you know, I'm sitting on the couch or something.

I'm not using wifi to connect my Xbox - the Xbox will be plugged into one of the wired ports on the wifi router.

[quote author=MyndFyre[vL] link=topic=17726.msg180638#msg180638 date=1228324194]
I'm going to use Cat5e which still supports gigabit.  It's about half the price of Cat6.

I also want the wifi connection so I don't have to do the silly thing to plug in my laptop when, you know, I'm sitting on the couch or something.

I'm not using wifi to connect my Xbox - the Xbox will be plugged into one of the wired ports on the wifi router.
[/quote]

Yea. I'd recommend against the wifi xbox adapter. With my verizon fios I had connectivity issues when using the wifi xbox connection. It'd seem to drop me sometimes while playing on xbox live. I switched back to the wired setup and haven't had the issues.