Home Network Wiring

Merging vintage and modern in a 1940’s home

This is one of my posts on Network Security.

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I’ve seen other people writing blogs about their home networking cabinets and projects. I was itching to do this myself. However, there’s this thing called OpSec — or operations security. It has to do with people being able to find information about you online. I’m not sure how much it would matter if people saw photos of my networking setup in my house, but I have this take on security risk: If you don’t take the risk then you don’t have to analyze the severity of negative consequences.

Now that I’m moving and photos of my house on Alki Hill in Seattle will be online anyway, I thought I would explain what I did with networking in my old house.

Home Networking for Geeks and Those with Minimalist Tendencies

Basically, I wanted my stereo equipment and everything related to my TV and networking out of sight in my house. I also wanted to segregate my IOT devices and work laptops. I had already struggled to find a good location for my TV that didn’t face me away from the view of Puget Sound and the mountains. I don’t like TVs attached to a fireplace for whatever reason. I was also worried a fire would damage the TV. I had replaced the “vintage” red brick and brass fireplace with a more modern, flat, enclosed fireplace. As you can see, I used it. Whoever buys the house gets my leftover firewood as I’m not shipping that to Georgia.

I ended up putting the TV in the ceiling. Let’s just say that project turned out to be a bit more extensive than I estimated, but I got it working, 5 contractors later, including some high-end in-ceiling stereo speakers. The TV is bigger than it looks in that photo. The guy at Definitive Audio talked me into a high-end stereo receiver I probably didn’t need. I am not an audiophile. I’m trying to decide if I will sell it with the house or not.

So what about connecting the TV to the network? And of course, I need to connect streaming devices, the stereo receiver, and a manual override for the TV lift. I decided to hardwire this equipment. I find WiFi networks to be flaky and a pain to manage passwords on all the devices. Additionally, I had security reasons for hardwiring things instead.

Some WiFi network devices have security issues as explained in my book. It was also easier to segregate devices from one another and set up zero-trust networking that way, controlling traffic between IOT devices and laptops. Easier, not easy, and not always possible, as I will explain in a later blog post.

The wires ended up going into the attic and coming down into a hallway closet. The first guy literally put the wires through the ceiling into the closet. That was not my idea of a good solution. I wanted them in the wall. It took my four different contractors to get all the wiring right. I learned things, like the difference between high voltage and low voltage wiring. Do not hire a low voltage company to do high voltage wiring and vice versa. Some can do both but not all. I am not sure how applicable that advice is to people living outside the United States.

At first, I thought I might run the wiring to the basement but what a pain to go check something with the receiver in the basement, right? What I ended up doing was buying a stereo and networking rack something like this one on Amazon. The problem was, the rack wouldn’t fit into my hall closet. I had to hire a guy to build me a custom door just a tad bigger than my existing one. While he was at it, I had him make a removable wall section to get at the wiring in the wall panel behind the cabinet. That removable section also came in handy for the electronic shower controllers installed later by my plumber.

OK at this point I could hardwire my TV, Roku, and the override for my TV lift in the cabinet. Pretty cool. I got a network security device that had separate ports for segregated networks controlled by firewall rules. I used a separate port for my hard-wired laptop connections when I was doing something that I didn’t want interacting with all the “things” on my network. I added hard-wired network jacks in my office and living room that were wired to these ports. If I ever needed to plug in I usually had a hard-wired jack handy. One is located in a corner where I put a standing desk so I could work and look at the view. The other is near the couch and dining room. The other is in my office (or a second bedroom, if you prefer).

I plugged a switch into one of the ports for the less picky network (still a bit picky to block known bad traffic as much as possible). I hooked up my WiFi router and all the IOT things to that. I also installed an override manual switch for my living room lights in this closet. I put banana plugs in the wall to make it easy to connect and disconnect things, network jacks, and of course, an outlet. This set up allowed me to roll the stereo rack out of the closet and easily disconnect things without taking everything apart.

Cool. No wires in the living room almost. The only thing in my living room plugged in was the universal remote to control the TV lift, receiver, and Roku. I also had an Alexa in there but it wasn’t set up half the time.

Best of all, none of it cluttered the living room or blocked the view!

That’s just one of the many projects completed at this little house. You can find a huge house, or you can maximize the space you have, as I did in this one. If someone wanted they could raise the house, finish the basement and add a garage in the empty crawl space. I already looked into that and decided it was easier and more cost-effective than building a second story to get an even better view. But Alas, I am leaving that potential project to another creative person who thinks out of the box to merge the old and the new as I did in this little 1940’s hideaway near Alki Beach. I hope the next owner loves it as much as I did!

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Teri Radichel | © 2nd Sight Lab 2021

About Teri Radichel:
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⭐️ Author: Cybersecurity Books
⭐️ Presentations: Presentations by Teri Radichel
⭐️ Recognition: SANS Award, AWS Security Hero, IANS Faculty
⭐️ Certifications: SANS ~ GSE 240
⭐️ Education: BA Business, Master of Software Engineering, Master of Infosec
⭐️ Company: Penetration Tests, Assessments, Phone Consulting ~ 2nd Sight Lab

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