New Home, New Homelab, New Office

So, December of 2025, I moved to a new home.

And, of course, that means moving my entire network, lab, everything.

Core Network

Remember the.... Portable DIN Network Shelf I made last year? (Sorry- I still need to publish part three I guess...)

Well, Since it was designed to be easily mounted and dismounted. Migrating the core network was as easy as disconnecting it, putting it in a vehicle, and transporting it to the new location.

To, get some internet up and running, I plugged it in, on the living room floor with a pair of access points.

This, was good enough to get the Wifi up and running. At least, after I found the correct power bricks for everything.

This- will be continued in the section for my Office

Existing Wiring in New House

So- the new home WAS wired for ethernet, in many of the rooms. HOWEVER, it was a massive mess.

Most of the network was in a cabinet in the livingroom. There was a mess of ethernet, coax, the NVR, and a few other items in here.

First step, was just to remove all of the unused wires. This made a huge difference.

Next, I went ahead and started removing all of the existing ethernet.

This is the ethernet, and hardware which was just sitting in the cabinet.

After doing that cleanup, I decided to go ahead and pull some new cat6 cable. BUT, the cables were getting stuck on something while pulling through the wall.

As it turns out, the WALLS were full of extra cable. Not, a few feet of cable. I'm talking, a very, VERY generous amount of extra cable.

I found all of this literally stuffed into the wall.

After getting new cables ran, and cleaning up the cabinet, it was starting to look much more presentable.

I did place my Amazon: goldenmate UPS¹ here. I have been pretty happy with it so far. Its one of the only LFP-based UPS options for consumers currently.

Office

Well, since I work from home, having a home office is a must. I did plan on putting the core network hardware in the office as well, to make it easier to access if/when needed.

Thankfully, the new home has... a room suitable for being a dedicated office.

It just needs a bit of organization... Especially as there is a lot more which will be placed in here.

But, first things first. I need a desk.

I did modify my desk slightly, and make a simple mount for my webcam. It was previously mounted to the bottom of one of my monitors, which was not ideal.

Throughout the entire process, A lot of attention was given to cable management. I do not like giant wads of cables everywhere. I don't want to see or trip on cables.

And... progress continued, slowly.

I intended to use the other side of my office for my electrical projects.

Running ethernet

So... next came running ethernet into this office. That, starts with a hole in the attic.

Then, make a hole in the wall (On the CORRECT side of the studs!!!!) and pull your cable through.

A few drops later... Including the GPON for WAN...

And, I was ready to mount the core network, gateway, etc...

A bit more progress was made on the back of the office too.

Server Rack

Relocating Rack

While, there are many ways to move a rack of servers, including unmounting everything, packing up the HDDs in foam... etc....

I did mine the easy way. I wrapped the entire rack in plastic, to keep dust, dirt and debris out, and then I loaded it directly into the trailer.

And... a few hours later, it had arrived to its new home, ready to be unloaded.

Since the rack has wheels... Easy as rolling it down the ramp. (well... a board.)

Getting Online

Next, I needed to run ethernet from my core network, back to the server rack. For the time being, it will be just a piece of ethernet, while I search for the ideal place to store the server rack in the future.

Since the garage was on the other side of the office wall, I made a hole through the wall for running ethernet.

Which came out, as expected, in the garage.

I PLANNED on just connecting the rack at 1G, since I only had old cat5e pulled from the new house, but.... I didn't seem to have any 1G SFP+ modules.

So, instead... 10gbaseT modules it was.

After connecting to the core network, and the server rack, Just needed power.

As my Homemade 2.4kwh UPS had been working great for many years, I reused it here. Plug it into the wall, and plug the server rack into it.

And, boom. Server rack is online.

As a benefit, it makes a pretty lightshow in the garage at night.

Next Steps?

The next post in this series will be about rewiring the house with new CAT6, Building a networking closet..

I am going to add a few patch panels, and a few dozen ethernet drops.

There are around one dozen drops for rooms alone, and almost another dozen drops just for security cameras.

For, an early sneak peak.... There is a healthy amount of cable. This is nowheres near completed either.

---

1. Amazon Affiliate Links Used

   This post DOES include Amazon affiliate links. If you found this content useful, please consider buying the products displayed using the provided links.

   You will pay the same amount as normal, however, it does provide a small benefit to me. This benefit is usually used to purchase other products and hardware for which I can review / blog about.

   I do not display advertisements on this site. As such, the only compensation from this service, comes from affiliate links. I do not ask for, or even accept donations.

   ↩