My first Home network was based on a Microsoft Small Business Server, dual CPU, 2 GB Memory, dual NIC card and two 75 Gig Hard Drives. Very sweet machine, always running, no crashes, one of the most reliable appliances in the house.
Behind the server I had a 24 Ethernet ports 10/100Mb HP switch to distribute to a network printer, 3 PCs, 2 laptops and a wireless ‘extender’. In front of the Server I had a cable modem connected to a firewall with the 1st NAT layer and 4 Vonage VoIP interfaces.
The wiring was made of good plain Cat5 cables.
Everything worked well but the wireless network. The box I had didn’t offer IP pass-through as an option so it had its own NAT and it was impossible then to logon onto the server! I never resolved that problem entirely.
Microsoft Small Business Server is quite an expensive tool for a home ($1,500 for 10 seats) but it offers all the features to make life easier: exchange server, file sharing, printer sharing, fax sharing, access control (great for kids), powerful firewall, internal website, media server etc…
Bottom line, I was very pleased with my home network!