Sigg3: I mostly work in commercial and industrial spaces. I don't do a lot of residential wiring other than my own, and friends. I'd love to hear what options and factors you considered before starting.

Star topology is the only one that actually makes any sense for Ethernet cabling. I've never seen or heard of anyone doing it any differently.

I love to have a ton of extra Ethernet, and RG-6 cabling. Remember with RG-6 to disconnect all of the spares from your feed, and cap all of your unused feeds at your multipliers (or use smaller multipliers with fewer outputs). Otherwise you you'll get signal degradation. Only leave connected the ones you're actually using.

I'm looking forward to hearing your episode.
