What is Digg?38 Comments
- adeboer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"installing network cables throughout your home is so last millenium. its all about wifi now!
You're an idiot. One why reason wireless routers are so popular today is b/c the majority of people live in houses with without existing cat5/6 lines installed. If your smart and building a house, you'll run cat6 with a patch panel as well as having your phone system built into it also...
Why is it smart to have cat5/6 installed in a newly built house?...
1. security (wireless in insecure)
2. new generation devices and appliances (security cams, refrigerator (yes, it coming)
3. entertainment systems (tv, tivo, xbox/ps2), etc.
Do your research before making a bogus claim. I can't stand it when people talk out of their butt and act like they know what they're talking about... - ozjmu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1From a former cable monkey: Nicely done, rokane!
I still can't go into a crawl space without breaking into a cold sweat ;) - _jd_, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nicely done. I would recommend getting a patch panel rather than terminating into connectors. Getting a good crimp on CAT-5 can be a chore and a 110 punch block is much easier.
- madd_matt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What would be more interesting would be some tips on running in existing walls. Because thats what i'm doing.
- aquax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good article, but seriously needs to be updated. It was made in 2001, so gigabit ethernet was just barely showing up in machines.
I hope when my parents remodel their house, I can convince them to spend the extra dough to wire up in this method. - 298th_Scat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That is pretty sweet but seriously I wouldn't want to wire all those ethernet jacks what a nightmare.
- glitchbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0where's the cat6 and cat7?
- willywalloo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0YES. Internet is funky here. (it's wired--but doesn't mean anything)
- scorpioX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I did this when my house was built a year ago. 1300+ feet of Cat6, 12 panels, 24 terminals all into a patch panel, then into a 24 port 1Gb switch and out through the internet router. Works great and is essential for those dead corners of the house that Wi-Fi won't reach.
The only thing I would have done different, is to add an external connection to the front of the house for a security camera. But that's not really a big deal. - Sibertank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very cool.. If I get my house built I would want to do this for shure if I had enough money!
+Digg - coldsteel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm not sure this is completely realistic. I had my house wired when it was built as well. Point one my builder (and this seems to be a common thing) will NOT let you bring in your own people (and sure as hell not the buyer) to wire up the house as it is being built you have to use their contractors (you get to design all you want to - which I did). I have every room with at least one panel (some rooms two) each panel with network, telephone and TWO sets of cable jacks. Everything comes back to a master panel in my basement with the network panel being an Ethernet patch panel. The ONLY thing that the contractor screwed up on was that I wanted all of the wires run through a pipe from attic to basement with each floor connecting through the pipe so that if a wire went bad after the walls and ceilings went up, pulling a new cable would be easy - he hardwired everything instead (Ive had no problems but that did piss me off and he did cough up a rebate for not following instructions). He had also suggested wiring up front, side and rear doors as well which I did as it was cheap to do (maybe another 150 or so). I've never used the door setups but if I ever wanted to put up network cameras they are ready to go with power and everything right there. Wireless is fine but wired has its uses - my home server, firewall, routers are all in the basement as is my video capture server (uses Beyond TV) to capture satellite or cable (for local TV) right as they enter the house and from there you can grab the video and audio files off the network or I send the signal (two cable jacks in each room remember ) anywhere in the house for the TVs (or whatever) to pick up.
- willywalloo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0After giving it some major thought, I'm more and more against wired installations for data/network purposes in house. Only because of the fact of wires. Wireless can be encrypted--though I don't honestly care at all whether it's not because banks/etc encrypt data when processing credit cards most of the time.
I'm going to throw that out. To do an installation like that wirelessly, would take considerably less time if using pre-N stuff, and very close speeds 100MBit hard-line speeds.
Defunking dead spots in houses, I'm going to say you have gone one step further of lazyness and need to wire up another accesss point.
Let's assume for this price/comparison, you are either going to do a wireless installation or fully wired installation. Utilize only the top in both fields for speed.
I don't see the benefit; unless your paranoid; and everyone is entitled to that right. Also speed can be somewhat of a concern. Cost-wise, the average home may need 2 wireless access points(2 routers if belkin pre-N) and maybe 100 feet of cable (if you use Apple's Airport Express, they act as a relay point, and don't need extra cable, I only know about this brand) = ~500 $ max + 2 hours of work. Cable-Only : 1600 feet of cable + various 1gb switches/routers can easily set you back $1000+. + 20++ hours of time (if you do 8 jacks)
Benefits to Wireless:
-----------------
•No cables through out the house, in-ceiling/wall only, minimal.
•Can rearrange room anytime without hassle.
•WEP - "Security"
•Easily Upgradable - adding more computers requires no setup.
•Cheaper; easier to diagnose bad connections. no computer to wall 'wires' to go bad. (50 $ Belkin pre-N computer kits are ~$50 with mail-in. x 8 = $400(8 wireless access belkin pre-N cards) + 178 (routers belkin pre-N) =
[ 578 $ ]
Benefits to All Cable:
•Faster speeds, if using 1GBit stuff.
•Cost: 366$ (1Gbit router (netgear 8-port--no wireless) + 265$ for 1000 ft of cable. = [ 631 $]
Conclusion for 2005/average user:
I want to actually have some nice food and have time to eat it too; so I'll go with the 578 $ wireless pre-N option, utilizing technology to make my house easily expandible to accomodate more computers/components where ever needed. With wireless, you can grab the signal and change it into a wired pulse where ever needed (as if using an X-BOX/Nintendo Revolution(rumored to be wifi?)
===
belkin pre-N router: here
netgear 1g-bit router: here - willywalloo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0belkin pre-N 100Mbit/s wireless router
http://www.buy.com/prod/Belkin_Wireless_Pre_N_Router/q/loc/101/10385729.html
netgear super-fast wired router 1Gbit/s
http://www.shentech.com/fvx538na.html
-highly depends on your 'need for speed' and expandibility -- I would say the ideal network would have both wireless pre-N and wired 1Gbit. More money, LESS problems - maybe? - amishjim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0One of my many jobs was prewiring cable tv into homes so I thought of doing this too. I actually asked a local construction company about adding this feature to his homes as an option, he said he didnt think there'd be interest in it, lol.
- mojaam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeh, that's pretty much common sense. And as we progress, this will be standard. But the problem here is (for most of us) our houses are already built.
- richrmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"installing network cables throughout your home is so last millenium. its all about wifi now!
i tried wifi and wasnt happy try to transfer 100 meg file or more that ya got from bittorrent over wifi and that will explain why i went from wi-fi to cat6 gigabit connections in every room much happier now and can surf the web and transfer multigig files at the same time and not even notice - DownloadThis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"installing network cables throughout your home is so last millenium. its all about wifi now!"
Hardly. Broadband companies are now beginning to offer affordable packages with speeds as high as 50mbps down! (My for only $60 a month, my ISP offers me an incredible 30/2 package). I'm lucky if my computer upstairs (connected to my network wirelessly) can obtain speeds of 3mbps downloading files. Plus, for advanced users with file servers at home (for large music and movie collections), Gigabit LAN is the only way to go). - charliechaplan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0security camera......hmmm what u hiding in the house??
- jd230, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree that the cabling should be in conduits rather than stapled to the support beams. If your cable goies bad by rats, etc. you can run a new one. Or just run two to each room.
- Dolphinese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wiring? Try wireless:
http://www.joot.com/dave/writings/articles/wireless-linux-howto.shtml - jarjarbinks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0it's all about gigabit, and when moving those movies and tv shows from torrent, you need a good network to do it right. There's SOO many reasons for doing Cat5e/6 wiring in your home. It can be used for ANYTHING practically. Phone, security system, video with the right adapters on each end, etc. The sky is the limit.
The guide is good, but man that guy needs some help on this layout and design. Crutchfield provided a good guide on wiring your home and what studs you can drill into and how big of holes, etc. Might be worth checking out for you guys as it helped me when wiring my home. - sonynut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This story fits in with one I submitted.
http://digg.com/links/Wiring_Strategies_Installation_Guide_PDF_download - zdiggler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0having 2 Ethernet, one phone, dual Coax to every room in the house is just barely enough right now. Living room and entertainments rooms need to have at least 4 or 5 Ethernet behind where the equipments, at least 8 Coax for Satellite system, HDTV distribution, Whole house audio system, home control and Xtralink. Also need 2 Ethernet and phone cable near seating area, where you can hook up laptop to control and configure your audio system, video scalar, TV all kind of stuff. Entertainment hardware with Ethernet connection with web server built in for configurations is way to go now days.
Also good to have Different color Ethernet cables for different connection in each wall plates. All cables must be home run to Central Location in garage or basement, (Not in freaking Master bedroom Closet!!) with at lease a AC outlet connected to a nice surge protector.
I do this stuff for living and I'm sick of going to a multimillion dollar house that just got done and want to hang a plasma, they had their electrician run all their wires and they were no where nearly enough!!!
Plus they only run a Single coax to where plasma is going. and just like others people the builder has already sold them to finish the basement. Only option for me was to do wall fish if possible or tare down the sheet rock and run cable i need to their finished house. Charge them by hourly plus they have to hire a builder to patch them all after I was done. - dlichteman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0In our house we have the best of both worlds. Upstairs we have cat5 running up in the crawl space because there was no wifi when we got high speed internet. This is awesome cause transfering files is much faster than wifi. Then where the modem and router is we have a dlink xTreme g router for our laptops and the downstairs computer. We do Mac address filtering on the wifi.
- zdiggler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wireless sucks, I did a lot of Wireless networks around here. Small house no problem but when it come with huge multilevel house with a tons of crap on the walls, hardwood floors and a tons funitures become difficult. Walk aroudn with laptop all over house trying find a good place to install a bridge some time a few bridge. One place I was at they had a huge bick and graninite chiminey in center of thouse that stack all the way up to the attic. No wireless singnal was going past that thing I have to install 2 bridged just to bounce the signal from a only place I could get signal on the other side that need it. Even with that somebody fart it goes out!!
- ScratchMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Run the cable inside inner duct. It's like soft corrugated plastic conduit and can be easily bent around angles, yet protects lots of wire inside. This is always used when running fiber optic.
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Man, I remember when I wired my house with Cat5, I had to go into my damp dark crawl space. At times I was pretty sure I wasn't alone down there!
The worst part was fishing the wire up through the walls, my tape kept bringing huge chunks of insulation with it. But everything else was a breeze. - richrmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"•Cost: 366$ (1Gbit router (netgear 8-port--no wireless) + 265$ for 1000 ft of cable. = [ 631 $]"
smoothwall pc $free 1Gbit NIC $28 1Gbit 8 portswitch $80 1000 ft of cat6 $150
total
$258 - regedit2D, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I do this for a living, and it's a pretty good guide. I agree with the comment about the patch panel, but it would be just as easy to use cat5 for the phone as anything else. And you'll also want to work according to building code, otherwise you'll be in the electricians way and you'll get some feedback from his wires.
- spacecow10, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Someone already mentioned that it would be better to pull the wire through conduit. I think this is the best solution, but if you are going to fix it to the building framing, when you take it into the attic protect your wiring for gods sake! The author pontificated about people not laying the cable across the attic joists because it "might cause the twists to get messed up"!?!?! Come on man, use your imagination. What happens when you or someone else goes into the attic to add a new light circuit and you step on and crush your precious data cable? Or maybe you just trip on it and put a hole through your ceiling when you catch yourself.
Run the wire parallel to the joists (attach along the side of the joist) and use guard strips (1x2 is fine) along either side of your cables when you need to run perpendicular. If you are paranoid, you can put a piece of plywood over your guard strips to form a home-made raceway. - j0c1f3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Geeks...=P
- ScratchMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you're planning for the future, think 10 Gbps. But terminating copper for that speed requires difficult maintaining of the twist very close to the connector. And the allowed distance is pretty low. So drop some optical fiber in your walls, instead. At that speed, fiber termination becomes competitive.
- thehawk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pah! Damp creepy crawl space, try my attic in Florida. 110F most of the time and it's still creepy on top of that! Boo-urns to attics and builders who don't run wire with the house (though my house was built in 76 so methinks it wasn't really a concern)
As far as wireless goes. You'll get 100Mbps on wireless...if you're lucky with 100% signal...and you sacrificed a goat...under a blue moon...while jumping on one leg. Or 1Gbps on wired (the switches are pretty reasonable these days, and the NIC's are practically the same as 100Mbps). Even 802.11n isn't gonna be fast enough for full 1080i/p HD video which isn't far away. I don't know about you guys, but I've got some HD por...educational videos that need to be viewed and that wireless connection just ain't gonna cut it. - SaintStryfe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0it's not even that hard if the house is built - in my 180 year old farm house, we just dropped a trunk cable through the house to the basement, where a main router/switch feeds the lower floor (Den and Living Room), and another switch upstairs has a switch, which feeds two ports in two bedrooms, one of which has a wireless router hooked to it (to hook up two computers, a game system, and a network printer). All done with CAT5 crimps, done by my brother. I ran the cable. My dad did the hardware fixtures. Took about a weekend and a total cost of about 200$ including the switches, routers and wireless AP.
- willywalloo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0belkin pre-N 100Mbit/s wireless router
http://www.buy.com/prod/Belkin_Wireless_Pre_N_Router/q/loc/101/10385729.html
netgear super-fast wired router 1Gbit/s
http://www.shentech.com/fvx538na.html
-highly depends on your 'need for speed' and expandibility -- I would say the ideal network would have both wireless pre-N and wired 1Gbit. More money, LESS problems - maybe? - soccerob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0wow, i don't know that you need quite so many coax cables to be run, unless you're gonna put a tv in every corner you have... but this is a great idea for someone to follow. this looks like an ideal setup for us nerds. ha.
http://soccerob.com
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