Wired Home Network Setup

[laywill]

I am currently in the process of having an extention put on the house, and in doing so am practically having the place re-wired and re-plumbed. I thought that if I was going to be ripping the entire place to bits, I might as well get the house wired up with Ethernet .

My current plan is to put a single gigabit ethernet port in each of the following rooms:

• Master Bedroom
• Bedroom 2
• Bedroom 3
• Bedroom 4
• Living Room
• Hobby Room (currently a bathroom )

These would link back into a cupboard in the Office, where the following devices would also be connected by gigabit ethernet:

• Family PC 1
• Family PC 2
• Multifunction Printer
• Laser Printer (on a print server)
• NAS (WD NetCentre)
• Wireless n Router (model: Netgear RangeMax Next DG834N)
• Media Server (not yet purchased)

I figured that this would allow everybody to have a PC in their bedroom, connect the PS3 to the TV in the living room and use it for on-demand media viewing and allow the family PCs and peripherals to be connected in the office with a few spare sockets on a 16 port switch (13 used).

I was planning on using to do this:

• Cat 5e (or Cat6?) cable
• a 16 port smart Gigabit switch
• one electrician (already paid for in building contract)

I have read S Kinton's thread "networking my house" which appeared in Knoxville's HEXUS.community round-up this week and noted that people seem to think it advisable that when wiring up a house you provide extra capacity and do a jolly good job of it first time around to avoid ripping the lot up at a later point (duly noted). I therfore wondered if anybody could suggest any improvements or criticisms of this suggested system?

Many thanks in advance!

[oolon]

Ok the standard advice to start with... install more cable, always install 2 wires to a room, you don't have to put ends on it, and if the first one fails you have a backup without pulling new wire through. A face plate can fit 2 just as easy as one. You can get low profile triples and quads too. If you install one in a room as soon as you want to install something else you need to put a switch in, also there are lots of other things you can install over cat cable that are not ethernet, KVMs, usb senders etc. In you living room drop to two different locations at both ends of the room. Just in case you move things around. Your hobbies room would probably benefit from extra connections too. Also where is your internet gateway? That should have its own line back to your core switch, you can always use this to route your phone line to your core switch... Cat does more that Ethernet!

I would go for cat 5e is cheaper and more flexible (to bend) and also less easy to damage than cat 6, there is more bandwidth in cat 6 but still not enough for 10G networking you need cat 6A for that and it is expensive and hard to install correctly. So no one makes equipment that users the additional bandwidth of cat 6, its just an ego stroke for people.

Its called structured cabling for a reason, you only have to plug the ports you want live do not feel restricted by getting a 16 port switch that you can only run X wires, around the house, connect what you need. In the future it will be cheaper to get a new switch than to install more cables, and it cheaper to have 1 or two switches in your core than you have a lots of additional ones dotted around the house, it all makes for a faster network.

[peterb]

As oolon syas - except that I would say run more cab le now, and consider how you might re-arrange room furniture in the future - in main living rooms you might want two (or 4) sockets at each end of the room.

Don't forget kitchen - you might want to stream music there, or dining room - in fact pretty much every room (well, maybe not the loo or bathroom).

And don't forget to consider layout in te room/area where all this cable is going to run back to. But S_kinton's thread covers most of it - and there have been several other threads in the last couple years if you search for them

[Lucio]

Since you have a couple of spare ports on your switch, you might as well make them ready, so with 3 extra points to allocate, I'd add 2 to the living room and 1 to the hobby room if it were me as those are the places most likely to end up with extra gadgets.

[Steve]

Just make sure whoever's running the cable knows what they're doing.

The electrician of somebody I know wired up all their network sockets into a ring, like a telephone line. This did not make them happy.

[Lucio]

Just make sure whoever's running the cable knows what they're doing.

The electrician of somebody I know wired up all their network sockets into a ring, like a telephone line. This did not make them happy.

I dunno, could have given them a reason to get the old spike connectors out

[Steve]

Heh, I think it's quite hard to spike into CAT5, and where's the markings so you know where to spike in? You get the distance wrong it all goes south

[oldboy47]

oolon has it pretty well covered and I too suggest Cat5 rather than 6. You may also think about outside data access - garden shed and the garage. You may also run a cable to where your central heating system is located. Don't confine your thinking to just computers. Cable is cheap and easy to install during a building programme.

[Funkstar]

Something else to add: Don't skimp and terminate the end at the switch with simple RJ-45 plugs. teminate back at the switch with either multiple wall units or a dedicated patch panel. that way you can make alternative ises of the cable runs. For instance, with a couple of little cheap adapters, a Cat5 run sudenly becomes a phone extension. With a couple of not so cheap adapters, and a patch cable between two ports, you can send the HDMI output of a BluRay player to your bedroom TV.

As peter said, there is a lot more to cat5 these days than just computer data.

[laywill]

You may also run a cable to where your central heating system is located.

Why? I think it is sensible (as suggested by oolon) that i double up cable to points, providing future expandability + backup, and add extra ports at opposite ends of the living room, plus in garage,etc.

Can somebody please just clarify for me if it is possible (and if so how can one) use Cat 5 cable as phone line, usb senders, KVM etc. BTW the main phone line will be in the cupboard with the switch, router and NAS. Also, if I just plug the router (Netgear RangeMax Next DG834N) into the witch and phone line, will it provide an internet connection to wired PCs and allow wireless connection to wired devices?

Thanks for everybody's help so far!

[oolon]

Its cat5e I said not Cat5 which is another standard which will not do gigabit, A cat cable is 4 twisted pairs, you only need to use one of the pairs for a phone line. In the simplest way you get a bt plug to RJ11 cables as used by a phone, cut it in half, put two RJ45s on each end only using 1 of the pairs plug it in and you have an extension lead, want the phone line in a different room? Plug it in a different port in your cupboard, you can aways route up to your "wiring cabinet", then down again to link two different locations.

KVM or USB over cat you need special device, Avocent amoung others do a range of them. Maplin list a USB over cat., note it is USB not USB2. HDMI over cat, noticed you need 2 cables to get the bandwidth for 1080i! I have not been shopping for best buys just examples, no idea if these are any good.

[GaryRW]

I know it's been done to death, but just to reinforce the "always put in at least x2 the number of sockets + cables you'll think you need" - I did my house a few months ago. It got the record for most obscenities out of my mouth in one weekend, but it was worth it. I only put one cable in each room though, and I'm already regretting it.

Cat 5e cable is cheap. Lay it everywhere. You don't even need to connect it. Might be an idea to write a few notes about where the unused cables are though....