coaxial cable

[herulach]

Cat6 is extreme overkill, cat 5e is fine for gigabit as long as youre not going over 100m.

The distribution amp is best placed wherever the signal comes in (by the antenna probably) but if its for sharing sky theres nothing stopping you doing one run to wherever is most convenient for the input then doing all the outputs from there.

[nvening]

Cat5e it is (tis what i thought)

Its not for Sky and so i suppose it should go in the loft, mabe the switch could go in the loft too? Then could i plug the router into say one of the sockets downstairs?

EDIT: Is there a brand of 5e i should specify or shall i just say good quality (his a good electrion)?

[nvening]

From my understanding you can use cat5 wirign for your telephone wiring as well, would this be a good thing to do?

I guess that it would basically need a whole other network of cat5 for the telephone?

I understand that the equvelent of the switch for telephone networks is called the "Network interface Device"?

Also I understand modern networks also use the spider/ star layout?

[herulach]

You can, but only if youre running 100mbit on it can you share the same cable, as it doesnt use all the pairs.

All the phone systems ive seen have just been a daisy chain style set up.

[nvening]

I suppose its better just to leave the telephone to the electrician who would have done loads, just tell him where to put the sockets. And the same goes for the TV cabling, but making sure he uses good type A cable.

And the same for the networking but I need to tell him where to exit all of the wires to plug into the switch. I think that the best place for this would be the cuboard under the stairs and also have there a normal wireless router which connects to the switch and so connects my network to the internet. If the fuse box went into the cuboard as well i wouldnt cause an interfearence would it?

Also am i correct in what i say about the switch to router setup?

If all of that is ok i think i have the knowledge to specify what i want installed, thanks so much!

[Funkstar]

are you doing multiple runs to each location with the Cat5?

I would. a single socket sized box can hold two Cat5 sockets so i would get two runs of cat5 to each location. Then get these wired back to the cabling cupboard and fitted to either more sockets or even a mini patch panel.

You can then connect each of these to the router/switch as needed, you donæt have to them all connected when they are not being used. You can also get adapters to fut a standard UK phone cable to either end, so you could patch a cable run to be either network or phone at any time.

I would do you a little diagram to make it easier, but i don't have the tools on this PC (Internet Explorer *only* here). Actually you should be able to fine something online to describe this better.

[nvening]

Well this is what i think you mean, bit like the old plan


However i dont really understand the phone bit, but would it not me better to have a seperate phone network?

Also four sockets will be running to bed rooms which would only really need singles sockets, which would save on cabling (is it possible to get splitters at all?

EDIT: I have had a look at the plans and i suppose double sockets is probably best for future expansion etc. I am planing to put a double socket whereever there is an arial socket, whcih makes 7x double and so 14 wires.

All going to the cuboard under the stairs.

[Funkstar]

the sketch is pretty much as i would do it, but add a second box next to the switch (not connected) that is a phone splitter. Then you can remove a patch cable from the switch and connect it to the phone splitter, turning that particular cable run into a phone extension rather than a data extension.

I would always go for double runs of cable. Cat5e is cheap, time (especially when using a contractor) is not. Running two lengths of Cat5 to each point not dowble your costs. OK the amount of cable is doubled, but you are still only buying onc front plate (all be it with two connectors), one back box and cutting one hole. Also if the guy has two pull boxes of cable then it doesnæt take any more time to run both together.

When you have run cable once, you don't want to have to do it again.

[unrealrocks]

You know that the ethernet protocol only uses 1 pair of cables inside cat5, running two cables is abit pointless when you can put upto 4 signals down one cable.

[Rave]

You know that the ethernet protocol only uses 1 pair of cables inside cat5, running two cables is abit pointless when you can put upto 4 signals down one cable.

Gigabit uses all four pairs.

[herulach]

You know that the ethernet protocol only uses 1 pair of cables inside cat5, running two cables is abit pointless when you can put upto 4 signals down one cable.

But not for gigabit, and it makes patching an arse.

You are better off with a seperate phone network, If it were me id do 2 runs of cat5 and 1 6 core phone cable to each room, gives you scope for 2 network and 3 phone points.

[jamena]

or you could set up a wireless network?

For the phone one main phone-line enters the house and plugs into the main base-station phone unit. You can then place secondary phone-units anywhere you like provided there's a convenient power-socket for the secondary base-station/charger unit(s).

For internet you can use wireless also - an 802.11g or 802.11a setup is typically plenty fast enough for standard broadband internet speeds. Wired networks are much much faster but only for inter-computer data transfers and sometimes for gaming wired is preferrable. If you do go for a cabled solution then cat5 will happily cope with internet and phones but you have to deal with the extra wall sockets everywhere...

On the TV (analog/digital) front the setup you should go for would be to place a signal amp as close to the roof antenna as possible, then run that to a distribution amp (this typically contains multiple signal amplifiers each of which feed one of the extensions you are planning to install (like a hub with spokes). Not sure about satellite. The longer the co-ax run the worse the signal is likely to be. I seem to recall that coax is well-shielded but relatively lossy (i.e. the signal strength decreases fast with distance)

[nvening]

Well i would definately be having a cox network because like you say satellite/ cable probably needs it. Also i would definatelly be having a wired phone network. Basically like basically all houses i would be having that, therefore i may as well create a gigabit network for the price of the cable at the same time!

Also i think i will have the phone network seperate as it just makes sense that way lol

Is this 1 6 core phone cable special or shall i just tell him to install a phone network?

[nvening]

So , is this right?

[Funkstar]

not quite. have a look at this


any of the cat5 extensions coming from either the phone socket multiplier the switch or the router can be patched into any of the hardwired data extensions. The only down side is you will need adapters to take the phone extensions from RJ45 (Cat5) to the standard phone socket, but these should be pretty easy to get ahold of

[nvening]

I dont want to do the "using network lines as part of the phone network" thing as there will be phone sockets in the rooms where there will be network sockets.

Therefore does that make what i want to do correct?