Installing Ethernet Cable between rooms

[holygamer]

My router is downstairs. My room is upstairs. I'd like to connect a Cat6 ethernet cable between the 2 to connect them. However ethernet cables are quite fat in diameter and wouldn't look good on skirting boards as we already have a phone cable on them.

Can you get thinner diameter ethernet cables?

What about flat cables. How do you install them under the carpet? Do they just stay in place by the weight of the carpet or do you need to nail them down?

Any product recommendations? I'd like a good quality cable that will give me a stable connection.

[DDY]

What about cat5e? That stuff is cheaper, thinner and bendier than cat6, yet for consumer level stuff will perform the same.

I've installed lots of cat5e under carpet myself, often making use of the gap between the stick with nails and the soft padding - don't know the terminology sorry!

[holygamer]

I want Cat6. Might as well get it to future proof myself. How do you install flat cabling under the carpet, especially the carpet on the stairs?

I don't know what you're referring to in the 2nd paragraph.

[kalniel]

I want Cat6. Might as well get it to future proof myself.

Why is cat6 any more future proof than cat5e?

[starkyller]

best option is to get a flat cat6 cable. something like this I guess http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/network-ca...0m-white-n88na to hide under the carpet

[herulach]

Why is cat6 any more future proof than cat5e?

This, when are you going to need 10G in a domestic scenario? Thats not no one will ever need more than 64k of ram. Thats what, 40 concurrent 4k video streams. If you're going up stairs, see if you can follow the heating pipes and get the floorboards up, much neater. Or just get AC wireless. I'm quite happily sat on the otherside of the house getting .9GBps connections from my AC router.

[holygamer]

What does AC Wireless mean?

I don't want wireless or homeplugs. I want a connection that is completely stable and there's no possibility of it disconnecting.

[Agent]

What does AC Wireless mean?

I don't want wireless or homeplugs. I want a connection that is completely stable and there's no possibility of it disconnecting.

Wireless AC is a speed standard. If you don't want wireless, don't worry about it.

You want a wired connection by the sounds of it. But I totally agree with all the above. You don't need, or probably want CAT6 (have you tried to install it?).

In my house I just drilled a hole to the outside, went up the side of the house with external Cat5e, and then into the loft. I then have a cheap switch and bring the cables down into each room as needed. You could just go inside -> outside -> into room, if that's easier.

[peterb]

If its flat cable, it isn't cat 5 or cat6 - cat 5/6 specifications also refer to the form factor. Those cables may have the ame electrical specification as cat5 and 6, but that is as far as it goes. Cat 6 is thicker and harder to bend because the conductors are thicker - thats why its cat 6. If you want thinner cables, use cat5e.

There is a brief comparison between the electrical specification for the various categories of cable here:

http://www.xmultiple.com/xwebsite-forum24.htm

But unless you are running cable in excess of 100metres or more, using cat6 over cat 5e is a waste of money and a load of hassle because the cable cores are bigger, stiffer and the cable a lot harder to handle and terminate. If you really want to future-proof and you have deep pockets, lay fibre. Otherwise stick to cat 5e.
I currently do what agent does - hole in the wall, length of external grade cat5e along the external wall and in to the room where the router is. In my last house, nearly every room was cabled with cat5e. In each case I use Gbit switches and it works perfectly well, and I doubt cat6 would give me any speed improvement at all.

This is the TIA spec for cat6

http://www.rm-electrical.com/publish...formation/cat6

There is an easier to understand (!) version here

http://www.csd.uoc.gr/~hy435/materia...20Standard.pdf

which includes cat5e,. This document is really for commercial installations, but the principles hold good for domestic as well.

BUT - to save you reading all this - Cat5e will be sufficient for your needs. If you want to use flat cable with a claimed equivalent performance of proper cat5e (not that you will be able to easily verify the performance() then that will probably be OK too, and you can lay it under carpet (preferably near the periphery of a room, near the skirting board where it doesn't get much traffic) without nailing, stapling ot gluing it down.

If, despite this, you still want to use cat 6, you must pay atention to the maximum bend radius, fastening (don't pinch, twist or squash the cable, because if you do, you will affect its electrical characteristics and degrade that performance that you have paid for. (the same is true, but to a much lesser extent, of cat5e, but it is generally much more forgiving)

[Biscuit]

If its flat cable, it isn't cat 5 or cat6 - cat 5/6 specifications also refer to the form factor. Those cables may have the ame electrical specification as cat5 and 6, but that is as far as it goes.

There is a brief comparison between the electrical specification for the various categories of cable here:

http://www.xmultiple.com/xwebsite-forum24.htm

But unless you are running cable in excess of 100metres or more, using cat6 over cat 5e is a waste of money and a load of hassle because the cable cores are bigger, stiffer and the cable a lot harder to handle and terminate. If you really want to future-proof and you have deep pockets, lay fibre. Otherwise stick to cat 5e.

100% this

[Jonatron]

Fibre's actually an interesting option here...way smaller than CAT5/6. A media converter on the router end, and a fibre NIC in your PC and you're sorted. More expensive, but future proof and smaller so less unslightly cable.

[mikeo01]

As mentioned above, assuming this is >Internet you won't even saturate the bandwidth probably, so in all honesty unless latency to and from your router downstairs is a major issue I would just opt for wireless over anything.

802.11AC or even 802.11N (not draft N) will be fine. AC can run in higher frequencies so you'll have even less chance of wireless channel overlaps with neighbours.

[RobbieRoy]

Just to ask, but is the home plug route at all useful in such circumstances?

[peterb]

I've installed lots of cat5e under carpet myself, often making use of the gap between the stick with nails and the soft padding - don't know the terminology sorry!

gripper strip and underlay!

[b0redom]

If you don't want to start pulling up floor boards and carpet, the D-line stuff is quite tidy. I use that to run cables around the living room, and unless you specifically are looking for it, or where the cables run up the walls as opposed to along the skirting boards, you can't even see it.

http://www.d-line-it.co.uk/

[Biscuit]

If you don't want to start pulling up floor boards and carpet, the D-line stuff is quite tidy. I use that to run cables around the living room, and unless you specifically are looking for it, or where the cables run up the walls as opposed to along the skirting boards, you can't even see it.

http://www.d-line-it.co.uk/

I use this stuff too, it is very very subtle