Wiring CAT6 around a house

[SiM]

Has anyone done this before?

I have an empty house (with no interior walls) and I will be doing the electrics soon... I thought, why not wire up with some CAT6 and put a couple of ethernet faceplates in each room while I am at it

This is what is on the shopping list so far:

300m of Cable:
http://www.blackbox.co.uk/products/d...1000&tx=2&sx=1
What's the story with Cat 6A? Is it worth spending the extra?

24 port gigabit switch:
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop...ProductID=8154
or
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop...ProductID=4151
or
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop...ProductID=8157
Which one should I get?

Faceplates/Sockets:
http://www.cdlmicro.co.uk/html/show_product.php/pid/647
I need to buy back boxes separately, correct?

What is a patch panel? Do I need one?
What am I missing?

[oolon]

Cat 6 is a waste of time, as nothing supports the additional bandwidth it provides over cat 5e, if you want something that can do 10G in the future then get Cat 6A. Cat 6 is harder to work with, more easily damaged and less flexible than Cat 5e. If you get Cat 6A cable make sure you terminate it with Cat 6A plates, failure to do this will cause problems. If you really want to go to town you could put some fiber in as this will provide you with the best expansion options particularly if you have a couple of locations you would like to link up very fast.

BTW that face place is not Cat 6A rated you may have problem fitting the cables, and them working to the full potential. You don't need a patch panel, just they can be really useful if you have a lot of cables going back to the same location, as they are cheaper than lots of wall boxes. A "patch panel" for real structured cabling however is quite like plumbing, and joins two locations together no equipment in it, in your setup your probably going to be putting your switch in the same location as your panel. This is another reason for putting in more cables as being able to join one room directly to another is very useful.

Standard advice here... Install more cable, always install 2 or MORE 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.

Errr switches... hmmm those ... none of them! If you must get the SMC SMCGS24C-Smart EZ as it has some combo ports on it for fiber and it can do VLANs, and so it might be of some use in a larger network.

Here are a couple of thread to read here and here. Come back with any questions!

[aidanjt]

1. Only if you plan to have a 10Gbps LAN in the next 10 years.
2. Whichever is cheaper.
3. Yes.
4. It's just a mechanical panel for terminating the cable so you can patch sockets to the switch. You don't need one, you can directly terminate the cables with RJ-45's. Although patch panels arguably make the job neater, particularly if you're going to rack mount your network gear.
5. An IDC punchdown tool, an RJ-45 crimper, and a stack of RJ-45's.

[Agent]

Can't disagree with anything oolon has said.
Our house is entirely CAT5e, even the phones. I had some CAT6 but decided it was a bad idea after killing the first cable through being a bit rough with it.

My personal opinion is to go with CAT5e too.

[SiM]

Thanks guys. I will go for CAT5e and save some money

I didn't see those other threads
I should have searched first!

[Stringent]

Did a CAT6 training course ages ago. Its SO fiddly and fragile its unbelievable! But if you want to be different go for it! lol!

[xPETEZx]

Id defiantly aggree that you should run at least 2, and preferably 3-4 cables to each panel.

We did our whole house in Cat5e, and ran only 2 cables to most places. Now I want to add a couple more devices, or Team connections, and need to either run another cable, or use a another switch.

[Apex]

Sim, if you have not baught the kit yet can i adv you to either get a 48 port switch ( depends if you see your self expanding... ) or at least a 24 port Managed switch.

[aidanjt]

Sim, if you have not baught the kit yet can i adv you to either get a 48 port switch ( depends if you see your self expanding... ) or at least a 24 port Managed switch.

It's a house installation, not a command underground bunker.

[peterb]

Sim, if you have not baught the kit yet can i adv you to either get a 48 port switch ( depends if you see your self expanding... ) or at least a 24 port Managed switch.

You don't need to buy the switch at all at this point - and you don't need to have all the ports 'live' so you don't need a switch port for each room port at this stage either.

Think about where the central point (s) will be, that is, where all the cables run back to. Without knowing the layout of the house, you might find it easier to run all the upstairs cables to one point upstairr, downstairs to one downstairs point with a cable between thge two and two switches. Or run thenm all back to a central point - whichever is convenient.

As others have said, you don't need a patch panel, you could terminate the wires back to RJ45 sockets mounted in standard wall plates, but a patch panel may be cheaper and easier. You could terminate the cables in plugs to go directly into the switch, but I wouldn't recommend that as you will be using solid cable for the cable runs, and RJ45 plugs are better used with stranded patch cable. A patch panel also looks tidier and a lot neater!

You may need some trunking to contain the cables where they emerge into the central point, and if you are going to make your own patch cables, you will need a tool for terminating those, some flexible (multistranded) cat5e cable and probably the coloured protection boots. However patch cables are pretty cheap, so you nmay prefer to buy them ready made.

[oolon]

Sim, if you have not baught the kit yet can i adv you to either get a 48 port switch ( depends if you see your self expanding... ) or at least a 24 port Managed switch.

I think a 48 port switch is over kill, if you need the extra ports, a 24 port Gigabit switch combined with a 24 port 10/100 switch with gigabit uplinks works out significantly cheaper, many things don't support gigabit like print servers, voip phones etc. I would agree with you about managed switches, unfortunately people don't see the wisdom of them until they start filling quite a few ports and using second switches. if your starting out, I would try to see if I could get away with something like the GS116, which also has the advantage of not sounding like am aircraft taking off as it has no fan. When you used your network a bit you can then decide what best fits you needs when you start using 16+ you really need to think about vlans, as you probably have media devices and voip equipement if you get a real switch (managed), you can then start doing QoS, to make sure some large file transfer does not take out your phones! I am using 23/28 ports (10/10/100) on my primary 5/26 on my secondary (10/100+2 1000), and 6/10 on my living room switch (10/100/1000). All switches are managed, primary is layer 3 managed.

[SiM]

Thanks guys. What is your opinion of the Dell Powerconnect 5224 switch? It looks good to me and I have been offered one at a reasonable price (by PM on this forum).

Will this cable do the job?
http://www.blackbox.co.uk/products/d...1000&tx=2&sx=1

Patch panel.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Newli...9-Rackmount-2U

Crimp tool.
http://cpc.farnell.com/_/ht-l2172r/8...ool/dp/TL07303

Punch tool.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/KRONE-Type-P.../dp/B000Q84THG

[oolon]

So Sim your going for the cat 6 then? because that cable/Panel is.
Punch down tool is fine.
Crimper has a ratch in it good (I would buy the cables personally, they are pretty cheap, if you really want cat6 cable the patch cables are a NIGHTMARE to make).

You do not see to have any kind of structured cable tester, how do you know you have wired it up right? You need one with a detachable end so you don't have to run a cable back to your patch area for testing. Something like this.

How do you intend to mount that panel to a wall? Going to get some kind of rack? You could get something like this.

That switch looks quite nice does QoS, Vlans and has 4xSFP, layer 2 managed so if you did use Vlans your need a machine to be your router between Lans. I would be very happy with that as my first switch. I have heard dell switches can be a little loud so make sure its out of the way, you could always rack mount it. If you have a 19" rack, personally I would use a metal band and strap it to the wall under a mini-rack as in the above link. So it all takes the minimum space.

[SiM]

D'oh, sorry posted wrong link. I meant this:
http://blackbox.co.uk/products/displ...1000&tx=2&sx=1
Do you know of some cheaper/better quality cable?

Is the patch panel backward compatible with cat5e?

I plan to plug in a router where the switch is for testing. Is this sufficient?

[jim]

Excuse me for being nosey, but I always see these threads and wonder - what do you intend to use 24 ethernet cables for?

[SiM]

Excuse me for being nosey, but I always see these threads and wonder - what do you intend to use 24 ethernet cables for?

2 in each bedroom, except mine which will have 4, 4 in lounge, 2 in kitchen, 2 in dining room. I probably won't use them all. Not sure how many I will put in the bathrooms

They can be used for video and telephone, not just for the network.