Cat5e Wiring

[Cozwin]

Okay, just wanted to get some advice on this.

My mum and dads house (where I will be going back to till Uni starts again) has just had Virgin Media (new superhub) fitted in the front room, however like most we need broadband in various areas.

Old victorian house with stone walls, so wireless, well it just doesn't work. We also tried some basic 54mbps powerline things a couple years ago after a full rewire and they could never pick up right ip address (possible worth trying again? 200mbps ones?).

So I bought a reel of Cat5e from scan a year ago and never got round to doing it, but want to this summer, so I wanted advice, the current plan with my dad is to wire through cellar (loads of holes in wooden floor boards so easily done) and then take one cable to my dads office, one cable up to second floor or house and then plug that into a switch (also considering using a cat5 wall socket and then taking that to a switch) and then from switch to individual appliances with small cat5e cables.

Anything to change/adjust in this plan? any tips?

[Jay]

These days its the fire regs you have to be careful with.

[Cozwin]

explain?

[Tattysnuc]

Don;t see how Cat5e cabling has anything to do with Fire regs - its non power carrying (apart from the signal itself that it transmits) and it's in twisted pairs, so EMI is negligible. It doesn;t have to be certified for home use.

I did the same a couple of years ago - nearly finished now. Been an absolute triumph.

Only advice I'd give is make sure you plan the runs, and where you're going to put the switch or patch panel. They advise not to put the cables too close to mains lines because the mains affects the signal in the Cat5, Bit-tech or Tomshardware did an article on that a while back...

Might be worth a flick through....

http://www.swhowto.com/

One final thing - make sure you have:

1. A punch down tool - I used the blade sort for wiring the sockets
2. Plenty of face plates/sockets - if you need one outlet in a room, put in 2 cables to that point. You never know how your needs will grow, and they will! I didn;t realise you could use them for telephones and video as well! Not looked into those, but I wish I'd put more points in now when we had the floors up! (had to have a partial rewire prior to fitting parquet flooring)
3. A cable integrity testing tool only costs a couple of quid from ebay, and it'll quickly give you peace of mind that the run is good. You can pay more and get one that measures the signal strength also, but that's more for trouble shooting.

Other than that, it's a snip. Good luck!

[GoNz0]

run 2 cables where you intend to run one, comes in handy when you replan everything and want the router somewhere else! if upstairs poses a problem run the cable outside and come in through the wall. if drilling through external walls drill from the inside aiming down a few degrees to stop water coming in. always put a u in the cable where it exits the wall to allow water to drip off.

[Cozwin]

run 2 cables where you intend to run one, comes in handy when you replan everything and want the router somewhere else! if upstairs poses a problem run the cable outside and come in through the wall. if drilling through external walls drill from the inside aiming down a few degrees to stop water coming in. always put a u in the cable where it exits the wall to allow water to drip off.

Out of interest, how would you, 1. tack it to the wall? 2. is normal cable weather proof?

The current plan was to go up through the cellar, and we have a ledge/hole under the front door so it could be fed up past the door and to the second floor, but honestly it will be mental I suspect, for now unless I buy more cable I will probably have to just run one, but I can probably run a second later easier once I know the route.

[GoNz0]

yep its water proof, you could run it through trunking if you wanted or cable clips. up to you!

a reel of cat5 to me is 1000 feet or 305 mtr

hence saying double up

[Cozwin]

got 100 meters I think, so maybe 90 left after using it for some small cables.

[ISHOULDCOCO]

Out of interest, how would you, 1. tack it to the wall?

I bought a network cable compatible 'staple gun' from SCAn years abo
Got a box of silver and box of white cable "U" shaped staples with it

very useful

cannot see it now
but is pretty good (for a PC store )

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-...gs-accessories

Google for 'cable tacker'

COCO

[Jay]

Don;t see how Cat5e cabling has anything to do with Fire regs - its non power carrying (apart from the signal itself that it transmits) and it's in twisted pairs, so EMI is negligible. It doesn;t have to be certified for home use

lol

good point! I am so conditioned to wrking with CAT5 in businesses I forget that its different for home.

For me I would say the most important things are making sure you are organised and to run more than you think you will need (because you will always end up needing it!)

[Spud1]

Only thing I can add is make sure it's good quality cable if you are running anything outside - you REALLY want to be using booted Cat5e for any external runs, even if only short ones..otherwise you can get issues.

Cheap cable is problematic at the best of times, and every box i've bought from scan has been pretty poor (the internal wires being very fragile, and usually with very very poor colour coding..hard to tell white/blue and blue/blue when they both have only parts painted blue!), so if you do run into issues this is likely to be your biggest one

I guess the other major point is run lots of cable, and remember that if you are terminating into a wall socket it can be a real pain (especially with the previously mentioned cheap cable) so you may need multiple attempts at ending them in the sockets - so i'd try and keep at least 2-3ft sticking out of the wall at the end, you can always trim if needed.

It's all fairly straightforward though if you plan properly and get the right equipment - you can do a whole house for under £100 including all the cable, tools and sockets..then a decent gigabit switch is about £60 for an 8 port, or £200 for a 24 port.

[chrestomanci]

These days its the fire regs you have to be careful with.

The fire regs for offices and factories usually require the use of Plenum cable in any under floor or above ceiling air spaces.

Plenum cable is basically a special sort that does not catch fire so easily and does not emit as much toxic fumes when it does. Obviously it is more expensive, but I don't think by much.

I don't think the regs apply to homes, and in any case, your cabling plan is completely different from a typical office. If I where buying a new reel of cable for this project then I would probably checkout Plenum, but seeing as you already have some cable, you may as well use it.

[oldboy47]

As others have said, run two cables rather than one to provide scope for expansion. Keep your runs straight - up and/or along, no diagonals. Keep at least 100mm from any power circuits to avoid interference.

If you run outside, form a loop so that water will not run into the house via the cable and also use a good sealant.

[oolon]

Wire your cables back on one location, at most 2, do not jump from room to room. As everyone else has said, install 2 wires where you only wanted one, you don't have to connect all the wires you have into a switch until you need them, however 2 wires means you can put a second device into a room before you need to install a switch. Also you can get other devices which run over cat cable which are net ethernet. Terminate it in boxes, fly leads are annoying, as idle connections cannot be removed get in the way and damaged, also what ever lead you install ends up being the wrong length.

If you can install more than 2 cables! you don't have to connect them up to the boxes just leave them in the walls. Buy a second box of cable, that way you can pull 2 wires at the same time halving the length of time the jobs takes. You can buy cat 5e cable rated for exterior use, or you can run in this flexiable conduit, if you have lots of wires going between floors, you can use a drain pipe to keep them all together.

If you can come up throught the floor as you have alot less cable to hide, you can run cables in false skirting boards if you like. If you have a visable cable there is something to be said for running it arround the ceiling and painting it the same colour as the room rather than arround the floor as you notice it less.

Some threads for you

Some links to other wiring threads CAT wiring and this one and this one and this one!

More about hiding cables, here. and here.

The tools you might need is here.

[Bagnaj97]

If you're running cables outside you're meant to get UV protected cables (or use some kind of ducting) as the plastic insulation breaks down and becomes brittle over time in UV light. It's not so much a problem with network cables as you're not going to electrocute yourself, but if water gets into the cracked cabling it could cause shorts etc.

If you're doing any long runs or are forced to run alongside power cables then run cat6 rather than cat5e, the extra EMI shielding will reduce interference and crosstalk.

If you shop around you can also get flat cat5/6 cables. These can be more easily run under carpets or behind skirting etc, the downside being that you can't do a flat bend. Great for straight runs though!

[oolon]

If you're doing any long runs or are forced to run alongside power cables then run cat6 rather than cat5e, the extra EMI shielding will reduce interference and crosstalk.

Cat 6 is also unshielded it just has a separator to twist the pairs inside the cable, what you really need is STP (Shield Twisted Pair) rather than UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair). However most runs in houses even along side mains cables are not long enough to make much difference.