Posted: 4/29/2007 10:54:46 AM EDT
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Me and Mjohn3006 are moving into a townhouse soon. I have an overwhelming desire to install network cabling throughout the house. I have pulled cabling in offices before and am somewhat familar with the process and how I want to do it. I was wondering if any arfcommers have done it or do it by profession and what advice they might offer up. Thanks. -Foxxz |
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I wired up my townhouse this way... Run the 2nd floor from the attic, run the first floor from the basement. Put a piece of conduit in the walls somewhere from the basement to the attic to make it easy. Switch, cable modem, and patch panel all in the basement. It's more cable to do it this way but it's easier then trying to go to floor 2 from the basement. Also, get the modular plates and put your network jacks on the same plate as your cable and/or telephone. Don't forget to put one behind the TV too. |
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Has a basement, 1st and second floor, as well as attic. There are 2 coax runs in the main 2 rooms we want to wire. One of these coax runs is from an old system no longer in use. May be able to use the boxes and the coax itself to pull the new cable although I do not know where the coax terminates. -Foxxz |
I wired my house, but I have a crawlspace and a single story. Of course as soon as I finished, I bought a wireless 802.11n WAP and haven't used the wired connections since  Disconnector |
I'm going to wire in cat 6. The only reason I'm doing this is because I wouldn't want to anger Mjohn's future children, who along with being tech savvy and requiring high bandwidth, will also likely be well armed.  -Foxxz |
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I install phone and network for a living. Make it easy on yourself and pull this to each location. It is a little expensive but worth it IMHO. This way you can move a tv if you ever want to and not have to worry about ever pulling cable again. The most comon problem I see is some homeowner wants to install only one cable at each location and then later wants to add anouther because they want their router in the basement and they also want to plug a phone in at their office. |
Actually, I was looking for that. Thanks! Do you reccommend that particular site or any other sites to get supplies from? I know home depot and lowes sell some of the stuff I'll need. -Foxxz |
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Plenum cable is used when installing cable in air handeling spaces, if you are just using it in your home don't bother. I would recomend using what ever you can get your hands on as long as it is quality cable (one brand is pretty much the same as anouther). If you know someone who works as a installer (or sometimes network admins will have one) have them come out with a tester and sheck your cable when you are done. Then if you have any problems you know what the cause is. I don't think you want to buy a tester for just your house tho, the Fluke tester we use is a little over 12 grand. Remember not to pull too hard on the cable when installing it (20 pounds max pressure). |
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<-- Electrician Good luck on using the old coax to pull anything new in. There's these things called 'cable staples' you see... you're best off going up into the attic and trying to run a metal snake down the hole where the plumbing vent pipe or riser is. Most times this is a straight run for installation ease. Might be your best bet, but don't get your hopes up TOO much. If the building is less than 10-15 years old, there's probably fire-blocking around all the pipe/cable penetrations from one floor to the next. Pulling runs of just about anything through a townhouse almost always ends up a nightmare of patched sheetrock and lots of drilling. They suck to work in for things like this. |
You got that right. Townhouses are NIGHTMARES when it comes to customizing anything. It can be done, but it's rarely easy or inexpensive compared to a single family home. Still, it's a worthy project. Be sure to read up on the handling requirements for high-speed networking cable. You need to be quite careful about how you pull the cable, bend radiuses, etc. Rough handling will reduce the speed capabilities of the cable. Also, I recommend installing 3GHz-rated, solid-copper center-conductor Quad-Shield RG6 coax cable. It may be a bit overkill, but given that it's a permanent installation, you're better off spending a little extra money on the cable to get the best stuff. If you go cheap, you'll hate yourself for having to do all the work over again to replace it. Run AT LEAST two CAT5/6 and two RG6 to each location. Double that for places that you KNOW will be primary entertainment equipment locations or primary computer/office/business locations. -Troy |
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I'm not running coax as the house already has it. Unless there is something wrong with it I'm not touching it. I think I'm goign to try to run 6 cables to every box if possible. Like mentioned here go into the attic and into the basement from the second floor. Try to find a place that rents a frequency based network tester to see if it will pass cert. I'm hoping it will easily do gig. 10 gig if I'm good. Thanks for the advice on bend radius and cable damage. I have read the same information on the net. I had no idea that tight bends might cause a problem in cat cable (though I am aware of it for coax since I'm a ham). Hopefully in a few weeks I can post my howto and success story on arfcom!  -Foxxz |
look into a linksys powerline network. it will save you from running wires that are already run.... well hopefully  link don't forget to setup encryption otherwise your neighors will steal your internet through the wall outlet 
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Even stapling CAT cables a little too tightly can fuxxor up the internal impedance and kill your throughput speeds and ultra high freq usability. Realistically though, you'll probably never SEE a difference in anything you'll do with a home network. Just tossing it out there for conversation's sake. The actual biggest killer in home networks is running CAT cables parallel to and too close to AC wiring (Line voltage BX, Romex, etc) The induced electromagnetic field makes LOTS of noise on tiny little copper wires that are near by. I've seen runs left absolutely unusable because some numbskull ran all the comm cabling in the same wall bays.  Nothing like having to make the guys gank out a few thousand feet of wire and start over from scratch. Boss don't like that. Try to run everything in EMPTY wall bays at least a couple feet away from any AC cables. Crossing over perpendicular (think in an X or +) isn't usually a problem but even a foot away might SEEM fine, but if the AC wiring next to it is a line with a heavy amperage draw, the corresponding EM field is bigger too. Avoid electrical stuff like the plague and you'll be ok.And it's stupidly obvious, but some people just don't think... Leave a couple FEET of extra slack BEYOND what you think you'll need at the termination points. Nothing like having to repunch a plug or jack when there's NO slack TO do it because a cable got mangled at the end during any sheetrock patching, painting, what have you... The few dollars extra you spend is WELL worth avoiding the potential for mind-numbingly aggravating changes/fixes later on. |
Those are cool. I might need them to get into some hard to reach places. Hams hate them for the interference they put out. But really I'm definatly shooting for gig ethernet. Someone has helped remove the plenum requirement which saves alot of money. Many of the offices that I see it used in run their cables on hangers above the drop ceiling so thats why they need it. Going to try for a maximum of 6 drops from every box. Going to measure how much cable + extra I will end up needing. Won't happen for a while but nice to ask well ahead of time. Thanks for the comments thus far! -Foxxz |
If those offices needed it then they have a plenum ceiling (no return air ducts just the space above the ceiling) however a lot of IT guys swear up and down that they have to have plenum cable because "it is better", I always just chuckle and bill them for the more expensive cable that they did not need (usually after a hour or two of arguing with them and listening to their boss chew them out for spending cash on something they don't need) |
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You mentioned that 10G is a desired feature. There are some things to bear in mind: -10G is still in draft, the last time I checked, but is probably going to be ratified the way it is. -It is recommended that one run Augmented 6 (6A), but there are mitigation strategies for existing Cat 6 installations, which allow 10G for UP TO 55m (I believe) -If running 6, seriously consider pricing the difference between UTP 6 and 6 Screened. -Certifiying 10G is not a matter of simply certifying each individual cable. We are now worried about coupling from pairs outside the jacket, versus inside the jacket. This is a hairy damn mess, which Fluke & Agilent recommend two different solutions to certification. Generalities: -Don't rely on Lowe's or Home Depot. Find a decent datacom supplier in your area, for example, Rexel. -Don't use any cheap knockoff Chinese crap, either for cabling or jacks, patch panels, etc. Rely on good manufacturers such as Leviton. -Take pride in your cabling job and keep distance from romex >= 8". If you must cross it, cross at a 90. -Don't tug the hell out of the cable - keep maximum pull force at about 25 lbs. Keep any eye out for the next week or two in the 'Do It Yourself' forum for a topic I'm posting on structured cabling for the commercial environment. I've taken a LOT of good pictures which documents best practices. -- Blake BICSI Registered Communications Distribution Designer ETA: Everything JB69 and Troy said is Good Stuff. |
I use a similar product around my house with a great deal of luck. NetGear Obviously can't have them go through any kind of surge protection. But it works like a dream, I use it with laptop so that the network moves around the house with me. (Have wireless, but also have some concrete walls and floors) |