Slashdot Log In
Wiring A New House?
Posted by
timothy
on Sun Dec 09, 2001 01:55 PM
from the leave-some-holes-for-later-use dept.
from the leave-some-holes-for-later-use dept.
jbp123 asks: "I'm building a new house. Once the electrician has run the phone lines I want to run cat5e ethernet cable. I figure two drops to each of the 6 rooms with phone lines. I've never done this but my plan is to run the ethenet cable through the same path that the phone lines follow. I'll use up the rest of the 1000 foot spool by running a third cable to a few of the rooms. Ethernet cable is cheap. I found solid cat5e 1000 foot spools for $60 delivered so the decision to run cat5e cable is a no brainer. The question is should I run fiber? I really don't know how much the cable costs since I don't know what cable to use. It is much easier to run cable before the drywall goes in so I want to make an informed decision now. Ten years from now will I need/want fiber?"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Wiring A New House?
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 730 comments
(Spill at 50!) | Index Only
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Re:Problem with Fiber (almost forgot this) (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Fiber or UTP for Gigabit Ethernet (Score:5, Informative)
I just did my own wiring in the house that I just bought a month ago. I ran Cat5e, because it much more inexpensive and I design and install LAN/WAN equipment, and deal with fiber everyday. I hate fiber. The Transceivers along will run you $900 per end, that's a minimum $1800 per drop. Plus you will need to by the switches.
Why do that when you can buy a four port Gigabit UTP switch for less than $300 and Gigabit nic's for $44.
Re:On the other hand... (Score:5, Insightful)
Make sure you have an accurate map of their placement. Then let the sheetrock guys cover 'em up: most of the boxes will go unused. But the day you desperately need an outlet *right there,* you'll be eversothankful you had the foresight to have a hidden box ready to go...
Re:On the other hand... (Score:5, Insightful)
Run some beefy nylon string through the studs. This will give you the opportunity to pull cable in the future. Use separate holes, and smooth off the edges so that the chances of snagging are reduced.
(This, if you don't do the conduiting.)
Re:On the other hand... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:On the other hand... (Score:4, Redundant)
Wire what you WANT, and then add an extra run to your office, your wife's office, and behind your televisions. Don't forget the kitchen.
My new house was completed last April, and I've got 5e drops (2 or more per room) with a 100M switch in the "wiring closet" - an extra room in our attic. We considered fiber, too, but realized that fiber connections are just the flakiest things in the world. They're expensive, unreliable, and a downright pain, plus, it seems unlikely that we're going to be seeing anything faster than Gig-E anytime soon, so we're all set.
If, by some weird occurrence, fiber becomes standard sometime in the future, I can pull the rooms by cutting and tying off my 5e from the attic. I will have removed the 5e and added the fiber at the same time. No sweat.
More important than the cabling, make certain to get your primary computer room plugs on a different circuit from the rest of the room's circuit. THAT will come in handy. I have my office computer outlets and my wiring closet outlets on their own, separate circuits, and I don't feel too uncomfortable running what I want, now. Make sure you get extra outlets, too!
Fiber? What other cables. (Score:4, Redundant)
What about running Svideo and RCA to everyroom or an extra drop of cat5 to run sound on?
And as far as running the cat5 parallel to the phone, if your building the house why not set your cables into conduits, that way you can upgrade to whatever cabling you need in ten years.
Re:Fiber? What other cables. (Score:4, Redundant)
We have a 300m rj6 crap quality cable with 2 20db boosters and a high output on the VTR at the start and another booster at the end (before a proper industry booster and splitter with another 200m run from there).
If you need more then a 50m (150 foot) single run in your new house I'm envious.
However its all very well dropping in whatever cables you need, think about how you are going to use them - do you really want them all arriving in your basement? Drop a lot more cable down to your living room, just in case.
Might be worthwhile sticking some cheap speaker wire or 2 core mains flex down there too - if you need a signal.
And finaly, whatever you come up with, double it. A video signal to each room is fine, until you want a tv in there, and a camera.
Re:Fiber? What other cables. (Score:4, Redundant)
There are various (cheapish - under $100) ways of running video over Cat5. Personally, I've got Cat5 and audio cables into rooms, and run everything over that.
However, 2 per room is not enough. There are a number of reasons for this:
Don't bother with fibre. It's not going to get used. People have been saying "fibre is the next big thing" for 5 years now - and cable just keeps catching up. Video over Cat5 is cheap - so, instead of piping cable round the house, put all the set top boxes in one location, and remote control them. 100Mb Ethernet is very cheap - VHS video quality needs about 3 Mb/sec, so you can stream that across existing networks. Hi definition uncompressed video is more than 100Mb/sec - but 1Gb/sec over copper is on the horizon.
OT: Use plenum (Score:5, Informative)
USE PLENUM
Yes, it costs more, but it meets building code, and isn't nearly so flammable. Please don't be cheap and use the PVC stuff that will help housefires spread wonderfully just to save $100.
Running Ethernet With Phone Lines (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Running Ethernet With Phone Lines (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, phone lines are low-voltage and should not represent much of an interference problem with your ethernet signals. Keeping your CAT5 at least 6-12 inches away from any 120V AC lines running parallel is always a good idea.
Always cross your CAT5 and 120V power cables as perpendicular as possible to avoid crosstalk.
Phone wire?!?? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Phone wire?!?? (Score:5, Informative)
Price (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know much about this.... (Score:5, Funny)
but why don't you set it up so that in future years you can put in what ever cable you want?
I always imagined having a duct built into the floor of my house, running along the walls, with a grate over top. I would run whatever in there, be it fibre or cat-5, etc.
And if I ever went wireless, I could just fill it up with beer and use a really long straw.
Don't do either yet. (Score:5, Insightful)
With good conduit, running wires is a fairly painless process. Install the conduit, let the contractors install the drywall, then run the cat5, fiber, whatever. After X many years, if you decide you need to upgrade to fiber or whatever is current enough for your needs, pulling the existing wire and replacing will be a cinch. By putting in the wiring now instead of conduit, you are speeding up the depreciation and obsolescense (sp?) of your house, not increasing it. Good conduit even helps with events you didn't plan, such as if you figure out you need to pull RCA cables for house-wide stereo, or additional coax, or whatever.
Toodles
Re:Don't do either yet. (Score:4, Insightful)
In any case, if you do use conduit, be sure to follow the rule of at least two, tagged fishlines on every pipe from every jbox, for later use of pulling new wire in to the existing pipe.
Back on topic, I believe that ethernet in the walls is more than sufficient. One can always bridge to a fiber link at the termination in the future, but the last-mile question for fiber is far from being answered clearly, it seems.
Re:Don't do either yet. (Score:4, Insightful)
High voltage electricians are all trained to use a pipe bender, and at least among the unscientific sampling of the ones I work with frequently, all prefer to EMT conduit even when they could get away with flexible armored.
Low voltage guys seldom use metal pipe and probably aren't as experienced. It's hard to say what kind of guys are actually on the job at most wood stick construction new homes. The worst part of running pipe in a new home might be trying to figure out where it would run, locating and keeping accessable the jboxes, and convincing your builder that this is something worth messing with his schedule.
The latter part is key, since the building, GC, and subs have wicked schedules that can get thrown when some homeowner wants to do something different in the middle of construction, especially if it involves a trade or skill they don't do on a normal basis.
use STEEL Conduit instead of plastic (Score:5, Informative)
A few things to keep in mind:
0. Use METAL conduit rather than plastic - indefinite lifetime, RF shielding, and nailproof when hanging pictures. Also easily findable with stud-finder gadgets at need.
1. Use BENDS rather than square corners (and insist the contractor do so -- inspect before accepting...). Makes pulling cable more fun, and VITAL for fiber (if it ever comes to that)
2. If you do it yourself, make sure you debur the insides of all conduit ends with the little blade on the tubing cutter. It really sucks to have a short 'cause the conduit cut the insulation.
3. Check local codes and the building inspector on how to GROUND the conduit properly (one probably grounds this to the building safety ground at the electrical service entrance -- a definite building-inspector question). The building inspector can be made into a very handy resource if you social-engineer the interaction properly - you want him to take you seriously, and to understand that you want to, and are able to, do things right and with proper permits; at this point, he ceases to be an obstacle and becomes an ally. Also, be real clear to the building department that your conduit is LOW-VOLTAGE wiring and NOT power wiring; the code requirements are different.
Lastly, 3Com has a nifty mini-hub that fits into a wall box, seen on
Combo (Score:5, Informative)
A lot more expensive than plain cat5 though.
Forget the Telephone Cable (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think you'll need Fibre - doesn't Cat-5E support gigabit speeds?
Complete wiring guides: (Score:5, Informative)
Glad you mentioned this, because it reminded me how difficult it is to find good documentation about wiring Ethernet.
As a wise Slashdot reader once said, "You can't have too much overkill", so here is the wiring scheme shown 3 different ways. I hope it saves you the time of gathering it together yourself.
Slashdot doesn't allow the HTML PRE tag. Slashdot removes leading spaces, so I've used dots below. Another problem is that the lameness filter is lame. That lameness filter is definitely named correctly.
Use only Standard EIA/TIA T568B. This is also called the AT&T specification. T568A is NOT USED.
T568B:
When the hook of the RJ-45 Ethernet connector is underneath, pin 1 is on the left.
Pair 1 is pins 4 and 5, Blue and White/Blue.
Pair 2 is pins 1 and 2, White/Orange and Orange (Transmit Data + and -)
Pair 3 is pins 3 and 6, White/Green and Green (Receive Data + and -).
Pair 4 is pins 7 and 8, White/Brown and Brown.
Pair2 \--R22 Orange
/--------- -T33 White/Green
/
Pair3 \ Pair1 \-T15 White/Blue
\--------- -R36 Green
Pair4 \--R48 Brown
Pin ColorPairName
1 wh/or 2 TxData +
2 or2 TxData -
3 wh/grn3 RecvData+
4 blu 1
5 wh/blu1
6 grn 3 RecvData-
7 wh/brn4
8 brn 4
I know this sounds crazy, but standard Ethernet uses ONLY pairs 2 and 3, for both half and full duplex. The other wires just sit there, unused. (It is possible to buy external adapters to use the other two pairs as a second 10- or 100 Megabit 100Base-T connection.)
The R1, T1, R2, T2 designations are for telephones. R1 is Ring 1 (the red wire at the telephone box). T1 is Tip 1 (the green wire at the telephone box). Ring and Tip are old names for the telephone wires, but if you talk to a telephone company installer, he or she will use those names.
Quite obviously, someone messed this up majorly, as in "How can we make this confusing?"
If you are new to wiring Ethernet start with the simple explanation at Johns Closet (as in wiring closet): Wiring: Color Codes, Terms, and Tools [johnscloset.net].
See the Leviton Do and Don't Guides [levitontelcom.com]
See the Wiring Guides at the Leviton Learning Center [levitontelcom.com]. See the Residential And Light Commercial Installation Practices (Tia-570 Compliance) [PDF file] [levitontelcom.com] guide.
Also see the wiring specs at FAQS.org: 9.0 Standard EIA/TIA 568 (Use ONLY T568B) [faqs.org]
More information about wiring: Data Communications Cabling FAQ [faqs.org]
Your local store will probably try to charge too much. Shop around for Ethernet cable and connectors. You need the real thing, cable marked "Category 5". Other cable won't work.
One last thought to those who are new to Ethernet networking. A Hub broadcasts all data to all computers. An Ethernet Switch sends the data only to the computer that where the data will be used. Therefore, switches are faster in cases where the network is sending data between more than one pair of computers at the same time.
--
Senator Biden (and Osama bin Laden) say that the Saudi government cannot continue without U.S. support: What should be the Response to Violence? [hevanet.com]
Re:Cost vs. Future (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, the only proper entryway for something like this would be a button that makes a bookshelf swing open...
Fiber is unlikely (Score:5, Informative)
Instead of spending money on fiber, spend money to install conduit. Conduit conduit conduit! Conduit is nice since you can later on pull fiber or additional wires more easily.
In ten years... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fiber is still expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
You would need a lot of other hardware to make it work.
With Ethernet, hubs and switches are cheap... you can wire everything back to a patch box and from there have it connect to your ADSL or cable modem.
I'm not sure what the costs are on actual fiber cable, but it's certainly not as cheap as CAT5. What's more, you would either need a NIC in your computer capable of accepting fiber (over $US300 I think) or you would need a Fiber-->CAT5 converter box at each point where fiber comes out of the wall. Those boxes aren't cheap either.
Really, it just comes down to this. If you want super-fast communication between your computers in your house, and are willing to pay a hefty premium, them fiber it is. But it's not going to make your Internet connection much faster. Your Internet connection will only every be as fast as whatever the Cable or DSL modem has going out... and that's usually a 10Mbs connection running at 2Mbs download max.
Personally... if you want scalability, I would just make sure that the CAT5 you string is high quality and has *all eight conductors*... that way it is good for Gigabit Ethernet... which is slowly coming down in price and is already more affordable than Fiber for LANs.
enjoy
Re:Fiber is still expensive -- followup (Score:4, Interesting)
It will be a little more expensive, but you might want to think about stringing "STP" CAT5, instead of UTP... that's Shielded Twisted Pair instead of Unshielded.
STP is what is plenum graded, so that it doesn't catch fire as easily. Also, it's better shielded against interference from other electrical sources that might be in the wall.
It's not a requirement or anything... but it might be worth considering simply for safety reasons.
Wireless (Score:3, Informative)
Wireless is to secure networking... (Score:4, Funny)
No offense, but even the best wireless security solution can't compare to having an actual cat5 cable you can control access to.
Cat5 and Coax (Score:4, Informative)
The reason you want to run two coax drops is that if you get a dual-tuner sattelite decoder (like a DirectTV TiVo) you will need to lines going out to your dish or to your multiswitch (which splits the signal between >2 lines, so you can put receivers in multiple rooms).
You could also run a Left/Right RCA audio system to each room, but audio will travel decently over Cat5, so you shouldn't have to worry about that.
Fiber would be useful, but frankly you don't need it now because nothing we are doing iwll need fiber probably for 10 years. If you want to prep for it, you can run conduit (probably 1.5" would be sufficient) to each room, to make pulling new cables in (or pulling old cables out) easier in 5 or 10 years. Run it to a modular mounting jack so you can change stuff out if need be.
Having just recently gotten my DirectTV TiVo (and hacked it to 146 hours of storage), I know my next house is gonna need twin coax to every main room.
As a certified electrician... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good luck with the project!
df
Don't forget to run the conduit vertically (Score:4, Insightful)
You also want a large pipe that's a straight shot from attic to basement/crawlspace.
The idea is that you have good access in attic and basement/crawlspace, so they don't need special treatments. But walls are a real pain once they're sealed, so you want to keep it as simple as possible. And nothing is simplier than a large vertical pipe with no bends in it. Even if the pipe is completely empty (e.g., you sealed in a few extra pipes "just in case"), you can pull a line with nothing but a string and a lead weight.
Re:As a certified electrician... (Score:4, Insightful)
Great list. Esp. marking the strings, you'll really want to know what is where.
25 pair sounds cool, however it is a termination nightmare unless you're just going to use it specifically from point to point as your major house backbone and have it premade and preterminated for your situation. If you terminate it yourself you might be able to maintain 100Mb, but likely not and certainly not Gig. Unless there is a whole new 25 pair solution out there. Big conduit to run a plethora of different cables (except power of course) is a more general solution.
I would also add that you want more than one outlet per room. Depending on your builder, it could be something that you'd have to octopus up (or down) from a central point, or you might be able to run in between the floor boards to get opposite wall coverage (or three or four wall coverage depending on your layout.
One thing is for sure, there is never enough bandwidth, and you don't know what you'll want to run in the future.
The house I bought was already built, and has pathetic insulation which is not easily fixed. I'm planning on moving the "server farm" and "main hub" between the attic (in winter) and somewhere lower in the house in summer.
Consider also that where-ever you've picked for your central hub might become ideal for something else (kid's attic room, enclosed hot tub in basement, whatever), and since its so easy now, I would be inclined to run the conduit so you could have two (or maybe three, depending on the structure of your house) alternative spots.
It might also be cool to run a room or three with a few extra outlets for gaming/multimedia/"record"-making/"movie"-making parties, efforts, etc. (I'm thinking of "Duality" ((Lost the URL, darn!)).
Run Cat 5 but... (Score:3, Informative)
Pull the Cat 5 to a central place down inside your house - locate your router/hub there - maybe even your home server.
Think about providing excellent grounding and maybe even heatsink capability to your server closet. Run a separate breakered power to the server closet.
Run coaxial cable for TV - double shielded - to each room and have it go either to the attic for split or better yet have them terminate at the power mast outside the house - leave plenty of extra cable.
Wire your house for security prior to putting in the insulation - insulation and sheetrock guys just love to cut wires that are in their way.
I just did this... (Score:3, Informative)
We decided that is wasn't practical to run fiber. How much speed to really think you will need? How much faster can a home user get? Even if the broadband ISPs upgrade their system to allow anything faster than a maximum of 10mbps...are you _REALLY_ going to need that?
If you are concerned about the speed in your home area network, then just make sure your network equipment is 100meg...that should be more than plenty for every person in those six rooms to be swapping high-quality multimedia back and forth.
The point is, fiber really isn't for the home user...it's more for other intensive bandwidth situations. What I can definately recommend is that if you can afford it and it won't break your budget...then by all means go for it!
However, if it _will_ break your budget, or you want to spend that money on a bunch of X-10 equipment for a semi-Jetson-type house, then run conduit and pull strings. So if you ever get the cash or get the itch to install fiber, all you gotta do is attach it to a pull string and go...it will slide nicely through conduit.
As for the phone and other stuff...just run Cat-5 all the way through. You can use it for phone and sound (maybe other things). If you want video, just run a coax to each room and get a fancy distribution panel to manage all this neat stuff. I wouldn't recommend running S-Video throughout. Have you ever bought a 6-foot s-video cable? They are expensive. Coax does its job just fine. Make sure you run the high quality stuff.
Of course, if you run fiber you can pipe it all through the same wire, but each room will need an EXPENSIVE thingy to split all signals to the designated device.
House Wiring (Score:5, Informative)
Here is some advice based on what I did. Note that I was at the time a licensed communications wiring contractor, so the house is wired a litte more than perhaps is usefull, but here goes.
1. Put muliple locations in each room. I put to faceplates in each bedroom, typically near a corner and opposite each other ( diagaonally opposite corners ) a cable from the outlet can be run along either adjacent wall for convienience in locating phones or computers. In each outlet are two cat 5 data cables and 1 4pair telephone cable. In one of the two outlets is an RG6 CATV cable.
2. Home run telephone wires - I ran all the telephone cables directly from the outlet to a telephone junction box in the garage which was mounted directly above the one from the phone company. The phone company box faces outside, mine faces inside and there are some holes in the 2X4 seperating them for cables to run through. I mounte 4 type 66 punchblocks in the inside box and terminated all 32 cables there. All multiple jumpering etc. is done in that box.
I ran all the data wiring ( 48 cables ) to 4 dual gang boxes inside the master bedroom closet. Using ortronics IMO2 dual gang faceplates with 6 double port modules, I got 48 ports in the 4 outlets and its is not cludgy like a patchpanel on a swingout door would be- it has a finished look. I also got the electrician to put a utility outlet inside the closet close to the ports to power the switch and localtalk bridge.
3. Put a telephone outlet near your CATV outlets - if you want to use satellite tv or some other service which requires a telephone connection it will be very good to have.
4. Put data outlets in common rooms - the livingroom, dining room den etc. These areas could end up as common homework computer areas for the kids. I have a table in the living room and one in the dining room ( we eat in the kitchen ) with some older computers on them that the kids use for homework.
Note that the contractors installers may be very helpful if you offer a 6 pack or two of beer to help grease the skids. I got all kinds of built-in bookshelves, nooks and other cool customizations this way.
Another suggestion !! Put in the return line for a circulating hot-water system during construction. If you can not afford the pump now, you can add it later, but it is a pain to put the return line in.
Also consider insulating hot water lines and putting insulation inside the inner walls to give some soundproofing.
Good Luck
Zoot
My experiences in wiring a new house (Score:4, Informative)
I wired the house with cable and two CAT5e cables to each telephone housing, plus security and some audio cabling to a few select areas. I also set up the internal vacuum system.
Do Not, I repeat, DO NOT wire anything before the electrician has wired for power. Plan with the electrician so that you can make sure your wire is at least 1 foot, preferably 2 feet away from his wire when running in parallel, and otherwise crosses at oblique (near to 90 degrees) angles. Master electricians are smart, but the workers they employ are morons. We had to yank out a lot of wiring because the electricians laid power cable in all sorts of unfortunate places right next to ours. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Do nail in wire protector plates onto wood just like your electrician does for the power cables. They're to keep the drywallers from wrecking your wiring with their drywall nails.
Do consider running a little conduit, but only a little. Don't conduit the whole thing: what we wound up doing was running conduit from the basement up to the attic. The house is two-story. That way if we absolutely had to, we could wire things in the future without massive rebuilding.
Do run everything (phone, cable, network, fiber) in a star configuration to a central hub.
Do do both the telephone and networking and cable yourself. It's simple. Don't pay the electrician to wire for telephone if you're going to wire for networking; you're just wasting money.
Do Not use plenum, braided, or shielded CAT5e cable. Plenum cable has basically one use: to be run through air ducts in old office buildings as a fire precaution. Shielded CAT5e will turn your network into an antenna if not properly grounded. In general, you don't need it unless you're running along with lots of electrical lines in close conduit areas. Braided cable is only for patch-cord use.
Do consider the new combination cable available, which has fiber, cable, CAT5e, low-power DC, and audio all in one bundle. But it's a pain to wire because it has to be bent at very gradual angles. Might be a good way to go though, and cheaper.
Do not expect that security is wired in a similar fashion. In particular, 4-wire smoke detectors cannot be wired in a star configuration at all: they must be wired in a specific, unusual serial topology.
Do remember that your hub must be in a locked area.
Forget fiber ... conduits w/ CAT5 and 802.11 (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't listen to the
Would you even know what types of fiber to buy? (multi-mode / single-mode, C-band / L-band / Extended-L band,
If you are worried about an upgrade path, the smart thing to do is install conduits. When fiber goes to the consumer market, you will be ready.
Kevin
I just did this (Score:5, Informative)
I ended up running 2 runs of Cat5e and 2 runs of quad-shielded RG-6 to 6 drops.
You will want the coax... trust me. While I'd like to run everythng over UTP or fiber, the costs of locating things like VCRs, and satellite receivers at a head end, and streaming video digitally are prohibitive compared to the costs of running the coax. You may want to plan for the day when everything is streamed over IP and carried on an ethernet or fiber physical layer, but I think it is far better to have dead cable in the wall than to use horribly expensive equipment today as opposed to your neighbor who just hooks up the new TV to the cable outlet and is done.
Fiber. I didn't run any, but mostly because of the cost -- it's still too expensive. Also, don't forget headend terminations for all those fiber lines -- they are expensive. If you can afford it, by all means. In my case, I figure I'll sell the house and build a new one before I have a real pressing need for fiber: am I really going to want to stream full-resolution uncompressed video room to room? I doubt it.
Do put in as many drops as you think you'll need, and then some. You have an advantage over me: your walls aren't up yet. Plan for a minimum of one per room, more if there are multiple entrances. For example, many central family rooms open up to formal dining/living rooms and kitchen -- place the outlet on the "wrong" wall and you'll have to snake a cable across an entryway... not cool.
If you can afford the cabling, make EACH 110VAC outlet have a co-located (but not sharing the box-- that violates code) coax/data drop. That's excessive, and you immediately have to separate the AC and other cables to avoid interference, but you'll have a drop whereever you need one. Personally, I'd probably stick with one outlet per continuous wall segment, more for bigger rooms.
I ran 2xCat5e and 2xRG-6 (quad-shielded). You can get combo cable (speedwrap) that contains this (with or without fiber) in a single jacket that makes for easy pulling, but expect to pay double over individual cables. If you're paying for installation, the reduced labour might pay for the more expensive cable. Note: the reason for two runs of coax is in case you want to run a video stream back to the headend, like, perhaps a baby monitor camera. However, with recent PVR having TWO tuners, you'll find you need to use both coax cables, espescially with satellite systems (the receiver sends a signal selecting satellite and polarization to the multiswitch over the coax -- you don't have all channels on the cable at once). If you want to do this and send video back to the headend you may need three coax cables.. though a cheap PC and webcam might do the trick over the Cat5-e instead (and I can think of creative uses of satellite diplexers to use two coaxes for two satellite signals, one cable/off air signal, and a backfeed, but I haven't tried it).
As for plugging phones into RJ-45s... why bother? Just terminate one of the Cat5e cables in an RJ-14 jack, leaving one pair not connected... you can have up to three lines on that RJ-14. Alternately, split it out in the box to two RJ-14s. You can always require for ethernet later, if you have to (or use a PBX that requires 8 wires). This also ensures that you don't accidently plug the phone in the wrong outlet (confusing the coax ports is bad enough).
I'd post more, but have to go.
Building Codes (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly, make sure you're using the right kind of cat-5 for the job. PVC type is cheaper, but is less resistant to heat and can cause noxious fumes if burned. Plenum type insulation is more resistant to heat, and is certified for use in air ducts because it doesn't produce the fumes that PVC will. Unfortunately, Plenum is more expensive. In any case, keep track of heat sources when you're wiring. The fireplace and oven, for instance, may cause you problems if you run cable right behind them.
You may want to run 2 different colors of cat-5, one for voice and one for data. Cat-5 can handle up to 4 voice lines through one cable. In any case, make sure you label everything.
Finally, don't forget to run coax (as well as any other cables you may need for ANYTHING, such as speaker cable, RCA, etc.), as you may need to add a TV or cable modem connection. No one likes having their cable modem sitting on the TV. e
You Don't *KNOW* What You Need. (Score:3, Insightful)
In my opinion, the best way to do that is to use conduit. Conduit will let you easily drop in new cables to your house's framework. That way, just drop in your cat 5e and telephone wiring now, and then, as you need it, drop in other transport media.
I might caution you as to using long-haul analog cabling media, like stereo RCA - long, straight wires make excellent antennas and the audio quality by the time it actually got to your speakers would be undoubtedly subpar. If you have the money, running something like optical S/PDIF would make more sense, as it's digital and won't lose signal quality over the kind of runs you're likely to have in your house.
Good luck, and kudos on putting together a fabulous new home!
Something You might have overlooked (Score:5, Insightful)
But from another perspective AFTER you wire the house (and before the drywall is up) run through your house with a CAMCORDER and record where all the wires are placed this will become an invaluable resource when you have to do expansion!
A few more cat5 suggestions (Score:3, Interesting)
Consider using a modular connector system like this one [levitontelcom.com]. I saved a lot of time and hassle using them and the result looks great. You can also intermix CATV, voice, data etc. however you like.
Use a star from a cable closet (could be a cabinet in your garage or next to the water heater, doesn't matter). Consider running everything to a patch panel. If you don't want to spring for the connectors etc. of a patch panel, at least create a 'virtual patch panel' where every circuit is tagged and accessible. Leave good documentation in the cabinet 'cause you'll forget what goes where.
Follow the Cat5 specs: minimal bends, minimal tension when pulling cable, loose cable ties, no regular tie intervals, cross AC power perpendicularly and rarely. Pick the cabling spec you'll use and stick to it. Avoid doing what I had to do: running voice on the unused two pairs of my 100Mbs data circuits (even though I've had zero problems).
Be sure you have power near your drops and plenty of power and some shelf space in your closet. You'll be terminating your outside internet connectivity here as well (DSL, cable modem, etc.) so be sure to plan space accordingly for routers, console connections, hubs, UPS, etc.
See the remarks elsewhere here about using plenum cable if you're not installing conduit. But conduit would let you use fiber or other more advanced media in the future.
Invest in some cheap test equipment so you can verify continuity, correct pinouts, etc. in all your cables.
HTH -- Spiny
A few considerations (Score:3, Interesting)
Since this is new construction, go the extra mile and feed each data outlet with some sort of conduit (PVC, EMT, or flexible). That way, when you want to upgrade or expand, it's a no-brainer and you don't have to rip things apart. EMT conduit has the added bonus of providing RF shielding to your copper cabling, provided it's properly grounded (which it should be). This also gives you the advantage of only needing to put in the plumbing before you put up the sheetrock, and then running the actual wire later.
Also, Leviton makes a very nice modular structured media system that allows you to do neat things like audio and video distribution in addition to phone and data - they have modular patch panels that make it very easy to do.
Lastly, whatever you do, TAKE PICTURES of everything you do before you put the sheetrock up - you'll want them for reference when you make changes later.
You can't Plan Ahead (Score:4, Insightful)
As for fiber, I've never had to pay for it, but I've had to work with it. Its not worth the effort to use it, go high quality cat-5, and if ya want, then ya can go GigE. I'm told fiber is cheap to buy, expensive, and hard to run, and the hardware to talk over it is murderously expensive. But maybe even the cable itself is expensive, I dunno, used it, don't like it, don't wanna think about paying for it.
Conduits, and loads of them, will make your life easier, and will greatly improve the value of your home, wish my house had conduits, but mine predates WW2..... and has power consumtion issues. *cries*
As for what to put in the cables, its whatever ya wanna do with it. Me, right now, I;d run s-video, cat5, and coax, and maybe whatever the current "buzz" cable type is, and at least 4 outlets in each small room, 6 to 8 in big rooms. Else, your wife/significant other will go mad when she can't move the TV. And put em fairly close to your electrical outlets, so ya can just take all your cables that are close together, and tie em together with zip ties, and make the mess behind your euipment a little more pleassent.
Wireless? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would run cat-5 cable if I were you. It will be useful for the forseeable future... and who knows what you will want to have run in 10 years? Redo it when the time comes. In the mean time, for a house network, it's hard to imagine 100Mb/s not being sufficient for several years.
I've run cat-5 cable in two houses. After a few months, you forget how painful it was and are just grateful to have it. In my old house, which was very small, I only wired a couple of rooms, but it was nice once it was there. In the new house, I only wired a single room. I intended to wire several more... but instead got myself a couple of wireless cards. The desktop has a card, and I have a second for the laptop. I run them in Ad-Hoc mode. It's much more convenient this way. I had intended to have lots of drops wired in, so that I could run my laptop in whatever room, but now I can do that with a very minimum of pain. More expensive, yes, but more flexible and much easier to install in the first place.
(The one wire runs between the room with my desktop and the cable modem, and the room with my Wife's desktop. Since both computers stay in one place all the time, it makes sense to have wires for them. Since my Linux desktop is also the house router, it has three network cards: one for the cable modem, one for the house net, and one wireless card. I have two different private 192.168.x.x subnets in just my one house....)
-Rob
That OTHER wire (Score:3, Funny)
If you're going to do this, and do this right, might as well have fun.
Run an indistinct wire, (go for red or something equally ominous) along with everything else.
Ten years from now when you're pulling the old stuff with your buddies look terribly surprised or upset to see it. Claim that you have no idea to what it is, but always insist that THEY cut it any time one gets in your way...
Don't run fiber today, just run plastic conduit. (Score:3, Informative)
What I would do is build a patch panel or wiring closet in a basement or similar location, with all telephone/data/audio cabling to other parts of the house home-run to this location.
If you run 'smurf' (flexbible blue fire-rated plastic tubing) to each room, and two each to bedrooms, media room, then you should be ready for anything.
When you run the smurf, draw 2xCat5e to each room along with any necessary speaker cable. Most fire codes will permit you to leave in a 'pull line' of a code-accepted material, so you can easily draw more cables (fiber, etc) as needed.
When running the 'smurf' tubing, try to avoid running in parallel with power conduits, or if you must, maximize the separation. Where you pass power lines, try to intersect at right angles.
Some thoughts.... (Score:4, Insightful)
1....You want to be careful about running parallel data/phone, audio,video and power close to each other. Even with high quality cable, you can have problems.
2.....Do not strand boxes with wire inside them. Sealing over live boxes is a huge no-no. Why? Because what if you drive a nail into an active box. Many municipalistes will force you to correct this if you want to move.
3.....You cannot route wires through heating /ac ducts. Probably ovious, but I thought I'd note it.
4.....Always run more cat-5 than you need. If you are pulling two lines for net and phone, pull another. It's no real extrta cash and coudl save you later. Also, it's nice if you want to pull an extra line that is outside the firewall to your office for guests.
5.....Think about where you want your wireless for home coverage. I have a smaller house, so I don't have any problem, but if my house were more spread out, I'd probably hav eto move the antenna out of the basement, necessitating a run of cat-5 to wherever, with nearby power. It's either that or run a very long antenna line.
6.....Power, power, power. A computer + Laser Printer + Ups + Monitor + other gee gaws will suck up at least a 20 amp circuit. You don't want to over load a circuit. That's bad. I'm running 3 seperate circuits for the home office. 1 for fridge and other stuff, 1 for computer geear and 1 for lighting.
7.....Check references for all contractors if you aren't plannign on pulling bits yourself.
8.....Get familiar with your local codes. They are there to protect you, generally. Finding out where you are required to do GFCI circuits alone can save you trouble later.
Good luck.
Todays fiber is not future proof (Score:3, Informative)
before the drywall goes in so I want to make an informed decision now. Ten years from now will I need/want fiber?"
The only reason to run fiber is if the needed cable length, exceed recommended CAT5e length.
Fiber has several disadvantages (I am no cable expert); Connectors; There is a plethora of competing connectors. The most common; SC and ST connectors are rather bulky, and doesn't really work beyond 1Gbps. The new breed of small form connectors for >1Gbps hasn't been certified yet.
If you plan to run fiber "end-to-end", you will have a really limited supply of products to choose from, pay premium prices, and to some extent be tied up with
with whatever connector you choose to begin with.
Changing or making the end-termination on fiber, is much more expensive on fiber, than on copper. (the SMF connector "VF-45" from 3M claims to be the cheapest to use, when doing end-to-end fiber).
The price difference between even a managed 24p 100TX switch and a 24p 100 FX (fiber) switch is significant. The price on 1000 SX fiber equipment is also much higher than 1 GBIC copper equipment.
We just evaluated upgrading our fiber backbone from 10Mbit to either 100FX or 1000SX. (we run a non-profit ISP for 300 apartments), and the price difference between a using a fiber or a copper core switch is very high indeed. If it wasn't for the fact, that our cable length requirements exceed Cat 5e/6, it would probably be cheaper to abandon the fiber and re-wire with copper.
Using fiber-converters (transceivers) also sucks; they cost too much (one needed for every connected device), is yet another source for network problems, and requires yet another power plug.
Actually I believe, that the money saved from investing in fiber and fiber equipment now, could pay for a totally fiber re-wiring if the need for such really should arise into the future.
I really think you will be much better off using copper. People in the know claims, that even though Class D/Cat 6 (200MHz) isn't certified as a standard yet (?), the commercial "Cat 6" cabling systems availably now, should conform to the coming standard. So Cat 6 should be a much better long term investment than fiber. AFAIK Cat 6 should do 10Gbps. Again, people who knows much more than I do, claims that the present standard for multi mode fiber (50 and 62,5 Micron)
doesn't do more than 1,2 Gbps reliably, and is a "dead" standard like Cat 5, and 5e. The coming fiber standards
To summon up;
Cat 5e is the cheap and tried solution. If future needs doesn't go beyond 1Gbps, then why not.
Cat 6 is slightly more expensive, but is much more "future proof" (10Gbps). Perhaps one is still advised to buy a complete system, from the same vendor though.
It allready seems, that Cat 6 rapidly has become the choice when people wire new offices.
Present day fiber standards are not future proof (1,2Gbps), too expensive; not only the fiber cabling systems, but all devices that need to connect with it, and is probably something best left to a professional electrician to install.
Peoples advice about conduit and pull wires, are probably the real key to a long term investment.
A cheap ethernet tester will probably pay for it self too, if you are going to make a lot of cables.
What I did (Score:3, Informative)
What I did was pull eight drops of six cat-5 and one RG-6 to six rooms. (Actually only seven RG-6 drops because I ran out.) I used up most of two 1000 foot boxes.
Don't pull single wires, pull bundles. When I had the holes drilled and the weather was cool enough to stay in the attic all day, I pulled the wire from both boxes through the house, along with the RG-6, then folded the end over and did it again twice. I used cheap box tape to hold the wires together in the interim, then I used cable ties to tie it together into one evil looking snake. It just barely fits in a 1" hole. So far I haven't crimped the ends of the RG-6, but when I do start using it, I'll just stuff the extra cat-5 keystone jack back into the wall.
In two of the drops, I didn't have to drill because there was no drywall over the cabinets (nowadays the ceilings go in first, so I was lucky), and in another, there was already a hole where I wanted it. The last hole was the toughest because it was on an outside wall, the roof about three feet above me. I cut a hole for three-inch pipe in my closet, giving nine times the area of a 1" hole, just right for eight bundles and the outside wiring, then put a pipe and a right angle joint at the top. The hole was cut well enough that the whole thing fits snugly with no glue or plaster.
Assorted bits of advice: Forget about fiber, it's too much of a pain in the arse for home use. The only fiber you want is one strand going out of your house (dream on!). And besides, there are two diameters, and single vs multi-mode, but cat-5 is cat-5. Don't forget about the RG-6, because that means you can have cable/satellite in any and every room in the house. And if you buy wood bits, get 1" bits, and get them made in the USA with lifetime warranty. Wal-Mart sells these for under three bucks each. The crap from China won't last for more than one or two holes. Ultrasonic stud finders kick ass. Wig pins are good for pushing through drywall to find out the exact point of a stud, both on walls and ceilings. Not all horizontal studs in your attic are directly over the wall; if you're not careful, you'll drill out the top of a wall or even worse, paneling. (Yes, I did drill out some paneling. That's how I know.)
Switched 100mbit Ethernet in the kitchen kicks ass. And it means you get to use more AC circuits for those big LAN parties.
Re:Yes. (Score:3, Informative)