Internet-Ready Home

NTL1991

Well, Were building a house in the same town that I live in (phew) and I have some questions about making a Broadband ready home. At our school, we have ports like this on the walls. Thats what we want... My Dad doesn't want to do Wireless anymore because the slow speed, and I dont want to because Wireless Limits me to Win98 and Above if I want the Internet (We have USB Adapters)... Do contractors do this wiring? I dont want to have to make holes in the walls to put the internet in so I would rather have the contractor wire them in. Would I need a bigger router? I only have 4 ports on my wireless router, but my dad wants to have at least 1 ethernet port in each room (except the bath...) Also, Do they make Ethernet/Phone/Cable TV jacks all in one?

Thanks,
Nick

Duff

NTL1991 wrote:

Well, Were building a house in the same town that I live in (phew) and I have some questions about making a Broadband ready home. At our school, we have ports like this on the walls. Thats what we want... My Dad doesn't want to do Wireless anymore because the slow speed, and I dont want to because Wireless Limits me to Win98 and Above if I want the Internet (We have USB Adapters)... Do contractors do this wiring? I dont want to have to make holes in the walls to put the internet in so I would rather have the contractor wire them in. Would I need a bigger router? I only have 4 ports on my wireless router, but my dad wants to have at least 1 ethernet port in each room (except the bath...) Also, Do they make Ethernet/Phone/Cable TV jacks all in one?

Thanks,
Nick

Except the bath? Are you CRAZY?

Anyway, sounds like a interesting plan. I think that contractors will do it, but I don't know how much it'll cost.

As far the router goes, you'll probably just need to get a large switch (not a hub ideally). Make sure all the wiring goes into the room where you plan to keep your equipment for networking (if this was my house, it'd be in my room).

BOD

Stick it in the attic, where it's out of the way, that's where most of my wiring and junk is.

NTL1991

Well, Maybe I exadurated...

Were making a Computer Room with our Main PC and Internet Crap, so I guess thats where all the crap will go... I dont need a server though, right... I have a PC available to be one, but Im too lazy? Whats the point of one though anyway?

Noob Question:If one one is using a certain plug in some room, it will not affect my speed right?

SurfinShell23

This is done all the time. Leviton sells those jacks. They have ones that you can pop in TV, Phone, Ethernet, probably Fibre, etc. into the wall plate. They'll cut a hole in the wall and fish the wires through the walls. Pretty easy to do yourself, but might be best to when the home is being built and all other wires are being run.

Just get a switch, like one of these - http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... Fprice%7C0

Pretty simple. Ask if you have any other questions.

PS- Make sure the use Cat 5e or Cat 6. You want to be able to go to GigE in the future.

NTL1991

Wow! I thought the prices for switches were going to be very expensive...

Yeah, I found a Tutorial on it and you need to get the Fish Wire and you need to make sure there is no studs in the way and all that...

So the Wires are going to be simple to set up, right... I'm thinking the Cat 5e/6 wires will be cut on one end to wire them to the jacks and the all the other ends will go to the room and ill have to plug them into the switch, right?

nightice

Wouln't it be better to put wall plugs on both ends? Generally you buy Cat5 without any plugs.

JackTheStripper

Yes, get some jacks and then get Cat5E or Cat6 by the box.

NTL1991

If you put plugs on both ends, you cannot wire one end to the jack where you plug the ethernet cable from the PC...

nightice

Which reminds me, I really want to wire my house for ethernet too...including the bathroom :twisted: Problem is, there are 2 phone jacks that I could put the DSL line into...so I can't completely hide the equipment...but at least futre expansion would be mighty easy. Just plug in.

BlueSun

add another phone jack then... its extremly easy to do...

anyways you could have the house all wired and have a jack in every room, but in the PC room you would have like either a opening through the wall and a bunch of cables to connect to the switch and then if the clip on the plug breaks you'd have to redo the plug...

OR

you would have a few wall plates in the PC room with labled jacks on them..... labled so you know where each one is going.. then get some normal cat 5e or 6 cables and plug in your switch and router...

the latter is best because house wireing is containted, the first method you would have a certain length of cable so less freedom to move your stuff around..

SurfinShell23

Yea. It's better that way, because if you're not able to terminate the cables yourself, you only have to buy the more expensive pre-term'd cables in shorter lengths.

The panels BS is talking about are called patch panels. One kind of disappeared from my school's supply closet last year, tee-hee.

nightice

Unfortunately, if a cable breaks...

BlueSun

thats my point..... the wiring between the wall plates are contained in your house.. so unless you have like rats or somthing they should stay pretty safe......

then you use normal cables to connect the wallplates in the PC room to the switch.. you can always replace those though......

SSH: what does terminate mean in the context you were using it?

SurfinShell23

I mean adding the connectors, the Modular Plugs. Not terming the cables onto the keystone wall jacks..

http://cat5ecableguy.com/inc/pdetail?v=1&pid=187

You can and should get everything from www.cat5ecableguy.com

BlueSun

ok, also some unaddressed questions

you don't need to run a network server, unless you want a central place to print and save files to thats always on....

also where your at in the house won't effect your speed... unless you have a big house and are like 300ft from the PC room..... but i have 85ft of cable between the server and the p4 and its fast..... there may be a very slight decrease but you won't notice

NTL1991

Oh OK...

I like option 2 better bluesun... Like this? Or I could have a HUGE one with like 12 ports on it...

BlueSun

i don't know if they have a wallplate with 12 ports....

but they have ones with 6 or 8 (my school uses these) so you could get a few of those... then the other wallplates in your house would be just like one or two port

NTL1991

Well, It says in that tutorial I was talking about that you can insert different ports like Coax, Phone, Audio?, and crap like that...

SurfinShell23

Check out www.cat5ecableguy.com like I posted before. They have keystone (that's what they're called) inserts for coax, rj13, rj45, etc...

NTL1991

OK, Now what about Cable Type... They had in that tutorial 2 kinds. Stranded and Straight. They said Straight is better for longer distances because the wiring wont break... Is that true?

SurfinShell23

I doubt that it matters... physics wise, I'd think that stranded would be better, since the wires would support one another, but I don't know.

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Mr. Clean

do it on yur own

NTL1991

Well, Then ill have them drill the holes in the walls for the ports. I can also have them snake the wiring in and I can wire the ports myself, you dont even need tools...

http://www.trianglecables.com/cat6-keystone.html

Mr. Clean

i did my "wiring"

NTL1991

It's not that hard, but if the people are already putting in the other wires, why cant they just snake a couple wires through the wall. I dont think that is asking too much...

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BlueSun

since the house is being built now you might consider one of these: http://www.smarthome.com/4860.html

and you should look around, you may be able to have the ethernet done professionaly for cheap... shop around...

Additional: I found this while doing a little research give it a look see

* TELEPHONE



To wire a residential telephone, most electricians will snake a single cable
from room-to-room throughout your house. Every place you want a telephone
jack, they'll strip the wires and splice one in. This simple approach has
two overwhelming problems. First, if there is ever a break in your telephone
line --- perhaps because you put a screw through the wall in the wrong
place --- every telephone after the break will stop working. The second
problem is more subtle: using a single cable practically condemns you to a
life of just two residential telephone lines.



Having two residential phone lines may not seem like a problem to most
builders or new-home buyers, and low-cost cell phones are reducing the
demand for additional lines.  Nevertheless, you would be surprised how many
families end up wanting a third line for a home-business, or for a fax
machine, or a chatty teenager. Because of poor planning, many of these phone
lines are rarely run through walls where they belong. Instead, you'll find
them tacked on the outside of homes or taped along floors. I know of many
families that have bought cordless phones because they simply don't want to
pay for an electrician to come in properly run a new wire. Cordless phones
have their place, but they generally lack the sound quality, the sound
quality, and even the safety of wired instruments. (For example, cordless
phones don't work during a power failure, while hardwired phones do.)



The easy way to avoid this problem is to wire you home like an office.
Instead of running a telephone cable wire between each room, have your
electrician run a cable from each room to a central wiring closet with a
telephone punch-down block. (You can buy these blocks for less than $10 from
most mail order companies.) Run another telephone cable from the punch-down
block to the telephone company's "Network Interface" jack on the side of
your house. With a low-cost punch-down tool, you'll be able to control which
telephone jacks in your house are connected to which telephone lines.



The big advantage of using a punch-down block is flexibility and
expandability. You might start off with the same two phone lines at every
jack in your house. A year later, you might add a fax line to your office or
kitchen. For even more expandability, have your electrician pull an
8-conductor cable to each telephone location; that will give you the ability
to have up to four phone lines anywhere you want.



* NETWORK



Instead of having your electrician pull a single 8-conductor cable to each
of your rooms, why not spend a little extra money and have her pull three
cables? The first cable will be for your telephone; the second two cables
will be for data communications --- one for a desktop, and one for a laptop.



For most residences, the cable to use is the so-called Category 5 or 5e. A
thousand-foot spool will cost you about $150.  You'll need to spend another
$5 or so for the female RJ45 jacks in each room, $50 for a punchdown tool,
and $8 for the patch cables that go from the wall jacks to the back of your
computer or laptop. I've traditionally purchased this equipment from
specialty mail-order firms like Micro Warehouse, although you can now find
it in Radio Shack or even Home Depot! It's not hard to do punch downs, but
if you can find an electrician or a friend who can show you how, you might
save yourself a few cut fingers while you learn the proper technique..



All of those Category 5 cables should terminate in the same wiring closet
that you use for your telephone system. In that closet you'll put an
Ethernet hub or switch. Having a home network means that you can share files
and printers between any computer in the house. If you have a high-speed
Internet connection, you'll also put your home firewall appliance, and
either your cable modem or your DSL modem in the closet as well. Once set
up, you'll be able to share that single high-speed connection between all of
your computers.



Whatever you do, don't try to pull prefab cables through the walls: in all
likelihood, you'll bend or break the connectors, and nothing will work
properly