cat 5 cabling

[dobbslc]

I'm about to start rewiring the house and want to run data cabling around for the internet, I hope I'm thinking correctly and it's better to hard wire it rather than rely on Wi-Fi for the PC, PlayStation etc?
I've got 300m of cat 5e cable so hope that's OK and I'm assuming I run it all back to a common point where the broadband comes into the house. Simple answer's for a simple mind please!

 

[Fintray]

Yes.

 

[gaz1]

yes as long as that central place remains where you want to plug into your router as people do move things around you could be stuck with a modem stood in the open

if your not bothered about wireless then stick it in a cupboard under your stairs and wire from there

 

[AdrianH]

Yes and yes to my simple mind, Most routers have 4 ports for LAN and one to connect to the fibre port, but that depends on what you get from your IP. You may need and extra switch oif you are doing every room in the house baring bathrooms.

I have thought about it 3 cables from the router downstairs in the hallway to the Kitchen dining and living rooms with a cable running up to the loft with a simple switch in the loft running to the bedrooms.

I then realised the difficulty in pulling the cables into the cavities and gave up.

To me Wi-fi leads to possible hacking of internet and conflicts with neighbours Wi-Fi, But you will still need to use the Wifi for mobile phones tablets etc. Stick a media server and NAS drive into the switch in the loft and have fun.

Best of luck.

Adrian

 

[rikrobson]

Commercially the cables are teminated at one end with with a socket in a faceplate like a normal power socket and the other end a patch pannel. thisis usually a 19" rack mounted strip of 12 or 24 sockets. then the patch end is patched to a switch and then onto the internet. the other end a short cable is connected to the device.
You would be better to have a cable rather than WiFi, which is sharing the media. An alternative is to use powerline adapters or wifi boosters.

 

[knighty]

how many cables are you putting in?

if you're doing it as you rewire the house it might be easier to stick a switch wherever the fuse box is ? (because you're running wires there anyway)

a switch is a bit router... you plug all the cat5 cables into it and then all the computers/whatever can all see/talk to each other... you need 1 wire running from the switch to your router

 

[Robotstar5]

Might be worth running 2 cables to a double outlet near the TV/sat/cable area as most AV stuff needs access these days.

 

[dobbslc]

how many cables are you putting in?

if you're doing it as you rewire the house it might be easier to stick a switch wherever the fuse box is ? (because you're running wires there anyway)

a switch is a bit router... you plug all the cat5 cables into it and then all the computers/whatever can all see/talk to each other... you need 1 wire running from the switch to your router

So let me get this straight, a switch is a device that I plug all the different room cables into? Then the router is the device is what BT will give me and I link that to the switch.

 

[zx9]

Might be worth running 2 cables to a double outlet near the TV/sat/cable area as most AV stuff needs access these days.

+1 ^^^^^^^^^^
I only ran one Cat5e to the lounge which was fine for the smart DVR but now have the DVR a TV and a Pi (Volumio music player) but it is no big deal I have a five port gigabit smart switch behind the TV with an uplink to the main switch in my office. The main switch looks after the office PC, printer, NAS, a laptop in each of the offsprings' bedrooms (2) and the smart TV in our loft bedroom, the rest of our devises, phones and laptops have a 2.4 and 5 ghz WiFi connection.
I put all the Cat5e cable and RF distribution in when we had the loft conversion and new stairs done which gave me access to the two top floors and used the existing airing cupboard and boxed in pipe work as a riser between the 1st floor, ground floor and cellar / crawl space.
The builders and Mrs. XZ9 could not believe the amount of cable involved or why I should be bothering when 'it can all be done on WiFi', anyway I did it and it all works four years later.

 

[zx9]

So let me get this straight, a switch is a device that I plug all the different room cables into? Then the router is the device is what BT will give me and I link that to the switch.

Yes, the router will have a number of RJ45 sockets for wired network but probably not enough if you are flooding the house so a switch will be needed.

Edit:

This sort of thing, different makes / number for ports and complexity of set up are available.

 

[Barlidge]

You dont have to locate the cab by the BT incomer, locate it anywhere convenient (loft/garage/under stairs) and then run a link to the incoming location, don't forget to run links to all incoming services even if not is use (BT/Virgin etc) as they don't alway come in at the same place in the building. Cat5e will be sufficient but Cat6 is not much more expensive and will give you 'future proofing' but given its slightly bigger diameter and bend radius specs its troublesome to install in domestic properties. I have 20 odd years experience in the industry both in commercial and domestic properties and was Siemon, krone and Nexans approved and I'm not far from you, if you get stuck give me a shout.

 

[dobbslc]

Thanks for the replies! I think I now know what to do.....

@Barlidge thanks for the offer of help, do you think you could rewire the whole place for me?

 

[skotl]

The house we moved into is a 70s house that a previous owner had run a taxi firm (legally, and above board!) from. Flippin' CAT5 everywhere to cope with terminals and phones - there must have been 24 cables running up the riser at the stair into the main bedroom.

We've spent five years pulling it all out, mainly cos of the incredibly poor job he'd done of routing them (literally pushing them behind behind skirting boards and under carpets, for example).

Total pain in the butt - I'm happier to go wifi, but I'm sure the OP will do a far better job


Edit:

Cat5e will be sufficient but Cat6 is not much more expensive and will give you 'future proofing' but given its slightly bigger diameter and bend radius specs its troublesome to install in domestic properties.

Great point - if you're going to the trouble of laying the cable then definitely go CAT6 not 5/5e

 

[zx9]

The house we moved into is a 70s house that a previous owner had run a taxi firm (legally, and above board!) from. Flippin' CAT5 everywhere to cope with terminals and phones - there must have been 24 cables running up the riser at the stair into the main bedroom.

We've spent five years pulling it all out, mainly cos of the incredibly poor job he'd done of routing them (literally pushing them behind behind skirting boards and under carpets, for example).

Total pain in the butt - I'm happier to go wifi, but I'm sure the OP will do a far better job


Edit:

Great point - if you're going to the trouble of laying the cable then definitely go CAT6 not 5/5e

You have a point but round here WiFi is a congested as the roads, I've just scanned 2.4 ghz there are 14 visible SSIDs of which 12 are on CH1 or CH11, most are BT or Sky and six of them have no encryption. What's the betting Admin and Password features highly in their log on pages.

 

[normspanners]

You have a point but round here WiFi is a congested as the roads, I've just scanned 2.4 ghz there are 14 visible SSIDs of which 12 are on CH1 or CH11, most are BT or Sky and six of them have no encryption. What's the betting Admin and Password features highly in their log on pages.

Yeh here, just a few years ago, I was the only wifi to be seen locally, now, when i interrogate there are LOADS my wifi has about 500 ft front to back coverage thats at about 2-3 bar signal. But still ran cat 5 up the upstairs to each of the games in the bedrooms.

 

[indy4x]

If you want to move large amounts of data or have a 100% reliable connection then cable it, as above the switch can go anywhere, mine is in the attic and this goes off then to various devices around the house.

The switch (and other IT gear) are connected to a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) which keeps the interweb going through power cuts

 

[123hotchef]

I ran cat 5 in my house when I re wired 3 years ago and now I don't use any of it! Wifi has taken over even the speakers have gone along with the cabling now have wifi speakers too

oh and the TVs have wifi built in also for smart TV ect.

 

[bs85]

Currently i have 48 runs of cat6 in my house 14 in the living room 8 of them are behind the TV.
Using structured cabling i run data, voice, usb, hdmi audio and low voltage lighting.
Only use wireless for portable devices

 

[wookie]

So let me get this straight, a switch is a device that I plug all the different room cables into? Then the router is the device is what BT will give me and I link that to the switch.

Yes. If you have a separate switch and router then you can change/upgrade your router without messing up the rest of your network.

I've a 24 port gigabit switch that does a far better job of managing my network than the router ever did. For example I can max-out the connection between my laptop and my server without it causing any slowdowns for the rest of the network. It also means that when my router gets fried by lightning which has happened 3 times so far the rest of my home network keeps working.

 

[Screwdriver]

When I did mine I ran two CATV cables to each location, just in case. You can also use the same cable for other uses like audio or even video with the right adapters.