Network the house

P

Pixeleet

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
Messages
1,145
Well, summer's here, and I have a lot more free time on my hands to do some things I've always wanted to get done. One of the most imporant things is getting network cable down to my basement. All my computer stuff is upstairs right now:
  • Master bedroom = 1 computer, DSL Modem, 1 Router, 1 Switch
  • My brother's bedroom == 1 computer
  • My room == 2 computers, 1 hub
There are some laptops, but we don't have wireless in our house yet, so they just share they are just hooked into the network via my hub and via the switch in the master bedroom.

Right now, every room that has a computer in it has one CAT5e cable running to it. Wiring the other rooms upstairs isn't too difficult; I just go into the attic, find where the room is below me, drill between studs, and drop the cable down. Getting through the differnt floors in my house is a horse of a different colour.

First off, some things about the network are going to change when it goes to the basement. There will be a server in the basement that acts as a domain controller for my LAN and VPN. There will be a wireless router in the basement and WAPs placed throughout the house where my dad and I might be using our laptops. I want to have it so each room as a direct connection to the basement (ie. no switch upstairs) but that can be done once I can get at least one cable to the basement; therefore, all switches and routers and my DSL modem will move to the basement. As you see, most of my network stuff, instead of being spread out upstairs, will be moved to the basement.

Now, for the fun stuff: how do I get network cable from the upstairs to the basement? It will most likely drop down behind the walls through my brother's room. The biggest problem here is getting it through the main floor of the house. Also, the basement is completely finished with drywall (and insulation). My dad suggested a couple ideas, but naturally, I decided to post on [H]. He said it's possible to go outside and drop the wire down the side of the house (both my brother's room and the room in the basement I want the network stuff to be in face the same side of the house). He also mentioned something about using the ventilation ducts to get the cable through the different levels in the house.

So now I call to all of you for help. How do I get cable from upstairs to downstairs? Will I need special equipment to house the cables in my walls? I can draw floor layouts if you want so you can get an idea of what I need to go through. Also, if this is beyond my dad's and my DIY skills, who would I call to get something like this done?

Thanks in advance,
./Pix
 
Ventilation Ducts? Id stray away from that because it can cause interference and intermitten packet loss sometimes.

You could run it outside of the house in conduit...Or just run it throught the walls. Im not the most engineering type so I dont have anymore ideas.

GL with the project. Im in the process of putting in Lucent Modular Jacks in every room as well as running CAT3 for the phone vs. the crap they put in this house to begin with.
 
I'd avoid the ventilation ducts too... BUT you could use the air return system relatively easily. Basically, it's a chimney in the walls of your house that draws air back into the HVAC unit. It'll just be an empty "chute" between the studs that leads into the basement. If you look around your house, there will probably be a large vent on the wall of each floor that air doesn't come out of when you turn the heat or AC on. This is where air is drawn in and pulled back doen to the HVAC to circulate the air in your house. You can use it for cable runs without much concern. It's not exactly up to spec, but it'll probably work.

Another popular method is to follow sewage pipes in your house. If you're in the attic, you should see a large (about 4" diameter) PVC pipe coming up and out through the roof. This is so that when you flush the toilet, a vacuum doesn't form while the water is trying to go down the drain. Chances are that this pipe will lead all the way down to your basement. You can use a fish tape (or a string with a weight) to pull the wire down along the side of this pipe into the basement. Many people do this for low voltage wire runs through the house... I know I've done it before.

Good luck!!
 
I'd avoid ventilation as well, however it's possible to use it. I currently have one cable running through it all the way upstairs at the moment. Since it's only going to my wifes computer, and all she does is browse the Internet and play the Sims, I'm not worried about packet loss. Doesn't look like there's been much of a problem either. And, in my case, it's only temporary (been that way for a year though). Ideally I want to set up a net drop in each room, with the exception of the bathrooms (although I was tempted, but that's what wireless and laptops are for).

Anyway, there's some pretty good guides I've seen out there. I've got a PDF of a manual that discusses wiring your whole house, and does a good job of it. I'll see if I can find the website that makes it.

Good luck though! Hell of a task!
 
animeguru said:
Another popular method is to follow sewage pipes in your house. If you're in the attic, you should see a large (about 4" diameter) PVC pipe coming up and out through the roof. This is so that when you flush the toilet, a vacuum doesn't form while the water is trying to go down the drain. Chances are that this pipe will lead all the way down to your basement. You can use a fish tape (or a string with a weight) to pull the wire down along the side of this pipe into the basement. Many people do this for low voltage wire runs through the house... I know I've done it before.
Good luck!!
Click to expand...

This works great, but do realise that in older houses they will very often be steel, not PVC. I have never seen a vent pipe I could not snake down.
 
Yea, sorry about that. When I was talking about the vents, I meant the return air ducts :) Also, sewege might not work in my house because I went up to the attic to have a look-see, and the the pipes were flush with the hole drilled in the wood, so I bet it's like that on every floor. Another option I might have is just to surface mount the cable on the dry-wall, then cover it up with like the plastic they often use when networking a large company. That would work, except I would have to drill through the floor board on both floors to make it work. Another problem with this method is not hitting any electric wires which often run in the areas I'm need to drill in. If anyone has some tips on how to drop wire behind the walls, do tell! :D
 
Avoid the wireless idea if you are planning on doing any serious file transferring or hard file accessing from the servers. Wireless is nice for surfing the net and what-not, but it is noticeably slower than good ol' Cat5 with a quality switch.

My house is wired up with all Cat5e to each workstation. My printer is hooked up via an HP 400N print server. I have 2 802.11b wireless access points (1 in the router and 1 in my AP). Nortel Baystack 350-24T powers the thing. My dually server w/ Win2k3 Enterprise Edition. XP workstations everywhere. Hell, I have a cat5 drop behind my tv in the living room with a 5 port 10/100 for my TiVo and soon to be HTPC and PS2 broadband connections. Wiring it up is always more effective and can be cheaper if you buy a 1000' spool of Cat5. I got mine along with 100 ends and the crimping tool for like $55 shipped. Wireless equipment is alot more costly than that if you have 10-15 computers in your house like me and my roommates do.

The ventilation may or may not cause the interferrence these guys are talking about...it all depends on what is run along side of it. I would say to snake it down the next to a vent pipe or next to any other pipes or openings you can find. Less drilling and cutting the better, less work that way.

Good luck.
 
Pixeleet said:
Also, sewege might not work in my house because I went up to the attic to have a look-see, and the the pipes were flush with the hole drilled in the wood, so I bet it's like that on every floor.
Click to expand...

If you can pop up a floorbord wiht out damageing anything near the vent, do so and break out your mag-light.I've seen more than one house wiht a tight fitting floor around the vent, and it was wide open underneath all the way to the basement..
 
I run the top flor from the attic and the ground floor from the basment, and run everything from the attic down the waste pipe to the basment but right now the wall is open so i can get in their easy and i dont have a finished basment, you can flolow another line that you know goes where you want (like tie a long peace of string to your phone like and then pull the line out of the wall, then use the string to pull the cable threw, and then again to pull the phone line back, you should use 2x as much line as it takes to get from one side to the other, so you can move things back and forth, if you find a place to just drop the lin, id leave it in the wall if you could so if you need to snake anything elce up or down you have the line there to tie it off to.

good luck
 
Do you have a window in your basement? Just make alittle hole out to the ouside wall and hang the wire of the side of your house to the basement window.
 
Yea, that outside idea sounded real good until you consider I'm going to need 8 wires running to the upstairs area of the house, and 2 to the main floor :rolleyes:
 
if outside is the only thing you can do (this may work for inside as well) get some pvc piping and run your cables threw there so they are enclosed and dont look too bad, and you can cap it off paint it, or try to hid it like along the gutter spouts, or a chiminy,

good luck
 
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