Wiring house

P

PointandClick

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 6, 2008
Messages
383
I'm helping my parents build a new house SO I get the opportunity to wire it up this time around. I've got at least one drop in each bedroom, and anywhere there might be a TV. Would you recommend putting in a second on each? As long as I have the wire I suppose I might as well.

In my room I have 2 drops on each of 3 walls. I was considering adding a 3rd so I could set up isolated networks for example.

The runs are coming from my room. I'm building an extension to the existing closet, so the space is 2ft wide by however deep. I was planning on a patch panel, so I may as well make it deep enough to accommodate rack mount cases as well. I know there are some at least 25" deep, I'll have to see how close to the doorway this will get me.

Ok, so after all this long-winded jumbo, does anyone have any recommendations for things that should/could be done? The basement likely won't be finished right away so I should have some time.
 
I would put 2 around the tv's. Potentially, I'd have a gaming console there and an HTPC. Ideally, you wouldn't want to stream HD content or game over wifi.
 
Run double what you think you will need/could possibly need now or you'll be kicking yourself later. As a rule, I never do just one run to anywhere. On the off-chance that one of the wires gets cut or something happens to it, you have the second run ready without having to go through the pain of running a new one.
 
My room is in the basement. Dad had planned on a wiring closet in the corner of my mom's office, but it would have been in the very NE corner while probably 2/3 of the runs would be going to the S side of the house. This was about the only place to go to get it a little more centralized. I figured I could use the space to stick my NAS in and store things like cd's anyway.
 
I just finished re-wiring my house, at each wall plate I ran 1 telephone (which is just cat-6 using a pair of wires so it can be converted to data if needed), 1 coax, and 2 Cat-6. The best place to terminate (and where I did) is to get it as close to where the cable/telephone comes into your house that way you can easily connect that stuff to your network without much difficulty.
 
I would put a drop along side any coax and/ or voice drops you plan on running. That should give you a few in some of the more 'lived in' rooms that contain both telephone and coax jacks. Use that as a starting point, then expand as needed. I would probably not subtract any, if not just for the purpose of being uniform throughout the house.

So to clearify, all coax and all telephone drops would also get a cat6 drop. Most rooms would have both a coax for TV and a voice for telephone, so that would give you a min of 2 in almost every room in the house. And since the drop is beside another one, it will not look out of place if it goes unused.

This is actually what I did in my house, and it's been working for me. I have a drop in weird places like the kitchen by the phone, but I'm sure if I did not have it there I would be pissed that I did not think about it.
 
Like I said, there will be at least one with each tv, with the coax. Couple at the kitchen bar for tv or working up there.
I don't know how traditional phone lines work, I know you can have 4 lines on cat5/6, but as far as routing I have no idea. We weren't necessarily going to bother with phone lines, but it could never hurt.

Is there anywhere to buy just the rack mount rails so I can build them into the closet?
Also, anyone know of some relatively cheap 16 or 24 port gigabit switches?

Thanks for the feedback.
 
PointandClick said:
Is there anywhere to buy just the rack mount rails so I can build them into the closet?
Also, anyone know of some relatively cheap 16 or 24 port gigabit switches?

Thanks for the feedback.
Click to expand...

Depending on how big the closet actually is, you could get a simple two post rack to put in it.... There's plenty of options in Google.

Just make sure, if the closet it tight, and if you're going to be installing a patch panel for all your network drops... Get a hinged bracket for the panel so you can swing it out to work on it. :)

As for switches.. Good mix of quality and price is HP... Even their unmanaged Procurve switches carry a lifetime warranty. You could go cheaper, but HP has never let me down in the SOHO realm.

Finally, if you can wire a network port, you can wire a phone jack. Not much different. Use the same cable you're using for your network, and in the future the jack can always be replaced and re-wired into a network jack if you like. Or.. If you can make your own patch cords, then you can easily pop a 4p4c end on a patch cord and easily "patch" in a phone jack using a standard "network jack"..
 
cat6 , 2 drops per socket..and coax with nilon rope going from socket to ceiling...(for future additions..)

3 port face plate..

as stated before, wire to entry point of where the telephone etc come in..

dont go past 100meters (90 to be safe) per cable...

you cant use an existing in use cat6 cable for both net and phone.. you need one cable for each..(1 for the net and 1 for the phone)

the phones is rather simple, just 2 wires.. use the blue and white wires.. then check an existing socket to see where it goes (they are numbered) and copy.. at the starting point get a centrel adsl filter installed (you can this yourself too, again only the 2 wires needed - 2 in and 1 for adsl, 1 for phone done..).. and many come with instructions....

use a 3port plate for niceness and only one hole in the wall then..
 
Last edited:
PointandClick said:
My room is in the basement. Dad had planned on a wiring closet in the corner of my mom's office, but it would have been in the very NE corner while probably 2/3 of the runs would be going to the S side of the house. This was about the only place to go to get it a little more centralized. I figured I could use the space to stick my NAS in and store things like cd's anyway.
Click to expand...

good work. I was going to say find somewhere that is central to the house. Also, i'd say run at least 2 drops to each location. When you are pulling cable, it doesn't matter if the pull has 1 or 10 wires on it, it you still gotta pull it wherever your going. If you are going to run 2 drops, then get 2 boxes of cable, so you can do each room/wall in 1 run. Make sense?
 
PointandClick said:
Like I said, there will be at least one with each tv, with the coax. Couple at the kitchen bar for tv or working up there.
I don't know how traditional phone lines work, I know you can have 4 lines on cat5/6, but as far as routing I have no idea. We weren't necessarily going to bother with phone lines, but it could never hurt.

Is there anywhere to buy just the rack mount rails so I can build them into the closet?
Also, anyone know of some relatively cheap 16 or 24 port gigabit switches?

Thanks for the feedback.
Click to expand...

in cat 5 or cat 6, there are 4 pairs of copper wires. or 8 wires total. traditional phone lines use 1 pair or 2 wires for communication. Industry standard uses the blue pair for voice. Also, when you are punching these down, use the "B" standard. No one uses the "A"
Ethernet uses 2 pairs or 4 wires. When shit hits the fan, you could always re-punch those and split 1 physical cable of 4 pairs into 2 drops of 4 each. don't plan on doing that, because it's not the way to do it, i'm just saying you could do it
 
I understand the wiring of phone jacks, I guess what I'm not sure on is where they go from there. Is it set up like an ethernet network: star topology run into some kind of hub where the phone line comes into the house to meet?
I suppose there's no way to convert an rj45 jack to "after the fact"? If you want to change from or to data it will need rewired.
 
There are quite a few threads on AVS forum in their "Home A/V Distrobution & Networking" & in their "Home automation" subforum about DIY wiring. I"ll have to find threads later on today, but if search in their, you can see pictures of peoples projects with racks and wall plates.
 
You need either a telephone distribution panel, which all the manufacturers of structured wiring cabinets make, or a 66 block. I've also done voice on a patch panel and just jumpered a pair of wire between all the jacks on the blue pair...then you can patch any jack to the phone line...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top