advice with running cat5, cable, audio in house walls

[abc]

hi anyone installed this stuff in their house within the drywalls can share the experience/tips? i want to run it 1st floor and basement... what decisions i have to make..

i see there is 1000 ft spool of cat5e in hope depot for 49.95


if you have run cat 5 to 8 rooms do you buy a 8 port router, or you do own a 4port thingy, and plug into it the lines you may need?

 

[RaiseUp]

We have around 20 something speakers installed in the walls here. What do you need to know?

 

[Kremlar]

I ran 2 sets of cat 6 and 2 sets of RG-6 coax to each location in my house last year when I first moved in..

What would you like to know?

Leviton has some great products. Purchased most of the stuff from them. They have modular patch panels with snap-in connectors, so I have 1 patch panel with RG-6 and 1 patch panel with cat 6.

You could even put up a patch panel for speaker cable if you'd like. I'd run 12 gauge speaker cable. Home Depot has some decent stuff, but it is kind of stiff. PartsExpress.com had some good 12 gauge that was much more flexible.

Best recommendation I can give is not to skimp - especially if you're going to be there for a while. Don't run cheap coax, and consider running cat 6.

Are we talking 2 runs, or multiple runs per floor?

 

[kxv]

Why not go wireless? It sure is easier...

 

[theNEOone]

me, my brother, and uncle installed some cat5 in my old house ~7 years ago. right now, i would just go w/ a wireless setup, there really isn't any point in having a wired network at home. the 108mb/s 802.11g speeds are great for any application, even intra-network transfers. even if this isn't fast enough, i'm sure faster speeds will be coming out soon.

as for audio, i've also helped my uncle install some high end systems in people's houses. i was really young, and basically just followed his instruction. i don't have much advice to offer in this dpt, sorry!


=|

 

[Fiveohhh]

don't run it parallel to higher voltage lines for more than a few feet(if possible advoid it at all).

 

[crumpet19]

good advice so far.
Also, I'd recommend using Plenum rated cable. so, if your house ever catches fire, you've got less toxic fumes to worry about.

 

[Kremlar]

I have to disagree with some of the comments about just sticking with wireless, depending on what you're doing with it. Especially if you're up for running the cable, which it seems you are. If you're scared, then go wireless. If you have fairly high bandwith and low-latency needs, go wired.

You won't have to worry about interference, purchasing high-price wireless cards, reception issues, security, etc.

And if you're going to run audio and coax, it would be silly to not run cat 5/6 while you're at it.

Keep in mind that even 802.11g Turbo is 108Mbps SHARED, not 108Mbps per device. Personally, I copy a lot of large files around, stream video, and stream audio. 108Mbps shared would not be enough for me.

I do also have a wireless access point setup, which is nice for my notebook.

Now, my needs may not be typical or the same as yours, but at least give some consideration to both options.

 

[Fiveohhh]

Originally posted by: crumpet19
good advice so far.
Also, I'd recommend using Plenum rated cable. so, if your house ever catches fire, you've got less toxic fumes to worry about.

Unless your running in a plenum. its fairly pointless and just extra money if your house is burning. first of all you most likely aren't going to be in there long. And there are plenty things more dangerous to burn than a few hundred feet of cat 5 jacket in your walls.

 

[abc]

hi... one thing i'm trying to think about is cable internet... the cable in is going to come from the yard somewhere, into the house, 1st floor. once in the house, it's going to need to connect i think, to a multiport switch... then from the switch a cat5 coming out of it and feeding into the walls.

i guess if i got a 4 port router then i have to decide which four places in the house i want to send the cales to...

say send 2 cables down to the basement area for its two rooms, and leave 2 up on the first floor, 1 for the living room and 1 for the bedroom.


but that leaves 1 more bedroom on the 1st floor that I need a connection...

maybe i need to buy a switch with more than 4 ports...



the other thing is, where would it make sense to put the cable modem and the router,

because if I'm not mistaken, I need to have some place where the router sits and feeds 4-5 cables into the wall so be spread throughout the house.

 

[abc]

btw how about these...

though this is i think for a room that you find out you need to connect more than 1 pc to the wall where you only ran 1 cat5 cable...

3com product

 

[mattlear]

I'm about to do this in my house. I just finished re-wiring the entire house from an electrical standpoint.

I bought a couple of rolls of quad-shielded RG6 and Cat5e for video and network. I'll prob use leftover cat5 for phone as well.

I think for the main viewing rooms (living room/family room) I'm going to run 2 video drops to the room. I have a DirecTivo, and it allows you to do the dual tuner thing. Keep that in mind if you are planning to run video.

What have folks used for speaker wire? I saw someone mention something that was slightly more flexible than the stuff at homedepot, but I'm wondering what the difference is. Also, what gauge does speaker wire come in? While I have the ceiling out, I was thinking of installing some wires for ceiling mounted rears. Is speaker cable twisted copper, or is it more like romex (solid copper)?

Thanks!

-Matt

 

[Fiveohhh]

Originally posted by: mattlear
What have folks used for speaker wire? I saw someone mention something that was slightly more flexible than the stuff at homedepot, but I'm wondering what the difference is. Also, what gauge does speaker wire come in? While I have the ceiling out, I was thinking of installing some wires for ceiling mounted rears. Is speaker cable twisted copper, or is it more like romex (solid copper)?

Thanks!

-Matt

If your not a hardcore audiophile you can get by easily with most qwire. It can come in almost any size. you should be fine with a 12ga. Speaker wire is almost always stranded. For the wire I can recommend some stuff from partsexpress.com. the stuff I used was sound king. you can get 100 ft for under $40. If its just for some overhead/ambient music. You can easily get by with cheaper stuff.

 

[abc]

mattlear, dtv is dts right, so it's wireless isnt it... so you got the directv tivo, why does it use coax... stupid question, i'm sure.. i just don't know the product too well..

 

[radioouman]

I agree that if you can possibly do it, run Cat5e cable instead of wireless. It is faster and more reliable, and you don't have to be concerned with neighbors or others trying to break into your network. However, in my house I have a split level that I could not run cables from one level down to the next due to a cinderblock wall. I went wireless, and it works, but transferring really large files is a nuisance.

 

[neutralizer]

hmm i did it before the house was finished.

 

[mattlear]

Originally posted by: abc
mattlear, dtv is dts right, so it's wireless isnt it... so you got the directv tivo, why does it use coax... stupid question, i'm sure.. i just don't know the product too well..

dtv is DirecTv...

You have to use coax to get the signal from the dish to the receiver (in this case, the DirecTivo unit).

Fiveohhh - thanks for the response. I'm just about ready to run all these 'other' wires before I re-sheetrock the ceiling, so I'll probably need to pick some stuff up this week.

I'm planning getting some nice speakers to go along with the Onkyo 901 receiver I picked up earlier this week. So, I don't want to cheap out on the wire. Eventually, I think I want to get a plasma TV and mount that on the wall as well...

It's funny, but 40 bucks for 100ft of wire seems out of whack to me (I havent bought speaker wire in AGES!!!). Those rolls of 12-2 Romex were only 30 bucks per 250ft!!! I guess speaker wire is just more expensive!!!

Can you shoot me a PM with recommendations for 12Ga wire? (or you could post it here)

Thanks!

 

[Bolvangar]

Took me an entire day to run speaker wire from 1 room to another in my house. Wire kept getting caught up on something in the middle of the wall (and it wasn't an outside wall) never did find out wtf it was grrrr :|

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Bolvangar
Took me an entire day to run speaker wire from 1 room to another in my house. Wire kept getting caught up on something in the middle of the wall (and it wasn't an outside wall) never did find out wtf it was grrrr :|

A stud, maybe?

Anyways, just try not to run it next to a power cable.

 

[kxv]

Originally posted by: radioouman
I agree that if you can possibly do it, run Cat5e cable instead of wireless. It is faster and more reliable, and you don't have to be concerned with neighbors or others trying to break into your network. However, in my house I have a split level that I could not run cables from one level down to the next due to a cinderblock wall. I went wireless, and it works, but transferring really large files is a nuisance.

I will guarantee that going with wire will not stop or dissuade your neighbors or anyone else from trying to break into your network. It may stop them from sharing your signal but not trying to break in.

 

[amdskip]

As far as I'm concerned, wired networks are here to stay. Wireless is good for wireless surfing, thats about it or the unusual time where you can't run a wire.

 

[Fiveohhh]

Originally posted by: amdskip
As far as I'm concerned, wired networks are here to stay. Wireless is good for wireless surfing, thats about it or the unusual time where you can't run a wire.

Cheaper to implement too, and if your wiring in a new house its a piece of cake All my PCs are wired except for the laptop and PPC.

 

[WTT0001]

Remember run everything as a home run to save you from problems later (in other words, run all your lines "straight" from each location to a "central" point in the house, generally the electrical panel area in the basement).

 

[abc]

do they sell patch panels for residential use?

say I got 7 rooms that I want to run cat5....

all 7 converge in the basement to a patch panel...

and from the patch panel i can patch whatever ports I need to feed whatever of the 7 rooms that I need to be live, into my little 4 port linksys for example....

 

[TwoBills]

Just a few pointers here and then you're on your own:
1) Don't worry about running the cables near AC. RG6Q and cat5-6 won't be bothered by this. Speaker wire? Probably not.
2)Plenum would be a waste of money unless you're using the return air shaft for a run to the attic from the basement.
3)16GA. is plenty for speaker wire. Also, copper is copper. Most of what you read or hear on this is BS.
4)Avoid interior walls that are common to stairwells, bathrooms, and kitchens. There are firebreaks in there (horizonal 2x4s).
5)Spend most of your time planning what you're going to do. Don't get into a ready, fire, aim situation.
Now I've got to go to work. Today I'll be running 4coax cables from a plasma TV that's mounted above a gas fireplace to the bottom corner of the same wall, where all the equipment is located. Can't go up, can't go down. The only way is across a custom painted wall, around a window, and down, past a firebreak, to the outlet point. Gotta open the wall, run the cable, patch and repaint the wall. One hour to run the cable and 8 hours to patch and paint. $800. Oh, well, gotta eat.