Building a new Home, Networking suggestions

[dweilbacher]

All,
I am in the process of building a new home and, of course, this is a prime time to run all my data, voice, and video cables. I have about a month before framing and electrical are done and so I need to start planning my low voltage set up. So I'm looking for some advise.

I want to set up a simply solution. Each major room will get 1 data(Cat5e), 1 voice(phone), and one video(Coax) connection. The Coax will have it's own wall plate, but the voice and data will share a wall plate. I plan on running all the cables to the basement where I will install the cable modem and router.

Ok, now for some questions:
1) Cat5e cable. Do I need shielded or will unshielded be ok? Shielded is about 3x the cost and I'm not sure it is worth it. LMK.

2) The cat5e cables will terminate to an RJ-45 keystone jack. I have seen "toolless" version of these jacks. Anyone have experience with the toolless version or should I just get the standard and buy a punch tool?

3) Anyone have a good suggestion as to where to buy networking equipment(wall plates, keystones, cables, etc)? Local stores like lowes are pricey so I'm looking for a suggestion for on-line purchase. If you have purchased such items from someone and were happy with them and the items, LMK.

thanks!

 

[JackMDS]

The consumer prices of Network?s external hardware are relatively high.

It really become a balance between local buying (like home depot), and on line + shipping expenses.

Link to: Wiring - I would like to wire my Networked Computers (Home Wiring).

 

[SgtBuddy]

Get unshielded unless you know how to terminate shielded cable (you ground one end only). The interference risk is pretty darn low. We run 99% unshielded in our buildings. Last year I ran about 100K feet of cable with no problems to date.

I have only used the punchdown variety. We usually go with the industry standard and stay away from "easy"

As for where to buy, I would still stay with Lowes or Home Depot. But that is just me...I like the convenience. We buy our bulk from BlackBox.

 

[Zuke]

Last year I ran all the network cable for the addition we put on our elementary school building at our church. We ran about 10,000 feet of cat5 for voice and data. We bought patch panels, switches, face plates and that kind of stuff from blackbox.com. We bought all our cable at Home Depot - plenum grade cat5e (unshielded). I think a box of 1000ft of cat5e from Home Depot was around $140.

I'd still use a punch down tool to terminate the keystone jacks. I know they claim to be self-terminating, but a good punch down tool that cuts the wire end does a better and neater job. If I were in your position, I'd get a 24port patch panel and run all your voice and data back to that. Gotta get the punch down tool to terminate the cat5 then. Also do yourself a favor and get a RJ45 cable tester and a crimper for making your own patch cables (custom length that way, plus it's way cheaper).

btw, when in doubt RUN EXTRA CABLE you can always just leave a run of cable in the wall with the unterminated end behind the faceplate. You never know when you'll need an extra cable run and if you ever do need it, you'll be very happy you spent an extra few dollars on a cable run now when the drywall isn't up.

 

[Maxwell5]

For online ordering, no one beats the prices at Worthington Distributors.

www.worthdist.com

I don't know if they sell cable, but they sell everything else: connectors, jacks, wall plates, tools, blocks, etc.

Maxwell

 

[Matthias99]

Also, you should probably run Cat6 (gigabit compliant) cable unless Cat5e is *way* cheaper. And don't forget to leave wire runs in the walls for when you want to swap it all out for fiber optics in 10 years.

THG did an article a few months back about wiring a new home. I think giving it a read would be very helpful (they talk about some of these issues), plus they had links to the company they used. Here you go:

http://www.tomshardware.com/network/20030630/index.html