Question Cat6 over Cat5e for a New Home?

[Fallengod]

Hello.

Just need some help from someone experienced here.

To make a long story short, I bought a new home which I get to pick everything for. One of the wiring options is deciding what rooms to put Ethernet cable in and whether or not to upgrade the whole house to Cat6. They are charging $266 to upgrade cables to cat6. I just want to know if this is worth it to do? Halp!

I am considering installing POE Security cameras which would use power over ethernet as well, so that is part of my thoughts. Past that I dont see myself really "needing" the features of cat6 but maybe better for future proofing to do it now?

 

[mxnerd]

Actually it's better if OP can put the WiFi router at the center of the house.

 

[fkoehler]

You said you builder was 'cheap', which sucks.



Generally in industry, every drop is two cables. I would have at least 2 to every room, with perhaps 4 in living rooms or game/dens, etc. The LAST thing you want to do is have multiple switches for port expansion.
Make sure you leave 1-3m of slack in the wall/ceiling before the terminations to allow for either future relocations or reterms.
Unless you have a 3K sqf Ranch style house, Cat6 should do also, although 6a is preferable.
Since most broadband demarcs are where the telco is/used to go, definately have 2 cables running to it.
If you are going with cameras, pull cable to each corner of the house at a minimum.

Does your contract include legalese to the effect that the cable runs are installed, and tested with test results provided at conclusion of build such that they are responsible for re-pulling cable thats been damaged by workers stepping on it, or otherwise damaging it after its been run and tested, but before conclusion of build and turn-over?
Considering the expense of a whole new house, and the importance a network has in today's world, would be worth it to have a 3rd party come in before final turn-over to validate any supplied test results.
Personally, they sound like they are kind of fucking you over with those prices.
Anyone competent could with the drywall off be in and out of there in a day with 20-25 cables.
Cordless drill, a couple spools of cable, and a roll of velcro wraps. Absolutely NO cable-ties!
Only special tool you need are a punchdown tool, and some wire strippers. Brain-dead simple to do terminations to jacks, or put ice-cubes on. Just a little tedious. Only thing to remember besides wire colors is to keep the terminations to under 1/2".

If they really won't let you pull your own, actually regardless, make sure you go through the house and check every singe door, window, hinge, electrical outlet, everything, even floor creaks, etc, etc, and make a 'punch-list' for them to fix before final sign-off. Once they're paid, you're issues are no longer really their priority. Doubly so for the skintier builders.

 

[Fallengod]

It is more like $230 since you have to pay interest on it for 30 years. Get the smaller one and put the router outside it.

Lol. I mean that is the game of course. That is true for all the choices for the home. Theres certain things I feel like I have to do, and certain things I can do after I have the home.

 

[fkoehler]

You have done well with the limited options you have been given it sounds like to me.

I would not put up with the beallshit about not using 6A. I would offer to buy a 1000' box of it to hand to the contractor at this point and say that the cable does need to be warrantied. It is so much easier to install up front. Conduit without wire is about the same cost and upgradable, but whatever.

Good idea.
If that doesn't work, find out when their installer is coming and just slip him a $20 along with the spool and solve it. He can still test it as 6, IIRC. On the whole though, it doesn't sound like you're even going to be near the Cat6 distance limits. My next question, which should have been the first, was are they using some no-name cheapest available Cat6? We used Belden in industry, which was then cross warrantied with our Krone cerified network. I think it would be very worthwhile to insure they are installing a quality cable at least.

Also, I think putting a wireless router in a closet, and then in a box, metal or plastic is immediately a fail considering all the expense you looking at.

Get some 2-3 decent Aruba AP's (215 AIP) off of eBay for $40-50/ea, and have them do all your wireless management and DHCP. You're router can be just a router/DHCP for hardline devices, and no need to spend extra for plastic fronts, and have far better wireless network to boot. Plus probably cheaper, longer lasting industrial quality build. Same with your router/switch, cheap as chips Cisco, Broadcom, HP gear thats made to run for years with real thermal sink/mass and cooling.
/end broken record

 

[cellarnoise]

Congrats on your new home! Don't worry too much about this stuff, but it does cut down on swearing to not have to update stuff once the walls are closed up.

Besides gaming and the one bedroom converted to a COVID workspace last year, everyone in my home uses wifi (still AC even), except for my home (job) workspace, home NAS, and DC computers, all off of 5e?

Wifi for general home use keeps getting better with signal strength and # of connections and for the most part is keeping up for most general household needs (not so much latency). The freedom for a laptop in the lap, or a tablet or phone or multiple of these things running at the same time is often desired over a wired device. I have not researched wifi in a box, but all my older research is still have it out in the open and through as few of barriers (glass, walls, ect.) as possible.

Oh, yes use quality cable! I helped a buddy rewire part of a small office 2 years ago. We did have a problem with cheap cable as one run had a pre-crimp in it? Installers check the cable as it is installed and running through walls can cause issues with every turn!

I am not a pro! Just a home DIYer that makes a lot of mistakes !

 

[JimKiler]

Actually it's better if OP can put the WiFi router at the center of the house.

It is even better if the OP puts the router on the highest floor away from solid metal and wood. Hopefully the OP does not have stucco if he wants wifi in the yard.