Home Wiring???

[derekb77]

Hi all,

i was wondering if anyone knows about wiring a home for a home netowrk. i want to wire my home and i dont know what the best way to go about it. i want to wire about 4 rooms in a 3 story house all the way down to the basement. i want to wire inside the walls. i have basic questions like what kind of cable i should use...the difficulty of this kind of project...a company in the san francisco bay area that does this.....what price i should pay for this kind of project if i do it vs. a wiring company..."how to" links where i can get more info if i want to do it myself.

any information would help at this point. has anyone done this wiring before? how hard is it?

thanks in advance for your input.

 

[andri]

Usual 8-wire CAT5 cable.

 

[Workin']

Unless you are a really "handy" kind of guy I would hire someone to do this for you. It may seem easy but it is not. I'd contact at least 3 companies that do the work (look in the yellow pages) and see how much they would charge. I'm guessing you are looking at several hundred dollars - at least where I live (technology-impaired midwestern city), the going rate is about $150 per drop.

 

[doug]

Some links.

http://www.wildtracks.cihost.com/homewire/
http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/cat5/

Many people seem to like Belden Datatwist-350 Cat 5 wire but I went with Lucent GigaSPEED 1071 Cat 5. Anixter (www.anixter.com) rates it better than the Belden.

I am going with Lucent jacks and wallplates, possibly a lucent QuickPort Patch Panel (just a blank to hold jacks).

You should really run some coax (or maybe fiber) at the same time.

 

[kgmz]

If there is a Home Depot near you, they have all the stuff you will need, 500 or 1000' rolls of cat5 cable that is the best price I have found anywhere, the cable end connectors, the Leviton faceplates with 1 to 8 holes and quick jacks for Cat5, phone and cable tv, and Ideal network tools, like crimpers, wire strippers and testing tools. And the prices are cheaper than you could get from any computer store.

I wired my home with connections in every room for just in case and also one on the back deck to use my laptop outside. I put a central point with a 8 port wall plate in a closet with a power outlet for the switch and to connect whichever rooms to the switch. I also used 3 port wall plates for most of the rooms and put 1 cat5, 1 phone and 1 cable tv jack in it. In my office I used a 6 port wall plate so I could have the extra cat5 connectors in there for my laptop, etc.

Here are some links to Leviton where you can download a PDF catalog with a list of all the parts they make and how to install them, and a link for Ideal network tools.

http://www.leviton.com

http://www.idealindustries.com