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Networking entire house

R

realibrad

Lifer
So, I'm getting the itch the install ethernet to all rooms of my house. Its only a 3/2 1800sqft so not huge. I am going to make the central hub the office, and that is where I will have the modem, wireless router, and network switch. I have a htpc in the living room, and while the wireless works well enough to stream 1080, it would be nice to get higher speeds. I also have my GFs sister and her fiance living with us for now.

I am planning on installing ethernet wall ports, but I am wondering if I should install other things at the same time. I dont have cable tv, but I think it might be worth running.

Any suggestions on how I should run the cables and what else I should add while I am doing it?
 
are the walls off?
when my walls were down, i ran cat5e, audio wires for in wall speakers, and some hdmi cable. install the outlets high for places you know you will put the tv. you can always cover these outlets with a picture frame if you change your mind
 
luv2liv said:
are the walls off?
when my walls were down, i ran cat5e, audio wires for in wall speakers, and some hdmi cable. install the outlets high for places you know you will put the tv. you can always cover these outlets with a picture frame if you change your mind
Click to expand...

No, the walls are still up. I have attic access and there is about a 6in gap in the walls where old warn out coax cable was run, so I dont think it will be that hard to run cables where the outlets already are. The old coax location is pretty much where we set up our electronics anyway, so there isint a need to move them, but I can drywall if needed.
 
The inside walls shouldn't be that difficult, as there is usually no insulation to monkey with.

The outside walls however....can be a pita. Kinda depends on:
-How far down you need to go from the attic - gonna need some sort of long wire kinda. The farther you have to go, the more difficult it becomes to 'spot the cable' lol
-what type/condition of insulation
-who you're working with. I take my time and try to do things right the first time. Some folks are like 'yeah yeah here just ram this thru and connect it'
-what type of connectors you're gonna use? Are you going to use cable(s) with the RJ45 connectors already attached, or are you going to run cable and attach connectors/punch-down connectors? I've found the punch-down connectors much easier to work with.

All in all, it shouldn't be that difficult, just somewhat time consuming. Would probably be a good idea to run HDMI/cable/whatever else as well and get the corresponding wall plates. Get it all done in 1 felled swoop sort of thing..........

I just finished up replacing all (well ok 8) of my single port wallplates with dual-port ones. It was a bit more difficult because I did it all myself and went up thru the crawlspace/insulation/subfloor under the house. Swapped out the 8 port switch and replaced it with a 24-port one, as well as an upgraded wifi AC/router.

Good luck 🙂

Edit: dont forget to pick up a crimper, cable stripper, and a punch tool. They saved me a LOT of headache. I also got the keystone punch connectors that have the wire colors right on them in the correct order.

wolthuis.aspx
 
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If you already have the walls covered, but do have attic access, if I were you I'd just run as needed to save time and hassle. Definitely to the HTPC, but the bedrooms may be less critical, esp. if you usually use laptops or other mobile devices there.

For example when my basement walls were down I ran as many wires as I could in the basement and to convenient places in the floor above. However, I never ran a wire to the main part of my master bedroom because there was no direct access, and it's walls were not down. So running a wire could have been done but doing it then wouldn't have saved me any time compared to doing it later. I decided not to at the time since I didn't actually need it at that time. Fast forward several years later and I still haven't bothered since I don't actually need it. I'm typing this message from my master bedroom right now but it's on a tablet so it's wireless anyway. I have zero need for a wired Ethernet jack in this room now, or for the foreseeable future.

BTW, it's not guaranteed that inside walls will be empty and thus easier to wire than outside walls. Depends on the place but several of my inside walls were actually insulated... not for heat but for sound. The build was a custom job and the owner wanted to minimize noise transfer between rooms, hence the sound insulation. However if it's a standard cookie cutter suburban development, it is likely there will be no insulation in the inside walls.
 
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Just dont go cheap on Cables, get at least some shielded, or both foiled and shielded cables. And leave plenty of cables inside the wall so you could always redo the termination.
 
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