networking home office, running wires, jack questions

[TaylorD]

I am trying to network two rooms together....

Basically I want to have one jack in each room accessible by a wall outlet. I have an electrician coming (for seperate electrical work) who can run the wire and cut the holes in the walls but the connections will be up to me. I already have a 50' crimped cable that I am using right now, so if possible I'd like to run that in the wall and just connect it to jacks at both ends (not sure if thats possible - are there wall jacks that have female connectors on BOTH sides? --- is this what im looking for? http://shop.store.yahoo.com/trianglecables-site/paskeyjaccat.html)

Anyway, the ultimate goal is to run the cable at one end directly to the ethernet adapter on a computer. At the other end the wire will be run to a linksys wireless router/switch, which will then connect to a networked printer and two PCs.

Any help would be appreciated, I just want to initially be sure that this will work, and that I should just have the electrician run the cable and cut the wholes

 

[JackMDS]

May be this can Help.

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

 

[TaylorD]

Thanks for the link... I read through it when I searched before, I am basically looking for the most hassle free installation (ie not dealing with cut wires at all)

I am hoping my female-female idea (linked above) will work. I am pretty confident it will, but I dont know how I'd do it if I want to have two jacks on either side (I assume if thats the case I need to start cutting wires or installing some kind of a router behind the wall.

 

[JackMDS]

There are female to female inserts to wall Plates (I think I saw them last time in Home Depot).

However just like couplers using them might impede your installation.

 

[TaylorD]

looks like my options are either use the female-female adapters, or I can cut my 50' cord and try to attach the wires myself

 

[JackMDS]

Buy one keystone at Home Depot, ask them for few inches of CAT5e (they probably will give it to you free), and try to punch in.

May be it is easier than you think.

No Go?

Here you Go: http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?T1=180+0517

 

[TaylorD]

guess I just have to overcome my laziness

anyway, my other question is, do I have to run multiple cables if I want multiple jacks at each end? (and I want to preserve the speed)

 

[JackMDS]

Nop, you just put a Switch in the room.

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: TaylorD
guess I just have to overcome my laziness

anyway, my other question is, do I have to run multiple cables if I want multiple jacks at each end? (and I want to preserve the speed)

Switch or yes you can run multiple cables.

 

[TaylorD]

thanks for all the help...

http://arstechnica.com/guide/networking/installation-6.html
that mentions running one cable through the multiple jacks, but it looks like theyre referring to voice usage there - can i do that for ethernet? It appears that is more like a hub (shares the bandwith) than a switch, but i dont mind it if it makes it easier....

I'd prefer not to need a switch in both rooms, and just have the multiple jacks connect back to the one switch, and with only one cable in the wall if possible...

 

[onelin]

I had a similar thing done in the last year. I punched the jacks, and let me tell you, it's very easy! It's much less work than crimping. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it at first either. You'll definitely be able to get this working if you just have the guy run make the holes and run the twisted pair. The jacks are available at home depot and shouldn't be hard to find. here's a product link I linked this one because it also has the instructions on the page and home depot's was incredibly cryptic.

If you want more than one cable run, just get wall plates that have space for more than one of those.

 

[onelin]

There's no reason you can't use the 1 cable to run one computer to a port on the switch in one room, which also has the computer in it's room plugged directly into it. Especially with only 2 PCs, and the printer on the same side as the switch.

 

[TaylorD]

basically theres one computer in one room and two computers and a network printer in the other room....

my plan as of now is to have the wireless router/switch plugged into the wall in one room, and the two computers and network printer plugged into the switch.

then the other room will just have the one computer plugged into the wall.


I think this is all simpler than I thought, though I am trying to figure out if I can keep all of the phone lines, network lines, and satellite lines on the same faceplate for cleanliness and simplicities sake....

thanks again for all the help guys

 

[TaylorD]

one more thing, does anyone have experience with the "tool less" jacks?

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/trianglecables-site/cat5keyjacto.html

 

[jeffmoss26]

I don't like the tool-less jacks. I do a lot of cabling work and almost always use the Leviton jacks, which are available at Home Depot. They are easy to install and come with a plastic punchdown tool. I would just buy 2 Leviton Cat5e jacks, 2 Leviton 1 Port wallplates, and punch down the jack on each side of the cable run.
Also, I don't recommend running stranded cable or cables with plugs already on them through the walls. The plugs are fragile and can break, also, stranded cable is not good to run in walls. I recommend buying the cable at Home Depot also, Cat5e cable is something like 14 cents a foot there.

 

[Kwatt]

Forget the "tool less" jacks!

I just did my parents house. I had some Panduit "tool less" jacks. I used these on one wall(four outlets). They were left over from my sister's house. I got them right at last! But it took some doing. And I have installed a bunch of these at different places. When you get them right they are good connections. It is just hard getting them right.


Went to Home Depot and got some "Leviton" (2)used these at my mothers computer.
They came with a tool and went on with no problems. I had never used any "Leviton" before, they are going to be my first choice from now on!!!

Needed (2) at the nephews and nephetts computer. Home Depot was out of "white" so went to Radio Shack and got 2. They also came with tool and went on fine. Although I did not like the wallplate.

If there is a Home Depot near you try the Leviton's out. It is not as difficult as you might think. The ones from Radio Shack worked fine too. The Leviton's "seem" better made though.


P.S. I put 2 cables at each location because it is a 40 ft. crawl under the house and then a 20 ft. hop'n'skip through the attic.


Kwatt

 

[jeffmoss26]

The Panduit jacks are decent, they just take way too long to terminate. I can't see using them in a large job, it would just take too long to install them all. Leviton is my first choice by far, I get mine from distributors like Graybar, so I get them cheaper than HD sells them. The RadioShack jacks are okay in a pinch. The Leviton jacks are very simple to terminate, especially when doing a lot of them in one job.