Please Help Me Design a Home Network

[Caveman]

Would like the help of the gurus here to help design a good home network... I've been doing some reading up on "structured wiring" and am much more educated on the concept though there's still a lot of things to know... I'm a ME, and build my own rigs, but don't know much about networking. A few questions:

1) I'd assume everyone here would use CAT 6 (not 5, or 5E)? How much more expensive is CAT 6 over 5E. I've heard different things like 5E is capable of doing what 6 can do... Is that true?

2) More general: I want the following capability for each drop: cable and/or satellite TV, "good" phone capability with 2 lines (1 for voice, 1 for fax), dta lines for PC network... Is there anything else I should provide for?

3) What kind of CWP do I need? Looking for Best bang for the buck that "looks nice".

4) What about wireless? I'd assume I can put a wireless router at some central location int he house away from the CWP???

 

[ForumMaster]

CAT 6 cable is much stiffer and difficult to use. CAT5e should be sufficient. it provides up to 1Gbps speeds. now, CAT 6 only does 1Gbps but i can do more. the cable it capable of mroe but currently there is no consumer products that can use more then 1Gbps and most still only use 100Mbps.

i hope i got everything right. i don't know enought to help you with the rest. srry dude. somebody else will post soon enough i hope.

 

[RebateMonger]

Consider running special wiring conduit (it's flexible tubing) to each room. Then, as wiring needs change, you can easily add whatever you need. It's not possible to predict what your cabling needs will be, even ten years from now. When my house was built, 20 years ago, a telephone loop and RG59 to each room was "state of the art". CAT5 and RG6 (for Satellite) didn't exist.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Consider running special wiring conduit (it's flexible tubing) to each room. Then, as wiring needs change, you can easily add whatever you need. It's not possible to predict what your cabling needs will be, even ten years from now. When my house was built, 20 years ago, a telephone loop and RG59 to each room was "state of the art". CAT5 and RG6 (for Satellite) didn't exist.

i do satellite installs and running rg6 in some houses is a pure pain in the ass.

whats bugs me most is we do pre-wire homes from time to time, and a couple of people have got the house almost entirely finished off...then call us, wanting the satellite wire set up :|

 

[amdskip]

1) Personally I would only run cat 5e if I was wiring my own house.
2) When you want 1 network jack, run 1 additional cat 5e in the wall to the same location for future expansion needs. For phone, you can run 1 more cat 5e for all of your lines.
3) CWP = central wiring panel? I'd run all network cables to the basement/utility room and run then into a patch panel. From the patch panel you then connect them to the proper devices. Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/12port-Mount-Patc...-0898056-7565626?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
4) You could just add a network drop in a good centralized location for the wireless router

I recently helped a friend wire his house and he actually ran pvc pipes throughout his house for all of the cables needed in each room.

 

[Joony]

You might as well go for Cat6 if it's going in the wall. It shouldn't be significantly more expensive over 5e.

Get your Cat6 patch cables at monoprice.com or deepsurplus.com

Sounds like you'd want a 6 port wallplate, with 4 Cat6 jacks, and 2 RG6 quad shield.

I suggest not using any RJ11 jacks because your phone cables fit in RJ45 jack. If you were paranoid about damaging the jacks or patch panel by putting RJ11 heads in RJ45 jacks, you could crimp up some RJ45-RJ11 cables with the silver satin phone cable.

Less harcore would be a 4 port plate, 2 data, 2 coax.

If you're looking towards the near future, then you could go all data jacks, IP phones, IPTV 🙂

For a CWP, hardcore would be going with a Relay Rack or a network cabinet, along with a high density patch panel for all your data. I think i'd keep all the Coax in a CWP though.

edit: also, do all this before the drywall goes up, makes life so much easier.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Consider running special wiring conduit (it's flexible tubing) to each room. Then, as wiring needs change, you can easily add whatever you need. It's not possible to predict what your cabling needs will be, even ten years from now. When my house was built, 20 years ago, a telephone loop and RG59 to each room was "state of the art". CAT5 and RG6 (for Satellite) didn't exist.

This is great advice. Too many of us plan for today, not tomorrow. I see fiber as the natural progression for home use. But who knows? I'm wondering if pex tubing would be good for this? I've never seen it in person, only on the tube on TOH.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: amdskip
1) Personally I would only run cat 5e if I was wiring my own house.
2) When you want 1 network jack, run 1 additional cat 5e in the wall to the same location for future expansion needs. For phone, you can run 1 more cat 5e for all of your lines.
3) CWP = central wiring panel? I'd run all network cables to the basement/utility room and run then into a patch panel. From the patch panel you then connect them to the proper devices. Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/12port-Mount-Patc...-0898056-7565626?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
4) You could just add a network drop in a good centralized location for the wireless router

I recently helped a friend wire his house and he actually ran pvc pipes throughout his house for all of the cables needed in each room.

So is a patch panel a cheap device that you can connect wires to for organization and safe storage? And then run patch cables from the panel to a device (such as a switch)?