Premise Wiring - Cat5e vs. Cat6, 1 Manufacturer vs. Multiple, etc.

[reicherb]

1. I'm preparing to wire my house and can't decide whether to use Cat5e or Cat6 cable. I'm planning to terminate the cables myself and because of that am thinking that It's unlikely that many of the runs will actually be of certifiable quality. I've got a pretty good idea what I'm doing and some limited experience pulling cables, but have no certification equipment to verify my runs with. That being said, will I gain anything by going with Cat6 if I can't terminate the runs to Cat6 standards? Are Cat6 standards harder to meet when terminating or it the only difference in the equipment?

2. My next question is should I stick with one manufacturer for cables, keystone jacks faceplates, patch panels, etc or is it ok to use multiple manufacturers as long as they are all Cat5e or Cat6?

3. What brand cable should I use? I know Belden is the best, but in a home setup is it a waste of money? Would I be better off going with Belkin, or maybe something cheaper? I plan to do some large file transfers and possibly pull some video across the LAN.

4. I plan to put a 4 port faceplate in every room and 2 or 3 in the larger rooms. I'll use 3 of the ports for Data/Voice and the 4th for CATV. Does that seem reasonable?

5. What are some good vendors for getting cable, keystone jacks, patch panels, etc?

6. Any suggestions for a guy doing his first major premise wiring project?

Thanks.

 

[skyking]

2) You need to be sure that the wallplates and keystone jacks, coax jacks are compatible, size wize. The hole may either be too big or too small in the wall plate, if you mix and match.
The price at home depot is reasonable for the leviton line, 30$ for 10 rj45 jacks, and they have coax, rca, and other units also.
This is a nice way to go if you need to add a few things later, no need to either order a bunch extra, or wait to get more in the mail.

Edit: even if you do not plan on putting in the connector, pull at least one extra wire into each location and leave it behind the plate.
I'm guessing you'll get a 1000' roll of wire, and there will be plenty for a few extra runs. Easy to pull now, a ah heck to do later, if you have to go into the attic, crawlspace, etc.
Get a couple of 24 port patch panels for your termination. Think about using rj45 for everything, voice included. That way, each line becomes totally multipurpose, and you can jumper it for voice or data as the needs change. A phone cord plugs right into a rj45.


If all else fails, my telco friend and I can come up from Seattle and wire the whole thing for you on a weekend......... for a fee

 

[cmetz]

1. It's a lot easier to redo terminations later than it is to re-pull cable later. If you're not seriously constrained on budget, go cat6 - it will be a little more future-proof, but it's also just plain higher quality cable and will buy you extra protection against noise and other problems. I think cat6 terminations are done the same as cat5 (NOT absolutely sure), but the connectors are upgraded and a lot of folks don't follow the specs for cat5 and obviously fast and loose like that isn't going to yield cat6 performance either.

2. It's common at the high end for manufacturers to partner/work together on cable and connectors to form a system, and the system's been designed for optimal performance when used together. For example, Berk-Tek and Ortronics have a partnership program where LANMark 1000/2000 cable and Clarity6 jacks are supposed to work particularly well together. How much of this is marketing and how much is technology, I can't tell you. I will say that I'd try not to mix vendors more than you have to, and when you do, try to get folks who work together if you're doing a high-end plant. For cat5e, these days, I think you can mix and match more successfully than at the higher-end cat6/over-cat6.

3. Again, cost is a question here. Belden and Berk-Tek are the two high-end; I like Berk-Tek's LANMark 2000 cable and Ortronics's Clarity6 jacks for high-end jobs. Belden's cable has pairs built together, which is a lot more annoying to install (they claim it's for higher signal quality, but if other manufacturers can deliver as good quality without doing that, then...). Belkin is unlikely to be in the same league as Belden and Berk-Tek. But as long as it's really cat6 cable, you're still a notch better than cat5e, and you may find that the delta from cat5e to Belkin cat6 buys you a lot more per unit $$ than the delta from Belkin cat6 to Belden/Berk-Tek cat6. Put another way, if the cost difference is significant, you will probably be fine just getting the Belkin rather than the higher-end stuff and saving some money.

4. I would suggest that you get faceplates with more jack positions than you are using. First for expansion, second for extra space. Coax in particular -- at least good RG6 quad sheild -- doesn't bend so easily and so having a little more space around it will make your life much easier. A four-position faceplate with spaces between the jacks might be okay, but also you might end up wanting one more jack on a faceplate. Also consider a POTS jack in every faceplate and consider speaker wire.

5. For cat5e, Home Depot has reasonable stuff cheap and easily available. For cat6 and beyond, call up your local Anixter office and be prepared to talk with a few sales guys before finding a good one.

6. It's not rocket science, but the best piece of advice I can give you is to find someone who's done it before. In this day and age, it's typically not hard if you ask around to find some friend or neighbor who has. Someone who's done it before will be a huge help. (The guys at Home Depot don't know much about communications wiring, but you can ask them about the running cable and boxes and faceplates aspects)

 

[reicherb]

I appreciate your responses.

cmetz: What's a POTS jack?

Thanks.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: reicherb
I appreciate your responses.

cmetz: What's a POTS jack?

Thanks.

POTS = Plain Old Telephone System Used when talking about phone jacks (RJ11s) and CAT3 wire, or the 3-pair wire.

This thread is cool, b/c I asked similar questions not long ago. I'll be buying a house in about a month or so and one of the very first things I'll be doing is wiring the entire house.

Home Depot sells this cable that has: 2 pieces of Cat5e and two pieces of RG6 all in one sheath. The wire is big, about an inch in diameter, but you only have to run ONE wire to each room that way. I was thinking about getting it, but the stuff is $375 for a 500-foot roll. :Q A bit out of my league....just a bit.

OTOH, I can get two 1000-foot boxes of CAT5e for about $120 and a box of RG6 for about the same (I think it's about the same) And just pre-make my own all-in-one cables and run them that way.

I'll be wiring every room in the house, possibly even the bathrooms with data, voice and video. Putting it all in one central Comm Closet.

It should be cool....now I just need to get a house to do this in!

 

[skyking]

I suggest not using POTS jacks at all, just using rj45 jacks, and labeling them as voice at the various remote locations. You can then jumper them as either voice, or data at your patch panel. Copper is copper, and you can make it work for you if you use a patch panel.

 

[reicherb]

Originally posted by: skyking
I suggest not using POTS jacks at all, just using rj45 jacks, and labeling them as voice at the various remote locations. You can then jumper them as either voice, or data at your patch panel. Copper is copper, and you can make it work for you if you use a patch panel.

That's the plan!

 

[cmetz]

skyking et al, you can do this - it's what I do. HOWEVER, if you do this, crimp your own custom RJ45<->RJ11 patch cables to go to phones. You can physically stick a RJ11 plug into a RJ45 jack and only use the middle pins, but it'll bend the outer pins of the RJ45 and that's bad for signal quality if you ever wanted to use it for high-speed data (hint: pin 1 is kinda important for 100BaseTX, and they're all important for 1000BaseT).

 

[reicherb]

Originally posted by: cmetz
skyking et al, you can do this - it's what I do. HOWEVER, if you do this, crimp your own custom RJ45<->RJ11 patch cables to go to phones. You can physically stick a RJ11 plug into a RJ45 jack and only use the middle pins, but it'll bend the outer pins of the RJ45 and that's bad for signal quality if you ever wanted to use it for high-speed data (hint: pin 1 is kinda important for 100BaseTX, and they're all important for 1000BaseT).

I'll just replace the RJ11 connectors with RJ45. I'd rather have the flexibility of having all of the runs capable of voice or data.

 

[reicherb]

Can anyone recommend some good, inexpensive vendors (I know it's an oxymoron).

Thanks.

 

[ScottMac]

Lutron, Leviton, Ortronics.

Ortronics is like the Chevrolet of commercial cabling products. Pretty reasonable price (though a little higher than most consumer stuff), very durable, good quality. They pretty much have equipment / cable for about any scenario.

FWIW

Scott

 

[reicherb]

Can you recommend a good retailer to get Ortronics stuff from?

Thanks.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: ScottMac
Lutron, Leviton, Ortronics.

Ortronics is like the Chevrolet of commercial cabling products. Pretty reasonable price (though a little higher than most consumer stuff), very durable, good quality. They pretty much have equipment / cable for about any scenario.

FWIW

Scott

How is the Leviton stuff that Home Depot sells? It's looking like I'm going with HD for my supplies, as by the time you factor in shipping, HD is about the same as the online retailers.

 

[cmetz]

reicherb, I've always bought my Ortronics stuff from Anixter.

MichaelD, Leviton is okay. Pretty much anything that's targeted for home installs is going to be mid range at best from a communications quality / cable plant management perspective. The three things that Leviton has going for them are:

1. They make a LOT of electrical products, been around the block, learned a lot of lessons
2. They have a good product quality track record (their stuff is usually solid)
3. They have a telephone tech/install support line that's pretty good (like, you can get through quickly to someone who mostly knows what they're talking about)

Leviton parts are a bit expensive for what they are, but people use 'em a lot anyway for those reasons (networking and otherwise).

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: cmetz
reicherb, I've always bought my Ortronics stuff from Anixter.

MichaelD, Leviton is okay. Pretty much anything that's targeted for home installs is going to be mid range at best from a communications quality / cable plant management perspective. The three things that Leviton has going for them are:

1. They make a LOT of electrical products, been around the block, learned a lot of lessons
2. They have a good product quality track record (their stuff is usually solid)
3. They have a telephone tech/install support line that's pretty good (like, you can get through quickly to someone who mostly knows what they're talking about)

Leviton parts are a bit expensive for what they are, but people use 'em a lot anyway for those reasons (networking and otherwise).

Thanks, Cmetz. From what I've read about this Anixter company, you have to have an "IN" w/a particular salesman in order to not get scammed...is this the case, or should I just get the stuff from HD?

 

[cmetz]

>Thanks, Cmetz. From what I've read about this Anixter company, you have to have
>an "IN" w/a particular salesman in order to not get scammed...is this the case, or
>should I just get the stuff from HD?

That's not true. Anixter is a reputable company who's been around for a long time. My issue with them is simply that their sales people vary wildly both in how clueful they are (some sales guys actually know what they're talking about and some are just stereotypical sales people) and how capitalistic they are (last time I ordered stuff from them, I went through two sales guys before finding one who would actually get up off his lazy butt and fax me the quote he promised - no quote, no $$, guys!). Anixter is mostly a supplier for commercial/professional customers (where the $$ is) and is really not set up for dealing with home/retail kinds of users, while Home Depot is.

If you're buying higher-end stuff and want great flexibility, and you mostly know what you want, and you're spending real $$, Anixter is the best place around IMO. (there used to also be a company called Anicom formed from a bunch of folks who left Anixter, but they're out of business now, and Anixter is more or less it - I haven't found a second source) If you're just looking to wire your house with reasonable stuff and keep the costs down, Home Depot is probably a lot better bet for you.

Home Depot carries stuff at the cat5e level for data cable. If you wanted stuff at the cat6 level, you're going to have to go higher end and Home Depot probably just isn't going to have the parts you need. Most of the people installing cat6 are professionals (corporate IT, or pro installers) and thus it's more the pro-level suppliers that carry cat6 parts right now.

You might investigate whether Leviton or Belkin make cat6 jacks these days. You could for example get everything but the cables and jacks in the Leviton cable system from Home Depot, and find some mail-order supplier for the latter parts. Belkin is making cat6 cable (well, OEMing it from somebody), so it would not surprise me if they have a jack solution too.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, cmetz.

I went to HD today and bought two, 1000-foot rolls of CAT5e (made by General Cable) for $100. Actually, $108, with tax. The cable is stamped "Certified Cat5e" so I'm not too worried about it. It should do fine for my needs.

I will be getting the CAT5e rated keystones from HD as well. RJ45s and patch panel, most probably from either Provantage or National-tech.com, as the RJ45's HD sells are only rated CAT5, not 5e.

Thanks for your help.

 

[cmetz]

MichaelD, call Leviton and ask them, but I'd bet that the "cat5" Leviton jacks that Home Depot sells are also compliant with cat5e.