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Question about wiring my house in wall with cat 5 ethernet

H

HamSupLo

Diamond Member
i'm thinking about wiring my house so that each room would have a ethernet jack. I don't want to run exposed cables from room to room. i want it to look neat and professional. I went to Home Depot and found all the cables, wall sockets, and jacks I need. I was wondering what would be the terminating point from each socket in each room. You know, telephone wires connect to a box outside the house. I was wondering if the same is true for ethernet? Do i need some control panel switch thing for all the cables to come together? thanks.
 
What you need is a patch panel. All cable runs going to all the rooms will start at the patch panel. You will need a punch down tool to connect the UTP wires to the panel. From there you connect the panel to a switch with regular patch cables. Sorry forr being brief... let me know what part you need more detail on.

Here is a sample of how my network looks (it's all in wall wiring too)

Coaxial -> Cable Modem -> patch cable -> Freesco Router -> patch cable -> 8 port switch -> patch cable -> patch panel -> in wall UTP -> wall jack -> patch cable -> NIC

 
You're talking about a patch panel.

Normally, all connections are "home run" back to a central patch panel (or panels, usually in multi-floor commercial installations)
Short CAT5 cables, called "jumpers" are then used to connect each active patch panel connection to an available port on an internetworking device, such as a hub or a switch.
This kind of setup, also called "structured cabling," offers a LOT of flexibility. You can use CAT5 cable to set up and send almost any type of signal or connection just by using the proper adapters and cross-connects.

It's a good idea to locate your patch panel nearest to where you wish to locate your internetworking equipment, and then make sure all your wiring runs terminate at the patch panel.

You could, however, simply run each room's wire straight to your internetworking equipment (by terminating each room's wire with an RJ-45 plug and then plugging each of them in). But, that method will NOT give you the "neat and professional" look you mentioned you want.
 
thanks geese and mucman.

if i went with this setup: patch panel -> in wall UTP -> wall jack -> patch cable -> NIC. would each computer be networked if i plugged them into each wall jack? does the patch panel act like a switch?
 
A patch panel is just a center point for UTP termination (it is not a hub/switch). I think I should have been more clear with my little network model. That little example shows the path of data to one node on the network. I actually have 4 patch cables going from the switch to the patch panel. They plug into an RJ45 jack in the patch panel, while the opposite side has punched down UTP which goes all the way to the wall jacks. The beauty of structured cabling is that many types of media can go over CAT5. Using structured cabling you can have a setup where you can have audio go through the patch panel! Here is how it would look like :

Stereo -> RCAs -> audio balun -> patch cable -> wall jack -> UTP cable -> patch panel -> patch cable -> patch panel -> UTP cable -> wall jack -> audio balun -> RCAs -> receiver

Now lets say that you move the receiver to another room. To have the audio going to the new room you just need to switch the patch cable that jumpers the patch panel (hopefully you already have an existing drop in the new room). That all there is to it. No new cable needs to be layed

Just so this makes a little more sense pic of a patch panel. I own one made by this company and it is working great. I bought it off of bex0rs off of this board. Really great guy to deal with, you may want to PM him to see if he has another.

 
ok, i understand the role of the switch now. If i have 8 wall jacks, then i run a UTP cable from each jack to the patch panel, then run a patch cable from each termination point on the panel to a 8 port switch? Thanks for the info.
 
You'll probably want a snake as well. It will be the most important tool for your job. You shoul be able to find one for under $50 at Home Depot or your local equivalent.
 
i thought i'd bring this thread back from the thread cuz I have a new question:

I went to Home Depot to check out the patch panel they have, it's about 70 bux. I see this connector block thing that is used to terminate cat 5 cables. It's from Levington and costs about 25 bux. The Home Depot guy saids that I can run the UTP cable from the wall jacks and terminate at this thing. But I can't see how you can make a connection from this block thing to a switch. My question is: what is the difference between the two and which one is better suited for my uses?
 
jooksing - On one side of the patch panel is the place where you terminate the connection that goes to your wall jack. This termination is done with a punch down tool like you described. On the other side of the patch panel are RJ-45 jacks. Each jack is connected to the termination point on the other side of the panel. You will connect the switch to the patch panel using a *surprise* patch cable 🙂.

So you if you got a line from your room coming into your mini network room, you will terminate one end in the patch panel. You then find the corresponding RJ-45 jack on the other side and plug in the patch cable, which is then plugged into your switch.

If you want to follow proper structure cabling standards then you will want to get the patch panel. I believe that according to proper structured cabling standards (hopefully ScottMac will get in here and help me out 🙂), it is bad to terminate cable differently at opposite ends (ie RJ45 on one end and punched down on the other. So if you are going to use wal plates with RJ45 jacks (which are terminated via a punch down tool) then you would want to punch down the other end of the cable.

Hope that helps, keep firing up the questions if you don't understand. This forum is full of cabling gurus... btw, I will try to find a thread that I made when I was wiring my house (it was a big soap opera of a thread).
 
mucman: i saw this "Cat 5e voice and data module" from Leviton at HomeDepot for 25 bux. I'm short on cash and this thing is pretty cheap. Here's the product link From what i read, it looks like i can use this as the patch panel unit. Can you check it out? thanks.
 
One important thing to note, run "at least" 2 cables to each location. (Actually run "at least" N+1 cables to each location, if you plan to have more than 1 jack per location.)
You can leave one unterminated, but trying to pull a cable through if one goes bad will be next to impossible.
I little extra cost on cable now will save you major headaches later.
As a rule, I do 2 full runs to each location, that way if something goes wrong with one path, move 2 cables and worry about it another day.


mike
 
jooksing - That looks fine as a hub, but that is not a patch panel. They have a good diagram about how you should set it up though. It shows the hub going to the patch panel and then the patch panel going to the wall jacks.
 
Actually, if you look carefully at the diagram at the bottom of the PDF page, you'll see a reference to a voice/data module. Check out the spec sheet for it here.

It's like a mini patch panel, and doesn't require the usual wall mounting bracket. I've also used the '66 style' ones pictured on the right here, but they're a little more expensive. They terminate in the rear of the panel, and the panel snaps into a standard 66-style wall bracket.
 
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