Wiring a new house for ethernet...

[Deleted member 174149]

So, I'm having a new house built, to be completed in December. The builder is letting me have a crack at it after the electrician is done, to do some custom wiring - speaker cable, and ethernet.

Right now I have about a thousand feet of really off-brand, generic Cat5e. I bought it because, at the time, the deal was too good to pass up, but I'm hesitant to use it to wire the whole house because it was so cheap.

So, my questions. Am I too concerned about this cable being too cheap? Realistically, is there going to be a big difference? Here is the kit I picked up, except I got the thousand foot package for $30:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CAT5E-300-30U&cat=NET

If I should be definitely buying new cable (which is my instinct), what can I use that'll be fairly cheap without sacrificing speed? And where should I buy it from?

Last question; should I bother with Cat6 or should I stick with Cat5e and be done with it?

This will all be going into wall plates, I'll probably just pick some up from home depot.

 

[spidey07]

In all honesty you should have somebody professionally install the cable and NOT do it yourself. Let's say your home burns down and your wiring isn't up to code? No money for you.

Otherwise I would push for cat6 but your current cable should be fine. monoprice.com has good prices on supplies.

 

[Deleted member 174149]

I'm going to talk to the electrician to make sure everything I plan on doing is up to code. It's not going to be a hack job of me stapling wires everywhere

Thanks for your advice. So, you stating that my current cable is probably okay, does that imply that generally you believe that generic cable isn't much different from brand-name cable?

I don't want to spend money needlessly, of course, but in-wall ethernet cable seems like a silly place to save less than a hundred bucks if it's not going to be completely satisfactory.

 

[spidey07]

If it truly is cat5e then it will work for gigabit ethernet.

Other advise is to run way more outlets than you think you'd ever need. Especially coax and network jacks. Kitchen and entertainment areas should have multiple outlets. If you can get conduit run everywhere for the cable then even better but that will jack up the cost.

 

[MagicConch]

I have Cat5e (generic also) in my house wired in the whole house and am running a gigabit network without problems. I have some fairly long cable runs in my house too.

 

[Deleted member 174149]

Sounds good. I never would have considered multiple outlets in the entertainment area but it makes perfect sense - HTPC + game console, or even two game consoles, would be pretty common.

So, two jacks, maybe three behind the entertainment unit, one in each bedroom, and one in the kitchen is what I'm figuring. Anything above that and a small uplink switch can be used.

These keystone units... are all faceplates compatible with all keystone jacks? That is, I can buy a keystone faceplate and all RJ-45 and RJ-11 keystone jacks will snap right in?

 

[Compuzen]

I'm not sure about cat5 insulation, so anyone feel free to correct me, but you might want to try not to run it right next to your electrical cables in wall, or cross the two too much. I know in car audio, you try to keep the cables feeding sound away from the power cables to eliminate interference.

I'm not positive, just some input.

 

[halfadder]

Check your local city, county, and state electrical, building, and fire codes before you do anything! Your builder might not know all of the details and legalities of low voltage wiring. At the very least, you could potentially void your fire insurance. You might even find yourself facing criminal charges.

To answer your original question, I have had success with even the cheapest "Cat5" cable. If you ever plan on using 10gigE over copper, you might want to invest in high quality Cat6 cable.

 

[acemcmac]

I get my cable as construction scraps I have a full spool of Cat6 in the livingroom. I'll never buy cable again.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: spidey07
In all honesty you should have somebody professionally install the cable and NOT do it yourself. Let's say your home burns down and your wiring isn't up to code? No money for you.

Otherwise I would push for cat6 but your current cable should be fine. monoprice.com has good prices on supplies.

Good point- I never thought of that.

 

[Deleted member 174149]

Originally posted by: binary visions
These keystone units... are all faceplates compatible with all keystone jacks? That is, I can buy a keystone faceplate and all RJ-45 and RJ-11 keystone jacks will snap right in?

So... anyone used the keystone faceplates & jacks? Or am I going to have to drive my butt to Home Depot and see for myself?

 

[amdskip]

Most faceplates and keystone jacks should be universal. Sometimes a company will make some that only work with their products.

 

[nightowl]

Actually, the minimum spec for 10G over utp is going to require Cat6a or Cat7 and even then it will not be able to go up to 100M until they make the DSPs better.

 

[Deleted member 174149]

Originally posted by: nightowl
Actually, the minimum spec for 10G over utp is going to require Cat6a or Cat7 and even then it will not be able to go up to 100M until they make the DSPs better.

Cat5e it is, then. Thanks for the information. No way I'm going to lay out bucks for Cat6 cable that may or may not support 10G.

Thanks everyone else, too. I'm going to wire an ethernet jack everywhere there's a phone jack (one in each bedroom, one in the kitchen, one in the living room), plus two behind the entertainment center. That will allow me to put a 6-jack outlet in the office to feed them all into, which will keep everything nice and clean.

I'll use my existing generic Cat5e and I'm going to have the electrician go over everything when I'm done (as well as have a quick discussion before I do it) to make sure it's all up to code.

Appreciate the help.