Wiring new home

devildog6112

Junior Member
Jun 26, 2001
6
0
0
My wife and I are building a new home and I want to wire it for network access as well as home theatre. I have a 16 port hub that I can use, but do I really need to. I have a cable modem for now, DSL will be available in the future but not as of yet so I want to plan for that. I plan on running all of the voice, data, and coax to the garage. Should I use a 110 block for the data or just put terminators on each cable and use the hub and turn on the connections as I need them? With the hub, I have to have a power outlet near it, do 110 or 66 blocks need power?
 

ScottMac

Moderator<br>Networking<br>Elite member
Mar 19, 2001
5,471
2
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Forget the 110, they're a pain in the patoot. Put in a panel. Next to the panel, put in a group terminator for the incoming phone line(s). My current favorite is the Leveton, which allows you to break out and parallel to ...like eight locations (eight phones hanging on the same line, or broken-out by pair to each location). You can see 'em / buy 'em at Home Depot, ~ US$85.00. It also gives you an RJ31x jack for your alarm system. An Rj31x allows an alarm system to take the line and isolate it in case of an alarm. Without a disconnect/isolation jack, all the bad guys have to do is take a phone off the hook, and the alarm can't dial out...very important.

Ortronics and Lucent each have home cabling systems, both are pretty good, and both excel in some features over the other...so it boils down to what you like, or what does what you want it to do better than the other guy....Anixter sells both, or your contractor may already have a package. Whatever you decide, don't do the 110. It uses special cables for cross-connect, they're not easily made....110 is great for phone, sucks for 'puters, trust me.

With a panel, if you move a phone (or computer) you just move the connector in the panel, and you're done. You might also want to go with a panel for the coax. Most panels come in multiples of 24, plan your cabling outlets accordingly.

Also...ask and / or pay your contractor to install a real honest-to-God ground into wherever you're putting the cabling stuff. If the electrical guy can/will do it, do a #6 stranded copper line to the panel ground...usually terminated to a 4X10 copper plate about a quarter inch thick, with lots of holes in it to attach other grounds. When you get around to doing home theater, radio, computer stuff, a good ground will save you a mess of headaches. Yeah, the conduit is grounded, there may be a water pipe nearby...but anything other than the panel ground may cause a grounding differential that shows up on the TV as a hum bar, and computer stuff as poor performance (ground the panel), and other symptoms on other systems.

Also put at least one quad / double duplex power recepticle in near the panel, at least a 20 amp circuit, two would be nearly perfect....'cause you never know what you might get into in the future...you can never have too much AC, or too good of a ground.

Pull more cable than you need, you don't have to terminate all of it, but it's better to have it there, just in case. The major cost is the labor, not the cabling. Do it now, while it's cheap &amp; easy.

FWIW

Scott
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
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<< 'cause you never know what you might get into in the future...you can never have too much AC, or too good of a ground. >>



True....true......way too true.