After years of wireless internet sucking, and it still sucks, I have decided that it may not be such a terrible idea to run Cat6 throughout the house. So of course, I had to consult the authority.

1. First, I have found spools of 1000 Feet of Cat6 from between $100-$200 online. I know I will need terminitations, wall plates, etc. Are there any vendors you guys would recommend? Am I going to be fine with pretty much any of these online stores?

2. What is the maximum run length for Cat6? About 5 years ago we had Co-ax cable run throughout the house. They went down to the basement and up to the attic for the upstairs rooms. I plan on snaking the Cat6 along the same route they did the Co-ax, no more than 75 feet is my best guess, probably closer to 50.

3. Any advice, good tutorials, or anything else you guys could think of?

Thanks,

Mike

 

That's a shitpot of cable. 1000 feet??? Are you wiring every room in the house twice? I think the maximum run is something like 295 feet for cat5e and cat 6...

Regardless, it's a pretty easy job. When I did my wiring, I bought everything from Menards & Home Depot.

I ended up just going with the Leviton products sold at HD. They carry all the wall plates and since everything is modular, it's a no brainer job.

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCC...minisite=10028
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCC...minisite=10028

The real question is are you going to pull everything into one location and install a switch for all the pulls? I'm sure you've thought of how it's all going to work, but I just thought I'd ask.

 

Well I figure if 1K feet is is 110 bucks or so better safe than sorry. I would LIKE to wire up as many rooms as possible. Counting off the top of my head I have 2 for the master bedroom, 1 for my room, 1 for my brothers room, 1 for my sisters room. Than on to downstairs, 2 for the kitchen, one for the den. Maybe a few in the basement as well.

I figure if its only 100 or so for the cable I may as well buy 1K feet. Worst case scenario I'll have some left over material to make patch cable with, or I'll sell it to a friend.

In terms of switching, I will likely just buy a four port router for now as that is all we really need wired up. The jack in the den will go to the wireless router for the laptops, but I would like a faster and more reliable hard line to all the PCs. I will have all the cables cluster either where all the coax and crap joins now or in the laundry room (there is limited space behind the wall panels.

I figures best to go with Cat6 just to "prepare for the future" as the price difference isn't that bad.

I'm surprised fiber line isn't being used for more. I figured by now all networking, AV, etc would be fiber.

Mike

 

Just go with the modular stuff from Leviton or similar and you'll be golden.

 

Alright, but in terms of cable? Leviton sells it, because I couldn't find it. Maybe I didn't look hard enough.

Won't I need to add terminations and so fourth (can borrow the tool from my engineering teacher probably)?

Is this acceptable:
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.proc...KN+A7L704-1000
http://www.microbarn.com/details.asp...source=froogle
Mike

 

If he's not, he should be.

If you're going to take the time to wire you may as well wire properly. Cable is cheap.

Run at least a pair of Cat 6 from your media panel to every outlet. This will allow for Data & Phone or 2-cable data.

For instance, if you want to send HD video through your house over Cat6 many systems require 2 cables.

More and more devices are using Cat5/6 as a preferred whole-house transport medium, so if you really want to future proof then run as much as possible.

 

Most all Cat cabling is comparable. The only big variance is going to be if you get into bonded pairs, which gets expensive but is more durable.

When you get RJ45 plugs, make sure you get plugs w/ spacers. Something like these:

http://www.amazon.com/CAT6-RJ45-Modu...6647049&sr=8-1

They'll save you a fuckload of time and frustration.

 

Leviton sells the jacks, plates, etc.

 

So run two cables to each jack?

Right now this is really just meant to be a LAN setup, but if it's a "while I'm at it" type thing and I have the cable I suppose I may as well. I am of course leaving in 6 months, but I want to have the house wired up for my parents (they are not so good with fixing the wifi), and for me for whenever I am here/remainder of my stay.

Noted on the cable terminations.

Also, that $100 cable is acceptable, or I really should go with some bonded pair stuff?

Thanks,

Mike

 

You don't need bonded pair. Excessive. You don't even "need" Cat6. Cat5e would probably be more than sufficient for your parents.

I didn't realize you were leaving soon.

If you do still want to go through the time and expense of trully future proofing, read up on structured wiring. This guys site gives a pretty simple overview and some good links:
http://www.swhowto.com/Structured.htm

 

I understand the concept of structured wiring. If I was building a house from scratch I would love a setup like that... My focus right now though is just running network cable to get all the computers online without constant problems.

My friend had his new house built completely automated, and has rooms with racks of lighting controllers and such, it's pretty bad ass. And while I would love to setup our house like that, unfortunately I don't think it's going to happen, at least not until I have my own place.

Should I go with stranded or solid wire?

Thanks a lot for the help, I'll try to keep everyone updated.

Mike

 

We use these EZ RJ45 connectors for terminations. Makes life so much easier:
http://www.smarthome.com/89210.html

This is the crimping tool:
http://www.smarthome.com/89201.html

As stated, for all your plates, go with Leviton snap-ins.

 

Make sure you buy the right crimps if you by stranded cat5/6 make sure you get crimps for stranded vice versa if you buy single conductor wire.

And use the pairs correctly when you crimp/terminate it. You can get away with running two connections per run. Seeing as Ethernet only uses 1/2 the pairs...

Have fun fishing wire without conduit sucks...

 

Before you go diving into this... how old is the house? I know my house (4 years old) was run with Cat5e for the entire house, and that wire is used for both network, if you want to, or phone, by default.

Just switch the wires around and use a different jack and voila, you have ethernet instead of phone. (Note this obviously only works with cat5+ and won't work with basic phone cable).

 

The house is 80+ years old so that would unfortunately not be possible.

Mike

 

Another source for everything you need is

broadbandutopia

 

I'm very well versed on cable running.

My advice. Pickup 2 500Ft spools of bulk network cable from Lowe's or HD. They can be had for about $50 each.
This will be more then enough cable.

Run the cable in pairs so it will be a quick job. Run 2 cables to each room you want.
You will not need more then 2 cables for network since you can add a small switch in the room for more connections. The other run is simply a backup.

Also consider what you want to have for the future. You only want to run cable 1 time.

You may want to rent a snake, or even better a creepzit. It's like a big fishing rod that connects into several pieces to make 1 long rod. Makes cable running easy.