My new home is almost framed and I wanted to ask a question about computer ethernet wiring.
I plan to install our computer and printer in a small alcove/room at the top of the stairs on the second floor. I’m putting a telephone jack and a cable TV jack in that location so that we can either continue using our DSL modem or have the option of switching to a cable modem in the future. My DSL modem, computer, and an ethernet laser printer are connected to a LinkSys router, which has two free ports.
I have two other bedrooms on the second floor that I want to put in computer network jacks so that they can connect to the router and have an internet connection.
My builder offers this: “COMPUTER NETWORK JACK (CATEGORY 5e): INCLUDES RJ45 CONNECTION ON SINGLE GANG PLATE & RJ45 TERMINATION IN BASEMENT (OR OTHER HUB LOCATION).”
I don’t think I want to mess with a basement hub, when I already have a central computer on the second floor.
So, I guess I want to have them install one of these RJ45 network jacks in each of the two bedrooms that connect to my central computer alcove, right? Will the central computer alcove then have a two-port RJ45 port that connects to the ports in the bedrooms? Do I then use two short patch cables to connect each of the two ports in the wall to the free connections in the router? Finally, what does “RJ45 termination” mean?
RJ45 termination simply refers to sticking ends on the cables. If they don’t terminate, you’ll have raw pieces of CAT5 sticking out of the wall, and you’d need to buy the connectors and crimping tool and put the ends on yourself. “RJ45” refers to the specific type of connector they’ll put on it. This is the clear plastic connector that looks like a phone plug, but wider and with 8 contacts.
I’d advise against making one of your rooms the central location that all the wires run to. It means you’re stuck with a wiring box and a bunch of networking gear (router/hub/cable modem) in a bedroom if you ever want to rearrange the house. I’d run all the cables to the basement and move your router and DSL modem down there too. Plug each room’s cable into a port on the router and you’re ready to rock. Then you just have to drop a cheap hub in any room that wants more than one device on the network (e.g. the room with the PC and laser printer).
Note that when I say “plug each room’s cable into a port on the router”, that’s shorthand. Generally what you’d do is have each room’s cable terminate into a jack, so that in the basement, you have a row of jacks, one corresponding to each room. Then you mount your hub on the wall and use a 1-foot patch cable to plug a “room” into the hub. This gives you a lot of flexibility, since it lets you turn the jack in a particular room into whatever you want by rearranging patches in the basement. If you wanted to have two seperate networks (e.g. one with no wireless access for extra security), then you simply get two hubs in the basement, and plug some rooms into one and some into the other. Likewise, you can just take a patch cable and plug one room’s central jack directly into another room’s central jack, to have a hardwired connection between the two that’s for some random purpose (e.g. if you wanted to run a serial connection from one room to the other).
One minor addition: “RJ45 termination in basement” could mean they’ll stick male RJ45’s on the ends of all the cables dangling out of the wall, rather than providing a row of mounted jacks to plug RJ45’s into. You should probably clarify. If they put male RJ45’s on the ends of the cables, you can make the whole thing very tidy with a thingy that’s just a wall-mounted row of jacks facing forward, connected to a corresponding row of jacks facing back. Then you just plug all the cables they terminated into the thing and you have a patch panel.
Yes. You want at least one pair of points in each room, just in case one breaks. Personally, I’d have one pair in each corner of each room. It sounds like overkill, but it’s cheap and now is the time to do it. They should all go to a patch panel somewhere - a basement is ideal.
Second, your cabling should be gigabit-capable, which may well be Cat 6, not 5e.
The “combo4” stuff is what I’d use if I were pre-wiring a house with this sort of stuff. And yes, “home runs” from two opposing corners of each bedroom as a start, and extra runs to wherever I know a computer is going to be. This will give you either the ability to have as many as eight phone lines, two LAN connections or one LAN connection and up to four phone lines plus the two coax. My own crystal ball says fiber optic isn’t going to make much inroad in home use.
The runs don’t have to end in the basement, but it is a popular choice. Another option is at the end of a bedroom closet or commandeer a shelf from a hallway linen closet. Just be sure power is available inside the closet to power routers, hubs, etc. The main benefit to putting the wiring “upstairs” is to reduce the amount of cable needed.
There are a few brands of “home automation” central patch panels built into enclosures out there, and they make for a much nicer install than just a zillion loose cables.
Oh, $1.40 a foot may sound like a lot, but the labor to put in now before the drywall goes up is nil.
>You want at least one pair of points in each room, just in case one breaks.
That’s a good thought. If anyone happens to have a single point that did break, and they wonder how to fix it without rewiring everything, they can try rearranging the wires according to a pinout diagram. This might work, because (at least up through Cat 5e) Ethernet only uses half the wires in the cable.
Now, this might sound pretty hard to believe, but it’s true. I’ve researched it at some length, even studied the conductive traces on removable Ethernet cards to double check, but it’s true: half those wires don’t even connect to anything.
I’d like to know why. After all, the copper is the expensive part - and this is definitely a volume commodity item.
How big is your house? How great is your ‘need for speed’ ? It might be easier to roll-out wireless. Maybe. Pick a central location, be sure it has power and DSL/etc access. Probably better if at a higher location than basement.
Otherwise, at least one Cat 6 or Cat 5e drop in every room where you could conceivably put one would be -my- dream. A switch/router or similar in the basement, as long as router and DSL are down there too (as Galt said) would/should be fine.
My wife hates seeing wires. Drives her nuts. Multiple drops in as many rooms as possible would limit visible cable runs if your SO hates wires too.
I didn’t know they made that combo wire stuff, but it sounds great!
If you were ever to plan on, for example, a MythTV server with several front ends throughout the house, you’ll be very thankful indeed that you didn’t go wireless.
Agreed wholeheartedly with respect to wireless. Do not make the mistake of thinking “wireless ‘108mbps’ is just as good as 100mbps ethernet”. You don’t really get nearly that much throughput, it’s nowhere near as secure, and (and this is really the clincher for me) it’s much less reliable than a wired connection. For something inherently portable like a laptop, wireless is nice, but having a stationary machine on wireless is an unnecessary nuisance in my opinion.
And before anyone chimes in with how great their wireless network works, I’ve had reliable wireless networks too. It’s just really hard to predict whether they’re going to work well, based on things like home construction, layout, location of objects that have a large impact on RF signals, neighbors occupying the same frequency spectrum, etc.
as long as you have the walls open, run at least double the amount of wire you need. once the drywall is finished, a bad wire run will be repairable, but will cause damage. a second wire to each location at least doubles your chances of a trouble free connection.
I wired my office building with Berk-Tek cat 5e, cat 3, and co-ax cable in a 5000 sq. foot single story office building. I have 36 outlets containing each each cat 5e, cat 3, and cable jack, the longest run being about 125 feet. My main components:
3 boxes of Berk-Tek cat5e , 1000’ each (network)
3 boxes of Berk-Tek cat3 , 1000’ each (phone)
1 spool of Co-Ax Cable, 1000’ each (I could use splitters here to save on wire)
40 4 socket plates
36 R45 jacks
36 phone jacks
36 cable jacks
2 termination racks (for the cat5 wiring)
4 punch blocks (for phone wires)
a couple of punch tools, a cable cutter, a R45 cutter/crimper
a bag of 100 r45 connectors
a bag of 100 phone connectors
some wall brackets (to tidy up the wires)
some cable ties (to tidy up the wires some more)
My labor (free)
Total cost of materials: about $1325.
I did have the electrician install 40 outlet boxes and gray PVC pipe (up to ceiling height) for $20/outlet for a total of $800. I highly recommend that you do this so you can upgrade the wiring in the future if you feel the need to. I could have done this too, but I was a little pressed for time. I did have one network guy with me work on the punch blocks and the termination in my electrical room…about 40 hours @ $18/hr. (yay!)…I did all the wire running and jacks and patch cables. We already had some switches/hubs.
So my total price was about $2900 for 36 working outlets (all with cat5e, cat3 and cable) for an average of $80.56 per outlet. I got to know my building quite well and I learned quite a few things along the way…and I still have some wire and connectors left over to make more patch cables for friends or my house.
I just had a printer technician (who also does home networking) here while I was reading this thread and asked him about the prices for each. He said you can get 1000’ of cat5e at Home Depot for $60. I would go double cat5e wiring with cat3 and cable. If you are able bodied, and want to save some money, you should do it yourself. This ain’t electrical work. I went through Graybar down in San Bernardino (CA – but they are in other places too) for all the other stuff (if you don’t want Home Depot stuff). The cat5e was $62 per 1000’ and the cat3 was $48 per 1000’. The cable was $125 per 1000’. The jacks and plates can be had for about $3 each. BTW: I did the buying and installing in 2001, just for reference sake.
The Combo stuff is nice…but way expensive. The cat5e is about 6 cents a foot, cat3 is 5 cents a foot and the cable is 13 cents a foot. If you did 2 cat5e, 1 cat3, 1 cable, it would be 30 cents a foot, not anywhere near that $1-$2 per foot for some sticky stuff to keep the wires together. Of course the connectors need to be added but that negligible. I say, go nuts and do it yourself. Have 3 to four of these sockets in each room and run all the wires down to the basement or garage. Then you wont have to worry about furniture placement because you only have 1 outlet here or another one over there. I’m regretting that I didn’t add a fourth outlet to my own office. Anyways, that just me.
Another thought about going wireless - don’t forget to hire the guy whose job is to sit watching web sites all day and installing the new security patches that wireless seems to need every few hours. And give him a hardwired computer to work from, because wireless is down half the time.
