Cat 5 House Cabling

decbuck

Hi,
I am buying a new house and I am thinking of trying to get the house wired with cat 5 cable giving me a network point in each room.

I have a few stupid questions then.

- Can I run phone and broadband over one cat 5 cable?

- Is it a case of connecting the cat 5 cable to the phone point , and then running a spererate wire to each room, or can I do it in a loop?

- any alternatives to cat 5?

- any good sites i can look at?

- i want a tv point in every room. I am thinking of just paying for this from builder and then do the cat 5 myself.





Cheers

rick_fantastic

why not buy a wireless access point + hook up to broadband????

if your getting tv points in each room make sure you put in signal boosters

ethernet points cost around 15€ each and then the price of the cat5 (around 100€ for a reel)

decbuck

Thanks for the reply.

I basically wanted the network cable to future prrof as such. Just thinking maybe have a pc with movies at one point, but be accessible from all points. Something like that.


Also, I am not sure if I am allowed do anything to the house. Might have to be builders only.

So I could it simple and get a telephone wire, copper wire for tv and cat 5 run from every room to the attic. Not connect them to anything in the attic. But then I can make all the connections /add boosters I want.

Is this a good idea?

KeRbDoG

Yep, seems like a good idea. Best to install cat5e or cat6 network cable btw.
A role of cat5e should be around €70 (well atleast I buy them in work for 65 anywho).
I use www.Connectix.ie or cablemonkey.co.uk (same company really) for the bits. Easy thing to do is get someone to put in the fittings in the walls and you then install the cables/sockets as that would keep costs down.

decbuck

when you say someone put in the fittings what exacetely do you mean.

Do you mean the back boxes for the sockets?

Also I cannot see how I could wire after the house as been finished. I mean in relation to getting cat 5e cable down from the attic to ground floor would be impossible unless some conduit or something like that was available to feed the cable?

What do you think?

5h4mr0(k

No problem running the phone over cat5.

Make sure it's cat5e.

I've cat5e to almost every room in the house. If you're doing it, get 2 rolls of cat5e and put 2 wires to each spot. It's as easy to run 2 lines at once than it is 1.

Run the cat5e and telephone line to the same point. You should preferably have a power outlet nearby as well. You'll need a patch panel to connect everything up. Each cat5 to one port on the panel. Strip back the outer casing on the phone cable, and connect the phone wires to 3 or 4 ports on the panel.

You can then connect the phone ports to anyone one of the cat5 ports i.e. you can move a phone to anywhere you want in the house.
If you also put your broadband modem beside the patch panel, then you can connect the filters in there, and not have to worry about where you need filters in the house.
Any place you want broadband, just connect the cat5 port to the port in router. If (when) you run out of ports and just expand with a small hub.


Wired connection is faster and more stable than wi-fi, especially if you want to stream video. Also, when you throw video senders, microwaves etc. into the mix (along with the neighbours equipment) the wireless spectrum starts to get very crowded.
Several other applications (home automation etc.) which can be run over cat5. Do a google on it.

KeRbDoG

decbuck wrote:

when you say someone put in the fittings what exacetely do you mean.

Do you mean the back boxes for the sockets?

Also I cannot see how I could wire after the house as been finished. I mean in relation to getting cat 5e cable down from the attic to ground floor would be impossible unless some conduit or something like that was available to feed the cable?

What do you think?

If you cant cut a grove out of the wall to allow for your cat5e/coax to be installed then your in a bit of a bind how to get the cable into each room and not looking like ass.
Maybe use that cable run stuff from the ceiling to the ground in a corner, but will still look a bit iffie

ST

Is there anywhere else in the house apart from the Attic that you could bring the wires back to?

Attics can get fairly hot and cold which might cause problems depending on the equipment being installed up there.

Plus you will have to go up there if you need to change stuff.

Sparky

If the house is still on its first fixing stage, buy the materials yourself and ask the builder if he wouldn't mind installing the cables for you, or even the builders sparks.
Try and get a labour charge off him too, so that you know where you stand.
Labour charges will be less if the walls and ceilings are open rather than your builder having to fish the cat5 in to your selected locations.

Some houses have the patch panels under the stairs, or in a cabinet near your main consumer unit. This depends on the house design, looks etc.

Pocky

Have a look at www.IrishHomeNet.com cost a bit more than Cat5 but is truly future proven. Allows TV, Internet and phone (or other services) on one cable using cable sharing. Most flexible system available