Home Network - does my set-up support it?

eddiem74

Hi Everyone,

I got my house built a few years ago, and have phone points and TV points in every room pretty much, however I am not sure if I have missed out all the important stuff in order to set-up a home network (non-wireless) to stream stuff around the house, and use media extenders, etc..

I am a novice in this area, so am looking for some feedback.

I've attached a few pics of my external phone junction box so you can see it, and the wires within that, and also a picture of a phone point within the house with the socket partially removed so you can see that also.

I see lots of mention of cat5/6 wiring being needed or ideal (not exactly sure what that is, or looks like?), but I am just wondering is what I have in place already any use ?

Let me know what you think ?

Spear

eddiem74 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

I got my house built a few years ago, and have phone points and TV points in every room pretty much, however I am not sure if I have missed out all the important stuff in order to set-up a home network (non-wireless) to stream stuff around the house, and use media extenders, etc..

I am a novice in this area, so am looking for some feedback.

I've attached a few pics of my external phone junction box so you can see it, and the wires within that, and also a picture of a phone point within the house with the socket partially removed so you can see that also.

I see lots of mention of cat5/6 wiring being needed or ideal (not exactly sure what that is, or looks like?), but I am just wondering is what I have in place already any use ?

Let me know what you think ?

It's a little hard to tell from the pics, but that all seems to be phone related. Do you intend to recable the house?

eddiem74

Spear wrote: »

It's a little hard to tell from the pics, but that all seems to be phone related.

- to good to be true, thought I might get lucky !

Spear wrote: »

Do you intend to recable the house?

A recable, probably not, house is only 5 years old. I guess worst case I would consider running some cables outside and in attic as neatly as possible?

Spear

eddiem74 wrote: »

- to good to be true, thought I might get lucky !



A recable, probably not, house is only 5 years old. I guess worst case I would consider running some cables outside and in attic as neatly as possible?

Why not go wireless then? Other wise you need cat 5, 5e or 6 cabling with RJ-45 connectors.

eddiem74

Spear wrote: »

Why not go wireless then? Other wise you need cat 5, 5e or 6 cabling with RJ-45 connectors.

Would wireless support streaming content (including HD content) from a media PC to exenders in other rooms ? I guess I thought wireless was not fast enough for that yet, and there would be a risks of a delay ?

Spear

eddiem74 wrote: »

Would wireless support streaming content (including HD content) from a media PC to exenders in other rooms ? I guess I thought wireless was not fast enough for that yet, and there would be a risks of a delay ?

Wireless 802.11g is 54 megabits. How much bandwidth do you need?

eddiem74

Spear wrote: »

Wireless 802.11g is 54 megabits. How much bandwidth do you need?

From what I know streaming HighDef content requires around 20Mbps (& thats just one stream), and most of the reading I have done seems to always recommend a hard wired solution as there are just to many factors which can influence wireless, and it can suffer signal drop. My current wireless speed on my laptop is hovering between 5-6Mbps so not even enough ?


This is probably a silly novice question (sorry), but my phone and DSL connection come into the the house through that external junction point. In the office upstairs, a phone point has been wired to a new faceplate by eircom, one jack is for ethernet cable which connects to modem, and one for standard phone connection. So I therefore assume I could replace all phone points in the house with a similar faceplate for ethernet, and phone connection, however I guess what I then need would be a modem at each point. Is that possible ?

Spear

eddiem74 wrote: »

This is probably a silly novice question (sorry), but my phone and DSL connection come into the the house through that external junction point. In the office upstairs, a phone point has been wired to a new faceplate by eircom, one jack is for ethernet cable which connects to modem, and one for standard phone connection. So I therefore assume I could replace all phone points in the house with a similar faceplate for ethernet, and phone connection, however I guess what I then need would be a modem at each point. Is that possible ?

No, one ADSL modem per phone line, multiple ones can't co-exist. Networks such as ethernet and the phone system are quite different and separate. Replacing the face plates isn't enough, you'll need to cable with ethernet suitable cable and install a switch or router.

Wireless wise there's also 802.11n which hits speeds of 248 megabits per second.

bushy...

Its hard to make out from the pics but how many wires in each cable ?
cat5 etc would have 4 pairs

blue+blue/white
brown+brown/white
green+green/white
orange+orange/white

eddiem74

bushy... wrote: »

Its hard to make out from the pics but how many wires in each cable ?
cat5 etc would have 4 pairs

blue+blue/white
brown+brown/white
green+green/white
orange+orange/white

Well its the grey sheeted cable which comes from the house, and the good news is it contains the colours mentioned above.

I also today managed to take a real close look at it in the external box, and it says on the grey sheeting "cat5e".

So it looks like I could be sorted ?

Spear

eddiem74 wrote: »

Well its the grey sheeted cable which comes from the house, and the good news is it contains the colours mentioned above.

I also today managed to take a real close look at it in the external box, and it says on the grey sheeting "cat5e".

So it looks like I could be sorted ?

But there should be 8 wires going into an RJ45 connector, and that isn't the case there.

woolymammoth

If wiring the house with CAT5 isn't an option, and you don't want to use wireless, then maybe you should look at option number three!

eddiem74

Spear wrote: »

But there should be 8 wires going into an RJ45 connector, and that isn't the case there.

So given it appears to be cat5 cable, is it:

1) not possible to terminte the cable with an RJ45 connector ?
2) and to add RJ45 wall sockets in the rooms which already have a phone point ?

eddiem74

woolymammoth wrote: »

If wiring the house with CAT5 isn't an option, and you don't want to use wireless, then maybe you should look at option number three!

Yeah, heard of that also, will keep it in mind. Cheers !

Spear

eddiem74 wrote: »

So given it appears to be cat5 cable, is it:

1) not possible to terminte the cable with an RJ45 connector ?
2) and to add RJ45 wall sockets in the rooms which already have a phone point ?

Replacing the connector is easy enough, you'll just need a crimping tool and some connectors. But that's just one end of a cable, where does the cable go after that? Does Eircom own the cables? You'll still need a switch or router.

eddiem74

Spear wrote: »

Replacing the connector is easy enough, you'll just need a crimping tool and some connectors. But that's just one end of a cable, where does the cable go after that? Does Eircom own the cables? You'll still need a switch or router.

I own the cables. Eircom feeds a black sheeted cable to the external juntion box, and that joins with the cat5e from the house that feeds back to there.

I have 2 downstairs phone points (kitchen & living room), and 6 upstairs (2 in main bedroom, 2 in office, and 1 in two other bedrooms), however there is only 3 returns back to the external box, so I assume the electrician must have looped/joined some of the points?

So does it look like there is the possibility I could work something out here or does it feel like a lost case ? If something seems possible, what would be the logical next steps ?

Thanks for the responses, as I try to figure this out !

Spear

eddiem74 wrote: »

I have 2 downstairs phone points (kitchen & living room), and 6 upstairs (2 in main bedroom, 2 in office, and 1 in two other bedrooms), however there is only 3 returns back to the external box, so I assume the electrician must have looped/joined some of the points?

Cat5 isn't used for a bus topology so you can't use the same length of cable for two points like that. Each port will needs it's own separate cable back to your switch/router. So without more cabling, you can only use three points so far.

Capt'n Midnight

If the cable you have is CAT5 / CAT5E / CAT6 it will be clearly marked on the cable. Otherwise is only voice grade.

CAT5E will do gigabit using all 8 wires.
CAT5E will do 10/100Mb using 4 wires, and you can rewire it to use the other 4 wires for a second connection. You can't mix voice and data in the same cable.

eddiem74

Thanks! So it looks like running new cable is the answer, and best solution.

Appreciate your time, and valued inputs !

sunnysoutheast

You could always have a look at powerline networking - e.g. Devolo Homeplug AV.

You'll still need a router for your DSL connection.

SSE