1st fix electrics

niall_walsh

hi all. I am currently at the stage of marking out for sockets/switches/blah blah. Just wondering if anyone had any advice for me at this stage or have regretted not doing something at this stage. Interested if anyone has any suggestions on broadband connectivity etc. What is CAT 6 cable i hear people talking about and what is its uses?

Also what about wireless surround sound? is it any good? I presume i have to allow power to the speakers.

All advice very very welcome

I want to get this right .

ninjaBob

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable

The benefits of CAT6 is that it supports Gigabit Ethernet, which means you will get far faster speeds within any internal network (Provided your hardware supports it). So you are in a sense future proofing your house somewhat, you could go to CAT7 but I've found it very hard to find suppliers for the cable at a reasonable price.

I've managed to get a 500m box of CAT6 for €100

Quazzie

Some really good information that might interest you on the following thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055576510

iamlegend2008

Hi

I also went with cat5e cables 2 perm or more where you need them. My understanding is that cat5e also supports gigabit ethernet but the cables are easier to terminate and more forgiving than cat6.

Some say why bother when you have wireless routers but as people are finding out now, foil backed insulation boards are playing havoc with wireless routers and mobile phone reception.

Cheers

A country home

ah? one word. Wireless.:pac:

GoneShootin

A country home wrote: »

ah? one word. Wireless.:pac:

Ditto

PureBred

Run Cat5 to tv points and for phones. Running cat 5 is not just for internet but there is a load of things you can do with it, for example streaming hdmi signals, and may future proof your home.

A country home

i dont know anybody with CAT5 or 6 in their home, and if i did, i would then be wondering what they use it for or ever what they plan on using it for (what they see in the future)

I am going building in a couple of months and really want what i think is best for the home, as we all do. I have a list and i look into each item and really assess whether it would be a benifit. but Cat 123456 or whatever troubles me. I have no use. as far as tv/satellite is concerned its the quantity of cables ill be looking at. . that cable while its changed in quality its still same old coaxil.

and i know we are future proving. . . but there is hundreds of ways one could do that, mention future prove here, and cat 6 will be in the same sentence.

I dont see any need for HD video, gigabit ethernet. . . lol... gigbit all over the house, but if its for hi def video, you would need good size tellys everywhere to appreciate it. that is of course we are going to be watching anything like that through CAT. . .

but unless of course i play it on my own pc or some device in the future, i can safely say where i live air com have a long way to go before they over load the phone line, never mind cat 6 or 7. .

AdamAntsy

Just my opinion, but I think on a new build it'll make sense (for me) to wire Cat 5/6 throughout. Even last night I wasted 10 mins or so in my own house fiddling around with my wireless router that decided to stop allowing me to connect. No hassle with cable in that regard.

Regardless what a B/Band provider supplies over their service, you can internally pump a lot of useful services within your own house over a 1/10Gb network. This is only going to increase over time, and building in the cable now will mean a cheap way to install these later. Worse case I'm sitting on a few hundred quid of redundant cable.. I'll risk that for being able to slot in AV, CCTV, Intelligent lighting etc when I can actually afford to do so - which is no time soon! But I'll be in for a long time so worth the risk.

Wireless is great, but even with later N protocols you won't get the high speeds advertised unless you have perfect conditions - and then you're probably right next to the router. So may as well plug it in! I'll have wireless for the laptop though.

soldsold

Give powerline networking a try. No wiring to do, no wireless signal issues, it just works, and works, and works.

You plug the ethernet cable of one lead into your broadband modem and its 3 pin plug into a nearby electrical socket, the other cable plugs into your laptop (ethernet) and any other socket in the house (3 pin plug). your fuseboard stops the signal from getting out of the house.

Been using it for a year now every day and have never had anything but full speed broadband. Very handy when you want to use the internet in bed, in the kitchen, etc. Solwise PL-85PE is the model that I'm using.

Steve

De_man

soldsold wrote: »

Give powerline networking a try. No wiring to do, no wireless signal issues, it just works, and works, and works.

You plug the ethernet cable of one lead into your broadband modem and its 3 pin plug into a nearby electrical socket, the other cable plugs into your laptop (ethernet) and any other socket in the house (3 pin plug). your fuseboard stops the signal from getting out of the house.

Been using it for a year now every day and have never had anything but full speed broadband. Very handy when you want to use the internet in bed, in the kitchen, etc. Solwise PL-85PE is the model that I'm using.

Steve

just a quick question, i've ran cat6 all over the house so at the moment
and over the medium term i wouldn't need it but would that system work
with if you had X10 already in the house?

soldsold

Sorry no experience with x10 and powerline networking together. The powerline network (my understanding of it...) sends packets of data on the sine wave that the electrical signal generates, so if x10 is also sending info this way there may be an issue? Maybe someone else can advise.

Edit: macwireless.com says: "Powerline Networking operates in a different frequency band than other power line control devices and can co-exist with technologies as X-10, CEBus, and LONworks."

The good thing about powerline networking is the cost. About 80 euro gets you a plug for your modem and another plug to use in any socket in the house. So for 160 euro you can have 3 moveable outlets and so on. I bought a set of two from LIDL this year (hope this is allowed mods!) that did not work with my solwise units but are working perfectly in my neighbours house since I gave them to her as a freebie. You can use up to 16 powerline units according to macwireless.com. For what its worth I'm putting in a cat5 network also when extending the house soon.

Steve

stylers

powerline devices all well and good except for the fact that they cause a lot of RFI (radio frequency interference), because mains wiring is not designed to carry broadband (high frequency) signals. your distribution board will only stop PLT signals if kitted out to do so. IMO powerline adaptors should be avoided if at all possible. so if you've got the opportunity to run cat 5/6 then do it anyway.

cheapskate

By all means run Cat 5e cable to future proof your home but as for cat 6/7 major overkill and only specced by people who know SFA about it, imo!

As for wireless speakers, a resounding NOoooo! if you have the foresight to know where you will place your speakers then wire in properly, wired speakers will always be better than wireless and when you have the oppurtunity to do it from scratch will be cheaper too!

If I could offer one bit of advice to home builders is to spec cable tray or trunking in the attic the lenght of the house and wires running out perpendicular from that to power points also a cable duct between floors from the Consumer unit to the attic and a spare 'draw' wire left in place

THIS IS CALLED FUTURE PROOFING ONE'S HOME

When you need to pull in that new Cat 9z cable attach to the draw wire along with another new 'draw' wire!

CS

De_man

soldsold wrote: »

Edit: macwireless.com says: "Powerline Networking operates in a different frequency band than other power line control devices and can co-exist with technologies as X-10, CEBus, and LONworks."

thanks soldsold for the information you learn something new everyday
certainly something i must read up on
.
.

cheapskate have to agree with regard to cable duct between floors from the Consumer unit to the attic and a spare 'draw' wire left in place,

this has already saved me big time!!!!! ..also spare draws from hub....

regarding running cat5e cat6/7 that all depends on what you intend to use the points for (and would be worthy of its own thread cat5e V cat6/7)
i've used cat6, (very little price difference) plus for TV in the rooms
CT100/CT125 depending on length of runs (huge price difference)!!!

cheapskate

[quote=
regarding running cat5e cat6/7 that all depends on what you intend to use the points for (and would be worthy of its own thread cat5e V cat6/7)
i've used cat6, (very little price difference) plus for TV in the rooms
CT100/CT125 depending on length of runs (huge price difference)!!![/quote]

True, of course I agree with you but I got the impression from the previous threads that people were speccing higher for the sake of having one better! Cat 6 is as high as is necessary though for domestic purposes and I personally think Cat 5 is perfectly adequate for most applications of course you could run optical that would be sure to impress the jones's!

CS

ninjaBob

A country home wrote: »

i dont know anybody with CAT5 or 6 in their home, and if i did, i would then be wondering what they use it for or ever what they plan on using it for (what they see in the future)

I wanted phone sockets in each room, I could get 500m of Cat5 cable for €80 or Cat6 for €100. So i went with Cat6, not so much for future proofing but rather as a means of providing telephone and network access throughout my house.

Wireless networks would be a risk for me, as I have hollowcore and a huge amount of insulation, so i was confident that I could create a suitable wireless network in my house without some blindspots. So I've used CAT6 as my phone connectors making it much easier to put wireless access points in certain rooms.

I also have alot of consoles and pc's, and while wireless networks work well with them now, there is nothing better than having them connected to wired points. If you have ever tried to setup a PS3 on a wireless network and achieve NAT2 status then you would see the benefit of having it wired. It also makes for a more consistent gaming experience where connection is crucial. I can see the arguement from going wireless or x10, but wiring is cheap and I may as well put in 300m of CAT6 now, CAT5e would have done, but was not in stock at the time.

darkhorse.ie

cheapskate wrote: »

By all means run Cat 5e cable to future proof your home but as for cat 6/7 major overkill and only specced by people who know SFA about it, imo!

As for wireless speakers, a resounding NOoooo! if you have the foresight to know where you will place your speakers then wire in properly, wired speakers will always be better than wireless and when you have the oppurtunity to do it from scratch will be cheaper too!

If I could offer one bit of advice to home builders is to spec cable tray or trunking in the attic the lenght of the house and wires running out perpendicular from that to power points also a cable duct between floors from the Consumer unit to the attic and a spare 'draw' wire left in place

THIS IS CALLED FUTURE PROOFING ONE'S HOME

When you need to pull in that new Cat 9z cable attach to the draw wire along with another new 'draw' wire!

CS

100% with you there .my sentiments exactly.a simple timber boxing in the corner of the room above the consumer unit to allow furthe running of cables up to the attic giving access to all the other rooms.maybe there is a case for this in each room to allow maximum ease or access for future running or cables? also cat 5 cable is more than adequate to run around the house from wherever the eircom modem is to points in the house where you want to plug in a laptop etc.. simple solutions are best

darkhorse.ie

if wireless is so good why dont internet cafe's use it? because they know hard wired is better. i believe hard wired is always going to be faster and more reliable than wireless when several users are online in the house at the same time.but people dont like the hassel of running cables around the house.here is a simple and easy method.beside your electric consumer unit(fuse board) install a small shelf/corner shelf, a power socket and telephone point above it.here you will plug in your eircom modem. from here run a cat5e cable to each room you want internet. at the back of the modem there are 4 ethernet connections. so you just crimp RJ45 plugs on the end of the cat5e cables and they plug into these ethernet connections. then in each room the cat5e cable is terminated in an RJ45 outlet socket and your laptop LAN cable justs plugs directly into this outlet. you can google RJ45 and get all the diagrams on how to terminate the cat5e cable in the plugs( aka glass heads) and the outlets.you will need to buy a crimper for about 30 euro .you can also plug in spliters at the modem to send as many cables around the house as you want. i have 3 users online here most of the time and it works a treat, and im in a poor speed area out the country.and im 100% with CHEAPSKATE on leaving access to run cables in the future, that is future proofing for every possible developement.leave ducting or timber boxing in the corner of rooms from floor to ceiling in as many places as possible with spare draw wires left in them,its an electricians treat to find this in an existing dwelling.having the modem up on the shelf keeps everything tidy instead of messy wires down at ground level.while your at it why not use this as a central tv/satelite/ alarm cable point also because your right beside the consumer unit for unlimited power points and you will now have ducting to run whatever you want ,where ever you want.sure now you may aswell build a timber cabinet here instead of the shelf and call it your IT/COMMS/ALARM cabinet and you'll be prepared for whatever comes along.