Wiring up a house with Ethernet

Lemming

Hey guys,

no stranger to setting up networks, just wanting to make sure I get this right first time - otherwise it'll be a pain in the arse to correct. So, new build house with plans to wire it up.

My question is quite simple really: can I wire a wall socket gang to another wall socket gang, or are there other considerations or limitations that need made?

Why wire socket to socket? I could go and get a patch panel, but tbh, it strikes me as absolute overkill for what is only ever going to be a small network and whilst wifi addresses most devices that may come and go, there are a few that I want wired up for reliability, consistency, & performance (two seperate PC in seperate rooms, a NAS, and TV). The idea being that I wire every other room to one room which will contain router, etc. and because it's all wall sockets, I can just use short network cables as and where needed in any given room.

Lemming

OSI wrote: »

You'd want to run a wire for every socket back to a central point with a switch.

If you wire one socket to another, you'll just have connectivity between those 2 sockets.

Yup, that's the idea. Basically, I'd have four or five sockets from other rooms converging on said room; the idea being that only those sockets that I then hook up to the switch/router will be active. Basically, solid core behind the walls, then bog-standard cabling that you might find sold in any electronics shop from device to wall.

ted1

Are you talking about daisy chaining network points???

Are you mad?
You'll have one connection with lots of noise.

Lemming

ted1 wrote: »

Are you talking about daisy chaining network points???

Are you mad?
You'll have one connection with lots of noise.

Never done this before; hence my asking. But cheers for the constructive and deeply informative reply.

com1

If its a new build you should run 2 cat6 to each room and back to a central location. Probably will not cost too much more than your current plan and should future proof to a certain extent (the 2 cat 6 should provide 4k tv (so I'm told)). You can daisy chain or switch the network - whatever you want but at least you will have options

Lemming

Thanks for that com1; with the idea of being device -> wall

---

wall <- switch, would that produce an issue with daisy chaining? ted1 in his haste to call me mad never really elaborated so I'm a bit short for knowing what the limitations of that would be, opposed to placing a patch panel between wall and switch.

I was looking at Cat6 cabling, and looking to upgrade my current switch to gigabit although depends on what router protocols it supports and my ISP.

ted1

Lemming wrote: »

Thanks for that com1; with the idea of being device -> wall

---

wall <- switch, would that produce an issue with daisy chaining? ted1 in his haste to call me mad never really elaborated so I'm a bit short for knowing what the limitations of that would be, opposed to placing a patch panel between wall and switch.

I was looking at Cat6 cabling, and looking to upgrade my current switch to gigabit although depends on what router protocols it supports and my ISP.

It's a mad idea because your not reall reducing the work load but ending up with only one connection point that will have poor speeds because of noise. Electricity can be daisy chained but comms shouldn't
Just run a 2 cat6 to each point and the back to cabinet in the attic or under the stairs etc

DublinDilbert

I don't think he's talking about daisy chaining. He just wants to put in 5 or 6 CAT5 cables for the essentials.

Yea if it's just a few cables you don't need a patch panel, you can use the same rj45 sockets at each end. You can get a holder which will allow you put 4 rj45 sockets on a standard double backing box. Two of these would give you 8 connections.

People will say 2 CAT6 cables from each point etc, but that's overkill for the average user. One from each main tv point, one from alarm, one from main phone point, then maybe one or two for the attic (ip cameras)

gctest50

DublinDilbert wrote: »

People will say 2 CAT6 cables from each point etc, but that's overkill for the average user. One from each main tv point, one from alarm, one from main phone point, then maybe one or two for the attic (ip cameras)

Add your reply here.

You should nearly always run 2 cables even if you don't use the other one - if one fails( eaten by little mouse) you'll have the other and a single size socket box can hold 2 ethernet sockets anyway

Lemming

ted1 wrote: »

It's a mad idea because your not reall reducing the work load but ending up with only one connection point that will have poor speeds because of noise. Electricity can be daisy chained but comms shouldn't
Just run a 2 cat6 to each point and the back to cabinet in the attic or under the stairs etc

That's twice you have mentioned "one connection". I never mentioned one connection point. Just to clarify, I said several seperate network cables converging on a room. Can you clarify exactly what you mean and what you think I'm trying to do please?

gctest50 wrote: »

You should nearly always run 2 cables even if you don't use the other one - if one fails( eaten by little mouse) you'll have the other and a single size socket box can hold 2 ethernet sockets anyway

That's a fair point and a good suggestion on running two cables for redundancy gctest


Edit: I'm stll a bit confused as to what people are referring to by daisy-chaining; to be absolutely and perfectly clear as to what I'm asking about is this:

Room A, B, etc. all get a wall socket end-point.
Room X has several wall socket end-points, each of which corresponds to one found in A, B, etc.

Device in room A gets plugged into wall socket.
Room X socket "A" gets plugged into switch/router, and we now have device 'A' on our network.
Rinse repeat as needed.

jamesd

Lemming wrote: »

That's twice you have mentioned "one connection". I never mentioned one connection point. Just to clarify, I said several seperate network cables converging on a room. Can you clarify exactly what you mean and what you think I'm trying to do please?



That's a fair point and a good suggestion on running two cables for redundancy gctest


Edit: I'm stll a bit confused as to what people are referring to by daisy-chaining; to be absolutely and perfectly clear as to what I'm asking about is this:

Room A, B, etc. all get a wall socket end-point.
Room X has several wall socket end-points, each of which corresponds to one found in A, B, etc.

Device in room A gets plugged into wall socket.
Room X socket "A" gets plugged into switch/router, and we now have device 'A' on our network.
Rinse repeat as needed.

That will work fine. You are replacing a patch panel by having sockets in room x to match the rooms. Will work with no issues.

ted1

Lemming wrote: »

That's twice you have mentioned "one connection". I never mentioned one connection point. Just to clarify, I said several seperate network cables converging on a room. Can you clarify exactly what you mean and what you think I'm trying to do please?





Edit: I'm stll a bit confused as to what people are referring to by daisy-chaining; to be absolutely and perfectly clear as to what I'm asking about is this:

.

The way you asked the question was confusing.
" can I wire a wall socket gang to another wall socket gang"


Double wall RJ45 sockets with a central HUb/Switch /Router gives you greater flexibility. Your incoming cable can be located in any room and one of the sockets could be used to feed the Hub/Switch/Router. you may find that your phone point/UPC point ends up in a different room than you have the cables going back to.

ED E

Lemming what I'd do it it were me is drop the "Room X" for the attic/utility room. Drop all the cables there and patch em, or just terminate and fit a switch. A TP link 8 Port gig switch is cheap as chips an if you need to you can upgrade to a 24 Port for a small amount of cash.

Then say if your ISP connection is in the living room, fit their CPE there, connect it to the wall port there and it'll then feed the rest of the house. The benefit of this is say in a few years time you change ISP and the drop point comes in the other side of the house it doesnt matter to your setup as all the cables dont terminate where you used to have your CPE. Keep things clean and simple.

imitation

I put my central point in the attic theory was that it was high enough above the solid walls that I would get a decent signal through the house. It didn't work like that but a second router in the room with the dodgy signal which sorted that. Other advantage of the attic is its easier to get something installed there that it is having to drill holes to access a living room.

Lemming

Thanks for the input guys. Just a brief bit on the house build; it's not got an attic in the sense you think (or my family home had) with any sort of decent space as most of that is taken up with insulation. The house itself is built over three floors (garage on ground floor, everything "liveable" above that), with the room in question designated "room X" is middle floor, so for wi-fi spread, best location, and also comes with a home office package in the build plans (extra power points, telephony points, etc.). Given that it's going to be an actual home office, that's where all the points from the rest of the house will be terminating (be it by patch or socket, whichever way I decide to roll given the input).

I do like the idea of being able to just plug the gateway router into any wall socket and away we go although I can't envisage any changes in the foreseeable future regards broadband connectivity other than ADSL2+/VDSL available. Cable was in the estate before it was redeveloped but ripped out and Virgin Media declined to put it back in despite having a captive market, so unlikely any time soon. So anything else is Fibre (whenever BT ever pull their finger out ... ).

A further questions if I may regards patch panels - if I did opt to go that way, can anyone recommend a slim wall-mountable 1U cabinet that doesn't cost silly prices? Ideally 10" but 19" if need be.

Cuddlesworth

Put 2 cables into each main room with a normal keystone dual plate, where the TV's/PC's will go. Put a cable into the middle of the ceiling of each floor in the house, in the past I have favoured the landing. Depends on the layout. Just put a RJ45 on those.

Terminate each cable into a single area(office in your case). Just use wall plates, no real need for a patch panel. You can get 4 port double's pretty handy. There are 8 port keystones, but the sizing is weird. You could even do something like this if you want, cable tie the bundle going into the switch. Just remember to label the cables well.

Look at buying a cheap 8 port switch to run the ports you need.

Finally, those cables in the ceiling. Get a set of ubuiqity wireless AP's or wait a little and get their new AC AP coming out. At this stage wiring for good wifi makes far more sense then wiring just for cabled devices. They come with adapters that let you power them via the ethernet cable. Ceiling mount them, give them the same SSID and passphrase and voila, great wireless signal across the house with easy replacement if needed. Everything is going wireless, might as well future proof it.