CAT6 house cabling

tkrysiak

Hi Everyone


Not sure if this board is the best place to ask but has anyone done CAT6 cabling in their home? I am shortly moving into a new house and would like to organize someone to do such work for me. Not even sure where to ask and what cost to expect for doing such work (know the cable/hardware cost etc)


Would anyone kindly point me in the right direction if they have previous experience?

Dr4gul4

tkrysiak wrote: »

Hi Everyone


Not sure if this board is the best place to ask but has anyone done CAT6 cabling in their home? I am shortly moving into a new house and would like to organize someone to do such work for me. Not even sure where to ask and what cost to expect for doing such work (know the cable/hardware cost etc)


Would anyone kindly point me in the right direction if they have previous experience?

I put in a few points here round the house when we moved in, I had an electrical company install them for me.

Process is house dependent however, chase plasterboard, cut ceilings, all to route back to one singular point.

If you're getting it done, put in 2 if not three points around the usual areas. and maybe think about wifi points, in ceilings also ..

Oh and be sure to ask if they can repair the damage caused after. some painting will required .

Shielded cat 6 might be worth installing also, in case of electrical interference, I found this was an issue with HDMI Senders

tkrysiak

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

I put in a few points here round the house when we moved in, I had an electrical company install them for me.

Process is house dependent however, chase plasterboard, cut ceilings, all to route back to one singular point.

If you're getting it done, put in 2 if not three points around the usual areas. and maybe think about wifi points, in ceilings also ..

Oh and be sure to ask if they can repair the damage caused after. some painting will required .

Shielded cat 6 might be worth installing also, in case of electrical interference, I found this was an issue with HDMI Senders

Yes, was thinking of shielded cable - it is a once off job, no point saving a few euro on a cable (well ok not a few but you get my point)


May I ask how much did it hurt your wallet more less?

wexfordman2

tkrysiak wrote: »

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

I put in a few points here round the house when we moved in, I had an electrical company install them for me.

Process is house dependent however, chase plasterboard, cut ceilings, all to route back to one singular point.

If you're getting it done, put in 2 if not three points around the usual areas. and maybe think about wifi points, in ceilings also ..

Oh and be sure to ask if they can repair the damage caused after. some painting will required .

Shielded cat 6 might be worth installing also, in case of electrical interference, I found this was an issue with HDMI Senders

Yes, was thinking of shielded cable - it is a once off job, no point saving a few euro on a cable (well ok not a few but you get my point)


May I ask how much did it hurt your wallet more less?

The most important bit is the design, as in selecting where and how many runs you need. The rest is just pulling cable and terminating, any good electrician should be able to do it, or if you are handy, just get them to pull the cable and terminate it yourself, it's not that difficult, just need some tools and testers.

Dr4gul4

tkrysiak wrote: »

Yes, was thinking of shielded cable - it is a once off job, no point saving a few euro on a cable (well ok not a few but you get my point)


May I ask how much did it hurt your wallet more less?

I'd love to tell you, but we bundled the work with other jobs such as replacing lights with down lights etc .. so over all i haven't a clue at all ..

Chopper83

Just had this complete on my new build which I'm about to move into, CAT 6 in all the main rooms and bedrooms.

I've ran all the cables back to under the stairs, i'll need to buy a switch with probably 16 ports. Future proof.

Cabaal

ah brings me back to when I asked for network points to be installed on our build and the idiot installer used RJ11 plates on all the walls to wire the Cat6 cable into, had to call them back

:rolleyes:

jester77

I have CAT 7 running through the house, ran 2 points to all bedrooms, 4 to the office, 8 to where the main entertainment setup is, and a few other random points (where you want cameras, alarms, access points, etc). They all feed into a cabinet in the basement. I have 32 port switch which is now full, will be adding an extra switch at some point.

Just a few things to be aware of, have enough power points where you terminate everything, consider using POE for cameras, alarms, access points, etc. If you are not sure whether you want to run cables somewhere, then put in some empty conduit so it will be easy later if you change your mind.

I think I paid around 3K, but that included cabinet, patch panel, switch and I also think there was a satellite installation with a multiswtich included in that.

theteal

Cabaal wrote: »

ah brings me back to when I asked for network points to be installed on our build and the idiot installer used RJ11 plates on all the walls to wire the Cat6 cable into, had to call them back

:rolleyes:

When we were viewing our house, the EA was making a big fuss about it all being wired up for network. As he made a point of mentioning it I had a quick look. Yup, all 4 bedrooms cabled up with RJ11 phone ports fed back to the BT master socket. . . lots of use that! He didn't even understand when I explained it to him.

Anyway, soon to be remedied.

digitaldr

Amazon has some very good value cabinets, patch panels and Netgear switches - much cheaper than what my electrician was quoting. While wired is always going to be better some of rhe mesh routers are pretty good. I have an Orbi to compliment my wired network and it's excellent.

Chopper83

digitaldr wrote: »

Amazon has some very good value cabinets, patch panels and Netgear switches - much cheaper than what my electrician was quoting. While wired is always going to be better some of rhe mesh routers are pretty good. I have an Orbi to compliment my wired network and it's excellent.

I need to buy a switch for my new build, any recommendations? 16 port I think. Why do you need a patch panel?

Apologies for hijacking the thread OP!

digitaldr

I got a 24 port Netgear unmanaged switch from Amazon - it's gone up in price a but there's also a very well reviewed TP link one https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003UWXFM0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WAneDb7BFQPDA

I've bought lots of TP link stuff before and never had an issue.

My electrician recommended a patch panel. I was a bit dubious and it's not really necessary for home networking. I'm glad I went for it though as it has kept things a bit neater especially for stuff like the hdmi and USB over cat6 from my cctv box to the TV.

tech

Hi Jestwe, would like to see some pics of your setup, sounds very impressive.

Stoner

In my opinion shielded cabling isn't needed in houses. I'd rather spend the money on more well placed points and a good router set up.

Not having all the data points running to the consumer unit , like say to the attic, would generally take them away from the main concentration of electrical cables, plus houses are usually single phase.
In my opinion top of the range cabling with shielding is really for environments that have a lot more electrical noise than a house.
Each to their own .

Data points to the lightswitches as recommended by wexford man back to the consumer unit is a good idea imo, these would just be unterminated cables for light switches for smart home future proofing. I'd love that in my house

funkey_monkey

jester77 wrote: »

I have CAT 7 running through the house, ran 2 points to all bedrooms, 4 to the office, 8 to where the main entertainment setup is, and a few other random points (where you want cameras, alarms, access points, etc). They all feed into a cabinet in the basement. I have 32 port switch which is now full, will be adding an extra switch at some point.

Will you need to be pulling new cables for that? Can I ask what you think you'll be requiring the extra ports for? It seems like a well specc'ed setup as it currently stands.
Are you using the 8 into the main entertainment point?

jester77

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Will you need to be pulling new cables for that? Can I ask what you think you'll be requiring the extra ports for? It seems like a well specc'ed setup as it currently stands.
Are you using the 8 into the main entertainment point?

I had them all setup when building the house. The extra ports disappear very quick, in my server rack are a few Pi's, a NAS (uses 2 ports), server (uses 4 ports), UPS, ATA box, POE adapters, and a small router that I am using to tide me over.

You'd be surprised how quick 8 ports get used. TV, A/V Receiver, Satellite box, Chromecast with Eth adapter, Apple TV, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and phone receiver. The phone receiver could be moved, but the rest not really.

tech

any pics jester? sounds cool

jester77

It's a really basic setup right now, this is how it looked a while back. I will replace the switch, get a better router, and a rack mounted NAS at some stage. I want to run a private LAN, guest LAN and an IOT LAN. Just don't have the time at the moment.

bigpink

Sister is getting a old house rewired is it worth putting down cat 6 cable

wexfordman2

bigpink wrote: »

Sister is getting a old house rewired is it worth putting down cat 6 cable

Absolutely no question about it. The only thing to consider is how much, and where.

bigpink

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Absolutely no question about it. The only thing to consider is how much, and where.

What’s the advantage?

wexfordman2

bigpink wrote: »

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Absolutely no question about it. The only thing to consider is how much, and where.

What’s the advantage?

The advantage of having data cabling ?

For high bandwidth services, not using wifi, which is unstable.
For wifi itself,.as the backbone for your wifi network.
For current and future services such as streaming tv which will never be as stable or reliable using wifi.
The more devices you can migrate to your wired network, the better your experience will be on your wifi network.

Stoner

bigpink wrote:

What’s the advantage?

wexfordman2 wrote:

For high bandwidth services, not using wifi, which is unstable. For wifi itself,.as the backbone for your wifi network. For current and future services such as streaming tv which will never be as stable or reliable using wifi. The more devices you can migrate to your wired network, the better your experience will be on your wifi network.

Just to add to that,

No passwords, so you can change up your wifi provider etc without having to change the password on a wired device.


Wired connections are far more secure, apart from some congestion at active hardware points they don't share their connections (generally speaking)

There are many devices like cameras etc that are billed at having wired and wireless connections but work far better when wired

Some devices low powered ones run better on wired connections, you can turn off wireless and free up some processing power


Some devices can get power and data over wireless POE, some cameras, lights etc.

With LED lamps some manufacturers have up to 4 office style fittings powered and controlled via one data cable

The high horse brigade

Wireless is a shared medium, all your wireless devices share a frequency, they actually take turns talking. A cable does two way traffic using different pairs of cores. To get the best from your wireless you should cable everything static and keep wireless for mobility, for the devices that actually need it.

paulgrogan.eu

Hey guys,

Nice thread here. So in my house I've just got regular RJ11 telephone points, but they are wired with Cat 5 cable and appear to come back to a central box, which is located outside my house on the wall. I'm assuming this is where the traditional eircom telephone line comes in.

My question is, can I simply replace the faceplates with RJ45 plates, and then cut back the cabling outside and terminate each wire into a switch. Or am I missing a potential hurdle!?

Advice / guidance appreciated.

P.

wexfordman2

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

Hey guys,

Nice thread here. So in my house I've just got regular RJ11 telephone points, but they are wired with Cat 5 cable and appear to come back to a central box, which is located outside my house on the wall. I'm assuming this is where the traditional eircom telephone line comes in.

My question is, can I simply replace the faceplates with RJ45 plates, and then cut back the cabling outside and terminate each wire into a switch. Or am I missing a potential hurdle!?

Advice / guidance appreciated.

P.

That's an unusual way to have done it. How many points, and can you post up a few photos ?

Can you def pull the cable from the external junction box back in ?

Stoner

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

Hey guys,

Nice thread here. So in my house I've just got regular RJ11 telephone points, but they are wired with Cat 5 cable and appear to come back to a central box, which is located outside my house on the wall. I'm assuming this is where the traditional eircom telephone line comes in.

My question is, can I simply replace the faceplates with RJ45 plates, and then cut back the cabling outside and terminate each wire into a switch. Or am I missing a potential hurdle!?

Advice / guidance appreciated.

P.

Cat 5 cable became so inexpensive that some used it as their data cable regardless

It was a decent future proof move too and in the odd spec

If they all go back to a central point then there is no issue terminating them as rj45 outlets

wexfordman2

Stoner wrote: »

Cat 5 cable became so inexpensive that some used it as their data cable regardless

It was a decent future proof move too and in the odd spec

If they all go back to a central point then there is no issue terminating them as rj45 outlets

But if they all go to an external junction box, how can they be used unless he can pull them back in ?

theteal

It does sound like an interesting case. It could be a real bonus that they've used cat5, it's this external junction box that raises curiosity. @paulgrogan.eu lash up a few pictures there

paulgrogan.eu

Thanks for the replies everyone. Will grab some pics later for sure, as I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has done something like this as surely I can't be in a unique situation.



So the house was built in 2006 before I bought it, so obviously that's why CAT5/RJ45 plates back to a central point weren't run in the first place naturally. So essentially a telephone network was installed with points in the usual places, under the stairs, master bedroom, sitting room etc.


But yeah, there's a small little box located underneath the ESB box (separate obviously) where a bunch of CAT5's appear to come back too and I'm obviously assuming they are all the points around the house coming back to a central location.



Now in terms of getting them into my server room and into a patch panel, I think the only option I'm going to have here is to run some external piping, and then use gel connectors to join up the wires at the external box and run them along the wall and into my comms room which is located at an external wall.


Grim enough work, but obviously saves me lots of drilling / plastering etc internally. Luckily the external box is on the same wall as the entry point to my comms room.

wexfordman2

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone. Will grab some pics later for sure, as I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has done something like this as surely I can't be in a unique situation.



So the house was built in 2006 before I bought it, so obviously that's why CAT5/RJ45 plates back to a central point weren't run in the first place naturally. So essentially a telephone network was installed with points in the usual places, under the stairs, master bedroom, sitting room etc.


But yeah, there's a small little box located underneath the ESB box (separate obviously) where a bunch of CAT5's appear to come back too and I'm obviously assuming they are all the points around the house coming back to a central location.



Now in terms of getting them into my server room and into a patch panel, I think the only option I'm going to have here is to run some external piping, and then use gel connectors to join up the wires at the external box and run them along the wall and into my comms room which is located at an external wall.


Grim enough work, but obviously saves me lots of drilling / plastering etc internally. Luckily the external box is on the same wall as the entry point to my comms room.

Unless of course all the cat cables were routed up to the attic and then out to the distribution points ?

wexfordman2

Actually, was thinking about this a bit more, and was thinking, wouldn't it be great if there was an outdoor rated Poe network switch.

And then I went looking

And then I found this

https://www.senetic.ie/product-usw-flex/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwu6fzBRC6ARIsAJUwa2SZn7FETk2nrkh_wO0M2FvkN8ukrfDRcoeGHd5JW3rtICIV1HG01_EaAsfyEALw_wcB

Might get something similar or cheaper either, bit you get the idea, and that's not a bad price

theteal

I did think of an outdoor switch but the security analyst in me is uncomfortable at the thought of an access point to the network being (potentially) so easily accessible. Possibly being too over protective though.

paulgrogan.eu

So here we are guys, finally getting around to grabbing a pic of where the 3 points in my house terminate.


We appear to have 3 CAT5's going into the black box, and 1 black cable, which I'm guessing is a telephone cable from the pole outside (unused like most of us who are now on Fibre).


Further guidance welcome!


Thanks in advance.

paulgrogan.eu

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Actually, was thinking about this a bit more, and was thinking, wouldn't it be great if there was an outdoor rated Poe network switch.

And then I went looking

And then I found this

https://www.senetic.ie/product-usw-flex/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwu6fzBRC6ARIsAJUwa2SZn7FETk2nrkh_wO0M2FvkN8ukrfDRcoeGHd5JW3rtICIV1HG01_EaAsfyEALw_wcB

Might get something similar or cheaper either, bit you get the idea, and that's not a bad price

Great suggestion here for sure, but I think I'd rather just extend the lines back to my central point to be honest and keep it tidier and more central.

wexfordman2

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

So here we are guys, finally getting around to grabbing a pic of where the 3 points in my house terminate.


We appear to have 3 CAT5's going into the black box, and 1 black cable, which I'm guessing is a telephone cable from the pole outside (unused like most of us who are now on Fibre).


Further guidance welcome!


Thanks in advance.

So, of the 3 cables, 1 is already going to your router, leaving you with a Max of 2 points available to you.

1) where are these other 2 points terminated, and are they in useful/viable locations.
2) no doubt, you will need to connect these 2 cables to your existing router, I assume the only way of doing this, is to find where they all are at a common location inside the building and cut them back from there. So where is this common point ?

paulgrogan.eu

wexfordman2 wrote: »

So, of the 3 cables, 1 is already going to your router, leaving you with a Max of 2 points available to you.

1) where are these other 2 points terminated, and are they in useful/viable locations.
2) no doubt, you will need to connect these 2 cables to your existing router, I assume the only way of doing this, is to find where they all are at a common location inside the building and cut them back from there. So where is this common point ?

Thanks for the feedback. So I've actually got FTTH, so I don't use that network at all and thus actually have all 3 of those lines available to me. I know where 2 of the 3 points are, I obviously just need to figure out which lin e goes where, but I have a network cable id kit, so once I crimp them up, I'll be able to use that to figure out which line goes where.


I'll just cover up the black wire (old eir conventional telephone line I'm assuming) and tuck it away.


Great that I can utilise these however and I'll post an update once I've got it in place!


Cheers for the help.

Varik

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

So here we are guys, finally getting around to grabbing a pic of where the 3 points in my house terminate.


We appear to have 3 CAT5's going into the black box, and 1 black cable, which I'm guessing is a telephone cable from the pole outside (unused like most of us who are now on Fibre).


Further guidance welcome!


Thanks in advance.

Normal way they're wired that is that 1 cable that went to the master phone socket has it's spare pairs used to go back to that junction box and then out on those other 2 cables.

Is the FTTH router near this old master socket. You can buy small outdoors switched that are powered over the Ethernet cable, so you'd terminate all 3 cat cables and plug them into that and place it in the junction box and then plug in another small one in near the router to get power to it and that's wired into the router. No need to pull wire then if the 2 runs are enough for you.

brio09

i read through the experiences and challenges of implementing cat6 cabling. i was wondering how much did it cost? I'm trying to budget the estimate of cabling and the effort involved (ripping up stuff?) as i move into a new house.

paulgrogan.eu

brio09 wrote: »

i read through the experiences and challenges of implementing cat6 cabling. i was wondering how much did it cost? I'm trying to budget the estimate of cabling and the effort involved (ripping up stuff?) as i move into a new house.

I'm slowly working my way through installing CAT6 in my home. My efforts are isolated to the 1st floor, as I don't wish to rip up the ground floor at the moment and don't really have any need too, as my cab is in my office so I've been able to install the cables I need there, and have installed a duct to get up to the attic and then drop cables into the satellite sockets which I no longer use. I got all my materials from: https://www.cablemonkey.ie/


Very fast service and their screened CAT6 cable seemed reasonably priced. Just a note, their CAT6 RJ45 plugs are pass-through plugs, which I are fantastic once you get used to using them. However you will need to purchase a new crimping tool, as you will need a tool that snips off the excess cable when you pass the 8 wires through.


If you have any option to install CAT6 I'd jump at it. Even if you think you might only half use it, it's good to know its there. Additionally it will add to the re-sale value of your home longer term.


Hope that helps!

brio09

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

I'm slowly working my way through installing CAT6 in my home. My efforts are isolated to the 1st floor, as I don't wish to rip up the ground floor at the moment and don't really have any need too, as my cab is in my office so I've been able to install the cables I need there, and have installed a duct to get up to the attic and then drop cables into the satellite sockets which I no longer use. I got all my materials from: https://www.cablemonkey.ie/


Very fast service and their screened CAT6 cable seemed reasonably priced. Just a note, their CAT6 RJ45 plugs are pass-through plugs, which I are fantastic once you get used to using them. However you will need to purchase a new crimping tool, as you will need a tool that snips off the excess cable when you pass the 8 wires through.


If you have any option to install CAT6 I'd jump at it. Even if you think you might only half use it, it's good to know its there. Additionally it will add to the re-sale value of your home longer term.


Hope that helps!

awesome, thanks for the details and vendor recommendation! would you mind sharing an estimate of how much it cost you? I have no idea whether it is 100, 500, 1000, 3000, or 5000 ballpark, so unable to prioritize this vs other renovation/purchases.

theteal

brio09 wrote: »

awesome, thanks for the details and vendor recommendation! would you mind sharing an estimate of how much it cost you? I have no idea whether it is 100, 500, 1000, 3000, or 5000 ballpark, so unable to prioritize this vs other renovation/purchases.

That really depends on how much the fabric of the house needs to be messed with. I'm similar to Paul above, I'm just doing upstairs. Thankfully due to some very opportune placement of built-in wardrobes, I have to do little/no destructive work to run cables from the attic down to each of the 4 bedrooms. I've already run an external Cat6 from the router up to the attic (using the existing virgin media coaxial hole in the wall and skilfully* hidden behind a drain pipe all the way up).

I've not priced up the internal eth cable yet but I know it's not going to be prohibitive. The external cable I got from kenable.co.uk, 50m shielded proper copper was £23. Face plates and wall boxes are a few quid a piece. A good crimping kit might be £30 (I already have this, just giving you an idea). I don't envision it costing much at all tbh, I just need to find the time.




*this is a lie, needs to be tidied

paulgrogan.eu

brio09 wrote: »

awesome, thanks for the details and vendor recommendation! would you mind sharing an estimate of how much it cost you? I have no idea whether it is 100, 500, 1000, 3000, or 5000 ballpark, so unable to prioritize this vs other renovation/purchases.

So as theteal pointed out, it really depends on your environment and what you plan to do. But like what was pointed out below, I got 3 desktop 4 port outlets for my office, 3 wall faceplates and modules, 200mtrs of Shielded FTP Cat6 cable and 100 (1 pack) of CAT 6 RJ45 Easy plugs (the pass through type I mentioned above) for €298 all in.


Now as I mentioned above, I had a traditional crimping tool that doesn't really work with these plugs as it doesn't snip off the excess cable and while you 'could' use a snips, it's not a pretty finish, so you're best off just getting the proper tool which is another €30-€40. I got a good one and I can see that it's worth spending the extra.


Hope that helps.

spaceHopper

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

Shielded cat 6 might be worth installing also, in case of electrical interference, I found this was an issue with HDMI Senders

I have the same issue with a Labgear hdmi sender, I think there is HDBASET certified cable also read to use high copper content cable and not coper coated cable, if you are using POE.

bittihuduga

tkrysiak wrote: »

Hi Everyone


Not sure if this board is the best place to ask but has anyone done CAT6 cabling in their home? I am shortly moving into a new house and would like to organize someone to do such work for me. Not even sure where to ask and what cost to expect for doing such work (know the cable/hardware cost etc)


Would anyone kindly point me in the right direction if they have previous experience?

Just checking did the OP found an installer for cat6 cables?
i need wire cat cables in my house which has no previous cat wiring.
any recommendations for installers?

Stoner

Hi Bit

It is really just domestic electrical, electrician work.

The skills for installing these cables are usually strongest in electricians just like alam systems the people that know about the terminations are very good at that, but the cable installation is usually better from electricians

In larger installations the data installers come into their own, but most domestic electricians are very comfortable with data cabling installations and terminations

Clareman

+1 for what Stoner has said, years ago in work I needed to get all the networking cables replaced (BNC to CAT) and even then it was electricians who came in to run the cabling. The installation of the face plates will probably be done by the electrician, once you get the hang of it it's simple https://community.fs.com/blog/how-to-terminate-and-install-cat5e-cat6-keystone-jacks.html

brio09

paulgrogan.eu wrote: »

So as theteal pointed out, it really depends on your environment and what you plan to do. But like what was pointed out below, I got 3 desktop 4 port outlets for my office, 3 wall faceplates and modules, 200mtrs of Shielded FTP Cat6 cable and 100 (1 pack) of CAT 6 RJ45 Easy plugs (the pass through type I mentioned above) for €298 all in.


Now as I mentioned above, I had a traditional crimping tool that doesn't really work with these plugs as it doesn't snip off the excess cable and while you 'could' use a snips, it's not a pretty finish, so you're best off just getting the proper tool which is another €30-€40. I got a good one and I can see that it's worth spending the extra.


Hope that helps.

Thank you paulgrogan, thank you theteal! very helpful to hear about your experiences and expenses