Help! Wiring new house for Networking, Cable...

Wireless!

All domestic services can now be distributed with wireless technology - your phone, your computer network and now including your cable TV.

Check it out - I no longer run wires for anything.

The TV distribution is just now coming onstream and you may have to hunt a bit for it. But, it's available.

When installed correctly it is bulletproof and will not interfear with other wireless services.

In this area all our phone service will be VoIP in just a few weeks.

Paul
 
Pete...

FYI.. for almost all practical uses there isn't much of a differrence between CAT5 and CAT5e, but if you are buying cable, might as well make sure it is CAT5e spec...

Congratulations on your progress! I suspect you will be very pleased with the end result.
 
Hmmm it sounds like a vinyl/digital or ss/tube thing in here: wireless! CAT! wanker! deadear!

:D

Just kidding, of course. I see each has their strengths and weaknesses. And when you consider dvws' comment about the near future it looks like both will be correct to some degree.

[BTW, dvw, I see this is your first post - thanks, and welcome.]

Anyway, one nice thing about this project is - I have time, once the wiring is in. If nec I can even hand-twist a wire to the phone! Just like the good old days :) .

I found a rj45 crimper with a tester with remote for $18 shipped on ebay. I'm sure this is a top-quality item that will last for YEARS. Sure. It will at least last this one job, I hope!

Wait a minute. I went away from this post to look around the net for additional info, now that you'all have given me enough background for it not to be overwhelming, and found this:

http://www.swhowto.com/index.htm

I like his view of whole house audio:

"My idea of whole house audio is one pair of very sweet sounding Definitive Technologies Pro Tower 400 speakers with 245 watts per channel to persuade them. Crank up the volume on these babies and you'll have a whole house full of excellent sounding audio."

Nice audio tie-in for us!

I'm going to be using something like Levitrons' Quickport system. Do I need a clamper or a "punch down tool"? Are other brands' quickport-style pieces-parts compatible?

Pete

BTW,

ginovino said:
Now, if I could only get my wife to admit once in a while that my ideas were right!

That's a lot harder than running wire - good luck lol.
 
Leviton is fine, a cheap plastic punch-down tool will be packed with each jack/terminal, it should suffice. There is no such thing as a 'universal' jack/terminal/faceplate combination, so to be safe, use one brand. regarding cat5e/6 cable, note that 'plenum' spec is usually more expensive & means that it is fire retardant enough to run between floors (if you're worried about that). I also used 3/4" flexible conduit, which gives you lots of flexibility to pull additional lines in the future - which I've found out might be just a few weeks after you think you've got it all wired. Most cables are wired t568b (white-orange/ orange/ white-green/ blue/ white-blue/ green/ white-brown/ brown), but it really doesn't matter as long as you use one scheme and stick it with it for patch cords and terminals. imo, about the most frustrating thing about wiring is getting all 8 strands to lie flat and in the right order when you're crimping end connectors on patch cords. stiffer wire will be more frustrating to work with at the connectors, easier to push/pull through conduit with gentle bends. Also, it really helps if you buy cable that has boldly colored wires, so you can easily tell the difference between a striped green and a solid blue when you're standing on your head & holding a flashlight in your teeth. That happens when you've already moved the furniture. :D
 
craigcook said:
Leviton is fine, a

<<snip>>

Also, it really helps if you buy cable that has boldly colored wires, so you can easily tell the difference between a striped green and a solid blue when you're standing on your head & holding a flashlight in your teeth. That happens when you've already moved the furniture. :D

WIRELESS! :yes: You have to love it! :naughty:

Paul
 
craigcook said:
Also, it really helps if you buy cable that has boldly colored wires, so you can easily tell the difference between a striped green and a solid blue when you're standing on your head & holding a flashlight in your teeth. That happens when you've already moved the furniture. :D

lol I hate paying for an education! As mentioned, I installed about 70 lf of dbl runs of cat5 and rg6, as well as cutting all the cat5 to length for all 9 runs, before deciding on the banana peel, so I ripped it out. I also installed a conduit run/box where the builder is adding a window - d'oh!

Well the saga continues. All the wire is run (ran? runned? ranned? :p ), did it last night (finished at midnight!). As there's only a layer and a half left on the 500 ft spool I'm guessing I used well over 300 lf easy.

I put the coil near the chosen box, unwrapped as much as I guessed I'd need for that run, walked it out attempting to take some of the curl out of it, and ran it over to the distribution area (where I had already drilled three 2-1/2" holes and installed short pieces of 2" pvc conduit), giving an extra 5 ft or so for slop. (my miserly mind - that's $2.80/run in slop - on one end :eek: !)

Then I worked back towards the chosen box, using plastic 3/4" conduit clamps to loosely attach the cables to the trusses as I went. The conduit clamps work GREAT. They have nail holes on both sides, I installed them vertically and nailed just the bottom hole with a roofing nail (tight, so the clamp wouldn't rotate around the nail).

Then you can just bend the top back and stick the wire in there. The 3/4" holds two runs loosely and three snugly, I tried to keep it to two.

Once I got back to the conduit/box, I eyeballed it out about 3 ft past the box and cut it with aviation snips. I grabbed the spool of jute twine I bought for the purpose and taped it to the end of the wire, and fed the wire with the twine attached down the conduit I had run down from the attic into the box, pulling it out about 4" (don't want it in the way of the drywallers).

I cut the twine long at the top and stapled it to a rafter for future pulling.

I now had about 3 ft bunched above the conduit entrance. What I wanted was a way to position it so I could just pull it through from the box (without having to crawl through the insulation in the attic to feed it) if I needed a bit more.

I placed it in the best position I could figure, took a piece of cheap electrical tape and stapled the tape up like a flimsy clamp, just one light staple per side of tape. I figure that will hold it in place, but if I give the wire a stiff pull from the box the tape will tear away from the staples and the wire will slide nicely out.

Yeah, I'm an optimist.

I should mention that the 3/4" conduit wil only hold one run of this wire, and if I need to add say a fiberoptic cable in the future it will be difficult. If I ever do this again I'm using 1-1/2" for the wall runs.

Anyway, I've now got 9 runs installed in the "home run" style, with which I can either distribute a main in to all boxes or choose a box as a main, or a combination.

After I finished, I started considering the termination job. I'll have 5 x 9 terminations at the distribution point, and 5 x 8 at the boxes. 95 terminations. Paul, you may be right!

Pete
 
Wow, Pete! What a production.

I know that the wireless is still a bit "bleeding edge" but except for the CATV wireless stuff it's all standard now. However, that doesn't mean that it's better - just less "hardware" to screw around with.

Sounds like you've got it all sorted out so you should be ready for the next step. :yes:

Paul
 
Banana peel Indeed.

piece-it pete said:
lol I hate paying for an education! As mentioned, I installed about 70 lf of dbl runs of cat5 and rg6, as well as cutting all the cat5 to length for all 9 runs, before deciding on the banana peel, so I ripped it out. I also installed a conduit run/box where the builder is adding a window - d'oh!

Well the saga continues. All the wire is run (ran? runned? ranned? :p ), did it last night (finished at midnight!). As there's only a layer and a half left on the 500 ft spool I'm guessing I used well over 300 lf easy.

I put the coil near the chosen box, unwrapped as much as I guessed I'd need for that run, walked it out attempting to take some of the curl out of it, and ran it over to the distribution area (where I had already drilled three 2-1/2" holes and installed short pieces of 2" pvc conduit), giving an extra 5 ft or so for slop. (my miserly mind - that's $2.80/run in slop - on one end :eek: !)

Then I worked back towards the chosen box, using plastic 3/4" conduit clamps to loosely attach the cables to the trusses as I went. The conduit clamps work GREAT. They have nail holes on both sides, I installed them vertically and nailed just the bottom hole with a roofing nail (tight, so the clamp wouldn't rotate around the nail).

Then you can just bend the top back and stick the wire in there. The 3/4" holds two runs loosely and three snugly, I tried to keep it to two.

Once I got back to the conduit/box, I eyeballed it out about 3 ft past the box and cut it with aviation snips. I grabbed the spool of jute twine I bought for the purpose and taped it to the end of the wire, and fed the wire with the twine attached down the conduit I had run down from the attic into the box, pulling it out about 4" (don't want it in the way of the drywallers).

I cut the twine long at the top and stapled it to a rafter for future pulling.

I now had about 3 ft bunched above the conduit entrance. What I wanted was a way to position it so I could just pull it through from the box (without having to crawl through the insulation in the attic to feed it) if I needed a bit more.

I placed it in the best position I could figure, took a piece of cheap electrical tape and stapled the tape up like a flimsy clamp, just one light staple per side of tape. I figure that will hold it in place, but if I give the wire a stiff pull from the box the tape will tear away from the staples and the wire will slide nicely out.

Yeah, I'm an optimist.

I should mention that the 3/4" conduit wil only hold one run of this wire, and if I need to add say a fiberoptic cable in the future it will be difficult. If I ever do this again I'm using 1-1/2" for the wall runs.

Anyway, I've now got 9 runs installed in the "home run" style, with which I can either distribute a main in to all boxes or choose a box as a main, or a combination.

After I finished, I started considering the termination job. I'll have 5 x 9 terminations at the distribution point, and 5 x 8 at the boxes. 95 terminations. Paul, you may be right!

Pete

Banana's or not, your no monkey! You did the right thing by going with a combined cable array. It made your pull through, routing and opportunities so much easier! Its a shame you didn't get it with fiber optic built-in, then you would have closed the circle.
Nevertheless, you well ahead of the curve! keep the updates coming! :thmbsp:
 
Yep, it ended up being a MUCH bigger job than when I first figured I'd run telephone and cable to each room. The thing is, I've got a general contractor doing the home renovation, so I'm basically sitting there watching the work being done, and got a bug up my butt.

I regret not adding the fiberoptic, I think I'll really really regret it in a few years, but this job kept changing as it went along (read: as I figured out what the heck I was doing) and not only would the cost of the roll gone to almost $500 but I also would have had to go to at least 1" conduit and dbl-gang boxes (at my termination skill level, which is zero), in other words rip out EVERYTHING I had done so far.

That would have been a problem time-wise too, 'cause the general forgot I was low-voltage wiring and started insulating the ceiling before I was done, that's why I had to finish the rough-in wiring quickly. So I ended up crawling through 10" of insulation on half the job instead of doing much of it from the ladder (believe me when I say this pissed me off). For other instances of contractor fun see my thread on the FHA 203K home renovation in OT.

It will probably be a while before I go to the next step (distribution boxes) as they're going in the utility closet and I don't want to be in the way of the contractor, and/or have them in for him to screw up, when it happens I'll dig this thread up and post to it.

In the meantime, any further info/suggestions on those distribution boxes is greatly appreciated!

Pete
 
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