Although wireless is simpler for a lot of people, due to multimedia sharing, bandwidth on my home network and my slight paranoia about wireless security, I really wanted to use a hard wired solution for home networking.
Having a wired network allows me to have a private, high speed, network at home for Internet access, file sharing, media streaming, online gaming (console or PC), IP security cameras, or any other use of standard ethernet type wiring.
Lets get to it with considerations and planning!
Having a wired network allows me to have a private, high speed, network at home for Internet access, file sharing, media streaming, online gaming (console or PC), IP security cameras, or any other use of standard ethernet type wiring.
Lets get to it with considerations and planning!
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Signing UpStep 1: Initial Considerations and Planning
There are certain design considerations that need to be addressed based on your needs. I'll discuss this before materials because these questions will affect quantities, tools and materials needed.
1. Which room/s do I want wired?
- I have a 2 bedroom condo so I knew I wanted both bedrooms wired. I also have a TV alcove where my cable TV is so that seemed like a good location to wire as well for things like video game consoles. I have cable TV in each of these locations so it seemed logical to treat the network the same way.
2. How many ports do I want in each location?
- With a multiple game consoles and network enabled Blu-Ray player connected to my TV, I knew I wanted at least 3 connections behind my TV. Since the wall plates come in 1, 2, 4, and 6 jack configurations (for single gang), I just went with 4. Why run one cable when its nearly as easy to run 4, right? Rather than vary the number, I just ran 4 drops to each location to provide maximum flexibility with out the need for local (in-room) switches. 3 locations with 4 ports each, 12 ports total.
3. What is a good location for distribution?
- For me the logical location was my laundry room. My cable TV already comes into this room and gets split to each room. It is important to note that my internet comes into the house (over the cable) here too so if I move my cable modem here, it will be able to supply internet access to the entire network. Another thing to consider is the amount of space needed to mount a shelf to hold the network equipment.
4. What path should the cables take?
- This is probably the most difficult consideration. For me, my condo is on the 2nd (top) floor and have access to my attic. My cable TV is distributed through the attic so it seemed like a good solution to run my home network through there as well. For single floor homes with a basement, the basement may be the best path. For multi-story homes you may have to be creative. Outside may be an option or through an old laundry chute. I will not address the specifics of all the possibilities, just my own circumstances. The other consideration with cable path is cable length. The max cable length for up to gigabit speeds over copper UTP cabling is 100 meters (~300 feet). This should provide plenty of flexibility for most home applications but it is good to be aware of this limit.
5. What network speed do I need?
- This will mainly play a part in what kind of switch to get. 10mbps is still faster than most everyones home internet connection, so if you are just surfing a 10 megabit switch will suffice just fine. You can probably pick up one really cheap at a used computer store or maybe even free. You might consider 100mbps if you are planning on sharing multimedia over your network. 100 megabit switches are reasonably priced and easy to come by. Gigabit is probably overkill in most situations but if you must have the fastest, go with it. You will also likely want to use Cat-6 in this case as well. Beware, gigabit switches more than 8 ports climb in price very quickly.
Next up, tools and materials!
1. Which room/s do I want wired?
- I have a 2 bedroom condo so I knew I wanted both bedrooms wired. I also have a TV alcove where my cable TV is so that seemed like a good location to wire as well for things like video game consoles. I have cable TV in each of these locations so it seemed logical to treat the network the same way.
2. How many ports do I want in each location?
- With a multiple game consoles and network enabled Blu-Ray player connected to my TV, I knew I wanted at least 3 connections behind my TV. Since the wall plates come in 1, 2, 4, and 6 jack configurations (for single gang), I just went with 4. Why run one cable when its nearly as easy to run 4, right? Rather than vary the number, I just ran 4 drops to each location to provide maximum flexibility with out the need for local (in-room) switches. 3 locations with 4 ports each, 12 ports total.
3. What is a good location for distribution?
- For me the logical location was my laundry room. My cable TV already comes into this room and gets split to each room. It is important to note that my internet comes into the house (over the cable) here too so if I move my cable modem here, it will be able to supply internet access to the entire network. Another thing to consider is the amount of space needed to mount a shelf to hold the network equipment.
4. What path should the cables take?
- This is probably the most difficult consideration. For me, my condo is on the 2nd (top) floor and have access to my attic. My cable TV is distributed through the attic so it seemed like a good solution to run my home network through there as well. For single floor homes with a basement, the basement may be the best path. For multi-story homes you may have to be creative. Outside may be an option or through an old laundry chute. I will not address the specifics of all the possibilities, just my own circumstances. The other consideration with cable path is cable length. The max cable length for up to gigabit speeds over copper UTP cabling is 100 meters (~300 feet). This should provide plenty of flexibility for most home applications but it is good to be aware of this limit.
5. What network speed do I need?
- This will mainly play a part in what kind of switch to get. 10mbps is still faster than most everyones home internet connection, so if you are just surfing a 10 megabit switch will suffice just fine. You can probably pick up one really cheap at a used computer store or maybe even free. You might consider 100mbps if you are planning on sharing multimedia over your network. 100 megabit switches are reasonably priced and easy to come by. Gigabit is probably overkill in most situations but if you must have the fastest, go with it. You will also likely want to use Cat-6 in this case as well. Beware, gigabit switches more than 8 ports climb in price very quickly.
Next up, tools and materials!
![D-Link Wireless Router DIR-628 Setup [Without CD]](http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FDQ/ZBHK/GIYWWBMF/FDQZBHKGIYWWBMF.SQUARE.jpg)
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Thank you for posting this valuble instructable for assisting others and I. This is a really good and rewarding project.
What do you think?
Sure there are cost and convenience trade offs and I think I address them very well. Some people like to "break walls" and have a built in solution.
About your comment "that's what firewalls are for", you might want to brush up on your understanding about what firewalls do. Firewalls do not protect wireless. Firewalls are like a gate to your network - but if you use wireless the gate kinda doesn't work because your traffic flies through the air. Yes there are security methods to protect wireless communications, and yes they've improved since I originally wrote the article. But you still never achieve the same security you would with a wired network.
Thanks for reading! Hopefully I've made it more clear.
(Some people have commented on the lack of prices, but I would expect prices to change, anyway, so I really don't think that's a big deal. Besides, this documenting the author's project, and if he got something free, then he got it free. I don't see the issue there.)
We figure that in short order, competitive ISP vendors will offer (ala Hulu) will run the TV and all the devices that are currently entering each home - like - iPad and wireless ways of watching anything that traditional TV/Cable once ruled. The telephone is almost a hang-nail bundle now because it is digital and we have consumer choices outside cable company bundling. With Vonage, Magic Jack, Skype, etc - phones will probably be dropped in bundle choices and just be part of ISP services?
Verizon has changed downwards to 'digital' phone bundle, and we like having a land line. With FiOs we enjoy a highly effective WiFi environment with the old wiring. I promised the CAT-6 will make it even better.
THE QUESTION came up with my wife when she asked me - as I had said to her that the old CAT-3 defeats high speed price tiers after enters the old wiring in the house. I told her my readings indicated we were around 10Mbps once the service hit our house wiring regardless of how fancy the box to the house and pay tier promised. Thus the upgrade is timely now to CAT-6.
If all we were getting was the low speed high speed - WHY were we paying for higher priced, 25Mbps 'faster' tier selections all this time?! In summery, if the house has old wiring, what good is it for a consumer to pay for the highest speed FiOS offers when the CAT-3 wiring does not allow it to do it's thing?
When we are finished converting - CAT-6 should up our bang for less buck if we switch to lower tier pricing? We have good speed and wireless and wired interaction with our computers and devices with the CAT-3.
Should we change our package for the lower speed price selection from our ISP with the CAT-6, and not blink in the 'speed' if we pick the Thanks ahead of time for helping weed out fact vs. fiction vs. wallet!
Also to note, the longest run can not be more than 100 meters without signal loss.
I have one question though, Is there any other cable(s) that I should consider running now that I will be cutting into the walls? I have thought of Speaker Wire but not really sure it would be beneficial?
I have a plan to add CCTV at some stage but with (my limited) knowledge, I beleive I can use the CAT 6 for that purpose so.. no need that I am aware of for specific CCTV cable?
The house is 3 story so I want to do this once in] my lifetime!
IPcams can have better resolution and integrated into a VOIP pabx to allow camera attached to door stations etc
Simplest approach is simply find a good central post build accessible spot and run mainlines to there, and then hub/splitter the network and coax lines to everywhere you want em. This gives you an all purpose point away from the main panel to deal with your low voltage stuff and also allows you to expand later if needed, i.e. I am not finishing my basement immediately, but when I do I will be adding 3 more coax/net cable panels to accommodate my lab, another bedroom and the poker/tv area.
So really unless you are planning to add a projector at some point (then you need to run composite,component and hdmi cables through the celing and receiver wall to keep it clean) then you really only need to do net/coax/speaker.
I have some computer that used to be gigabit, then I switched them to another router that was 100 mbps. The difference was easy to spot, for sure. The same ISP in both cases.
Gigabit equipment will help you if you're transferring a large amount of files or pulling stuff simultaneously of NAS drives.
Please make the article you write as informative as it is instructive. I find incomplete information frustrating.
don't mess with it and it won't break. It appears to have been a PICNIC (look it up)
situation.
Seriously though, its a linux box, they are designed to just carry on running without interference. Once setup, should be fine. Ours appears to be amazing now it's stable
Avoid the buffalo terrastation though, awful interface.
1) I rented an old house and just replacing a short run of old wire (tired ends) made a big difference on a dial up connection.
2) CAT 5 allowed a customer to easily run multiple phones and fax machines for his office off a single cable.
3) Wireless is great for many applications, but it a real loser during power outages, which some areas experience several times a year.
Since I knew nothing about such installations, I started researching before doing a major installation on a remodel. It soon became apparent the research was well worthwhile. Installing the CAT 5 line required more care than I might, otherwise have given. For example (extreme parroting follows):
1) When securing the wire, use staples that protect the wire against nicking and crimping (e.g., plastic coatings to cushion between the staple and wire) or otherwise take care not to overly compress the wire (again, to avoid nicking or otherwise damaging the conductors).
2) Make sweeping turns, do not make sharp turns, which may damage the wire and reduce it’s capacity.
3) Leave service loops
4) When pulling the wire, remember that the wire being pulled can cause heat build up in spots, such as at areas where holes were drilled in rafters and such, on a previously pulled wire. As such, don’t try to pull too many wires through a single hole.
5) Use good wire stripers. Nicking the wire reduces its gauge size at the nick, reducing its load capacity at that point, as well as weakening it and making it more susceptible to breakage.
6) Always loop clockwise on screws so that tightening the screw pulls the wire in, rather than pushing it out, such as a counter clockwise loop would do when tightening.
7) Consider picking up some “deox” type product from an electrical or electronic sales outlet. This can cut down on oxidation, which would compromise the connection quality, and to limit electrolysis, which would destroy the junction when dissimilar metals are joined.
8) Avoid (as elsewhere noted) running other systems immediately parallel to the wire runs to avoid cross talk by induction.
When you have to drill through structural material, such as floor supports and such, don’t place your holes near the edges of the lumber. Doing so weakens the board far more than when the hole is made more to the center.
I'm not sure I follow what you mean here. All the network wiring in the house has to be connected to a switch or router. Both of those devices require power. If you loose power, you loose connectivity. Having wireless available during a power loss situation by using a backup generator/UPS would be a great way to help people access the internet (you helping your neighbors). It's up to you if this is a good idea.
Though any wireless system is toast in a power outage (we experience ten to fourteen a year in the Northwet, where trees don't have to root deep and wind takes them out, along with power lines), telephone companies provide power to phone lines independent of electric utilities. As a result, phone lines are often operational when there is no AC current to the house.
Of course, UPS are limited and must be recharged, if taxed for any significant time or by a significant load. Regardless, they would do nothing for a phone line, since, as noted, the phone companies supply that power (aside from home equipment dependent on AC, such as message recorders, cordless phones and so forth).
Generators solve problems of supplying power, but a whole house generator can cost as much as three or four thousand a month to operate. Even small generators can be expensive, such as if you had to run it full time to provide power for phones and such. A very small portion of the population can afford such systems
The high voltage in the power cables can easily mess up with the data transfer due to EM fields.
The more they run together, the more parasites (packet loss) you will get.
Also, avoid the freecom media player series like the plague. Seriously slow and won't play with a mac.
I reccomend the old fashioned method. A good solid, linux machine. Try http://www.freenas.com
PS: freenas is based on freebsd (unix,) which gives you extra geek cred.
Keeping excess at each end, and running cable through open channels, allows you to re-route wires as necessary without time-consuming pulling or fish taping. Imagine moving your patch panels 3 feet to the right and needing to re-wire a whole office building! Or, more commonly, if you mess up the ends while crimping you'll need at least a few inches of slack in order to re-crimp. Extra wire will save your butt.
In a couple big installations I've seen (factories, schools, etc.) the builder used plastic conduit to insulate the network runs from the power cables. You might be able to do the same thing via PVC pipe, but if your house catches fire (God forbid) you might get a lot of toxic smoke.
You could just keep your network runs away from the power lines by one or two studs. That would give you 32" of space between the power cables (assuming your joists are 16" on center), and put a couple 2x4's between the network and the power.
The pipes which carry 220 v ac in the wall are anyway ALWAYS PVC pipes.
What you really want to avoid is having it run near florescent lights. The high voltage ballasts will really mess up Ethernet.
If you're really worried about it there is shielded Cat5 but it costs more.
If you're really REALLY worried about it. You could run your Cat5 through grounded metal conduit. Plastic conduit will do very little to protect from EMI
May I offer a suggestion? Get some Fire Proof Caulk and fill the holes you drilled in the top plates. This helps to keep fire from moving from the attic into the side walls via the holes you drilled for the cable. I would also use plenum grade cable. Perhaps you did but I don't recall it being mentioned so I thought I would bring it up.
Cool project!
Also, you can use a Linux router and you can incorporate many of your solutions in it including the routing function, RADIUS, firewall, access list policies and you can go way beyond that!!! Also, if you don't have multiple networks that you have to trunk that is quite uncommon in a home environment setup, you don't even need CISCO. There are plenty of switches out there cheaper that know Gigabit technology and also know 802.11q, STP and more at a fraction of the CISCO cost.
As for the router, Linux knows how to handle 802.11q, so VLANs are not a problem and you can easily route RIP, OSPF and BGP, but again, I don't see the point at home...
These are just few of the improvements I would do, but besides that CAT5/6 is great for speed and security and it has it's very own purpose where it's installed.
And again, while you berate me for using Cisco because you think it is expensive and overkill (I got mine for free), you are the one using RADIUS in a home environment and talking about 802.1q. Talk about overkill. I guarantee no information you have is that important (regardless of how important you already think you are).
Oh, and a Linux router that you build, would be a downgrade from the netscreen. I'll take a commercial solution over a cobbled together solution anyday.
Thanks for a nice instructable.
Having worked as a residential electrician I can tell you that a 1 1/4" hole is overkill.
5/8" is sufficient to run up to 5 or 6 CATV cables through.
they are called Keystone connectors because of the shape of the outlet.
Anyway, back to the point: Nice instructable, dude!
It's possible he uses a cable modem for internet.
Or if it needs internet, he said he uses a media server. Those need a connection to the network.
They are commonly used for pro-audio.
He kinda went overkill on the amount of rack space...
That's not accurate. T568B is an older standard that is still widely in use mostly in large office buildings where the building was originally wired as T568B and therefore would be too expensive to rewire to T568A. T568B is still a viable option (and most network professionals people choose it because of its wide usage and its what they already know).
T568A is the STANDARD as EIA/TIA sees it and all new wiring schemes are supposed to be wired by T568A. Most aren't the because as mentioned above basically "can't teach an old dog new tricks". The difference in B vs A is that A allows for backward compatibility with analog telephone lines in a 2 line phone run and/or structured wiring in a home (mostly structured wiring in a home). This allows you to use a T568A wired jack for either telephone or data depenending on what signal you have patched at the other end.
If you decide to place phone signal on the line, the orange and blue pairs will carry the signal for both lines so when you plug in an RJ11 phone cord, you can now support a phone with 1 or 2 lines. If you decide to run data, just pull the phone cords out at the other end and patch data into it.
T568A is the current Standard over T568B which will be completely phased out by 2012 if not sooner. However, most contractors do it like this:
T568A = Residential
T568B = Commercial (unless otherwise requested for A)
But what is taught and Used 95% of the time...
Is:
T568B = DATA, networking, IP (IP Security, IP PHONE, ETC)
T568A = MOSTLY USED ONLY WITH PHONES..Analog and NON-IP phone systems.
In both the 2 types the Blue/Blue-White Pair is the same, from there on are the differences.
I have been installing for over 20 years and stay up to date with industry courses every 6 months and certifications ... and I have NEVER seen A used for anything other than what I indicated for above...
Like many phone systems use 2 pairs...usually the blue and orange pairs and all terminated in the A configuration. And it can vary form system to system...one pair carries power and the other carries the data to the phone (line status, LCD info, etc)
but B is king with everything else...
Also since you only need 2 wires for an RJ-11 connection (analog phones), it does not matter what 2 pair you are using as long as it's the same on both ends. ie red and blue for the first line, yellow and black for the second line, and blue and white for the third. In summary you can still use 568B or 568A for analog phones.
As for old dogs not learning new tricks...that's true, but 568B is NOT being phased out and 568B is also AS backward compatible as 568A.
A contractor might have a favorite way of doing things, but to be honest, as long as you know which standard is being used continue using that standard.
The following info is from the CCNA class straight from Cisco, which is probably the world's largest networking company:
Ethernet straight-through: Both ends T568A or both ends T568B
This configuration would be used for connecting a network host to a network device such as a switch or a hub.
Ethernet crossover: One end T568A the other end T568B
This configuration would be used for connecting two network hosts; connecting two intermediary devices (switch to switch; router to router).
On newer switches however there is auto MDIX, which will switch to the correct configuration automatically, ie if using a straight-through and a crossover is needed, the auto MDIX will kick in and change the straight-through to act as if it were a crossover. A nice feature for the clueless or accidents.
All that to say originally I was wrong and narnboy1 was right.
Great instructable!
However, the Internet was fine even if the speed was affected because 99% of the stuff out there is based on TCP, and it is corrected if the packets get dropped or corrupt, but VoIP is UDP and if the packet gets lost, it lost for ever, so that's the reason my phone was dying every time.
The solution was to move the coax line for the phone elsewhere in the house where I don't have CAT5, so the problem got solved. If you ever run CAT5/6 nearby coax, think of what I told you! It will save you a LOT of grief and time!
And getting back to the CAT5 idea. This is NOT bad, but you could install shielded cable because the technology changes fast and like that you could accommodate a better technology into the close future. So, I would recommend CAT7. Like that, you avoid interference and you can jump to the next technology.
Cheers!
Hmm. You might also note that the little connectors, like you have between the two, may be a bad idea too, assuming they work like cabling. Besides making the whole mess hard to shove back into the wall, anything less than 6 inches causes signal reflection, at least in cables, which mucks with the signal too. I would presume that those short connectors "may" do something similar, but I could be wrong. It may not hurt your TV much, but your cable box, if you have one, is basically a cable modem + TV tuner, and you might be adding additional noise there, which could muck with them working right as well.
Here's the port layout: 5 ports, 1 port is color coded blue and is labeled "WAN" I am aware that this may mean "Wide Area Network" or " Wired Area Network". The other four are color coded yellow and is labeled " 1 2 3 4" I know those mean the port numbers. Where do you plug the modem network cable into?
I have so many other questions but I think I'll post questions instead of comments.
WAN stands for Wide Area Network
You would plug your modem into the WAN port and all your other computers into the other ports.
I plan to build an identical computer at our other location and backup to that one too (we decided to have a little bit of redundancy if you didn't notice).
Any suggestions?
The exception was in the entertainment room - My parents already had two speaker wires coming up from the floor to the stereo system. These were moved six inches so they came up through the wall where the coax came up from the basement, and went to RCA jacks in the 3rd and 4th holes in that wallplate.
It's a MUCH easier approach than adding wallplates if you're doing the "Cat5 only to places with a coax drop already" approach!
For multi-drop Cat5/6 you'd need to get a 4 or 6-port wallplate (1 for the old coax, 2+ for the multiple Cat5/6 jacks, but they don't have 3/5 port plates.)
In my case, I have a 1TB RAID-5 file server (back when it was built, 1TB was a lot...) with a dual-tuner analog card (Hauppauge PVR-500) and an external dual-tuner Ethernet-based digital tuner (Silicon Dust HDHomeRun)
Did you have to deal with fire blocks? My place had them, and I have no idea how I would have dealt with them without direct access to the studs.
Whichever speed you choose, make sure that your distribution box is a "switch" rather than a cheaper "hub". If a hub is used, the entire network will be slowed down to match the speed of the slowest device on it, and you definitely don't want that to happen. Also, be sure that ALL of the ports on your "gigabit" switch are actually gigabit. Some inexpensive switches (e.g., TRENDnet) will have many ports, but only a couple will be 1000Mbps and the rest 100Mbps--very undesirable!
Switches vary in quality and features, even at the same speed ratings. But the differences are esoteric, and you don't need to be concerned about it unless you're trying to squeeze every last bit of performance out of your intranet. You should be able to find a good-enough 8-port switch for under $75 and 16-port around $150.
If you do backups over your network (I have an ancient computer just running for backups / overnight downloads), gigabit / N is absolutely essential. The speed difference is unbelievable, especially during LAN parties where you have a bunch of computers nailing the network all the time. Even just sending people files (I fix a lot of friends' computers) happens so much faster, the small extra cost was worth it.
The advantage for LAN parties is also that a lot of games now are using P2P tech on local networks to share files instead of downloading everything off their servers. If someone has everything, everyone will get it 10x faster with gigabit. With recent-ish games, that can mean hours saved for the gigabytes of data to be duplicated a dozen times.
http://lifehacker.com/software/dvr/hack-attack-build-your-own-dvr-165963.php
This is a newer one.
http://www.deviceguru.com/the-boxeebox-cookbook/
Hope they help.