Structured Wiring System Design

This instructable shows the structured wiring system that I designed for my home.

This wiring system provides a centralized location for the following services for all of my rooms (master, 3 bdrm, kitchen, living, garage, office).

1) Local area network (LAN),
2) File server and backup,
3) Telephone,
4) Cable HDTV,
5) Power surge,
6) Power conditioning,
7) Signal Amplification,
8) Internet,
9) Battery backup.

I don't have actual construction photos since I didn't take any but i'll show and describe the final solution that I came up with.

Step 1: Schematic and Materials List

The schematic for the whole house structured wiring system is shown in this image. I have also attached PDF file which may be a bit clearer.

Parts Listing:
1) Cat-5e (internet, lan)
2) COAX RG-59 or RG-6 (cable tv, antenna)
3) Phone cable (telephone, cable telephone)
4) Romex Electrical wire (electricity)
5) 4-port Wired/Wireless-N Router
6) 16-port Switch
7) Electrical outlets
8) 8-way video splitters
9) 2-way video splitter
10) Cat5 patch panel
11) telephone patch panel (bus bar)
12) cable modem
13) file server - primary
14) file server - backup
15) surge protecter, battery backup (cable, phone, electrical, lan)
16) cable try (metal studs)
17) outlets (ethernet, phone, cable)
18) cable ties.

Comments

[bfollowell]

Awesome guide. I'm curious, what amplifiers do you use and what program did you use to create your schematic?

Thanks for sharing.

[thb43]

Thanks... Actually I changed services last year from Time Warner cable to Verizon FIOS so I don't use an amplifiers anymore. It has a much stronger signal. I was using 20dB amps from Ce Labs which worked fine (as long as TW cable was working). Found them on ebay. I used AutoCAD for the schematic.

[jimbarbera]

Very impressive setup!
I'm using blue jacketed Cat 6 for all Ethernet and gray jacketed Cat 5e for all phone wiring.

For the phone I'm using the blue pair for line 1 but which color pair should be the DSL (U-Verse) modem pair? I'm currently using the brown pair from the POTS splitter, but can easily change it to green or orange.

I am connecting only the pair that is leading to the modem so as to avoid any "stub outs" to other locations in the house.

Thanks!
Jim

[laxap]

Wonderfully clean setup. I like how the cables are nicely bundled.

[rschlitz]

Hyper awesome guide. I'm not planning to do this but it was a really interesting read.

[pratyushpmhptr]

(removed by author or community request)

[thb43]

1) Surge protection... no you don't have to have surge protection for LAN cables or phone outlets... they work just fine without. Having said that....my routers seem to be a lot more stable now that I am using a surge protection and power conditioning.... I haven't had to reboot the router nearly as much as without it. Most surge protectors have connections for LAN and phone so I use them both. It just good peace of mind too know that my expensive equipment is protected. One other thing... when lightening hit my grandfathers house the phone out back in the barn was blown off the wall. He didn't have surge protection.... it may have helped.

2) improperly grounded, bad amp, ESD, TV still turned on while making the connection... could be many things shocking you. I'd get it checked out.

3) readyNAS (Netgear's version of Network Attached Storage) looks pretty good. Cost and performance were deciding factors for me. My Buffalo system has been running non-stop since installed with no problems... the GUI is a bit clunky though.

I'm happy you enjoyed my instructable.... there's a lot of information here and I'm happy to share it. with everyone. I have learned a lot of things from the internet and this was my chance to give back and help out others. Enjoy!

[nasrudiin]

Thank you so much for the instructions but really like to know I know you already mentioned. Is there any specific shop you can get the tools or just go shopping?

Thank you

[thb43]

buy the tools anywhere... sears, home depot, walmart, lowes, frys, etc.

[abadfart]

 ok so i got it all set up but one of the computer has limited to no connection and my xbox is not registering at all.  i know i wired it right but they aren't working any ideas? 

[thb43]

Could be many different things.  I don't know from the limited info you provide.
If you are using static IP addresses on these devices they may be set to the same IP address so neither one will work correctly.  If you are using DHCP server then make sure the number of addresses in the IP address pool (i.e. starting address to ending address) includes enough IP address for all the devices on your network.

[abadfart]

it worked in my test when i had them all in one room and wired together  threw the switch 

[abadfart]

ok now the computer is working and i need to check the the wire to the xbox

[ElvenChild]

where do you live?

[Mike8913]

total nub q here. . . . where does your cable box come into play?

[thb43]

The cable box is connected directly to my TV via hdmi connection. The cable box is connected to the coax terminal on the wall. I have one in each room were a TV is located. These wall outlets are connected to the 8 way splitter that you can see in the pictures.

[hintss]

you mean you didn't use mythTV?! that would've been awesomer, geekier, and made use of the ethernet!

[thb43]

Not sure there is an exe file for mythTV that works for Windows OS yet? I only found UNIX/Linux versions online. But it looks cool.

[hintss]

You keep that many servers and you don't use *nix? I have 2 servers and a net book, and I run ubuntu on all of them. Oh, and I'm 13

[Mark1955]

Hi.....Our house is built and a friend was going to help me out for the router and network switches....I have not gotten through to him. Any ideas for a system that woud work well and not too expensive. Thanks for ant imput. Mark

[zchampine]

 Very nice, how much would this cost though?

[buddz]

 Wow great, clean setup. I do have one question though as I am now trying to wire my home in a similar fashion: What did you use for the telephone bus? and just exactly what is that other white box to the right of the phone bus? Just not sure how I can 'route' the signal out to all the rooms if you know what i mean

[Mike44]

@buddz, the telephone bus is a product from Leviton for telephone distribution.  This site here has a ton of them for pictures and what not: http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Structured-Wire/Leviton-Structured/leviton-Phone-Modules/.   I purchased mine from Home Depot though as they seem to have a pretty good selection.

[thb43]

The white box and bus aren't anything special.  The bus just splits one telephone source line into 10 lines with each line going to a different location in the house.   In other words, that same color conductor in each phone line is connected togeter via the bus.  I bought this at Home Depot for less than $20 I believe.   The white box is a junction box where can connect a telephone to see if I have a dial tone without having to run out to another room.  One of the lines from the bus goes to this white box where a telephone can be connected/disconnected.

[DanNixon]

Is your telephone system just a distribution system?

[thb43]

currently one line..... to all rooms.  Easy to split into multiple lines if desired in the future.

[DanNixon]

I suppose.
An instructable on installing and setting up a PBX would be good as I am looking at this kind of system for my house.

[thb43]

I have not looked into PBX systems.  But there are several open source PBX system you might look at when designing your system.  Look at Asterisk, GNU Bayonne, FreeSWITCH, and OpenPBX.   Popular PBX systems include Avaya's Definity and Northern Telecom's Meridian.  Not sure how these will help you out at your house since these systems are used for large companies that don't want to lease a large number of phone lines.

[DanNixon]

I have had a quick look at FreePBX once, but it got lost in a list of projects I have and I never got back to it. We have an Avaya PBX at work and compared to the ols LG system it is much easier to uns and manage, but I would probably go for one of the free systems whenI go back to installing a PBX for my home.

[jaydenthorup]

I have one concern, the amplifying the cable signal before the split for the modem may put too much signal into your modem. I was an installer for comcast and the signal for the modem needs to be just right. You can check it at 192.168.100.1 i believe. Downstream needs to be around -10db to +10db while upstream needs to be around 32 db to 49 db but check with your cable company to be sure. Otherwise your speed will significantly be reduced, also sometimes the surge suppressor can affect performance. The local cable company should have grounded the cable outside to remove any possibility of surges in the line as well as it is grounded at the pole(overhead) or the pedestal(underground)

[thb43]

Thanks for the input.  You make a good point, I haven't tried amp after the modem since things seemed to work well like I have it.

I checked my 192.168.100.1 cable modem reading the following:
1.1dBmV Receive Power Level
54.2 dBmV Transmit Power level

Years ago when I set up this network I adjusted the setting on my amps and these were the best readings I could get at the modem (taking the surge suppressor out of line seemed to have no effect on the power levels).

www.speedtest.net gives:
22.87 Mb/s download speed
0.49 Mb/s upload speed. 
ping 19ms.

Its been running like this for several years now with no problems in speed or TV running in multiple rooms at the same time.

On one TV I did have to add an additional amp when I moved the TV to the other side of the room with a long coax cable from where the cable come out of the wall to the TV.  adding the extra am worked fine.  Maybe adding the amp after the modem I might have been able to avoid putting in the extra amp?  not sure.

[jaydenthorup]

aha... the high transmit means it may need to be split down just a little bit more... like a 3-way or a DC-Splitter aka Tap.
that could increase your upload if you are need a little more bandwidth... just a thought.

[Mark1955]

Hi THB43, I could use a little advice ....We are having a house built and I want to have it hard wired. Your system looks great, I think that I need or want at least 2 port in a few rooms.1 so I can hook up a tower for  hulu to cut down on cable and one for computer....In the main work room I need one for my  computer and an extra for visitor or what ever...Same in bedroom one for tv and one for laptop. I was told that I should use cat 6 cable and get a 1gig router. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.Thanks Mark

[thb43]

There are several things to consider when deciding to use cat5, cat5e, or cat6.  These are as follows;
1) cable cost.  I did spot check on prices and cat6 cost 20% to 30% more.
2) Bandwidth:
     cat5    (100MHz)  <--- don't get this
     cat5e  (300MHz)  <--- this is what I have and recommend (today for homes)
     cat6    (500MHz)  <--- still expensive, but getting cheaper all the time, if network must be "gigabit certified" get this.  Probably more than you need given what you wrote in your message.
3) cat5e & cat6 both can run 1000Mbps/100mbps/10Mbps.   Both cables can run gigabit Ethernet with no problems.
4) cat6 is better in noisy environments with lots of electrical interference due to better shielding (more twists per inch).  When installing stay away from electrical lines or cross them at 90 degree angles to minimize interference.
5) rule of thumb.  if running long distances use cat6,  short distances cat5e.
6) keep cable routes under 100 meters (328 ft) max
7) Your Internet Service Provider will only run at speeds of 3-15Mbps (depending on your ISP service).  The cat5e/6 handles 1000Mbps.  Therefore all that extra capacity is only used on your LAN (i.e. between computers, not through the ISP's WAN connection).   Seems to me like 100Mbps is enough unless you have LAN gaming between computers going on while using the internet through all available ports.  FYI, I watch hulu on a wireless laptop with no problems.... not much bandwidth used at all for that.
8) Just because you have cat6 cable does not mean you are running at gigbit speeds.  All the network equipment must be rated and operating at that speed.  This means to run at gigabit speeds your router, hubs, switches, interface cards, cables, etc.... must all be running gigabit speed.  The slowest one dictates the speed of your network.  This means a lot of extra expense to get speeds you may never use to its fullest.

Hope this helps. 

[Mark1955]

Thanks for the response....I will be meeting with the builders electrician in 2 weeks. I have other questions just not sure how to ask. I want to have one computer for my business, and another for the house in our work room.... I want to have port to plug in in the living room as well as the other 2 bedrooms(2 in the master). Later on down the road when I finish the basement I want a port in the guest bedroom. As I wrote yesterday still trying to figure out how to get more free tv, so I thought that having a tower  with a good graphics card in the bedrooms and the living room would be a good idea since we are doing all this before the interior walls are going up.Any other ideas that would be helpful would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Mark

[thb43]

Here are some random thoughts.
I count that you want a total of 8 ports with one in some rooms and two in other rooms.  That is very similar to the system in my house... see the schematic.  Just run all cables to a switch or router in some central location that is connected to the internet and you're in business.  If at some future day you find that you need to connect more computers but you only have one port at that location you can always put a cheap 4-port hub in that location and easily connect 4 computers.  Of course to connect the hub you need a power connection nearby.... or go with network hardware that supports PoE (Power over Ethernet).  Sounds like your main concern is getting TV in multiple locations without having to pay the cable company for a box at each location.  Think about running two coax cables to each room where you want TV.  One for basic cable and the other for over the air HDTV antenna (assuming you have a good signal where you live).  The over the air HDTV works pretty good and is free.  The basic cable doesn't need a cable box in each room.  If you need one in each room for premium channels or HDTV then the cables are available.  You can look at devices like the SlingBox and SlingCatcher to send HDTV from your main TV to other TVs in your house over the Ethernet connections.   if you have a SlingBox they have a neat app for an iPod phone so you can watch TV from anywhere in the world with internet access on your iPhone for free.  If you have computers in each room next to a TV or monitor then you can run media center software or Boxee.  There are hundreds of different configurations out there so you just need to find one that fits your budget and need.  Just one more thing.... if you put computer next to each TV remember that fans and hard drives make noise and tend to have little flashing lights..... those might interfere with your TV watching or sleeping.  Also you would need to leave them on all the time.

[fireglow35062]

 what brand are the servers that you are using?

[thb43]

 The file servers are Buffalo linkstation and linkserver.  250GB each

[abadfart]

very nice i have a bit left to do on mine for instance  as i wright this my server is loading its os and i am waiting on a 500 GB hdd to host my media collection 

[GasperiD]

Wow, just wow, this makes me want to cry im so happy. When i am a home owner i will definitely have to make sure that i have something that matches this amount of beauty or out does it.