House Wiring

[David]

Can someone dumb this down for me. Couple of people had said get cat5e or cat6 in everyroom yada yada. I can't figure out what this gives me other than people saying its future proofing a build and makes electronics run faster. Maybe the run faster is dumbing it down.

But am I safe with just some electrical sockets if I'm just running a TV, bluray and roku thing or is this cat5 cable really something to consider?

[juiceweezl]

Wiring a house when building is relatively inexpensive and easy. Wiring it after it's built is damn near impossible. Cat6 can carry internet, video, and a number of things. If I'm building a house, I'm running Cat6 to at least 2 locations in every room.

[David]

But why? From what I can tell it about home networking. Does this mean I have to have a cord hooked up to everything I plan on using the Internet on?

[mstng86]

But why? From what I can tell it about home networking. Does this mean I have to have a cord hooked up to everything I plan on using the Internet on?

No, not if you have a wireless router. Wireless only works well within a certain range though.

But, being hard wired via the cat6 makes a better experience. You can hook it up to your smart tv, roku, game console for internet access.

If you have open walls in your build, add the cabling.

[David]

So I have two routers or does the router I have now that Verizon gave me do both wireless and hard wired functions? Or is there something in the walls everything runs off of? This is all terrible confusing. House hasn't been started yet, so no walls.

[juiceweezl]

So I have two routers or does the router I have now that Verizon gave me do both wireless and hard wired functions? Or is there something in the walls everything runs off of? This is all terrible confusing. House hasn't been started yet, so no walls.

The router you have works both wireless and wired. My setup, for example, is this. I have a wireless modem/router from AT&T. I have it configured as my guest wireless network. I have another wireless router plugged into it broadcasting a wireless network for all my stuff. My desktop is hard wired into it as is my network printer. My DVD players, tablets, laptop, etc. all run wireless in the house. There are a few weak spots because the radio isn't great at the far reaches. If I had wiring run in all rooms, I could hook it up to the router and have better connections everywhere.

Wired is always better than wireless. Basically, you want to put a 'drop' in every room that runs back to a common point (like the office if that's where the router is).

[mstng86]

So I have two routers or does the router I have now that Verizon gave me do both wireless and hard wired functions? Or is there something in the walls everything runs off of? This is all terrible confusing. House hasn't been started yet, so no walls.

Your Verizon's router probably does wireless and has a couple of jacks to plug a cat5-6 into. The other router is probably wireless and has more jacks to plug into. Basically, your wired house would have a router or switch for all of the cat6 in your house to run to, and them it would in to your service providers router.

The main goal is to be able to just plug a computer up to any cat6 jack in any room and you have Internet. Be it with a computer or tv.

[ceyko]

Wired (Cat5e/6) = Fast and reliable from point to point

Wireless = Convenient, but typically less reliable than wired and not as fast

My Dad is old school and has gutted a place he bought here in TX. He could do wireless and will for several things. However, for A/V and otherwise where possible we're going to run Cat5e.

Wireless, especially in the 5Ghz range tends to do alright. However, especially with consumer grade equipment (both AP and client hardware) - you often find yourself messing with it right when you want to be relaxing, getting drunk and things along those lines.

If you have a cable to the main equipment, it's one less problem to worry about. If you continuously have problems and know your cabling is good - it's easier to troubleshoot and resolve.

Remember, if you run a cable from your ISP's/your personal router to say your entertainment center - that's all you NEED. If you need more than one connection, buy a simple switch and use it to service multiple pieces of equipment. i.e. blu-ray player, tv, tivo, xbox...etc.

[Stoner]

Don't forget to plan on the future. I started out a new cat6 Gigabit hard wired network with 2 drops in every bedroom along with a cable TV drop. I put 3 drops in my office. 1 near the kitchen table, 1 in the garage. There were 3 drops in my media room. Not enough! All of this is punched down in a central data closet with 2 12 port switches and a router.

I upped my media room to 6 drops. Have a smart TV, Blue Ray, HTPC, XBOX, and who knows what else is coming down the pike in the future that I'll want a hard wired connection for. Sure you can add a switch later, but why when you can do all the drops now.

I also run a guest wireless connection for " guest " that come over. The guest network can't access anything on my LAN, just the Internet. This is also filtered and secured by MAC address and password.

Wireless is always slower and not as secure as a hard wired networks. Not to mention interference from other wireless networks in your neighborhood and some appliances if they give off the same frequency.

YMMV, but I'd go hard wired. Easier to add too many drops now than to add them later.

[8mpg]

David... if the walls are open, just do it and dont even think about it.

The reason why is because almost everything these days connects to the internet. I ran 2 cat6 behind my living room tv and now have a hub because all the equipment needs to connect to it: tivo, htpc, denon receiver, tv, etc.

The reason to run a couple drops is simply not having to run a hub at each room to connect more than one thing. If you had kids, the tv and the computer in their room needs a drop. Even then, a tv and possibly the cable box needs one.

A spool of cat6 (1000') is like $120. Honestly its so cheap, you may run 3-4 just in case. Just run cat6. The cost between cat5e and cat6 is nothing.

[mstng86]

in conclusion

[David]

So is a drop just one plug? So for cable, bluray, and roku thing I need 3 drops or are there splitter I can run into one plug? Right now I think I'm just going to need this stuff in the office and living room.

[jakesford]

You can have one drop (IE one ethernet port) and then have a small hub for multiple devices. Running two isn't much more expensive, and you can use one for say HDMI over ethernet while the other is used just for data.

Also if you are considering home security cameras, you can run an ethernet line to each location. With PoE (power over ethernet) you just hook the camera up and you're done, no power supply to each spot.

[ceyko]

Switch, no hubs.

What was said above, don't try to split/splice a single ethernet cable.

[Gasser64]

No, not if you have a wireless router. Wireless only works well within a certain range though.

But, being hard wired via the cat6 makes a better experience. You can hook it up to your smart tv, roku, game console for internet access.

If you have open walls in your build, add the cabling.

Alternatively, everything is wifi these days. Spend $150+ on a decent router. Those $40 POS's that people buy, then whine about all the limitations, are trash.

After you have bought the good router, go to ebay and put in "5 dbi antennas".

Put those antennas on your router. You've just increased its range by 150 feet. These antennas solve the range problem by radiating the energy more directionally than an OEM antenna that radiates evenly in all directions (0 dBI).

Here's a good router:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Linksys-WRT-1900AC-Dual-Band-Smart-Wi-Fi-Gigabit-Router-Nighthawk-/141590966365?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20f77ab05d