Home Net Work

[DCasper]

I am about to put an couple of extra power points and telephone outlets in the house. I am thinking about running some cat 6 cables aswell. I just don't know how many to install per room. I thought 1 per room would be okay, I have been asking around with no luck.

Would be great to be able to network everything together I would like to setup to cover 2 Desk Tops, 2 Laptops, 5 TVs, 2 Bluray, 2 HD Records, 2 Game stations , CCTV/Alarm system, Stat decoder, 4 Audio and mass storage. Knowing my luck by the time all my old gear stuffs up and I change it to networking equipment Cat 6 will not be any good.

The only system I have seen that comes close to what I am after is in a Clipsal cat and is using Cat 7 cable$$$. Has anyone installed a system using cat 6 any details.

Is there a book for networking dummies out there.

Thanks

[JackA]

I presume that a single cable would be enough to each room as you can expand with switches, and if you're looking to 1080p I suggest that you install Gigabit switches everywhere. Installed these with Cat 5 Plus and it's no problem running Gigabit. If you really want the expensive Cat 6-7 cables, the benefit would only be at the equipment that can utilize that speed, which I think would be PC's / Laptops. Most peripherals do only support 100Mbit, but it's adviceable to install Gigabit switches everywhere - so multiple 100Mbit connections are possible without any real bottlenecks. Good Luck!

[thaimite]

I presume that a single cable would be enough to each room as you can expand with switches, and if you're looking to 1080p I suggest that you install Gigabit switches everywhere. Installed these with Cat 5 Plus and it's no problem running Gigabit. If you really want the expensive Cat 6-7 cables, the benefit would only be at the equipment that can utilize that speed, which I think would be PC's / Laptops. Most peripherals do only support 100Mbit, but it's adviceable to install Gigabit switches everywhere - so multiple 100Mbit connections are possible without any real bottlenecks. Good Luck!

CAT 5 cable supports 1GB links and Cat 6A /7 supports 10GB. Maximum run is 100M although it can be pushed more although is not approved by the standards.

With CAT6 and above quality of work is very important if you want to get the full bandwidth. Good quality connectors well terminated, no damage crimping sharp bend to the cable is also important. Although not many end devices support 1GB and often there are problems getting devices from deifferent manufacturers to cuminicate at top sped it is the way to go. As to how many ports you need in a room it is really up to your house layout and what you want to do.

[Cuban]

Do you need wires ?

Consider wireless networks for data and fibre for your video/aduio options.

(Personally I use a mixture of CAT5e [fast enough] and wifi and bluetooth).

[Royk]

With large enough main conduits, a 24 port Gigabit switch and perhaps, a patch panel, you can expand your network at any time. You decide how many points you need in each room, basically, giving each piece of equipment a dedicated line to the switch. If you want to expand, just change the faceplate to the multiple sockets faceplate to expand the number of sockets at each point. You can start with one point in each room and expand the number of sockets per point later. The additional cables can share the existing conduits. Best regards, Roy

[innerspace]

My suggestion would be to put a single socket (cat 5 is fine, few devices support cat 6 speeds yet but you don't want to rip out wiring in 5 years when it becomes standard) everywhere you expect a device.

So one for each of the desktop.

1 for a wifi router on each floor to cover the laptops.

Maybe a twin/quad socket for each tv. (Tv's rarely use ethernet, but the consoles and IPTV boxes you place nearby might do.

1 For each cctv camera.

Then have each of these wires go to a central point where you have a 16/24 port good brand router and have your internet connection plug directly into this.

As said max cable lengths should be 100m but you can extend this by joining with a powered switch.

[DCasper]

I will mostly like go with replacing all my old gear with DLNA, as it stuffs up. I am pretty sure will be able to get a couple of new TVs for the missus to watch her Thai movies. Instead of trying to set up a freestanding network, I heard my old boss installed a coax system 4 years ago now nearly useless.

Will not be installing in more than 12 Cat 6 cables, will be installing in the outside walls, cannot be stuffed cutting walls to install conduits. Not having much luck with wireless connection. I have been waiting for over a month for my new service provider to send a new modem.

I will see if I can get my hands on a couple on fibre patch leads and install thoses just in case, Installed a couple of ethernet to fibre units today worked great don't like my chances of getting my hands on any of them only singles anyway. Will keep a eye out for a 4 or 8 port could be my chrismas bonus.

Thanks for the replys