Wiring house for Cat 5

[Tymac94]

Hello I am planning on wiring my home with cat-5e in the next couple of weeks i have all of the hardware to do so. Could I use a Netgear GS108 Switch for my central hub. Like can I connect my broadband modem to the switch and from the switch to all of the other rooms. Will a switch do the job. Just to make sure before I buy one.

[Sparda]

You may as well get a gigabit switch. Also, things UTP CAT5 should not be put near:

mains wires

water pipes

out side

water pumps

any thing that has to do with water or large electrical currents

They all generally screw with the signal, if a wire has to be near that stuff get some STP CAT5/6, it will work better. Better yet, run an optical cable.

[Tymac94]

Can i connect a switch directly to the cable modem and connect all five computers to the same switch and have internet access on all five computers? Thanks for the help.

[Sparda]

No, your ISP will only give you one IP address (probably). You need a NAT router. I'd recommend a WRT54G.

[WhollyMindless]

Dell Business had a pretty sweet deal on a NICE Powerconnect Gigabit switch not long ago. That would keep you up to date for a bit.

[shawty]

I just finished mine, long story short, i extended my BT socket up into my loft space where i have a rack.

Iv'e run standard CAT 5e up the inside of the dry-wall, keeping it away from the mains electric cables, my router (Cisco 800 series) is plugged directly into a Cisco Catalyst 2900 switch.

Each of the lines coming up the inside of the walls all terminate at a patch bay that's attached to one of the rafters, and these are then strung across to the catalyst.

I picked the router and switch up of E-bay for £50 , and they are proper ex-IT industry heavy metal, there's only 10/100 on each port but they do me fine for what i use them for.

[h3%5kr3w]

No, your ISP will only give you one IP address (probably). You need a NAT router. I'd recommend a WRT54G.

Actually that depends on your modem. My oldschool westell wirespeed dsl modem from 5 years ago has a dhcp server built in good for however many ips you want. Check that your modem has a dhcp server built in. However I will say you might as well just buy a WRT54G so you have WiFi..

Just make sure if you do go the router route(heh. pun wasnt intended) then make sure you know how to set the modem and router so that the modem just sends everything to the router and then the router takes care of everything else (i.e. sign in, public IP address, and etc.). This keeps performance going. If you don't do this and you have the router on your network, then basicly you get double routing(if your modem has a dhcp built in), double nat'ing, double firewalling, and it just ends up really putting a knock in performance. Plus if you let the router do everything for you then you get alot of cool features :D

[deleted]

There are a lot of high grade Cisco Gigabit equipment going now quite cheaply on ebay (assuming its cleaners to remove stuff from old offices and dont know what it is so stick it on ebay cheaply to get rid of it).

[Tymac94]

I have decided to use a LINKSYS BEFSR11 (Two Port Wired Router) with the NETGEAR GS108 (8 Port Switch). Thank yall for the help.

[decepticon_eazy_e]

I'm doing this to my own house as well. I looked the cost difference and a spool of CAT6a is not much more, so that's what I'm doing. In 10+ years I'll be happy that I did.

I'm also running the coax and phones, most phone cable is now cat5 so it's all the same now-a-days. My builder is only giving me a couple hundred as credit for doing it myself, but that's only covering the 4 or so outlets he planned on. I plan on 2+ per room, 4 in the living room and family room.

I think it's a great idea, do it right and overkill the first time, and it will last for years! Not to mention the nerd cred you get for a project like this! :)

[Tymac94]

Should I use t568a or t568b for the order order.

[digip]

Should I use t568a or t568b for the order order.

Either would work.

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/network/diff568ab.htm

[beakmyn]

I'm doing this to my own house as well. I looked the cost difference and a spool of CAT6a is not much more, so that's what I'm doing. In 10+ years I'll be happy that I did.

I'm also running the coax and phones, most phone cable is now cat5 so it's all the same now-a-days. My builder is only giving me a couple hundred as credit for doing it myself, but that's only covering the 4 or so outlets he planned on. I plan on 2+ per room, 4 in the living room and family room.

I think it's a great idea, do it right and overkill the first time, and it will last for years! Not to mention the nerd cred you get for a project like this! :)

IF you're building now. I would suggest running at least one piece of PVC from the basement to the attic space. This will make an easy conduit run later on if you decide to network/phone/video/audio on the 2nd floor later on.

blackbox.com used to have really good deals on spools of Cat5/6 if anybody is interested.

MCMelectronics has good deals on keystones and wallplates of every imaginable kind. That's where I got my DIY POE for my FONera

http://www.frontiernet.net/~beakmyn/poe/

[jmac]

Would it be a good idea to run coax and cat6 next to each other, as in, in the same run?

[digip]

Would it be a good idea to run coax and cat6 next to each other, as in, in the same run?

Probably not going to hurt, but while consumer cable is not of the highest quality and would emit some emi, I don't think you would notice any issues. To be honest, I have cable and ethernet all wired right around my PC, as well as HDMI for my TV, and I haven't had any issues as of yet. My cabling area under my desk is a mess, but again, no issues I can see.

I would imagine if there were multiple cable lines and pipe crossings, light fixtures, like the ballast is a flourescent light fixture, you might see a problem, but the two single lines together probably won't generate enough EMI to cause disconnects or speed issues.

[h3%5kr3w]

shouldnt be a problem running coax with cat cable, but if your worried about it, just use stp instead of utp. Also what is up with everyone using cat6e for the phone cable? i mean sure if you have a break in a wire 15 years down the road, it would be good because you could just change wires, but at the same time it's not going to actually give you any kind of edge because cat is designed to cancel out the signal between the wires if all the wires have a connection, not just two. Now if your wiring up for full PoE, then, yah, that would be awesome, but us usual joes just dont have the money for a home made pbx phone system + phones (well not TOO many of us anyways).

Just my thought. I used standard bell wire to replace my bad wires a while ago, and i'm getting a great connection *though as a thought... im in a rental, so I would never see any positives in it later on down the road)

**BTW** the standard for computer to switch, switch to switch, and computer to hub IS T568B To T568B (straight through)

The standard for computer to computer, Router to Router, Computer to Router (big routers anyway) is T568A To T568B

[Sparda]

Using cat6 for the phone cable is cheaper because you just buy more of the same rather then two different cables?

[jmac]

While your at it, you could run two phone lines over one cable with cat6.

[h3%5kr3w]

While your at it, you could run two phone lines over one cable with cat6.

This is true, however you would still have to do some jank wiring for the second line (though this would be great if both lines are going for multiple gang boxes of two different connections.)

... actually, you could do 3 different phone lines with it.

Using cat6 for the phone cable is cheaper because you just buy more of the same rather then two different cables?

Come to think of it you are completely right! you can run the cable in series even if you have 2 different lines and you can do it with just one cable! awesome...