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New house structured network (diagrams in Post #5)

5K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  biggyk 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I wasn't sure where to post this but I thought this section is fine. My family is having a new house built that is scheduled to be completed sometime in April. Im super excited I finally get to install a home network during the building process with no wall present and figured I better plan early. This will be my first structured network.

Its a 3 bedroom bungalow with unfinished basement and garage. Im told I can do what I need to do after the framing has been passed and while the electrician does his rough in. The coaxial and phone line are coming into the garage by the breaker box.

Im thinking of running flexible conduit with a box to the studs so then I can fish the wires when we move in. I figured it would make my prep quicker and not hold the crew up. Im still deciding if I want to manage the coaxial and phone on the hub or if this is going to be just an ethernet setup.

My first question is the old cat5e or cat6. If cost is not the main factor would you go cat6 going into 2016? I still don't know if I will be using conduit throughout the rest of the house to allow for upgrading. Im planning to have 20 lines throughout the house. Most rooms will have 2 jacks. The phone shows what Im thinking. The locations might move around.

Can cat6/cat5e be used for POTS? The future for us may be voip but for now we would have an old fashion telephone so having it work for both would be great.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Iv thought about hiring a contractor but I feel like I can do this myself and save some pennies.
 
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#2 ·
biggyk said:
I wasn't sure where to post this
I've put your post into this forum dealing with construction of Home Theatres since much of the physical challenges will be the same as for your whole-home situation. Check through the many thread titles to see if any of them might apply to your new house.
My first question is the old cat5e or cat6
Cat6 is commonplace nowadays so I'd use it unless you need to do a lot of custom cutting/crimping, in which case Cat5e is easier to cut and crimp.
Can cat6/cat5e be used for POTS?
Yep, each 8-conductor string of Cat5e or Cat6 can support 4 POTS lines (2 conductors per line) but you'll need to decide on a set colour-pattern for the entire installation. If you prefer to have RJ11 plugs & jacks on the POTS lines you'll need to jam Cat5e or Cat6 ends into that small phone plug for crimping. That's a tight fit but possible with Cat5e. OTOH, if you are going to use RJ45 jacks for POTS then crimping will be easiest with Cat5e. Cat6 is trickier and more likely to create duds for all the work to crimp them. Factory-made Cat6 jumpers are recommended if you go with Cat6, but you lose all control over their length.

Of course there is good old Cat3 for the POTS lines, which is visibly different from Cat5e or Cat6 so some pros prefer it for that very reason when stringing complex cabling arrangements. Cat3 is ideal with RJ11 jacks & plugs, of course. Just a thought.
 
#3 ·
There are some electricians that are competent for running data cables. So you might want to consider that. These days, go CAT6, with proper connectors. You can run phone over CAT5/6 and it will work fine. You can use Keystone jacks and use the appropriate ones for phone vs LAN.
 
#4 ·
The cost of cable is very low, in relative terms. Get the highest quality cable possible. The goal is for that cable to be able to do 10 gigabit and beyond. New houses these days typically will be connected via single mode fiber, and fiber will capable of at least 10Gbps, and you don't want your LAN to be out run by your ISP's speeds. :)

I'd recommend that you run at least two runs of Cat6a (rated 500+MHz) to each room of your house. Run cables close to locations where you could potentially have TVs. Run cables to locations where you might want to distribute network access points in the future. If you want to get gear like Ubiquiti in the future, having a power-over-ethernet switch in your basement powering the different access points would be a great solution for fantastic WiFi coverage.

For "wired" phones I'd probably recommend for you get some sort of VoIP phone, and those use standard RJ-45 jacks. I wouldn't bother with RJ-11 jacks personally.

In my current house we ran two Ethernet cables to every room, and there are no RJ-11 plugs. For a wired phone I just took a VoIP "ATA" adapter, plugged it into one of the Ethernet jacks physically near the center of the house, and have a wireless phone system plugged into that. Going forward, I sometimes wonder how much longer I'll even be using my VoIP setup. When I'm talking to someone voice it's usually using something like Skype, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, Facetime, or my cell phone.
 
#5 ·
Was up late last night so I decided to use the floor plan to mark out where the jacks and hub im guessing will be...amateur style :) Yellow line is just walls that Im hoping can work out.

Unfortunately no Bell Fibe where the house is located. Im getting out of Toronto and moving to around the Orillia area. Im lucky enough to be on the edge of Rogers coverage.

I had looked at Ubiquti a few days ago and it is definitely something Im considering. The jack near the top of the wall at the stairs is where it would go. I know it comes with a POE adapter but im required to have a POE switch as well then? The cable for POTS/VOIP would be located at the kitchen counter.

Regarding coaxial/phone, Im hoping that bell/rogers/electrician will be cool with running the cable from the garage to the basement.

http://i.imgur.com/9Rhik9P.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yWBtJag.jpg

Can you recommend any places to get the best cable and other supplies? Iv seen prices all over the place. Im familiar with monoprice and just discovered cablesonsale. Anything local in the GTA is fine too.
 
#10 ·
Sayal seems like a really great store. Hopefully I can go make a visit on Monday as they are not open that late.

How are you guys mounting your equipment and where should I be looking for stuff? I thought of just using a big wood board to mount everything. It will mostly likely need to come down the day the basement is ready to be finished. Maybe some sort of metal rack mount?
 
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