Need Home Networking Ideas

I just finished rewiring my entire house from old knob and tube to new non-metallic (pulled out ancient cable and telephone wires at same time). Wasn't too terribly bad of a job. At the same time, I decided to future proof it a little bit and ran some new cable and cat5e (for use as data AND phone). I have a computer room and four other rooms that I want to distribute to. So, I ran a single RG6 (I have no need to share video in-house) and two cat5e's to each of these rooms. I was going to run a cat5e and a cat3, but I figured its only a few more dollars so I might as well run the good stuff.

Now here's what I need to do. I want to distribute cable to each of these rooms with the computer room getting the least drop. So how would I split it? I'm thinking 3 way splitter and take the low db drop to the comp room. So that leaves two outputs and four rooms to deal with yet. Run another 3 way? So I'd have comp room with least db drop, then one with a little bit more, then another with a bit more, and the last two with three db chunks taken out of them. Hopefully, that'll still be enough signal. I think I have this stuff down, but if there are any comments or suggestions, please make them.

Where I am fuzzy is with the networking and phone. At the moment, I have no intention of signing up for phone service with my local provider. However, I've considered getting VOIP so I'd like to plan ahead. What the best way to distribute this? I've gone to home depot and stared at all their home networking stuff made by Leviton but I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm fine when it comes to routers and hubs and such, but I'm not so confident with the circuit boards and distribution panels at HD. I think I might run another cat5e to my computer room so that I can keep my cable modem in there and put my router in the closet. I would use one cat5e to take the output of the cable modem from the comp room to the closet and my router, and from there, everywhere else. I dun know. Any ideas guys? I know I've rambled on a bit, but I'm not sure what to do. I know I don't need all of this right now, but I'm trying to plan ahead before I start closing up walls.

Thanks.

Mark

First of all, in the 2nd paragraph, you talk about splitting the cable with a 3 way? Are you talking about the CAT5 or RG6?

Here's the scoop for the Cat5 termination. All the runs to the rooms should have Cat5 RJ-45 jacks. The 4 twisted pairs of the Cat5 cables are color coded, and the wires are punched into the same colored connectors on the back of the jacks. There is a special tool to help with this, or just use a small flat blade screwdriver, carefully. Directions for wiring typically come with the jacks. All the cables should make a run to a central distribution point, and connected to a patch panel. A patch panel is a bank of RJ-45 connectors (typically see 12 port panels at my local Menards) and they usually are somewhat pricey, $60-$100. The connections are done like at the jacks. Locate a switch (or hub, if you can still buy a simple hub) at the patch panel and connect the ports with short Cat5 patch cables to jacks on the patch panel. Each device to be connected in the rooms use a Cat5 patch cable of appropriate length. The electrical length between any device and the switch should not exceed 100 meters or 330 feet (ethernet specification).

Side note: the twisted pairs in the cable should remain twisted as close to the puch connectors as possible. The special punch tool will push the wires into the connector and cut off the excess in one push, cleanly. Good luck on the project.

Well, I'll just tell how we wire ours which works well.
We just made a pull of 2 dual cat5 runs and a single RG6 run. Bring thos all to a central location, as far as the RG6, you dont have to hook them all up but if wanted to the option is there, you just need a video distributer ($50). If you don't want to run dual cat5, you can run voice and data on the same wire, just a alittle hard to wire, might as run duals if you can, its cheap. You can wire it all to a patch panel (will make it look neater) but if you aren't mounting it on a rack, it will just crowd the space more. the easeiest is just a Switch. Make sure you lable all your runs of course. If you dont' plan on the central location the basement, run the cat5 to wherever but Cable should all come together in the basement. Even if you don't use most of it, it does raise the resale on your home by a decent amount. You can get the Cable/data/phone wall plates at radio shack, they work quite well.

RG6. I wish I could post a drawing. Maybe I will tonight.

Everything was run in a star configuration so one end terminates in the room and the other is in the closet.

The cable is the only thing that needs 'split' and I was talking about 3 ways because I have to think in terms of db drop and putting the most signal where I want it. I'm pretty certain that I can hub the phone and data as much as I want with no loss.

Mark

Alright, I've been looking on ebay and I've seen these patch panels. So basically, all they are is a way to go from cat5e to rj45 neatly? They don't join them together? So I still need a hub. Alright, I can handle that. Like I said, my current setup is a single rg6 and two cat5s to each room. If possible, I'd like for that to run my data network AND phone. You said thats possible? How do I go about doing that? If its better to run another wire, I certainly can...

Mark

for the cable setup, splitting off is not that much of a problem if you boost the signal before the splitter and you can use an attenuator to reduce the signal if the booster isn't adjustable. On the rest of the network I would make sure and check if your cables are 8 wires cables because there are some versions of higher than 100baseT that use all 8 wires to increase speed while most only use 4 wires. If you use a hardware router for your cable I am unsure of the specifics but if possible put it where the cable comes into the house and split off from there so if you move things later you dont have to reroute things. It is best to design things to come to one junction instead of going off to one place and back again to split off. running extra cables while you have the walls open is a good idea if you have a large room that way you can move equipment to another part of the room where there is a second hookup.

If you wanted to run data and phone on 1 wire, I believe for the pair you can use either blue/whiteblue or brown/white brown, those 2 pairs do not get used, it would probably be better to run on a separate wire though, its cheap anyhow.
No the patch panels do not function as a hub (or swtich).

I see that you are not considering a wireless network. As a technical support analyst, I'd like to congratulate you on your choice to go with a reliable cabled network not subject to random intererence and the neighbors consuming your internet bandwidth; not to mention one less person calling in about their "internet not working" because they didn't RTFM on configuring WEP security and locked themselves out.

hehe, yes I locked myself out of my wireless once, took me 10 mintues to remember that I could just plug in via ethernet and reconfigure...lol /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif

You can always just reset it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Wireless seems too troublesome to be used as a primary internet access medium. And the power is too low - usually 100-200mW total power being radiated in all directions.

A word of caution about VoIP: it's only as reliable as your internet connection. You might also expect some random losses in quality with VoIP due to the nature of the internet and its lack of QoS mechanisms.

Wireless is *NICE* -- as a second home network ;-)

We have a wired/wireless hybrid network in this house. All primary computer locations are wired, but the house also has Wireless access so I can wander around with my laptop and browse the internet and such. Only way to go if you've got a laptop.


We've got 3 independent networks going on here.

TV--This is the one I know the least about. I think so long as you've got a strong enough signal you can just hook all the coax together, splitting as necessary - but you shouldn't have to split it too much.

Voice--I know a little more about this one. Little being the key word here. I think the best way to do this is to wire it like if you were wiring it for a local Telco. I think that means tie all the wires together in 1 central location, then you can just plug your IP Telephony box into the central location and be set. They say you should or can only plug 1 phone into those boxes, in reality that "1 phone" can be a wired phone network that goes to all your phones. Alternate option is to use a 5.2 Ghz cordless phone system. 5.2 Ghz because 900 Mhz is dead and 2.4 will interfere with your future wireless network (possibly).

Data--This one is simple. It's just a simple house. No patch-panel necessary. Terminate the room-end of the Cat5 in a jack and the closet-end with a simple RJ-45 connector/end, then plug right into a router or switch. Each jack needs it's own run and they can't be linked except at a router. You could have the cable modem and router near a computer (In fact I reccomend it, sometimes you need to unplug the router and go straight to PC). Most routers have a 4-port switch built in. Use 1 port to feed the computer nearest the cable modem and the other port to uplink to the switch serving the rest of the house. Buy gear that supports Wireless 802.11g now even if you don't plan to use it. It's usually just a few dollars more (For the router) and you'll be glad you have it when it's time to use it.

Since you ran 2 Cat5 runs to each room in the name of being future proof go ahead and wire them with all 8 wires. That way you're covered for awhile. Want gigibit? You're wiring will support it.


Leave room for expansion and lastly, when it comes to networking gear, buy Switches vs. hubs. The peformance difference is going to be nill on a home network, but switches only cost a few $$ more and are a lot smarter. A hub is like standing in a room and shouting across the room to your friend while everybody else in your network does the same. You (Or your computer) has to filter out a lot of extra, unwanted traffic. A switch is like putting everybody in a cubicle with a telephone, you can link up to who you need to talk to as can everybody else, without having to filter extra traffic.

I have questions too...

I found out today that our new house is in a DSL zone.

So I plan to DSL into the main office, and wireless from there to my own computer and my Dads. I don't feel that wireless is going to be a bad thing up there.

But I welcome all thoughts on the issue!!!

Wire it up if you can. It's more stable and useful for moving large files around. Even 802.11g with it's 54mbps can bog down pretty quick.

Here, my friends, is my network topography.

[ QUOTE ]
idleprocess said:
I see that you are not considering a wireless network. As a technical support analyst, I'd like to congratulate you on your choice to go with a reliable cabled network not subject to random intererence and the neighbors consuming your internet bandwidth; not to mention one less person calling in about their "internet not working" because they didn't RTFM on configuring WEP security and locked themselves out.

[/ QUOTE ]

My thoughts exactly. The best wireless network is still less secure than wired networks.

Some VOIP adaptors will hand off an RJ-11 jack, which you can then hand off to all of your internal house wiring. The voice pairs on CAT-5 are the white/blue pairs (pair #1) on the RJ-45 jack. The VOIP adaptor will provide dialtone and ring voltage just like the telco c.o. does.

I'm sure you already know this, but VOIP should never be considered as "lifeline" service as there are any number of things that can fail and cause loss of dialtone (and loss of one's ability to call for emergency services). Also, if you take your VOIP adaptor (and hence your phone number) on the road, you need to inform your VOIP provider of this, otherwise if you dial 9-1-1 from a hotel room with your VOIP unit, they'll send an ambulance to your house instead! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Actually, I've been cell only for the past 4 years and its worked fine. I'm just considering my options and VOIP seems like a decent deal.

Thanks for the info, guys. Good ideas and I now have some things to think about.

Mark

I assume you mean a RF signal over RG-6. Buy a cheap distribution amp for the TV over cable. Buy a more expensive one if you plan to distribute a Satellite system. The cheaper ones will not amplify the higher frequency of a Sat system. Do Cat-5 termination to the TSB 40 standard and you'll have no problems. Cat-5 all the way is good idea. Cat 5E is just a little more expensive and might be worth it. Get a wireless 802.11G router that supports WEP AND WAP. WEP is easy to configure but less secure than WAP. You might want to sit on the couch, patio or pool with a laptop and/or PDA. Learn the wireless security protocols. Learn about firewalls on routers and individual systems. Use them and AntiVirus. VOIP is OK but make sure you have backup power since you'll loose your phone if the power supply cannot get juice - well except for softphones. Go with switches instead of hubs for a variety of reasons.

Always run more cable than you think you will need....I usually double my estimate if future convenience weighs over cost.

Argh! Now REAL questions!!!

The phone co-op up there wants 49.95 for 256K downstream 128K upstream. Decent 512/256 is 99.95.

I checked out Direcway at Directv.com and they want after either 600 up front or 100 for 15 months then 59.95.

Direcway shows up to 500k (but usually less).

I did a speed test on SBC DSL we have here, and back to back tests gave around 640K.

Everything looks like a step backwards from here!

Also running hard wiring will require getting catacorner across the house for one 'puter, and to an outbuilding about 150' from the master.

I am quite certain that wired is better... just don't know how I'll be able to do it...