Running a cable through the house...

[Alz0r]

Hi all,

I'm going to be running an ethernet internet cable from the router in the front room to my bedroom, upstairs - other end of the house. It will only be visibile in the front room as it goes up the wall.

The rest of the journey is through a false partition in the bathroom where the concealed cistern is.

Any top tips for making this a tidy job? I suppose I'm after advice on clips and collars!

Cheers.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If you want tidy, the way to do it is not to have a cable with an 8P8C plug on it running up the wall.

Install a flush 8P8C outlet (actually, you might as well make it a double one) at each end, with concealed Cat6 cables connecting the two, then plug the router in at one end and the PC at the other.

 

[Steve]

Why two ban? I mean, I could understand two sockets at one end, if both were feeding different destinations, but I cant see the point of two cat5/6 running to the same place. If another terminal were needed, one could use another switch at one end.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Because a standard 1-gang size accessory will take 2 jacks, and it's no more work to run 2 cables than 1.

So on the basis of "you never know"....

 

[Alz0r]

I won't pretend to understand what you two are arguing about. But I understand what you mean about the size of the connections at the end....

I'll be honest there is little or no chance of me installing proper sockets at each end... That said, do i need any special tools to dismount the connections to make the size of the holes needed smaller?

 

[Maniac]

I won't pretend to understand what you two are arguing about. But I understand what you mean about the size of the connections at the end....

I'll be honest there is little or no chance of me installing proper sockets at each end... That said, do i need any special tools to dismount the connections to make the size of the holes needed smaller?

The RJ45 connectors at each end of a premade cat5/6 cable are crimped on, so you can't take them off again and re-use them, you have to cut them off and have the required tool to re-crimp a new connector on the cable when you're done (not actually that hard to do, although takes a bit of practice to get it right.)

Installing a socket at each end is probably easier as all you need to terminate these is a krone block tool which are cheap, then match the coloured wires to the colourcoding on the back of the socket and punch each wire into its home, very simple to do. It might cost a little more, but it's definitely a neater way of doing it in my opinion.

 

[st07]

As BAS said, you may as well run two cables at the same time, for future expansion etc, and a nice wall plate with two CAT5 sockets looks far far better than some ***** wire coming through the wall.

 

[plugwash]

BTW something to watch out for: you can get cat5/5E/6 in both solid core and stranded core. Wallports are designed for solid core, plugs can be obtained for either (and there are some on the market that claim to be suitable for both)

Using solid core with a connector designed for stranded core or vice-versa is almost certain to result in unreliable joints.

 

[Gees]

Why two ban? I mean, I could understand two sockets at one end, if both were feeding different destinations, but I cant see the point of two cat5/6 running to the same place. If another terminal were needed, one could use another switch at one end.

What about a networked printer? An extra run of cable would save the use of a further switch. ( and looks quite neat )

 

[Monkeh]

Why two ban? I mean, I could understand two sockets at one end, if both were feeding different destinations, but I cant see the point of two cat5/6 running to the same place. If another terminal were needed, one could use another switch at one end.

Performance and price. Gigabit switches are not cheap, 100mbit is slow (especially if you start cramming multiple devices down it).

 

[slup]

If all you're doing is getting connectivity from your front room router to your bedroom, then GigE won't ever factor into this.

What about a pair of homeplugs instead? (Click the picture for more information)

 

[Monkeh]

If all you're doing is getting connectivity from your front room router to your bedroom, then GigE won't ever factor into this.

Funnily enough, my router has 500GB of storage, three copper NICs, and two fibre NICs, all gigabit. And futureproofing is never a bad thing.

What about a pair of homeplugs instead? (Click the picture for more information)

Security? What's that?

 

[chapeau]

Those things do offer some degree of encryption, and you also need to ask what are you protecting and who might be listening. If the upstairs room is only going to be used for browsing the internet then using wifi will almost certainly be quick enough. What is Alz0r going to be using the local area network for?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Funnily enough, my router has 500GB of storage,

Why does a router need storage? It's job is to pass traffic from one port to another as quickly as it possibly can, not to hang on to any of it.

three copper NICs, and two fibre NICs,

I doubt that they are NICs, unless you, or someone, has built a router out of a computer. Which might explain the local storage. (And any performance problems you're having ). Are you sure it's not a firewall?

all gigabit. And futureproofing is never a bad thing.

Cat5e is fine for gigabit.

Cat6a will do 10Gb.

I cannot see any sense in considering fibre in a domestic network.

Security? What's that?

Are people going to be putting sniffers onto someones house wiring?

 

[Steve]

Funnily enough, my router has 500GB of storage,

Why does a router need storage? It's job is to pass traffic from one port to another as quickly as it possibly can, not to hang on to any of it.

NAS?

Whats an NIC?