Bought an old victorian flat in edinburgh and have been bringing it up to spec over the last few weeks. We are very fortunate not to have to live there as we are doing it up, so have taken the opportunity to do some unnecessary, but quite cool stuff.
As it is an old house and very thick walls, the "N" strength wireless I put in has not quite got the power to reach all areas of the house, so opted to put in cat 5e cabling between all the rooms and a central hub. Means I can throw the ethernet to any room, and also pass music and hi res video to any room too.
Wasnt sure if this would be a valuable addition to the house or indeed if it would be a nightmare, but have to say, very glad I did it and thankfully very straightforward too.
In nearly every room I have found a hollow panel (usually next to the windows, and have run cables up these hollow sections (2 per room) and looped them through the attic space and down again in the corner of the utility room in the kitchen. Set of cabling rods are all that is required - and a router for the rooms where there are no hollow sections.
I have then attached a 2 gang outlet plate to each and brought them all back into a 12 port patch panel in the utility room. Connecting the 4 twisrted pair wires is very straightforward - a cheap IDC insertion tool is the only tool that you really need. Managing 12 wires into the patch panel again is very straightforward, although need to be logical and neat for best efferct. I have then used two wireless routers (ethernet switch would work too) in parralell to swith the ethernet to all the different rooms. Because I have used 2 wires pire room, that leaves a spare socket for me to put music and video from the offfice to other rooms as well.
It really has been very straightforward and low cost. approx 200m cables used and all the extras cost less than 150 pounds. Well worth the time and money to do and adds a lot of value to the house. The whole lot is boxed off unobtrusively in the utility so you dont need to ruin the look of any area for the sake of a fairly techie looking hub.
As it is an old house and very thick walls, the "N" strength wireless I put in has not quite got the power to reach all areas of the house, so opted to put in cat 5e cabling between all the rooms and a central hub. Means I can throw the ethernet to any room, and also pass music and hi res video to any room too.
Wasnt sure if this would be a valuable addition to the house or indeed if it would be a nightmare, but have to say, very glad I did it and thankfully very straightforward too.
In nearly every room I have found a hollow panel (usually next to the windows, and have run cables up these hollow sections (2 per room) and looped them through the attic space and down again in the corner of the utility room in the kitchen. Set of cabling rods are all that is required - and a router for the rooms where there are no hollow sections.
I have then attached a 2 gang outlet plate to each and brought them all back into a 12 port patch panel in the utility room. Connecting the 4 twisrted pair wires is very straightforward - a cheap IDC insertion tool is the only tool that you really need. Managing 12 wires into the patch panel again is very straightforward, although need to be logical and neat for best efferct. I have then used two wireless routers (ethernet switch would work too) in parralell to swith the ethernet to all the different rooms. Because I have used 2 wires pire room, that leaves a spare socket for me to put music and video from the offfice to other rooms as well.
It really has been very straightforward and low cost. approx 200m cables used and all the extras cost less than 150 pounds. Well worth the time and money to do and adds a lot of value to the house. The whole lot is boxed off unobtrusively in the utility so you dont need to ruin the look of any area for the sake of a fairly techie looking hub.
