Hi,

Just bought an old wreck of a house, and it needs a full electrical rewire.

I was thinking - while they are under the floors/hacking the plaster, I may as well go the whole hog and get LAN and coax throughout the whole house too.....

I already have a wireless LAN network, so not essential, but prob a good idea to put 100 base-t wired network in as well.

Anyone done this?

Also - want co-ax socket in every room for tv's etc. Is there
a better way? How do i route tv signals easily?

decide where you want everything... Decide where you want to put the hub... then run a utp cable to every place that you want a network point... then terminate in a face plate... easy... mail me if you need more info on terminating... dont run the cables right next to mains cables..

Put you main ant. up on chimney.. run decent coax to where you want you main tv... stuff in in the sat / cable then out into video then out to booster amp then from that to each tv / room in the house.

David

Yep - was in a similar situation. I've now got a six port hub in the airing cuboard! Buy the 100m thin ethernet (CAT5) cable drum from Maplins, a cheap cutter/crimper and a load of RJ-45 plugs and follow this:

http://www.p9systems.co.uk/pub/cables.html#T568A RJ45 pin assignments

Got one port to each of the kids bedrooms, two ports to the study and two spare. Kids have a PC each and study has one PC with two printers, shared across the (peer to peer) network.

Contemplating going completely nerdy and putting a Linux fileserver in the attic :)

Incidentally http://www.amigarealm.com/resources/pinouts.htm is a great resource for nerds. Enjoy....


[Edited by MartinM - 4/18/2002 12:52:15 PM]

Most sparkies will happily run out CAT5 cable whilst they are re-wiring a building. Even if you don't terminate the runs, saves hassle and mess at a later date.

Done this to a house in London (then moved :rolleyes: )

Advice as above for Cat5E cabling but go the whole hog and install double sockets in each room of the house. In that way you can have a computer and a phone in each room. You need a RL45/Phone plug, secondary only as long as you have the original BT socket in the house a Master (default). Wiring and sockets are cheap and you can get a small wall-mounted patch-panel into which you can plug a hub and phones. The fun bit is terminating the lot, though you could save time by just making 4 wire connections (1,2,3 & 6).

A friend of mine (who is sadder than I :rolleyes: ) has done this to his whole house, TV/Satellite too PLUS he has fitted Speaker Wire throughout. In this way he can have music/speakers in each room. He's also run Audio Wire so that he can take the feed off a remote device, connect it to an Aux socket of another hifi and use that to amplify and control the sound quality.

Also worthwhile thinking about those electrical switches that can be controlled via computer - can't remember the name - but they should be more commonplace soon.

:)

This site has some goof info Smarthome. You could even automate when your cat gets fed; only a nation of fat lazy slobs (no offence) would come up with that :D

Buy yourself a cheap punchdown tool for the termination, it'll take you seconds to terminate the ends once you get going.

Stefan

If you are going to rewire the house you might also want then to put in a 5amp ring around the livingroom etc so that you can switch on and off all those table lamps etc from the wall light switch.

I am looking to get this done in the living room and bedroom. Also think about anything such as external lights and CCTV systems.

Si

i rented my crimpers


Id be more tempted to use a router over a hub!!

Surely they'l be delay all tapping into a hub?

my 4 port routers satisfys all my needs


Si

Si :confused:

For a SoHo network of just a few computers, a Hub is perfectly adequate. A Switch is overkill/expensive/unnecessary and a Router in the true sense of the word is totally OTT :eek: Especially on 100BaseT network.

Why fanny about configuring things when you can just plug in a hub & get on computing?

If you have a Router to connect to ISDN or ADSL, it may include a hub in it.

May have missed something, have I?

:confused:

My network at home has both a hub and a router. The hub deals with internal network traffic between the server/PC/MAC & printers and the router deals with connecting the PCs/MAC to the Internet as required. Will/can also be used to connect to my office network via ISDN. A router is for connecting two disparate networks not computers in the same network.

[Edited to add the above para]

[Edited by Puff The Magic Wagon! - 4/18/2002 6:52:43 PM]

[fishing]
would you be considering using MP3 as an audio source for various rooms over the LAN?
[/fishing]

For home automation
www.letsautomate.co.uk

Ever thought of going wireless? Much more flexible than flood wiring the whole house, and probably not much more expensive when taking effort into account.

Puff, I think it's X10 devices you were thinking about.

If you have broadband and want to share the connection easily, then I'd go for a router with built-in RJ45 ports as Puff suggested, although I haven't seen any with more than 4-ports.

The cost difference between a hub and a switch these days is very small unless you go for a branded name and they'll try to justify the extra cost. So either go for a branded Hub or a cheaper switch.

Yes, there will be a delay with a Hub given the nature of Ethernet (CSMA/CD), but if you can notice it on such as small LAN I'll eat my hat ;)

As Puff said, if you don't have broadband then you won't need a router. On the other hand who doesn't these days ;)

Stefan

Moving tomorrow and as we plan to be there for a while I'm already planning just this.

Cat 5 will go to multiple points in each room as we decorate. Coudl go wireless - but I have err several PCs plus the Cat 5 will also feed ISDN, telephone and any low-voltage swicthing that might be required. Plus between main PC and File server I prefer 100meg

For the TV/Sat etc have a look at this.... mine is already here for installation in the new house

Also planning some X10 controlled bits. Mainly some outside lights with PIRs that also trigger some web-cams etc.

Deano

true i use the router for the broadband which seems to work fine!

Si

Thanks for all the replies!

As I mentioned, I already have a wireless network (Apple Airport base station etc)......but I just want the whole house to be cabled for LAN as well - wireless is fine, but only 11Mb/s while lan cable is 100base-t - heck, my Apple can even do 1000base-t so may as well wire it all in.

This X-10 stuff has got me salivating as well!!!! Doubt I'll be allowed though.....
Hehehe.

I've been in the process of flood wiring the house as we go round decorating all of the rooms. I bought a 305m box of 350Mhz Cat5e cable which is about the right amount for the whole house. Also got some Cat5 wallports and a patch panel for where it all terminates in the garage.

Stick absolutley loads of the stuff in, i've got 7 cat5 sockets in the office and even 3 in the living room. I'd get a minimum of 350Mhz Cat5e as this will happily carry gigabit ethernet ready for when the hardware gets cheaper. You might want to consider Cat6 but the cable will be about twice the price. Have a look at www.minitran.co.uk for cheap cable and wallports. I got my box of cable for £32 from these guys which is a good price.

I even considered installing some fibre aswell but got put off by the expense of the equipment needed to cut/polish/terminate this stuff.

Just do it - run every type of cable from your loft or some other suitable place for a patch panel whilst your re-wiring. It's relatively cheap & easy and saves loads of error afterwards.

In my last house I had at least 2 TV & phone points in every room other than bathrooms. Mains outlets in every corner. Speaker cabling in every room incl. full surround in the lounge. Cat 45 everywhere. Outside lights (incl. floodlights) from convenient light switches. Audio interconnect cable from main hi-fi to amplifiers / hifi in other rooms. Video/DVD/Cable fed back up into the loft for distribution to the rest of the house. I didn't get round to CCTV. I also ran alarm cable for all the motion detectors etc.

Run the cable even if you just run it all into one backbox with a blanking plate.

IS it possible to have 1 satelite, 1 broad band 1 stereo and simply share it around the house?

I get the bit about a lan but didnt realise you could do all the rest

Si

Satelite - yes - take the co-ax output to your TV and split it and send to the other TV's. How you distribute to the other TV's is up to you - I run a cable back to the loft and have an amp there which feeds the rest of the house. You do need to run coax though not Cat5. If you've got Sky Digital (I don't) then you can use a 'magic eye' which will run remote control back down the wire. BTW you do get the same channel to all TV's. If you run the Satelite through a video, then take the output of the video instead, then you have Video & Satelite distributed ! All you need to do is tune all the TV's in.

Stereo can be done by running line level cable from Tape Out connector on a amp to Tape In on another amp. Alternatively you could run speaker cable if your amp will power multiple speakers, but you have only one volume that way.

My amp in the kitchen also powers outdoor speakers which are the dogs :)