Champagne taste beer budget Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Going to pick up the wiring I need to run from the distribution center to all the rooms this weekend. Any advice on specific wire types, connections, connectors, or what have you I should know? Video from the antenna, phone, undecided about computer network, might just go with wireless since no one near us has a computer in their house, to say nothing of a wireless network. Any advice is appreciated. Not sure how the satellite connection would be ran through it, but might not have that installed for a while anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Personally, I wouldn't go wireless. You have the ability to run wiring, so I'd suggest going that route. I've talked with folks that say their wireless LAN works just fine, but they also say that their connection some times drops off for no reason. I believe most folks in-the-know would say that a wired LAN is the best method if you have that option available. You might wanna check these folks out: http://www.bcodist.com/ Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I'm with Tom; run that cable while you can. If you wanna go wireless later, you can. But the wire gives you that choice. I used CAT 5E, which carries a higher bandwidth than CAT 5. There are others, too. But CAT 5E is a good starting point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champagne taste beer budget Posted July 23, 2004 Author Share Posted July 23, 2004 Any hints on terminating the wires? I hope to just buy bulk wires and the connectors for the ends, don't reallt want to spend the cash for the long runs of ethernet wires. Thanks, btw, for reinforcing my thoughts about wiring for internet. I, too, had heard some mixed reviews on the wireless set-ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I used these connectors from Leviton (available from Home Depot): http://www.smarthome.com/8555.html A word of warning, though: You can't keep puting the wires in and taking them out of these things (as I did trying to troubleshoot a problem). You slip the un-stripped wires in these slots, and if you do it several times, it will not cut through the insulation (and won't make contact). Boy, was THAT a frustrating day... This system uses wall plates with square hole(s) into which the connectors snap. They have a whole series of modules: phone, ethernet, cable, rca jacks, speaker terminals, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champagne taste beer budget Posted July 23, 2004 Author Share Posted July 23, 2004 fini, did you get the recommended tool to do the wire ends, or improvise? Planning on spending a while at the Depot tmrw, hopefully will remember all the fittings I'm going to need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipschfoot Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 ---------------- On 7/23/2004 12:12:13 PM fini wrote: I used these connectors from Leviton (available from Home Depot): http://www.smarthome.com/8555.html ---------------- I just put this in last weekend. Nice and clean system. Blue Cat5 upstairs, Orange Downstairs rec room, Coax and two-line phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 It's just a thought, so please don't yell at me. I'm fairly certain you could do the job yourself, however...just for grins, you may wanna get an estimate from someone to do the job. Not only will they have all the tools, but will certainly have the experience and parts for the job. Additionally, they'll be licensed to do the job. And what the heck, if nothing else, you could pick their brain while they're estimating the job. Like I said - just a thought. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 I used the same stuff as fini and the insertion tool comes in the box with the connectors. Once you do one or two, you should get the hang of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champagne taste beer budget Posted July 23, 2004 Author Share Posted July 23, 2004 Klipschfoot: Nice looking job, just what I'm striving for in our house. Tom: No offense taken. The electrician quoted us "around" 100-150 to run the wires for the phones. Add in the ethernet and cable, would guess we'd get to $500 pretty fast. I ain't skeered of no stinkin wires, just need to screw up a couple first till I get the hang of it. picky: The Leviton tool I saw was like $90. Is this the one that came with the kit, or something similar but more for the DIY'er? http://www.levitonproducts.com/Catalog/Model_49553-814.htm?SID=SFKLEBBW2NF78JD8LEMGLQAEV7LP01WA&PID=1208 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 You don't need a tool like that. The tool Picky talks about is a simple plastic push-down tool to get the tiny wires into the slots. One tool comes with every connector. BTW, since I was running one ethernet line and one phone line to one remote location, I just used one Cat5-e cable for both (ethernet uses 4 wires, phone 2). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champagne taste beer budget Posted July 23, 2004 Author Share Posted July 23, 2004 Thanks for clearing up the tool issue, fini, and also for the trick with running both through the one cable. Think I'll try that myself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 fini, You can split the cable to use other pairs in the cable, and doing phone and ethernet probably is okay. However, spitting for two ethernet connections out of one cable can cause more interference between the two connections. It may just mean a few dropped packets getting resent and you'll never know. But ... you'll never know. You can get all kinds of things going here. POE (power over ethernet). SOme new devices that require power on one end, and there is a developing spec for that. This uses another pair of the 4 pair cable to supply power to the end device. For example, we have phones that have an ip address. The phone can also be powered over the network cable so you don't have to plug in a wallwart. Pretty neat when you can carry your phone to another part of the college campus, plug it in to a network jack and you still get calls routed to you. We now have phones at a remote location over 130 miles away. They have an ip address and are on the internet, but the phone acts like it is just another on our switchboard. Video over twisted pair -- You can get audio/video extenders that allow you to place your keyboard/mouse/monitor several hundred feet from the computer, connected by a single cat5 cable. Some include audio though that as well (stereo). The great thing about standards is that there are so many of them! Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 Hmm...I wonder if you can use those versatile little wires as guitar strings...I'm sure the music would be etherial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted July 23, 2004 Share Posted July 23, 2004 In my new home, I run wireless only to our laptops. All the PC's in my office and in the kids play room are Cat5E. If this is a new house, you may want to do what I did. I ran 3/4" PVC conduit from each location, so I can repull whatever we run in the future. Could you imagine trying to find BNC nics for windows XP desktop or 2003 server because you have BNC or AUI cable stapled to your studs. I don't want to be kicking myself in the butt in 10 years wishing I was not stuck with this old crappy Cat5E. If you know a good wirepuller, you may want to buy some beer and have him help you. He may also bring along his pentascanner to test your wires if you ask nice. I used the Levitron Home depot specials at my desk point, but bought a real patch pannel for my home run spot in my basement. But since I have my own punch down tool and use to do wireing, it was very easy for me to do this. I also used Cat5E for my phone runs since the wire is so cheap. JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 Especially true since many new laptops come with with a gibit capable nic. Our school put in cat3 for phone in one of the dorms. If you use it for networking, you can only do about 10megabit. Admittedly, you can get a higher rate, but you shouldn't expect it. Fortunately, all the networking for students is wireless. This has an added benefit: The 700 new computers we added to the network last year won't get fried through the nic during a lightning strike. We are the highest point on Lookout Mt., and we lose a couple of NICs every year. We didn't want to start replacing the kids new laptops they headed off to school with. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 Can Cat5e be used as a line-level cable over a distance of, say, 50-100 feet? Could that be terminated in plain old rca jacks? I'm thinking 5.1 or 2 channel output from the computer to the other systems in the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Speaker Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 Cat 5, Cat 5e, Cat 59. Maybe cluless can help, dont those belong to her? 5e, here kitty kitty kitty kitty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 Have you ever seen Cat 69? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Speaker Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 You mean Frazier Speakers CAT 69? (Coincident Aligned Transducers) Frazier has a bunch of different CAT speakers, but I dont know anything about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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