wired network for new home construction

[norm1320]

We're building a new house in the coming summer (barring any unforeseen complications) and I'm in the process of planning out the household network.

I've got two questions for the networking experts out there:

1: Do you think it would be worth it to use Cat6a, or would it be a waste versus Cat6? (none of the runs will be more than about 70ft from the hub) I don't have any 10Gb LAN equipment yet, but I'm sure I will at some point.

2: Where is the best place to get bulk network cable/wall plates/jacks/etc? I have a feeling I'm going to get a "what's Cat6?" from the electrician when I ask him. He'll only be running the cable. I'll be installing the jacks and such.

Thanks

 

[Kitten Kong]

Personally I would opt for cat6 all the way. You can purchase the faceplates etc, from most electrical stores. Not sure if you have the likes of marlins etc in the states, but failing that, check amazon, or even eBay. They will have what you need for sure.

 

[cyabro]

Cat6 will support 10gb up to about 37 metres I think so stick with that.

 

[PC-Technix]

When it comes to the cabling I'd go overkill. As its the only one chance you will have to do it! And you don't want to re do it again later.

Why not install it yourself? Then you know exactly where it is, how it's been done and that there are no cuts or snags in the cable itself.

Just my 2c worth.

 

[texargolfer]

I would recommend going to monoprice.com for all of your structured cabling needs.

 

[altrenda]

Your construction electrician should know what cat 6 is.

Electricians have been running low voltage cable for phone, audio, security, TV, sprinklers, networking etc for a long time.

Some highend remodels around here use the Ultrahome cable. Everything in 1 run.

http://www.commscope.com/uniprise/eng/product/cabling_solutions/md_residentail/1173148_12475.html

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Building a new house..and you want it "upgrade proof?" Since you're a techie person, you know you'll be re-doing it often as a new technology comes out.

Do yourself a favor...you will thank yourself over and over and over throughout the years. "Run PVC conduit". And run a thick enough diameter. You can replace your cables with ease down the road....or add. Get in the habit of running cables with pull strings...so every time you run something..you'll have a pull string there to add/replace new cables. Doing conduit while the walls are still open early in construction will not add much cost.

monoprice.com is great
pimfg.com is another great place

To do cat6a now...vs down the road..that's up to your budget. I bet if you did 5e or 6 now...with conduit...and down the road a few years you wanted to go 6a...you'd come out cheaper doing it that way...than trying to do 6a now.

 

[Lpusedyou]

Cat6

I'm going to have to agree with the above recommendation - CAT6 for now. CAT6a was still ridiculously expensive last time I checked (about 4 months ago) compared to CAT6 & CAT5E. I would recommend solid for in-wall wiring or in conduit and stranded for everything else (patch cables, wall to PC cables, etc). Sounds obvious but make sure you get a gigabit switch and/or router too. These are pretty affordable nowadays.

I also recommend Monoprice.com for the cable, wall plates, jacks, etc. You can buy pretty much everything you'll need except for the conduit, pull string, and some other things. They even sell punch down tools, crimpers, strippers and all kinds of networking installation tools. I can't personally vouch for the quality of their tools since I haven't used them but the cabling, wall plates, and jacks are great.

Good luck and fun with your new project. I love doing stuff like that.

 

[norm1320]

Why not install it yourself? Then you know exactly where it is, how it's been done and that there are no cuts or snags in the cable itself.

The thought has crossed my mind, but I don't want to get in the way during construction either. Although I have considered the possibility of just having the electrician put cable pulls where needed. Since the vast majority of the cable will be running between the floor joists and the basement drop ceiling, most of it will be very easy to get at, it's just the parts in the walls that will need the pulls. And the rest of it will all be going into uninsulated interior walls, so pulling that after the fact won't be too tough as long as there are cable pulls in place.

Some highend remodels around here use the Ultrahome cable. Everything in 1 run.

http://www.commscope.com/uniprise/eng/product/cabling_solutions/md_residentail/1173148_12475.html

Interesting idea. It looks like a great solution for most homes, but in my case I think it would be a bit impractical. Of the 12-14 Cat6/6a runs that I'm planning, only 3 will be adjacent to cable TV outlets and only 2 will be adjacent to a phone outlet.

 

[norm1320]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I'm still kinda on the fence, but now leaning more toward Cat6.

While we're on the subject... Better to use a pair of 8 port switches or a single 16 port? Here's kinda what I'm thinking:

Single 16 port would be an easier setup and wouldn't waste a port connecting from one switch to the other. On the other hand, 2x 8 port would be a little bit cheaper from what I'm seeing, and if one dies I've still got half my network running while I look for a replacement.

Thoughts?

 

[iflores]

We're building a new house in the coming summer (barring any unforeseen complications) and I'm in the process of planning out the household network.

I've got two questions for the networking experts out there:

1: Do you think it would be worth it to use Cat6a, or would it be a waste versus Cat6? (none of the runs will be more than about 70ft from the hub) I don't have any 10Gb LAN equipment yet, but I'm sure I will at some point.

2: Where is the best place to get bulk network cable/wall plates/jacks/etc? I have a feeling I'm going to get a "what's Cat6?" from the electrician when I ask him. He'll only be running the cable. I'll be installing the jacks and such.

Thanks

Hello.

You might want to check out www.monoprice.com

That's where I get all my networking equipment. Let me know how it goes.

 

[dbdawn]

Please, please run conduit, you will thank me later I would run Cat6 now and then if you want to upgrade later it will be easy since you have the conduit already in place.

 

[norm1320]

Please, please run conduit, you will thank me later I would run Cat6 now and then if you want to upgrade later it will be easy since you have the conduit already in place.

Since none of the walls that will house the cables will have insulation (and some will just be bare stud-walls) I really don't see the advantage of running conduit. When the time comes to upgrade to cat7/8/9/etc, I'll just tie the end of the new cable to the hub-side end of the old cable, then pull the old cable out from the jack end and let the new cable follow it.

Even in an insulated wall this method works without too much trouble, but in an uninsulated wall it will be a piece of cake.

 

[gikstar]

You mention phone lines... a lot of people are going with internet phone service now and it will just continue to grow.
When we moved into the place we are living in now, we ran a minimum of two Cat5e lines to each room and a cable line, then installed proper faceplates, allowing us to have internet service on one line and phone on the other line and cable TV on the cable line (if we ever decide to get TV service). In some places we ran 4 Cat5e lines. Everything terminates to our server rack in the garage.
We use a 24 port switch and have internet service with both FIOS (35 up/35 down) and Time Warner Cable. Just in case one goes down the other should be up and we will just switch over. We are also using two separate wireless routers, one for each internet service.

So, my suggestion is to run more than one drop to each room to allow for internet phone and of course test it all before enclosing the walls.

 

[andcorptech]

I just cabled my house last year. We ran 6 connections to loungeroom and computer room , 2 in each bedroom and kitchen. We terminated them all in a walk in closet with a 4U wall rack. 16 port gigabit switch with cat 6 cabling . Works very very well, great for transferring movies from computer room to media players around house.

Our house in on piers so we cabled from underneath the house, much easier than getting through the walls from the roof.

 

[norm1320]

Our network hub will be under the stairs in the basement. Good central location that would otherwise not be of much use, and of course those walls will never be closed up. The basement will have a drop ceiling, so there will be 12-16 inches of space for cables to go through horizontally around the house with minimal obstructions and very easy access. And as I said before, all of the vertical runs will be going through interior walls which will not be insulated, so there won't be much obstruction there. If we ever switch to internet phone service (which I doubt since I would probably drop the landline phone altogether first), I wouldn't have any problem with pulling an additional line through to any room that already has one. I plan on using 4 and 6 hole keystone wallplates at each of the LAN locations specifically to allow for such future improvements.

At present the plan is to run the following lines: the kitchen, the livingroom, the guest bedroom (where the family pc will be), the laundry room (for an upstairs wireless access point at a central location), the rec room downstairs x3 (where my personal pc is), the workshop downstairs x6 or maybe x8, plus two more connections in the room under the stairs (one for the downstairs wireless and one for the server). The hub end of the lines will terminate at a pair of 12 port 110 punchdown type patch panels. The upstairs lines will be fed by a 5 port gigabit switch which I've already had for quite a while, the downstairs lines will be fed by either a pair of 8 port switches or a single 16 port switch.

I just need to decide whether I want to do Cat6 and figure on pulling new cable in 3 years, or Cat6a and pull new cable in 7 or 8 years.

It's nice to have a good place to bounce around the ideas and hopefully not regret whichever choice I end up making. Thanks everyone.

 

[Lpusedyou]

Cat6

Definitely CAT6 for now. What devices will you be using on this network that will saturate a gigabit connection? I'm guessing none. There are only a few situations where even a megabit connection is saturated. I stream 1080p .mkv files over gigabit and it barely uses 1/10th of the bandwidth (local of course).

Now I'm not naive and I know that 1080p will not be the highest quality for very long (technically it isn't even right now) but I do know that it will be the highest quality for mainstream content for a few more years at least. I mean, I am talking about Blu ray rips here - even 3D ones in some cases.

And if you're thinking backups and things of that sort - gigabit is still plenty, trust me.