New house cabling help...

[ChrisN]

Hi all,

Just purchased a new house and need a bit of help getting my head around wiring the place up

Rooms I want cabled up are as follows:

Living Room / Dining Room
Kitchen
Bedroom
Spare Room
Attic Room

My idea is to do two runs of Cat 5 to each room all running back to a central point (cupboard in the spare room).

What I want to be able to do with the system is to be able to plug a laptop into any socket in the house and hook up to the network and in the future hook other AV gear up using baluns.

I have an ADSL wireless router with 4 ports on it and assume I will need a patch panel as well.

My two main questions so far, I get the feeling there will be many, many more are:

1. Is it worth doing more than two runs to each room?

2. How will the patch panel work with my router? If I run one rj45 cable out of it into the patch panel how does that feed every point in the house?

See, that's three questions already!!

All help will be most appreciated. If I'm going wrong already please let me know

[DarkKnight]

Definetly worth putting more than 2 peices of CAT5 into a room because :
a) A cable may not work and
b) Your needs will grow

I've put 6 CAT6 cables in my lounge to future proof as much as possible (see the link in my signiture). I'm more of a Home Automation man, so the more cables the better.

In terms of the patch panel, you could start by using a basic router (e.g. a WiFi Broadband Router). Normally these allow about 4 hardwired connections.

If you have a PC in any given room, then I should be able to 'ping' the other network elements be they the router itself, Network attached storage, PC etc..

[ChrisN]

I've already got a wireless broadband router with 4 ports on the back which I was going to wire up like this:

ADSL Line in.
Port 1 -> PC
Port 2 -> Xbox (XBMC)
Port 3 -> Showcenter
Port 4 -> Patch Panel -> All the rooms

or do I wire all 4 ports on the router to the patch panel and use everything through that.

Is one way better than the other?
Are both ways wrong?

These questions and more after these messages...

[davebrear]

Hi

A patch panel is only an endpoint for the cables - not a hub/switch. You will need to connect a cable from each patch panel point (one for each cable) into a network point on your router. As you do not have enough sockets in theo router you will need to buy a small network switch with enough ports on it, allowing an extra point to patch in your router

So it will go:

Patch panel point(s) ----> Network switch <------ Wireless Router

Hope this helps

Dave

[ChrisN]

Thanks Dave,

I think I'm getting this a bit now.

Few more questions...

Would

ADSL Line in to my router then
Port 1 -> PC
Port 2 -> Xbox (XBMC)
Port 3 -> Showcenter
Port 4 -> Switch -> Patch Panel

be the correct configuration?

If I run 3 Cat 5 cables to 5 rooms I will need a patch panel and a switch with at least 16 points?

Why do I need a patch panel at all?

Will all of the above items be able to see each other and access t'internet from any point in any room of the house?

How well do these AV balun things work going through switches and patch panels?

Is there any signal I can't send over Cat 5?

[Donkster]

I think your getting confused over patch panels, switches and routers. I kept it nice and simple.We moved into our current house and had it all rewired including networking the rooms. All the network cabling ran to our cupboard under the stairs where our sever is. All the connections plug into a network switch .... http://www.netgear.co.uk/gigabit_net...itch_gs105.php be it an 8 or 16 port switch, with the adsl modem plugged into the switch as well. Works a treat.

[ChrisN]

I think your getting confused over patch panels, switches and routers.

I think you may be right there...

Trouble is I don't think the AV baluns I want to use will work via a switch

[clockworks]

I ran 2 cables from each room, up into the loft, where they plugged into a switch. My router is in the understairs cupboard, as is the server.

If your baluns don't work with a switch, you'll only be able to use them in a direct point-to-point configuration. If that's the case, you could still run all your cables back to a central point but, rather than connecting the two cables through the switch, use an RJ45 coupler to join them.
With all the cables going to a switch, you can use each one for data. Disconnect 2 from the switch and join them, and you can use them for AV.

If you want to send AV to more than one point, you'll need a suitable distribution amplifier.

[ChrisN]

Thanks clockworks,

I think that will be the way to go.


Chris