Answered Cat6a for home network and POE CCTV

sherbert79

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Hi All

I am about to embark on wiring my new house with Cat6 cable for CCTV (HikVision) and TVs,Printers, Computers etc etc. The thing is, I am a complete novice at this type of thing so have been reading up on things and trying to get my head around what I need to do......but as always I have a few questions if you could give some guidance?

So my plan is to run the cat6a POE cables from the under stair cupboard up in to the loft and then from there to each location of CCTV camera, I will then run two cat6a cables to the office (pc & printer) two to the lounge (smart tv & spare) and two to the kitchen (smart tv & spare). My question is, would I be best capping all these cables off at a wall box or would I just wire them in to a patch panel which in turn would feed my POE switch and then my DVR for the cctv?? I’ve seen a post somewhere that if you use the wall box solution then the only real cable that would be open to damage would be the patch cable from the wall box to the patch panel and this is easier to replace than the cable in the wall? Also, my new house is timber kit construction, do cat6a cables give off a lot of heat? I’m just a bit worried of running a bunch of cables through timber and insulation if it’s going to be giving off a bit of heat!

Thanks in advance for any help and I’m open to suggestions of other solutions!

Scott
 
Cat 6 is enough, terminate into wall plate..., make sure all cables between each equipment are of shielded type and your cameras and devices all have shielded ports..

Patch Panels are ugly, use wall plate..

Cat6 FTP Shielded RJ45 Module (Euromod Size) | Cat6 Modules & Outlets

DoubleGang CCS Flat Euro Style Faceplate | Faceplates & Backboxes

32-35mm back box

Singlegang Office style Surface Mount Back box

Thanks, so would I just run a cable from each wall port to a POE switch? The reason I ask about the patch is I’m obviously going to have a few cables so thought a patch would be cleaner?
 
First, always run more cables than you need to each location. It makes life easy if anything should go wrong as all you need do is change to the spare and then troubleshoot the problem at your leisure.
meansizzler is correct, use back boxes, modules and faceplates for all the room side of the cabling. Use a patch panel in the cupboard under the stairs and house the switches and DVR here too. Make sure you have ventilation options available too. You can also house them all in a cabinet for convenience. Like this - 300mm Deep Wall Mounted Network Cabinets | 300mm Deep Wall Mounted Network Cabinets

CCTV - is network intensive as it streams constantly. Personally I prefer to house the CCTV network traffic on its own network with a connection to the main network for remote access.
For example,lets say you are putting in 4 cameras, These would be cabled back to the cupboard and into the patch panel on ports 1-4. Ports 1-4 would then be connected, with patch leads, to a small gigabit POE switch like this - Cisco SLM2008 PoE | Cisco SMB 200 Smart Switches
The DVR would be connected to this switch as well. The POE switch would then be connected to the main standard gigabit switch that is servicing the main network.

Also, my new house is timber kit construction, do cat6a cables give off a lot of heat? I’m just a bit worried of running a bunch of cables through timber and insulation if it’s going to be giving off a bit of heat!

Doubt the POE cables would give off enough heat if any at all to be a concern. You can always put them in trunking if that will give you piece of mind.
 
I personally would not bother with shielded cable unless the equipment/cctv manufacturer specifies it.

Shielded cable costs more is harder to install, has larger bend radii and if not not done properly can be susceptible to more interference.

Use a patch panel in the central point as it will be easier with multiple cables.

Depending on the standard used poe is generally fairly low wattage and camera often use single digit watts. That's not going to heat up your cables.

Putting it in conduit can have the opposite effect and cause heating but this is generally only when you have mains ac at reasonable currents.
 
Networks cables without PoE give of no heat and with POE it will be almost undetectable. The PoE runs at around 48v and low current e.g. 350ma.
 
A patch panel and a wall box are essentially the same thing - they are both forms or cable termination and presentation onto a RJ45 socket. Fundamentally the difference is one of port density and aethetics.

Patch panels offer more ports within a given amount of space than wall boxes and are (usually) designed to be mounted in "standard" 19 inch rack cabinets. Given they are "functional" devices which are presumed to be "out of sight" in computer rooms/cabinets, they are generally pretty ugly.

Wall boxes are much prettier as aesthetics is more important in their design than space usage, but don't pack in as many sockets (lines) per unit of area. For example, 24 ports worth of 2-socket wall boxes would take up much more space than a single 24 socket patch panel.

Consequently, for SOHO DIY installs, you'd provably want to use wall boxes in the rooms and maybe a PP in your "central" node that's out of sight and where space might be a bigger consideration.

If you obtain a given "cat" of cable, you need to ensure that the wall boxes and PP's are of matching "cat." The wire gauge of cat6 is thicker than cat5e (for example) and higher cats need better electrical performance.

Strictly speaking, your install will not be "cat" anything unless you test it with some rather expansive test equipment and higher cats have more stringest installation requirements (for example cable to be layed into proper "containment.") There's more to it than just buying a particular cat of cable.

However, DIYer's rarely bother with such tests, but that doesn't mean it won't "work" for Gigabit ethernet - as long as you get the pin out right, GBit ethernet is pretty forgiving and you have to do a spectacularly bad job for it to not work (poor termination is the biggest culprit.)

Which begs the question, why bother with higher cat cables? Cat5e is more than good enough for Gigabit ethernet out to 100m (further if the quality of work and materials is good.)

The counter argument is that the price difference between cat5e an cat6 is so small these days you "may as well" go cat6 and hope for the best in future when Gigabit ethernet is no longer regarded as fast enough. You pays your money....

Following is a link to my favourite site on UTP - it has lots of pictures of the kit, pin outs, etc... How to wire Ethernet Cables
 
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Thanks for all the info guys this is great! I’m not that bothered about cat6 but I want to try and future proof as much as possible, I am in the fortunate position of buying a new build with the company I work for so I want to do the wiring before any sheeting goes on! My plan is to bring all the cables through the plasterboard and straight in to a patch panel which is mounted in a unit, the use patch cables in to a switch! I’ve read somewhere that I need to ground my network unit, is this because I’m using cat6?
 
Just remember not to buy or let the electricians but cca cable as it's not cat anything compliant.

Grounding is normally for shielded cable which again I wouldn't bother with.

Also you can have additional earthing on some equipment but that varies with manufacturers. I can't remember seeing any on domestic switches.
 
Just remember not to buy or let the electricians but cca cable as it's not cat anything compliant.

Grounding is normally for shielded cable which again I wouldn't bother with.

Also you can have additional earthing on some equipment but that varies with manufacturers. I can't remember seeing any on domestic switches.

I am going to do it myself hopefully, I have been granted access to get in before the sheeters and run the cables I need, just want to make sure I’m doing it right before the walls are finished, the cupboard is on an outside wall in the middle of the house so I’m hoping it won’t be too much of an issue to run them, planning on just doing the cables at the moment then leaving the plugs/plates until the house is sheeted? Main thing is to get the cables run I suppose, yeah already read up on CCA and I will make sure I get solid copper, been doing a good bit of research on this but your feedback is also very much appreciated and needed!

S
 
When professional cable monkeys install cables to "first fit," they usually leave quite a bit a "slack" both ends so you've got plenty to work with when finishing the install. If you're using a novice, it might be worth mentioning to them.

Incidentally, the back/surface boxes for the room sockets are usually "standard" sized (85mm IIRC) patresses - same size as a single UK mains plug. Easily accommodating 2 socket RJ45 faceplates - though 3 and 4 socket versions are also available and of course you can use "double gang" patresse/backbox if needbe. One thing to watch out for is that the patress/backbox has enough "depth" to accomodate your chose faceplate (and leave room for the cable.) Some of the "shallow" ones are a bit of a tight fit.
 
When professional cable monkeys install cables to "first fit," they usually leave quite a bit a "slack" both ends so you've got plenty to work with when finishing the install. If you're using a novice, it might be worth mentioning to them.

Incidentally, the back/surface boxes for the room sockets are usually "standard" sized (85mm IIRC) patresses - same size as a single UK mains plug. Easily accommodating 2 socket RJ45 faceplates - though 3 and 4 socket versions are also available and of course you can use "double gang" patresse/backbox if needbe. One thing to watch out for is that the patress/backbox has enough "depth" to accomodate your chose faceplate (and leave room for the cable.) Some of the "shallow" ones are a bit of a tight fit.

Don’t worry I plan on leaving loads of slack either end and wrapping them up so as to avoid any damage when I come to fitting the connectors
 
When running cables through partitions/joists would you suggest fixing them to timber with fixings and keeping them taught or leaving them loose with slack?
 
I would run them fairly loose, bundling them together with velcro ties so you don't damage them.

If necessary mechanically fix them but there is no requirement to do so really. Just watch you don't damage them if you do.
 
I would run them fairly loose, bundling them together with velcro ties so you don't damage them.

If necessary mechanically fix them but there is no requirement to do so really. Just watch you don't damage them if you do.

Thanks Chuck, I could do with a guy like you when I’m doing the work [emoji23] Foundations being dug in a few weeks so still a bit of time before my skills are required [emoji106]
 
Thanks Chuck, I could do with a guy like you when I’m doing the work [emoji23] Foundations being dug in a few weeks so still a bit of time before my skills are required [emoji106]

No worries. At least you are planning at an early stage. If you are localish happy to help for a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit :rotfl:

Since it's a new build have you also thought about installing Coax for Freeview\Freesat\FM\DAB etc.

Also smart lighting etc and things that you don't necessarily need to install on day 1 but if you have the cable in place makes it so easy to retrofit.
 

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