House rewire - Cat6 only? Or TV feeds too?

Tade

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Hello,

I'm hoping to get advise from some of you tech-savvy people, if possible...

We're soon to get our whole house rewired. Besides the standard plug sockets and light switches, I want to consider what other cables we should ask the electrician to run at the same time, before plasterer comes.

My thought is to have two Cat6 cables running to most rooms, e.g. kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and dining room. And 4 Cat6 cables running to the TV area in the lounge. All these cables would run back to a cupboard under the stairs (Node Zero - I think people call this?). This cupboard will have the Virgin router, and phone point. It also houses the consumer unit.

Does this seem adequate? I had wondered about also running co-axial cable or possibly getting Virgin to run cables to the TV area, before plasterer comes. However, I'm not convinced that we need dedicated virgin or coaxial TV feeds. Surely, using Cat6 cables and Virgin's fibre-optic broadband we can just use Internet based services like Netflix for streaming TV?

Unless there's something I've overlooked, Cat6 is all we need?

Any thoughts or advise would be much appreciated :)

Many thanks
Tade
 
I can't tell you if you need co-ax or not, but depending on cost it may be worth putting in 'just in case'. I personally would, it's nice to have a fall back plan (you can still watch TV if the Internet goes down!).

Cat 6 is relatively cheap, I would run as many cables to each room as you can - even if they're un-tailed. Much easier to have spares in the wall if you need to replace a failed cable, and if you decide to have more devices in one room it's much tidier to add more ports than have a switch sitting on the floor.
 
Thank you Spinke :)

Co-ax would certainly give me back up for terrestrial TV. Not sure that its worth getting Virgin to install TV feeds too though - as that would mean buying their TV package.

With regard to Cat6, I like your point about running as many cables as you can. How many would you do per room? And would you place them around different corners of the room?

Also, if the cables are un-tailed, do you mean that they have no RJ45 connected to the end? I'm finding that hard to visualise. Would it be a case of plastering over them, and then digging out the ends if you need them? Or would it be a case of having them sitting behind the plate alongside the cables that are "tailed" - is their room to do that behind the plate?

Apologies if my questions are somewhat amateur.
 
Coax x2 , 3/4 cat6 per room . If leaving Unterminated put in a backbox and put blank plate over them .
 
WOW didn't realise any of that about cat6. I'd just run 5e if it were me.

Me (both professionally and personally) too, esp. since all I'm having to avail is GBit ethernet. If I had to avail other functionality, I'd have to think a bit harder, but if I was installing to avail such things where it really mattered that my UTP was Cat6 (or better) I'd get in professionals to install it, test it (with their 8K a pop Fluke testers,) and guarantee it for ten years.

Obsessing over UTP @ cat5e versus cat6 (or whatever) seems to be something of a DIY'ers foible. By all means buy whatever you like DIY'ers - just don't delude yourselves (and in future disappoint) that because you've bought cat6 "capable" UTP that you have a "cat6" infrastructure. Of course, buying cat6 UTP gives you a much better chance than if you buy cat5e and the price difference these days is such that one "might as well" - just don't be complaisant that "cat6 UTP" equals "cat6 compliant" infrastructure.
 
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Thank you for all of your replies :)

Certainly a lot more involved than I had originally anticipated. Getting professionals in is overkill for my requirements. And I would actually enjoy building a wired LAN myself. Probably just get the electrician to help with laying them, and embedding them in walls.

mickevh - thanks for scaring me ;) . Appreciate that cat6 UTP does not necessarily mean cat6 spec infrastructure. Looking at the price of cat6 to cat5 cable, like you said, there is not much in it. With that in mind I'm thinking that I may as well go for cat6 UTP, since it will perform better than cat5e UTP, even if it doesn't reach the spec of cat6 infrastructure. However, if you are advising that to DIY it, one is more likely to produce a lower performing, or worse, a broken infrastructure using cat6 UTP than if using cat5e UTP... then that would turn me to cat5e.

At - is cat5e unsuitable for HDMI feeds? Have you experienced any issues using/laying cat6 UTP?

Would anyone recommend a particular brand of catx UTP or coax? Or ones to avoid?

Thanks
 
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