The contractor asked me how I want things wired and I didn’t really know.
I was thinking Cat6 ethernet cable with a wall plate in each room. They would all run to the crawl space where I’d have my modem and NAS.
It’s a small house. Only 5 ethernet wall plates throughout.
Is there anything I should ask for? I use Plex and IPTV.
Thanks.
Checkout the pinned comments for tips on planning and layout Home Networking Basics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjRKID2ucPY&list=PLqkmlrpDHy5M8Kx7zDxsSAWetAcHWtWFl
I recently finished my basement (~150sq.m. / 1500sq.ft.), I’m nerdy so be prepared. I bought a 300m spool of CAT6a, and ran about 13 drops.
I ran (myself) network to about every other power outlet, 1 stud away from the power. And one to my ceiling (central) for a WiFi access point. This is hands down the most important one for me. Super clean looking and powerful WiFi. I also included power and network in 3 closets (never know where I’ll want my NAS) and to the outside corners directly into weather resistant junction boxes so no wire is exposed (cameras). Each of the 3 rooms got 2 (opposing corners), the kitchen, all along the main room wall, and to a built in bookshelf that has become my TV cabinet (receiver/amp + Nvidia Shield feeding to a projector in the main room).
I did not bother with 2 runs everywhere because switches are just too easy and/or WiFi. Heck a basic switch can even be powered over POE so minimal wiring needed. And everything runs back to a “structured media cabinet” housing my fiber-ONT (so I had the ISP move my fiber here), router, switches, and network patch panels for the whole house. Ask the electrician (a low voltage kind) to “terminate to an Ethernet patch panel” so it’s easier for you to use. Also demand that they do NOT staple the wires, and test each for at minimum perfect 1 gigabit performance, probably 10Gb at these ranges.
Most electricians still do not know how to terminate in 2023–and this is after seeing what type of garbage work they did in 1995 at my parent’s home–NOTHING has changed in nearly 30 years. I would have them run the wiring and do my own termination. Use the money saved on termination to double up on wires in case one is damaged when being run.
That is pretty surprising isn’t it? I do feel it’s more complex than power wires, but not by much. And to be fair I’ve rewired a few ceiling fan/lights in my day or 2-switch light controls and the wording on those instructions makes ZERO sense. “be sure to attach the hot wire to the hot terminal on the fixture” … but the fixture has zero indicators to which side is hot/cold and is symmetric to the drawing. However, one plate is copper and the other is silver (in color), so there IS a difference but what is it? stupid engineers. Don’t say “hot/cold” or “+/-” for a device that can only be identified as “silver/copper”. :p
It’s just more precise work to do it right. Idiot working upstairs at my parent’s house untwisted 3" before terminating jacks. And that’s why those jacks only get 100Mbs. I’m going to have to re-terminate all of them, and have been saying that for nearly 30 years now! Thank God they didn’t terminate all the jacks so I’ve got a shot at doing those right. The ones that were terminated correctly will iperf 700-900Mbs, so that’s pretty good considering there was no gigabit standard when the wire was installed and was the only 400Mhz rated wire on the market that cost us 2x as much, but was a great investment. If 2.5Gb/5Gb runs over it, that will be pretty awesome. We put 2x ethernet and 2x coax in each room and still have areas that were underserved. 2x of each on each wall and ceiling is the only way to go.
Maybe do two drops per wall plate. Ethernet crushed WiFi performance so it’s nice to have wherever you want it.
“Cable is cheap. Holes are expensive” - Best advice I ever got
Two drops per plate. Shouldn’t cost more except for the extra cable. Buy it yourself if you have to.
Also two is smart just for redundancy. Even if you only need one, if Jimmy puts a ringshank through one cable you’re still good!
You mean Jose or Jesus…I haven’t seen a white dude at a residential construction site in almost a decade now (sad to say)…
Depends on your region… Lots of white and white adjacent dudes up here in WA/OR
Run a hardwire to each of your tvs for your streaming box or tv directly. Keep them off the wifi
This!
First check the speed of your card in the TV. My Samsung TV only has a 100 mbit card, so using WIFI is much faster than using LAN.
Cat 6 everywhere, if you have a furniture diagram all the better - no sense putting in a jack on the other side of the room where your desk will be. Figure out where your furniture will go to and run at least 1 jack there, most of the cost is labor so I’d run 2 jacks to each room, just like outlets, (almost).
All rooms having dual cables pulled to each room with CAT7 wiring.
Cat6
Done this. The drywall people or someone put a nail in the longest, most difficult cat wire run. Caught it too late - I lived two States away during construction. Would have had to pull three rooms’ drywall down to find it. Don’t let this happen to you.
Check out my prewire guide to get you started: Presentation Link
Pretty interesting and covers a lot of things I’ve never thought of before–thank you for posting!
Every wall of every room. Every. Wall.
At least 1 wall of each bathroom.
Every ceiling of every room including hallway but not bathrooms.
One wall in every closet including the pantry.
Don’t put the data closet in a crawl space. Put it in a closet.
Run all of the cable in Smurf tunnel to make upgrading/replacing later down the road easier.
This will give you (and the next home owner) the most flexibility in the future. You’ll never have to worry about where the nearest port is regardless of how you arrange each room. Ceiling drops will allow you to ceiling mount WiFi access points.
Pay the extra $$ to have it done now, in the 30 year life of the loan $10k-$15k cost is insignificant.
Monetize that shower time via OnlyFans.
lol! I was going to say still run it to bathrooms for APs and smart things that are appearing in the bathroom (mirrors, bt speakers, etc).
I would pass on the smurf tube–that stuff sucks unless you have an existing pull line.
CAT 5e or 6
behind TVs
ceiling mounted WAPs
Exterior security cameras
maybe think about potential for home security systems and rough in CAT 5s to doors and windows, can always use individual conductors if not POE
2 to every wallplate 2 to every known TV and even some dream TV locations i.e. garage and patio I would also ask for smurf tubing here 2 to Audio cabinet if applicable smurf tube here as well Every potential security camera spot Door bell location Potential WAP locations If ever adding an ADU I’d run smurf tube to the nearest corner of the house to that structure
If you aren’t sure about a location, smurf tube it
smurf tube is useless ime–use 2" pvc or nothing at all.
2 cables in each. If they’re not terminating them, make sure they leave lots of slack.
Why 2 cables? Because you never know. Cable is Cheap. Holes are expensive.
Surprised at all the recommendations for Cat6. That’s fine for Gigabit. Houses are already being serviced by fiber with speeds that exceed Gigabit speeds, so the minimum I would suggest in 2023 is Cat6A.
I am currently in the same situation but missed the wiring deadline so I am going to end up running OM4 fiber (10/40/100 Gigabit) under carpets for the office/living room/bedroom. Small SFP+ switches are available for reasonable prices now, so you can have a fast 10Gb trunk to service each floor and take 2.5Gb from them.
Cat6 will get you 10Gb up to about 175 linear feet, which is usually enough for your average 2-story home. It’s still mainstream/readily available, and is a bit easier to work with than 6a. Definitely 6a for distances beyond 175 feet though. Agreed though on fiber backbones for high speeds.
That’s correct Cat6 maxes out at 10Gb on short runs. It’s also a case that there’s an issue with heat, trying to push 10Gb over wire - usually exhibited in the SFP+ transceivers, switches and such, which is reduced with 6A and better.
In 10 years time, will you wish you had made the minimal additional investment in 6A over 6 when speeds increase and your wires are all behind sheetrock or plaster? I’ve already done multiple build-outs in commercial and homes, and I’m well aware of how quickly these wiring jobs become obsolete. So I won’t even touch anything below Cat6A today.
Addendum: the heat issue that causes 10Gb copper wire SFP+ transceivers to burn out is why I’m running fiber - significantly cheaper running costs too.
We might need to transition to fiber for more than 10gb either way. The SFP+ transceiver heat issue you mention is very real. In my case it fried the port on my Ruckus switch, not the transceiver though. And that was running in 2.5gbps mode with a 3 foot cable.
Seems like you have to run conduit if you want true future proofing.
Put runs to each corner of the house in the even you want to do PoE cameras. Don’t forget outside also for outdoor TVs or access points. Put runs somewhere in ceilings for access points.
Two drops per room plus a fiber run as well