Using the Sewer Vent for Cable or Cat5e Run?

[Frank Olson]

OK. Glad you got that off you chest. I still have serious doubts that a "hunk" of wire could become a fuse though.

Now before you go off on another "tangent", I too, have seen the "results" of DIY "inspiration" when it comes to running wire. If you honestly don't know what you're doing in the first place, listening to some "nimrod" on the phone for two hours explaining the "how to's" probably won't help either. What might take you three hours (and a whole lot of frustration) to do would take a seasoned installer (with all the right tools) about fifteen minutes. I think your house (and your piece of mind) is definitely worth the two hours the guy might charge for a "complex" run.

[Bill Kearney]

Exactly.

[sylvan butler]

Bill, this is my HOME. The network is usually under 10% utilization. But when I want to move a big file, it takes too long. A gE switch WILL help, because there will only be significant traffic between two systems.

Gee, sounds like someone forgot "alt.home.repair" and "comp.home.automation" is mostly about HOME... I do have two fileservers on my home network, but I suspect that puts me into a distinct minority. :)

sdb

[Marc_F_Hult]

Sylvan,

I installed fiber hubs in basement and 2nd floor because of repeated lightning damage to 100baseT and RS-xxx systems with the welcome side-effect of gigabit transfer rates. If you can/want to physically run fiber, check out eBay.

Search " NETGEAR FS518" These have 2 gigabit fiber + 16 100BT, sell for about $30 and are OK but have noisy small diameter fans and do increase overall UPS power needs. There's a bunch up for sale now.

I got a couple of these and also two four-port D-Link DGS-3204 gigabit fiber managed hubs for a bit more. There are couple up for sale now. I may put one of mine in my upcoming 'porch sale'. Same caveat about noise and power consumption. Otherwise also flawless in my experience.

HTH ... Marc Marc_F_Hult

[Bill Kearney]

Well good for you. For others reading the thread is may help them to understand some network design issues. Just adding expensive gigE cards and wiring (not just the copper, but the wall plates too). That and unless you've got a fileserver that's capable of truly handling gigE throughput it's going to be wasted money.

Oh please, give it a rest.