We are currently refurbishing the kitchen - major refurb.. Wall down, ceiling down, rewire, now boiler, new CU, new floor etc etc...
While we have all the ceilings down etc I am wondering if there is anything that I should be installing from a technology future-proofing point of view.
I'm going to run a LAN cable into the kitchen area but is there anything else interesting that you would suggest?
I'm also struggling to decide the best sort of package to build into a cupboard re sound. Tuner/CD palyer and over cupboard speakers etc.
Just how much data traffic are you expecting to pile through a kitchen in the near future?
If you're talking primarily about access to media, wouldn't wireless coverage be a better idea (Philips Streamium style). You just know that wherever the LAN ports are put they will be in the wrong place, leaving drop cables all over the place. How about lobbing a top-spec wireless bridge into the ceiling void to make sure of best coverage in and around the kitchen.
When we did ours, I installed a LCD TV/monitor on a swing arm, behind it I installed a deep back boxes, covered over with a cooker outlet front. (Like these
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to pass the cables out.
I installed the same in the cupboard below the worktop, so cables can be fed from one to the other. The cupboard now houses a PC and a cable box (Plus the cat food, fish food, and other pet related stuff!)
I also installed a double network point in this cupboard allong with four coax cables to the loft (One for the ariel, one for cable TV, one for CCTV and one spare for good measure!)
I use the cable box to play radio, the PC to play online radio, or tap into the vast collection of MP3's on my server (Linkstation HD-HG300LAN) via the PC. I did purcase some celing speakers, but the speakers in the TV are more then adequate, so I haven't bothered installing them.
I have also installed this
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on the Kitchen PC, seems easy to use, and it's free :-) I did hack the registry slightly, so I could install it on more than one PC, and share the same database so we can update it from any PC in the house (having a scanner with OCR is useful too!)
Must chip in , Im a lead programmer and linux nut so I'm as geeky as they get ... but to network up ANY room in a "normal" house is mad . Wireless is the way to go if you must .
Will the missus go and switch on the hub machine where mp3 are stored, and then the kitchen pc , log in just to here a few tunes ? probably just switch on a radio in 2 seconds
then theres mounting a pc in the kitchen, looking after it, and getting into it to select options (touch screen . wireless keyboard ? ) and the noise from the pc, so its more money for a quiet box etc etc etc
(of course you'll leave everything on all the time , watch the elec bills btw )
better to get a wireless repeater as stated elsewhere , or one of those little boxes you plug your ipod into that broadcasts over fm radio.
Did see a guy on sarah beenys show (phwwwr) who held up the reovation of his house and paid a bomb to "network" his home. First viewer walked in and looked at the patch box disaprovingly ......
I thought that too. I have my MythTV backend running 24/7 and usually at least one of the two frontends doesn't get turned off. My desktop PC usually stays on most of time too as I can rarely be bothered to turn it off.
did *I* say i didnt have machines running 24/7 ? my advise is based on user obsevations ( and experiance in systems design ), not personal pref.
If you need to geek out , I'd STILL go for wireless as UWB is just around the corner, and would make an easy upgrade. (Im not saying UWB is ideal either but if you MUST buy the shinny kit then .... )
Networking up places like office in cable makes (some) sense ... people tend to sit in designated places, security concerns etc.
Home users will tend to want to sit almost anywhere :)
wireless is pretty much ideal for the home, running cables about is simply madness ....
i agree...details, details. just tell me when its done, Simon, ok!? this thing, talks to that thing, via this app thingy, that you're going to build with this continuous evolving spec.
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Bugger that. I've run Cat5 to all the rooms that are likely to have a computer in them. Wireless is expensive, of variable quality, and can even if properly secured be cracked in some circumstances.
Nice neat sockets on the wall are relatively easy and are reliably fast, very cheap and don't leak data all over the neighbourhood. Oh, and of course, visiting machines[1] can get attached the the network easily and without having to have anything added to them.
[1] Get quite a few of those from neighbours who've done something ghastly. KVM switch and a spare network cable makes life much easier.
computer network, phone, doorbell, intercom, baby monitor, security system, backup lighting, night lighting, heating systems that monitor conditions round the house and control the lot for much improved efficiency (wont be long before those become common), audio didstribution, energy efficiency systems, and who knows what other future apps will become desirable.
To save =A38 at install time by not sticking cable in just aint smart. No reason to terminate it everywhere, if the cables there and can be connected up in future it'll save a lot more than the =A38 some day.
Not if you want a fast network it isn't. I regulally have other pople's PC's around to stay ("Can you fix this for me please"), and transfering anything over a wireless network is extremly slow - I much prefer to plug in the CAT5 and use gigabit or 100 megabit
No, that's why you get a NAS drive, like the Linkstation HD-HG300LAN - this only consumes around 10w when running, even less when the disk spins down, when the kitchen PC has been hibernated, it takes about 15 seconds to boot.
Put it in a cupboard, job done - The wiring between the PC and the monitor was all done when the kitchen was being refirbed, not much hassle really.
It just sit's in the cupboard, and works - I created a ghost image of it once it was all configured, so if it dies, this can be restored in about 10 minutes.
We have a small wired keyboard that lives in the draw (The wireless ones seem to be huge!) Touch screen would be a pain in the arse in the kitchen (IMHO) as the screen would get covered in smeg in no time.
It lives in a cupboard, we don't hear it at all - just a standard PC (P3
866!), nothing expensive.
The hibernate option is very useful.
Not if you are in the need for speed, or want to stream high quality video
They are illigal to use in the UK.
That's why you put it somewhere hidden, like the loft.
Absolutly, my "system" would not suit most people, but I find it all pretty much ideal!
Many thanks for all the thoughts. Very interesting...
One of the reasons for a LAN cable to the kitchen is that I'm considering the Squeeze box ..
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yet done much investigation but looks interesting...
So is the Pandora site ...
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wireless... The house is sort of long and thin. 16M long - Study and router etc at one end - kitchen at the other. My Dell Axim struggles to connect through the walls - that's with a Netgear RangeMax WPN802 Router.
So I'll run a cable (or two) while I have the ceiling down.
Now - should I run Cat 5 or Cat6? The actual cable run will probably be about 20M. Is Gigabit Ethernet OK down Cat5 over this distance - but what about the future?
I was only talking about the data and media aspect of it, where (for a kitchen) it will end up messy. I agreed with the concept of extra wiring for future fixed installations.
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