Cogitating about Cat 5 Wire

[Bob]

is a good

surfing the net

Don't forget the security risks.

Bob

[Andy S]

Cat 5e is ok though walls. If you are going through the ceiling, around any heating ducting, etc. you should use Plemun (spelling ??) Cat-5e (in fact, I believe it is a code requirement in most areas). Plemun is fire resistant, and is non toxic if it does catch fire.

Andy

[Greg]

That is if you are actually inside an air moving space, typically a raised floor in a computer room or a suspended ceiling that is used for return air. That is not typical in a home. "Near" a duct is not a problem. You are right about the toxicity. Plenum rated cable will not produce toxic smoke. Riser rated cable will not spread flame. Plenum cable is riser rated too. These show up on the cable jacket as "CL * P" or "CL * R"

• being the voltage rating "2" or "3" CL2P is a 30v rated Plenum cable Cat 5 will usually be type 2. "3" is for higher voltages. You can substitute plenum cables for riser and class 3 for class 2 but not the other way around.

[Ace]

Why don't you go wireless?

[Greg]

I have had terrible results with wireless in this house. Perhaps it is just the amount of concrete and steel in hurricane resistant construction. I am also not happy with the speed.

[Astro]

I've stayed out of this discussion for a while, but it won't seem to die, so here's my $.02.

I've used 802.11b in my house for a couple years now. My wife is totally hooked on it. On my machine, it's semi-reliable. I'm writing this on my laptop, from my recliner, using 802.11g to run a remote desktop, which is working for the moment. Sometimes the link lasts all day, sometimes it cuts out every couple minutes. I've switched cards and access points, updated drivers, tried just about everything. My machine still works intermittently. My wife's machine runs pretty much flawlessly.

These problems aren't unique to me. I've studied a great number of support boards and many people have these problems. Just as many have no problems, so who knows. But it ain't dependable. Clearly in your situation, it isn't either.

I've been installing 5e cable in my walls to tidy up the rat's nest from the office. If I can get it over to where I use the computer in my living room, I'm running it there too and I'll only use the wireless as a backup when I need to be mobile. I'll leave it running for the wife.

I also tried wireless for the observatory, maybe 50 yards from the access point. same deal. Tried matching brands of access point and client cards. No luck. Still unreliable. And running a robotic telescope on an unreliable connection is asking for trouble.

Give me c>> Why don't you go wireless?

[Jeff Cochran]

Since 90% of home networking is for internet use, and the remainder still rarely has any files of decent size, wireless is quite suitabl for the vast majority of home networks.

But if you need the speed, go for the Gigabit rated. Or fiber.

Jeff

[Greg]

If that is true then you are probably right but I have an RTV that streams video and I am shuffling MP3 files around so I will stick to my wired LAN. Some of us do have file servers and use them.

[Rein]

That's because 'the crowds' are now buying them. All they want is to sit on their couch, surf the net and watch tv at the same time. They don't move big amounts of data around and they don't need anything faster than what their internet connection provides. They also have no clue about security. For all others there is gigabit wiring. I personally would put in the highest grade you can get. Won't hurt a thing and will only cost a litttle more.

Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Ever thought about wireless is another form of pollution? I can do wired or wireless at home or away home but prefer wired as much as I can. Tony

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Per code, running wire throught duct(cold or warm) is No, no. Tony

[Beachcomber]

It's difficult to predict what the future will hold. Back in the sixties, telephones were installed with hard wire screw terminal blocks on 4 wire (Station D) cable. This was thought sufficient because nobody would ever want more than two phone lines. Right?

For the present, a category 5e or category 6 installation might be sufficient, but what about 10 - 15 years from now? The bandwidth for all the on-demand services a normal household might need might be best served with a fiber-optic connection.

At the very least, you should run some extra strings in your existing cable runs to allow future cable (fiber-optics or whatever) to be pulled and installed without tearing the walls up in the the house.

Nobody in the 50's imagined cable TV. Those of you who are old enough to know still remember twin-300 ohm cable. Remember how you stripped the wires to connect to your TV set (with a lighted match to melt the insulation)

Nobody in the 60's imagined computers in the home, RJ-45 jacks, cat 5 cables, home theatre systems. The very best homes were hardwired with 2 pair telephone wire jacks (of the 4 prong variety). Modular connectors did not exist.

The year 2004 doesn't signify the end of technical progress. Just make sure that you have the cable ducts to be able to handle future changes.

Beachcomber

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Wireless and/or digital can take care of that. Super borad band. Already technology is going way ahead of us ordinary Joe. They'll even transmit power via microwave, no high tension wires for an example. Tony

[Greg]

People have be prematurely announcing the death of copper since the first fiber optic was produced but you can still shove a lot more data down a wire than most people have. Wireless is great for applications that are truly wireless but if you are plugging in one wire (power) why not plug in them all? You still can't come close to beating copper for price, performance and security to a work station. Fiber is for backbones to lots of work stations. Just as copper performance leaps ahead, so does fiber. Wireless is still crawling in the mud by comparison.

[MC]

One day may have only one wire to plug up, will be power and high speed network modulated over the same power wire also !

MC

[G. Morgan]

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 17:25:24 -0500 "MC" used 21 lines of text to write in newsgroup: alt.home.repair

It's called BBoPL and it's here already. The HAM radio operators are furious about the FCC approving it's use.

[berkshire bill]

Why are HAM operators concerned over wired transmissions ?

Bill

[Astro]

When you run high frequencies through any wires, you'll get radiation. I suspect the frequencies used for BPL (mhz), combined with the waveforms used, will lead to radiation at a variety of frequencies due to the harmonics.

Google turned up the following:

[G. Morgan]

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 12:30:17 GMT "berkshire bill" used 23 lines of text to write in newsgroup: alt.home.repair

You can read about it here:

[John Barry]

Not really. Depends on their efficiency as an antenna. Consider coax. Cat-5 (UTP) is rendered a lousy antenna by the pairwise twisting. Cogitate as follows: Say a pair is carrying waveform, and length per full twist is l. l is much shorter than wavelength on cable. A section of cable of length l/2 propagates electromagnetic radiation to cancel that of adjacent l/4-length sections.

Not to mention the very low-voltage (fractional volt) signal and hign forward impedance.

HTH, John