Installing Ethernet cables

I put them in every room. Sometimes several. There are 27 sockets altogether.

Wait until you have tried stuffing it in the trunking :-)

(the solid core is still generally easier to work with than stranded).

Yes - although go for a decent size like 25x16 rather than the 16x16 and it gets easier (and looks somewhat better IMHO)

(having said that - if you have a cable stapler, then a single CAT5 wire is fairly unobtrusive if clipped direct)

With network stuff I find if you buy patch cables at retail you may well have to pay several quid even for short leads.

Compare:

Well that is the if... much also depends on how you define "works". Yes they may well get a signal down them, however its doubtful if they actually meet the ethernet cable specs. So you can find that on the ends of longer networks you start getting unreliable performance. The s/n headroom may be lower. They may fail sooner with repeated handling.

So personally I never use CC cable, since the cost saving is not worth being called back to a customer to fix something later, which results in far more expense and hassle.

However in the home on a short segment, it will be fine.

(I would still opt to pay a similar price for copper from a different vendor)

Yup, known in the industry as a "Krone" tool (named after the original manufacturer).

e.g:

So to do the whole job, fix your back box to the wall, and take the cables into it. You can fit the modular faceplate now or later. Leave yourself ~5" of cable to work with. Strip 40mm or so of insulation off the cable, and cable tie the sheath onto the CAT5 module. position the wires in the terminals - only untwisting as much as necessary to do so. You manually push the wire into the outer jaws of the terminal - they are (if well made) designed to allow that fairly easily, and keep a grip on the wire until punch down. The tool is then positioned in the terminal, and with a single click effect push, the blades drive the wire into the IDC terminal blades, and the scissor section on the end trims off any overhang.

If that all looks good the wire can be folder into the backbox avoiding sharp bends, and click the module into the face plate.

Bending radius...

In reality for simple runs you will get away with say the radius of a pound coin.

How about at floor height in the room above?

Did you do your own punching down?

There's also fairly minimalist PoE extractors for 12V kit, which routers often are:

and if you don't have a proper PoE injector you can just plug in the router's PSU via a passive PoE injector/splitter:

So did I, it was Cat3 at the time though (and some of it still is). ;-)

I only did 1 / room at the time as I had a room mainly for all that sort of thing (inc my Arcnet and TR stuff). ;-)

I have several switches round the house now and most of them are filled with all lights on, inc the main one, a T-P Link 16p Gb jobby. ;-)

I put an 8 port Gb switch in daughters flat a while back and that too has all ports filled. Colour LJ, OMV NAS, PS3, her Desktop PC, nieces desktop PC, CCTV box and the Smart TV (+ uplink to the router). Plus the WiFi stuff like phones, tablets and laptops.

Even Mum (90) has a smart TV, BR player, two iPads, iPhone, NowTV stick and a Mini PC I keep there. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

I don't think my neighbour would be happy with that

tim

But the other pair with the broadband on it is balanced and that?s what matters performance wise.

Separate issue to what I commented on, his claim that the lead between the extension socket and the modem had to be a short as possible;

Not necessary because there is far more cable from the house to the exchange or RIM/CMUX.

Not really. You cut back the sheath in the normal way, locate each of the coloured wires over the correct connector then press the backplate on and it will simultaneously punch down and clamp all 8 wires. No need for a punchdown tool.

Not if you have a wire sat next to it picking up a load of RF noise.

And so it should be, dumb-cluck.

Ah. Tis Rod

Yup better to have stuff installed and not required rather than the other way around.

I ran out at least a pair to every room, and more in some places - doing pairs on both sides of some rooms. Even then I still need a couple of extra 8 port switches in some places (my office, and behind the TV)

Reviews suggest that it's only capable for 12 W rather than the claimd 24 W...

I'd avoid passive PoE. When chasing down a fault or patching issue it's far to easy to put something on the end of the live cable that objects and lets the magic smoke out.

The problem with relying on ethernet switches is that Cat5+ cable is useful for so many other things too, which don't run on ethernet.

Analogue phone lines is the obvious example (I have 5 in the lounge and two in the kitchen)

Owain

When I wired this house I ran phone cable to every room. Long before internet days.

When I was a kid we had to have the BT fitter come and convert our hardwired phone to the new style socket system so I could run an extension to my bedroom legally.

The flat is wired for phone wiring for the first 8 extensions, but the remainder of the PABX goes through the data rack.

Owain

You could always have legal extensions. But had to pay rental for each handset. And they were hard wired.

BT then brought in a plug in system - but different from today's one.

Of course these days decent cordless will work anywhere in the house from the one base station.

That depends on what your internal walls are made of.