Is CAT6 worth it for home networking?

[Pandora]

The floorboards are up at home and I am ready to buy a truckload of cable for domestic structured wiring.

But which cable? In 15 years time, will a Dixons shop assistant laugh at me when I tell him that I want to run his megabandwidth HDTV over a CAT5e cable?

I'm leaning towards CAT6 but terminating it with standard RJ45 wall plates as an interim solution. Might pull in a few optic fibres too if I feel lucky.

Will I be able to connect phones into the CAT6 cable without a problem? (I know CAT5e is OK for PSTN.)

Also what distance should the CAT6 be separated from CT100 cable?

I know that this has been discussed in previous threads but I want to see if the view has changed now that the price of high bandwidth cable has fallen.

[Spike]

The category of cabling is not determined just by the quality of the components used.. You can use a Cat6 system from end to end, but if its not laid and tested correctly, then it wont meet the category standard..

Having said that, in a home situation, I cant really see it making that much of a diference..

Go for Cat 6, as the cost of the cable is only a bit more expensive than cat

5... Cat 6 can handle higher frequencies (and thuis higher bitrates) than cat 5, but AFAIK there arent any applications that require this as yet..

I quite happily connect gigabit kit up with cat5e systems with no problems at all..

And yes, telephones will work quite happily over cat 6 cable, as long as youve got the right adapters..

[Dave Liquorice]

The majority of the cost of cabling is getting access and installing. The cable is cheap, bung in the best you can afford and lots of it. Think about probably uses of areas, now and future, when the babies have grown to school kids or the kids have left home. I'd go for an absolute minimum of 1 RF and two network cables to every room in the house.

I'd also make provision for moderately pain free access to the cable routes if at all possible, 3x3" or 4x4" ducts with draw strings etc.

I can't think that one needs to woory undely about keeping CT100 away from network cabling. The regs have somethings to say about low volatge stuff and mains though, not the same compartment in ducting and > 50mm (or is 100mm?) separation without a barrier.

[cs]

Be smart and put in plastic trunking (or whatever it's called) in a structured manner. That way you won't have to worry about what to do when your wiring needs an upgrade. This guy for example won't have any problems rewiring his house:

The floorboards are up at home and I am ready to buy a truckload of

[s--p--o--n--i--x]

ceilings, as fitted in most offices thse days?

That way pipes, cables and ducts can simply be routed without having to lift floorboards or cut/drill joists.

Unfortunately, in out house the ceilings are too low, otherwise I would have done this when we moved in.

sponix

[Martin Angove]

Precisely.

Two things:

Houses are usually given planning permission which has a stipulation about overall height or height-to-ridge. If you have to allow an extra six inches (or whatever) on each floor for the false ceiling, then this ridge height could become excessive.

A taller house (for the same floor area) costs more to build.

Hwyl!

M.

[Steve Jones]

Yes.

The world is going wireless.

Save yourself all the hassle and buy some 54Mb wireless networking gear and some DECT 'phones.

[Dave Liquorice]

But makes sure you configure it correctly and follow all the security advice.

[dennis]

Spoilsport. There are three open ones that I use for few minutes every few days when I am shopping that I find quite useful.

I did think about changing the password on one of them but decided against it.

[tony sayer]

And hope that not too many people are doing the same thing nearby;)....

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, the consumer world is going wireless, but its a far less resilient technology than wires...or optical fibres.

Which is why real engineers trying to do real broadband laugh at wireless most, then twisted pair, but go all glowy when they talk monomode fiber..:-)

waste of money.

Ive got 6 20 quid phones on a 300 quid PABX coupled to doorphones, and CAT 5 everywhere.

No interference, no neighbours snooping my conversations or my networks and rock solid performance.

And because its unfashionable, you can get wired broadband routers for peanuts. And analog phones AND analog PABX's..

You can get more data down one fiber than you can down the entire radio spectrum of the world..

But wahetever you put in today will be oboslete tomorrow, which is why I put in what is obsolescent today but still totally adequate for my current and projected future needs.

The money I save will go on whatever technology is obsolesecent in 10 years time when I need to upgrade :-)

[cs]

Yes, but forget wireless at your "core". If you have the chance to get your house wired properly then do that. Wireless is great for convenience and no doubt you will put in a wireless access point as well, but I *guarantee* that you will *truly* regret not putting down a few wires if you have the chance to do so.

I have three wireless access points at my house, two Linksys WRT54GS running firmware from

for my "home" network, and a Cisco Aironet 350 connected to a Cisco 3002 VPN router for my "work" connectivity, and I can seamlessly switch between the two from my PC while sitting in my comfortable couch in my livingroom (different SSIDs and channels). While I can stream MP3s and XVID movies over the .11g home network, it's inadequate for other video formats like for streaming video from my Nebula TV server to other PCs in my house.

Unfortunately when my house was refurbished the developer did not have the foresight to wire my place properly, and this is really biting me now. So in the very near future I will be starting the somewhat messy job of cutting plasterboard walls and lifting floorboards to be able to even get gigabit speeds to wherever I would need it.

[Timothy Murphy]

I don't agree. For me, and most people, WiFi is perfectly adequate, just as DECT phones are. Drilling holes in ceilings is a thing of the past, TG.

[Chip]

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 13:58:31 +0100,it is alleged that Timothy Murphy spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

This is why both options are available, opinions sharply differ.

I have DECT phones, but they're no longer actually _needed_ since I installed cat5 everywhere last month, they'll be going in the bin[1] as soon as I find some decent wired phones.

WiFi to me is an excellent idea for laptops, but fixed pcs will get a nice cat5e patch cable into the wall.

[1] They're cheap and nasty ones, wouldn't sell them because it wouldn't be a nice thing to do to someone, and yes, the plastic parts will be going in the recycle bin.

[Timothy Murphy]

Everywhere? In the garden? In the loo? In the attic?

In any case, what rational reason do you have for preferring wired phones?

[Bob Mannix]

There is only one reason - you can find the bl**dy things. Other than that they are inferior!

Bob Mannix

[Bob Eager]

I have one ISDN and one POTS line. I have a phone in each room. I plan to use MSN or DDI to allow different rooms to ring on selected numbers being called. I want distinctive ring for each member of the family. I want intelligent route selection.

A few DECT phones really aren't the solution. And being able to take a DECT phone into the loo is a red herring; it only works if you always take the phone with you on every visit!

[The Natural Philosopher]

They don't work in the above places, so its a great excuse not to answer the bloody things.

[Dave Liquorice]

And cordless jobbies have poor sound quality compared to a wired. You don't have to faff about with batteries/charger or have them go flat in the middle of a call.

[Timothy Murphy]

I'm completely baffled by this. Do you both have shares in a CAT6 company? If you have that many extension points, presumably you have to carry the phone around with you, and plug it in? (You surely don't have 3 phones in the living-room?)

Did it not occur to you when you were digging up the garden to put in a telephone cable, that there is a simpler way?