Renovating/Modernising a house – prioritising work

sancho

jozbo wrote: »

could you elaborate on this?...we're ripping walls out!

They mean network cable. Put a network point in every room you can, wireless is terrible for many things and more and more devices have the need for being on the network.

Decent cat5e stuff will do gigabit so I would go for that

ListysDad

You will have to run them all back to a central point though so think about where that might be too. Typically it would be where the modem is sited.

Jaynne

ListysDad wrote: »

You will have to run them all back to a central point though so think about where that might be too. Typically it would be where the modem is sited.

It really doesn't. The modem needs a network point next to it but quite often this might be in a hall as it is where your phone comes in. Most people probably don't want 10+ cables terminating in their hall, an airing cupboard or cupboard under the stairs is more suitable.

To the op the network cabling is far better than wireless as it isn't effected by interferance and is much faster. We're slowly starting to get fast 80Mb fibre internet in this country and unless you actually sit your laptop on top of your modem wireless will struggle to get 1/4 of that speed (so you'll end up paying for something you can't take advantage of).

Networking is pretty cheap and easy to do IF you are running other cables. 300m of network cable costs about £40. You can hook it up to your Xbox/Ps3, Sky box, virtually all new tellies and of course your PCs and laptops.

If you want more info let me know and I'll post what you need and what you would have to ask your electrician for as although they can terminate the cables no problem they generally don't know anything else about them!

jozbo

Jaynne wrote: »

If you want more info let me know and I'll post what you need and what you would have to ask your electrician for as although they can terminate the cables no problem they generally don't know anything else about them!

This would be fab please... we'll be rewiring our place and planning to get it as up to date as possible! thanks

Jaynne

Ok so the basic principal of modern networking is that it runs in a "star" or "spoke and hub" formation so every cable you run comes back to a central point like the spokes on a bike wheel. At the centre is a switch which basically connects all the wires together, you'll probably also want a patch panel for neatness so instead of the wires coming out of the wall and into the switch they go into a cheap panel and you then use short cables to run to your switch.

When cabling you will run cables from boxes that look like telephone points back to a central location where your panel and switch will live. You will want one by your phone, by any TV points as most new TVs are now "smart" TVs and anywhere else you expect a PC or internet enabled device. If possible stick ports on different walls in case you move furniture around. Its probably also best to put in a double port in each location, cable is cheap and all the single sized wall boxes support two sockets.

Switches come with a number of ports you need one port to plug each cable into. The more ports the more they cost. You probably already have a 4 port switch, its the box that comes from your internet provider and it acts as a modem, a wireless point and if you look at the back it will probably have 4 ports for connecting wired PCs too. Here would be a good place to buy a switch, you want the cheapest switch that meets the number of devices you will have, I imagine 16 will be plenty.

If in doubt run as much cable as possible you don't have to plug in all your cables into your switch straight away saving you money on it by buying for what you need now until you need them. Running extra cables is hard, buying a bigger or additional switch is easy.

So the things you will need are:
Network cable £40 per 300m
Double wall boxes where ever you need £10-15 each
Switch £30 for 16 ports
Patch panel £15 for 24 ports
Network cables (1 per switch port) £0.50 each
An electrician to connect these up (or DIY).

The biggest cost is going to be running the cables as the above supplies are probably less than £100 total so if you are already having electrical work this is probably minor as your electrician is already pulling wires so there is just the extra cost of terminating the cables which shouldn't be much maybe £30 per port max.

kevsan

Check out ebay as well...

My 24 port switch was £12 (only 100mb) but fine for now

The patch panel as £3.12 including shipping.

I would never pay someone to terminate the cables its easy enough to do yourself with a decent punchdown tool (£15 from maplins etc) and certainly not if they are charging £30 a port:eek:

robatwork

I've seen plenty of electricians not manage to correctly terminate cables although it's technically easy.

Having a network port or two in each room will make your house more saleable in future, no doubt about it

Jaynne

kevsan wrote: »

I would never pay someone to terminate the cables its easy enough to do yourself with a decent punchdown tool (£15 from maplins etc) and certainly not if they are charging £30 a port:eek:

I would do it myself but it does take a bit of experience to get right. You also need a tester as well as a punch down but these are only £5 from ebay. If you were a confident DIYer I'd say go for it otherwise leave it to an electrician and ask if they have experience with networks or telephony.

ListysDad

Jaynne wrote: »

I would do it myself but it does take a bit of experience to get right. You also need a tester as well as a punch down but these are only £5 from ebay. If you were a confident DIYer I'd say go for it otherwise leave it to an electrician and ask if they have experience with networks or telephony.

Dont try it if you are colour blind like me!

You could plan it and measure each run out and buy pre terminated cables! To be honest they are for nothing and so much better than DIYs. Whilst a patch panel is quite neat its only really of benefit, IMO, if you are looking to change things often. In a domestic environment it will tend to be in and staying put. Lastly, if buying premade, go the cat6 route for future proofing.

What I would also say is that a 16port gigabyte switch is a lot of dosh. Better to spend on two 8 port gigabyte switches at about £20 each. It also means if one pops its clogs you've not lost the lot.

BTW. Personally I plug my modem into my master socket and have run that cable to my office where the modem and switches are located. That way I can keep and eye and when they need reboooting, as they invariably do, it's all next to my desk. It also means the wireless antennae is slightly higher so the signals a bit better at the garden bottom.

Jaynne

Patch cables are fine except in rooms, you don't want bare cables poking out the wall if for no other reason (apart from it looks like !!!) is they are liable to get damaged. You could miss out the patch panel but they're dammed cheap and if you are running more than a handful of ports they're a practical necessity for cable management.

I'd probably recommend a 100Mb switch for the home environment unless you have a good reason to need gigabit. Most people never transfer big files around.