How would you route a network cable through your house?

JustAnotherSaver

I prefer a hard wired connection.

When we finally get set up in our own place, i'd like to run a cable from the router to a control box in the PC room which i can then run a cable from to my PC.
Thing is, the telephone socket will be downstairs. It'll have to go through the living room, into the hall, up the stairs & back on itself into the PC room.

Without ripping carpets up (or is that the only way?) how would you do this?

skivenov

Generally easiest to go out the wall, up the outside, and back in. Sockets and punchdown tools are cheap, and easier than crimping a plug.

bluesnake

for internet and other low/medium bandwith homeplugs are fantastic. Have been using mine for about 3 or 4 trouble-free years now.

Just search this site and see how many people recommend them.

if you do go and cable up, it is not good practice to run power and Ethernet cables along the same route or same channel or intertwine the cables.

Enterprise_1701C

We are IT engineers.

Homeplugs are a very good idea, and you can get ones that give a wifi signal too. If that is not practical then you could run a cable inside. If you have to run it up the stairs (we had to do this for a client recently) then keep to the outside of the carpet, away from the area you walk on. Taking the carpets up from the grippers is not too bad and they go down again perfectly OK.

If you have to run a cable for that distance then it is a good idea to take it on the outside route if you can, but in this case it is sensible to use an external cable.

Not only is it not good practice to run power and Cat 5 cables together, but it can actually interfere with the data on long runs.

Oblivion

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

Not only is it not good practice to run power and Cat 5 cables together, but it can actually interfere with the data on long runs.

I have no reason to doubt the wisdom of that, but it does raise a question in my feeble mind. I use wifi Homeplugs to great effect in my property but of course they are actually sharing the mains wiring and using it as a hardwired LAN to deliver the signal from one plug to the other.


So how do they escape the mutual interference problem, is it all down to sophisticated filtering within the plugs?

GunJack

it is more to do with the induced potential interference with 2 cables, multi-frequency transmission in one cable is generally less trouble. Think of normal tv, multiple carriers (1 per tv channel) being received simultaneously at the aerial and sent down the coax.

bsms1147

Would it be easier to get a telephone socket installed in the PC room, and run the router and Cat5 from that socket?

duchy

I wouldn't -I'd go for the home plugs too if there were too many wireless issues to overcome . I think too many people assume poorly set up wireless or an ethernet connection are their only two options.

closed

Unless you have a particular issue with signal, wireless is so much simpler, and cheaper to buy and run.

thescouselander

I just had the same issue after recently moving house and I went for homeplugs in the end. Given the price of them now and the amount of hassle I saved it was a no brainer. They work really well too.

Mr_Toad

As others have said. I use home plugs.

I have BT Infinity and get a download speed of 74Mb. Prior to Infinity I was getting 18Mb and my home plugs gave me the full 18Mb speed all over the house.

After upgrading to Infinity I replaced them as they were only capable of 20Mb. I now have Devolo home plugs and get the full 74Mb round the house.

The ones in both the sitting room and bedroom have built in wireless for the laptop, tablet and phone.