[TriLUG] [OT] Wired/wireless networking in house

[Matt Flyer]

I wired my house when it was being built.  My biggest piece of advice
would be to run more wire to more locations than you think you will
need.  Also keep in mind with regards to wires that furniture may
ultimately dictate where a good jack location is and this can be very
difficult to visualize when you are making the runs.  Your plan of
running a cable modem to a central location and then distributing from
there will work; do not daisy chain any connections.  I have found that
there are a couple of locations, such as by the TV with the xbox, tivo,
etc where I have had to put Ethernet switches to cover all the devices.
These could be good locations for multiple runs.

For wall boxes, I have been told (after the fact) that you want the ones
that are just sides with an open back.  This prevents pinching of the
cable, though I have not had any problems.  If you are going to
terminate everything yourself,  you might want to invest in a good
punch-down tool, a good crimper, and one of those stripper tools that
makes the cat-5 the right length for the plug.

if you can afford it, you might want to consider running fiber with your
cat-5, at least to a couple of locations, like your office and any
places you might put servers.   I am wishing I had done so.  Far easier
and cheaper to run it all at once.  You may not want to terminate the
fiber now, but you would at least have the cable.   At some point you
may be able to bring fiber directly into the house so I would even run
it back to the service interface location.

As far as wireless goes, typically the higher up you can get the
transmitter, the better the signal you will get.  Keep in mind that the
things need to be power reset on occasion, so you won't want it in an
inaccessible place.   For the longest time I kept the main
router /switch in my garage.   I used a really good, medical grade,
surge suppressor on it and  never had any problems with it and never had
to power cycle it.  Heat and cold weren't a problem and I would say it
ranged between 40F and 110F with moderate humidity.
 

On Sat, 2011-01-08 at 12:33 -0500, Martin Streicher wrote:

> I am renovating a house and need some guidance on how to wire it for wireless and wired access. 
> 
> Specifically, my home office needs wired access, as does my son's room and the family room for higher throughput console and AppleTV connectivity. The rest of the house can be wireless. The house is a ranch style house with a metal roof and ample attic and crawlspace access. 
> 
> My initial plan is to have the cable modem in the office with a wireless N router. The router could then feed Cat-5 cables going to the other two rooms. This means that a bunch of Cat-t cables have to get pulled into the office. 
> 
> Another option would be locate the cable modem and wireless router in the attic and pull Cat-5 cables to the office, son's room, and family room. In the office, I could then connect another wireless router for wired and wireless connectivity in that end of the home. 
> 
> If you have wired your house, please let me know what you did. Is the attic sufficiently heated and cooled for the equipment to be there? Where did you place wireless and wired routers? 
> 
> Thanks. 
> Martin
> 
> 


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