"Future proof" network cabling

[Mike1983]

Hi all

I'm in the position of potentially moving house in the next 6 months, I know the floor plan of the house I'll be moving in to and starting to plan out all my electrical, network and general geekery needs.

At my current house I've been running a Cat5E setup including a central patch panel, switch and ports in all major rooms of the house. I wish to replicate this setup but "future proof" it as far as reasonably practicable.

I've been doing a little research and think I've settled on running a Cat6A installation to cater for future roll out of 10 Gig Ethernet whenever costs come down and equipment is commonly available.

So I have a few general questions please...

1) Do you think I'm wise in choosing Cat 6A? I know that standard Cat 6 would be fine for 10 Gig Ethernet over small runs and would be cheaper etc... I can afford the extra costs though and I'm big on making sure this is future proofed and it's a relatively big 4 bedroom detached property so the runs could get long.

Rough calcs indicate the following

a) Cat 5E = 20p per metre
b) Cat 6 = 30p per metre
c) Cat 6a = 50p per metre

2) Cat 7 cable. Should I do more research on this and keep it in mind as a viable option?

3) Should I run some fibre connections at the same time, say from the cabinet where the patch panel and router will be sited to the main office / PC / server location. If so, please could you link a suitable cable please as I know very little about fibre. My thoughts here would be to run the fibre and then whenever it takes off in the future I pay a specialist to splice the necessary ends on perhaps??

4) Would unscreened Cat6A solid cable be ok to run behind walls, from the patch panel to the RJ45 outlets? I suspect screened cables introduce complications and would need bonding to the house earth?

Thanks for your time

Mike

 

[Mike1983]

Mike - simply use standard Cat6.

Cat6a is unnecessary, Fibre is unnecessary, cat7 is not cost effective.

Use a good quality, high copper content, cat6 LSOH.

E.g. Cable Monkey

Cheers, but from my research I'm led to believe standard Cat 6 wouldn't cope with 10 Gig Ethernet over relatively long runs, say in excess of 20m hence having 6A in mind.

 

[Mike1983]

The main way you can future proof things is make replacing the cables as easy as possible.

That's the problem and the reason for me looking into this. To replace the cables would involve lifting up carpets, floor boards, punching holes in walls etc.

If I'm going to gut / decorate now and 10 Gig becomes the standard in 5 years time I'd be pretty hacked off if I only had 5E behind the walls.

You have got me thinking though about putting in trunking behind walls, cable cord pulls etc. That would sort out the walls, I think access to the floor space would still be problematic though.

Thanks

 

[Mike1983]

Ok, well I'd recommend fibre throughout then.

Although saying that what devices/tech actually make use of 10GigE?

Some devices don't even use 1GigE yet!

... I'm not thinking now... or 1 years time, 2 or 3. I'm thinking for 10 years down the line. Extra hassle and expense now means no hassle and expense in the future.

Mike

 

[Mike1983]

As someone who has dealt with more than a handful of bad CAT6 installations on new builds, if you can afford (and fit) CAT6a, get it.

With CAT6 I now recommend a full 10GbE recertification test on each drop because often, for no apparent reason, it just won't work. Even on runs much shorter than 20m. CAT6a is much more 'do it once, it'll work forever' like CAT5e.
.....

That's great, thank you for your very helpful and informative reply. This, along with other information I've come across is leading me down the path of 6A.

Your direct experience of cat 6 commonly failing 10 Gig spec is very useful to informing my choice and isn't something I've read previously, just "theory" instead of practical.

What's concerning me, and I don't know if you have direct experience of this, but I'm aware 6A is much thicker and rigid than 6 / 5E. Given this, what do you think my chances are of terminating 4 cables in a 4 port / keystone RJ45 wall outlet? Would a double back box give enough room for this?

Thanks

Mike