future proofing network

on31ll · 29 Nov 2010 at 18:41

currently having a house rewired so all but 2 rooms are avalible to be networked :eek:

.

i am thinking in running atleast 2 cat5 point for network 2 cat5 for tv and 2 coax for tv ! question is should i run fibre optic ? i dont no much about it im sure its just everything like copper (cable,switches etc.) but with fibre ??

anywhere i can read up on this ? :confused:

thanks

ecksmen · 29 Nov 2010 at 18:53

I personally wouldn't bother with fibre, Cat 6 and plenty of it.

Jayster · 29 Nov 2010 at 19:54

ecksmen said:
I personally wouldn't bother with fibre, Cat 6 and plenty of it.

+1 you dont need fiber unless you are running it for very long lengths.

on31ll · 30 Nov 2010 at 02:56

thanks guys

Dist · 30 Nov 2010 at 03:47

As mentioned, don't even consider fibre. Your 2 choices you should be thinking about are Cat5e and Cat6a. Cat5e is currently the most common, easy to work with, supports 1Gb/s over the full 100m and 10Gb/s (which hasn't made it to the home market yet, but you mentioned future proofing) over very short lengths. If you want to have 10Gb/s up to the 100m maximum then you will need Cat6a cable but this will cost a little extra, will be a little more difficult to work with.

on31ll · 30 Nov 2010 at 22:00

just a quick one ! in what way is cat6a more difficult to work with ?

Dist · 30 Nov 2010 at 22:48

Cat6a cable has a center spine going through the whole length of the cable, the spine is X shaped so each pair of wires is kept to different sides of the spine. This makes the cable thicker and and more rigid and so the bend radius is greater.

What you could do (and what I know a few people have done) is during the house rewiring have Cat6a put in place and terminated with Cat6a rated plugs (using solid core cable for this), and use Cat5e stranded cable from the wall sockets/patch panel to the end devices. This will mean the core wiring is future proofed and the cables between the wall sockets and the end devices will be easy to work with, and when you upgrade to 10Gb (wont be for many years) you can simply replace the patch cables with Cat6a cables.