New house - Wiring rooms - CAT5e vs CAT6 vs CAT7?

[GTiPUG]

Telephone sockets are easy to install and thus theres literally no thought/design that has to go into it. Most new homes do it now.

5-10 Years, work out a budget and stick to it. Cat6a if you can afford it. Cat6 would likely suffice to be honest. Most runs you'll manage 10G anyway.

I'll be honest it's going to be messy so don't go hanging nice new wallpaper because they may need to drill some rather large holes in your walls.


I work for a commercial company and we don't do much domestic work but it can get messy. Especially with insulation in your cavities.
I'd expect them to put a cabinet in the loft, that's what I'd recommend they do it's not ideal but it leads to less mess. Soil pipe boxing in will go right into the loft they can use this. Get them to relocate the BT line or put an extension from it to the loft.

9U Cabinet in loft
24 Way patch panel
4 Way PDU

All cables in the upstairs bedrooms should be able to drop straight down from the loft.

Downstairs wise they can use the soil pipe boxing in as a riser up to the loft.

Consider if you want CCTV, right now is the best time to get it installed.

WiFi too, UniFi is epic.

I haven't read the thread but that's what I'd do.

Hm okay, cheers for the input. I never even considered moving the master socket/BT line. Having it all in the loft would be better as it'd only be a case of dropping it one floor to the first floor where the office is. There'd then be two cables running down one floor again to the living too. I like it...

I'll ask the contractor to consider it and see what price they come out with for both.

 

[GTiPUG]

That's how we'd do it, what cabling system are they using? I'd be happy to cast an eye over them if you wish.

I'd expect them to be using Connectix as price point wise it's very competitive, @bledd rates them highly and having had some meetings with them recently they're certainly going in the right direction after stealing a handful of Excels employees.

Well in that case that's a valuable opinion to have Still waiting for exchange of contracts on the house let alone completion, so i'm in touch with a few contractors planning at present. Obviously without viewing they can't give me many details.

One thing that would be handy would be a list of things for me to keep an eye out for when discussing with them - Hints at bad/good practice to keep an eye out for maybe?

So this Connectix stuff is what I'm after, right?

 

[GTiPUG]

Many of the good contractors will want to supply their own materials, mainly because most of the good stuff is trade only. Connectix have another business, CableMonkey which sell to the consumer but are quite expensive from memory.

Depending on what contractor you're using, have very little experience with contractors in the domestic sector:

I'd let them decide what type of cable to install, question their reasoning tell them you want to future proof it. I'd expect most to say Cat6 and I'd be worried if they don't really know what to use.
Ask them if they're backed by the cable manufacturer and if they have the certificate available for viewing.
Ask how they test the cabling.

I'd expect them to be quite forthcoming with information.




@bledd that NetStoreDirect are silly expensive! CCS did have a huge issue in the past but that's now been resolved and as much as I'd like to say I haven't heard of issues with their kit i'd be lying. But when you're in the tens of thousands of outlets and terminations it's hard not to encounter issues (even when they're project wide)

Perfect, just what I was after I'll give these questions to a few and see what they respond. My worry is that one or two of them will simply install some cables and leave an RJ45 hanging out of the wall, rather than a keystone or port.

Tie the string to plastic bag on the feeding end, put the vacuum on the opposite end and let it suck the string through the tube. You then have some string to pull through cable whenever you need (plus more string so you can pull more through the next time).

I did this for the front of the house so I can pull through the cable for VM or any other line right to under the stairs where all the networking is.

Ahhhh of course! Genius Will remember that nifty trick...

 

[GTiPUG]

Where abouts are you based? Might have someone I can recommend.

Any questions I'm sure myself or bledd could advise

New house is in Cwmbran, South Wales So far I've just got guys within say 15 miles via Yell

 

[GTiPUG]

I don't know absolutely anyone in South Wales or remotely close to be quite honest

Any questions just quote me or send me a trust so I get a notification

Awesome, I'll bear it in mind! Hoping to be getting it done around mid September so will keep thread updated in case anyone else is in the same boat

 

[GTiPUG]

Rarely a need to go for a higher specification than Category 6. You'd need long runs and 10gig or a noisy environment to justify it. The majority of users don't saturate gigabit today, let alone 10gig. The latter has at least a 15-20 year shelf life in the home (in my opinion).

To echo good advice stated already:

* Category 6 cable everywhere (solid for panel to port, stranded for patch cables)

* Run at least two cables to each socket

* Ensure whoever is installing it is familiar with the rules around the type of cable chosen (bend radius', power cables, max untwisted length etc)

* Use a patch panel

* Don't put stuff in the loft unless it's just cable

* Use decent quality face plates/keystone jacks (e.g. Alyssa)


Enjoy

That seems to be what everyone says, I think anything more than CAT6 is overkill for my needs.

Thanks for the bulletpoints, I'll be sure to confirm them details with contractor beforehand.

 

[GTiPUG]

Bit tight under the stairs? I have a full 39U rack with 100+ network cables run from under my stairs

Also, don't bother with HDMI over Cat6. It needs 2 cables (unbroken i.e. not through a patch panel or wall socket) and can be finnicky with handshaking. I use it in my living room and I had to crimp a plug on either end of the cables to get it to work which isn't ideal. HDbaseT can do the same over a single cable and it'll go through a patch panel but the downside is the cost. £30 for a HDMI balun vs £300 for a HDbaseT one.

Yeah that shouldn't be an issue. HDMI over CAT6 isn't really something I'll be that bothered about. To be honest I've revised the plan and only really require ethernet run to the office and spare bedroom, rather than the master bedroom. Should make it a bit cheaper too.