running cat5e cable and wall plates

ThriceNightly · 25 Jan 2006 at 19:52

at moment i have floorboards up (home rennovation) and am looking to run a network cable underfloor between lounge and spare room (where my main rig and broadband connex will be) I am looking at approx 20m cable run and want to run the cable behind skirting to flush mounted wall plates.

will i need special knowledge/ tools to wire up the wall plates? also can anyone reccomend a good site where i can buy the cable and plates etc.

Wyvern971 · 26 Jan 2006 at 09:32

Don't think I can tell you where to get the plates (as they are likely to sell other stuff that OCUK sell)

Main things you will need are:

Faceplates
IDC Punchdown tool
Network cable (cat 5/6 not really sure what difference there is between the two)
Backboxes (so that you can mount the face plates flush mainly for neatness)

That's about it

As for the wiring it's straightforward sure google will bring up some diagrams

Mr Gimp · 26 Jan 2006 at 09:52

Wiring is easy, it's getting it behind the skirting without whacking nails through it that stuffed me up!

Are you going to be running CAT 5 just for data from the NTE 5 (BT Master) socket or do you want to be able to connect a phone to your new wall sockets too?
You can get a new faceplate for the NTE 5 which has a microfilter built in and has mounting tabs which allow you to connect either a dedicated data or voice/data extension internally. Makes cabling a lot easier (well, did for me anyway)

Also, when you get the IDC punch, make sure that you get a good quality one (purchased seperately) as the ones that come with cabling/wall sockets tend to be utterly rubbish.

Skilldibop · 26 Jan 2006 at 10:55

cables should run vertically up wall until they hit floor level. Flush mounted ones are pushing the boat out a bit as you'll have to chase out trenches in the wall. you also need 10-20mm piping depending on the back boxes you use to house the cables in the wall. All the metal work should also be eartherd if it's in a wall. Not really a problem if your near wall sockets. (it's not likely to kill you if it did short the cables but building regs say it has to be if it's structured and metal.) For Pcs data points are nearly always near power sockets anyway so just run a cable through to the earth linkages on that.

FatRakoon · 30 Jan 2006 at 23:38

I have done this.

The wiring was simple in itself... I just made sure that the wires at one end were wired up the same at the other...

God knows what it is, but it was wired up with something stupid like

ORG - ORG&WHT - GRN - GRN&WHT - BLU - BLU&WHT - BRN- BRN&WHT

Going from left to right that is, on both sides.

And I chucked a standard patch cable from each socket into the back of the PC and the Switch, and it worked first time, so it must be good.

I cheated on the skirting board plan though! - I have just used those plastic cable clamp things and the cables are just plonked on top, following the corner of the room, around the door frames, up the stairs, around the landing, up the wall on *** side of the bedroom door, around the ceiling up into the LAN Room... ( Attic really, but LAN room sounds posher ).