Running CAT6/5 Cables

tidusjar

tidusjar

tidusjar

Soldato
Joined
11 May 2011
Posts
2,901
Location
Farnborough
Hi guys,

Getting Infinity activated on Tuesday, and the master socket it right by my front door. The living room is a bit too far to just run a cable and also I want it upstairs in the office.

I'm not that confident in running them through the walls (Wouldn't know where to start) so I was think about getting a conduit/cable trunk along the wall's to upstairs.

My main question is, CAT5e or CAT6a?
Secondly what would the smallest size for the conduit I would need just to fit the 1 cable (Switch in the office).
 
Cat5e minimum for 1 Gbps but if the price difference between Cat5e and Cat6a is negligible then go Cat6a so you only do the job once.

I would hazard a guess that you'd want conduit at least 30 mm wide so that going around a corner can be done with a gradual bend. I'd run at least 2 cables in the conduit because your going to have to make a hole to feed this through the ceiling and floor unless you're planning on running it somehow up the side of the stairs. Two cables adds some resilience in case one becomes no good. If you want it to be least noticeable then I'd think straight up the corner of the wall behind the street door. You'll need to come out from the edge of the wall at the top to go through the ceiling though as there will most likely be stud work there that the ceiling is attached to or a floor joist, about 2 inches ought to do it. Therefore if you can get hold of large conduit for the verticals that is around 2 inch square you wont notice the hole in the ceiling. On the floor above make the hole in the corner close to the skirting board. When you pull the cable through you'd have to then run conduit either along the bottom or top edge of the skirting. The bottom edge is probably less noticeable if you run the conduit the entire length of the room. Then you'll have some cables showing as they exit the conduit and go vertical to a surface mounted pattress box. You can hide these cables with a vertical piece of conduit but you'll see a short section passing vertically over the skirting board.
 
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You don't need to future proof a cable if it can easily be changed as in this case. It's going to be a long time before a connection back to a home router needs anything better than Cat5e.

Cat5e will almost certainly be more flexible and easier to route. There'd certainly be no need for 30mm+ conduit to keep within the recommended bending radius.
 
robj20 said:
Cat5 is perfect.
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No

Cat5e minimum.

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Cat6a is a thick beast, super overkill for home use at the moment. Cat5e can do 10G in short runs.

bledd. said:
Not standard cat6.

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Cat5e, cat6, cat6a.

Cat6 shielded is a similar size to cat6a, but not normal cat6.
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Thanks for your suggestions guys.

I plan getting some cable trunking (smallest as possible) and attaching it to the edges of the ceiling and then up the stairs (Not so bad in my case because there is a tiny slope and then it goes straight to the ceiling by the attic.

So i'll stick with CAT5e and put two cables in the trunking, 1 to use and the other for redundancy purposes.

I also have another option, not sure if this is recommended, but in the office there is a wall socket with a filter coming out. Would I be able to use this without any speed loss? That would prevent me having to cable from the front door (master socket) all the way upstairs.
 
Try it and see.

Best to use the master socket. Currently in my house I use the furthest point away from the master. Pending a cat5e cable down the stairs :D
 
tidusjar said:
I also have another option, not sure if this is recommended, but in the office there is a wall socket with a filter coming out. Would I be able to use this without any speed loss? That would prevent me having to cable from the front door (master socket) all the way upstairs.
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Yep, try it. There's nothing to loose, and you could save yourself a load of hassle.

It's really going to depend on the type of cable the phone extension is using. If you're lucky and it's proper twisted pair phone cable then you may be in luck.
 
bledd. said:
Try it and see.

Best to use the master socket. Currently in my house I use the furthest point away from the master. Pending a cat5e cable down the stairs :D
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I'll give this a go first then! Thanks :D

bremen1874 said:
Yep, try it. There's nothing to loose, and you could save yourself a load of hassle.

It's really going to depend on the type of cable the phone extension is using. If you're lucky and it's proper twisted pair phone cable then you may be in luck.
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I'll report back :D
 
bremen1874 said:
You don't need to future proof a cable if it can easily be changed as in this case. It's going to be a long time before a connection back to a home router needs anything better than Cat5e.

Cat5e will almost certainly be more flexible and easier to route. There'd certainly be no need for 30mm+ conduit to keep within the recommended bending radius.
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Fair point, I'd just use Cat6 minimum personally in case I was going to run some to the lounge too, I wouldn't want to use a mix of cables for neatness.
 
The only benefit I can see to using Cat6 is if you're using it for something other than data. For a domestic install where you wouldn't usually need it certifying I'd stick to Cat5e.

If you're wanting something better than Cat5e you may as well jump straight to Cat6a.
 
Shove as many cables as you can in the trunking :D, I'd even run one cat5e to use as a vdsl extension and another to use as a wireless access point if wireless coverage is poor upstairs. Make sure the cables are twisted pair and non cca for best results. All cables can be terminated in one box and all you need is rj45 and a rj11/12 module.
 
Twirlywoos said:
Shove as many cables as you can in the trunking :D, I'd even run one cat5e to use as a vdsl extension and another to use as a wireless access point if wireless coverage is poor upstairs. Make sure the cables are twisted pair and non cca for best results. All cables can be terminated in one box and all you need is rj45 and a rj11/12 module.
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I have no idea what you just said... My networking skills are up there with the masterminds...
 
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