Yup, Fully agree now!!
Setting up a new home wired network
- Thread starter sepulchre
- Start date
What sort of wire? I’ll need to buy something for pulling some cables through to the loft so may as well buy something that’s going to work.
You know, it's been so long that I don't recall the specification. Thin wire rope, really.
Yup.
I think you want something rather thinner - 1mm or 2mm, perhaps.
The trick with pull ropes BTW is that when you use them to pull a cable through, you pull through another pull rope or two at the same time.
Generally speaking if somebodies house is big enough for the difference between Cat5e and Cat6 to matter over 10G then they would be paying a contractor to install Cat6a or Cat7 anyway, not doing it themselves.
Try 1G. I had a Cat5e cable running from my router to my office - only 30 metres of cable, going round a few doors - and was only getting 100 Mbps. I ran Cat6 and now get 1Gbps.
In that case you had a faulty patch cable for certain. A 30m Cat5e patch lead should be good for 1G all day long, hell if it's a decent lead if might even do 10G over that distance but that's not guaranteed (for a patch lead, it's well within limits for structured cabling).
Quite possibly, but it looked okay. More importantly, the Cat6 cable works whereas the Cat 5e cable did not.
The best way to route a cable need not be the shortest. For instance, you might go up into the attic and back down - lots of extra length required.
Okay I feel I need to explain my tongue in cheek point there, anyone whose house is big enough for a cable run to exceed the 45 meter 10G limit of Cat5e is going to pretty much have a mansion, in which case he can afford to bring in a contractor to do all his cabling so doesn't need to worry about it anyway (and also if he was doing that the contractor would be using Cat6a or Cat7 as the 10G limit on Cat6 is only 10 meters longer than on Cat5e).
I have around 1500m of Cat 6 in my house and about 300m of Cat5e - which I use for my cameras. Dont try and use Cat6 for CCTV it is a nightmare. Stick with cat5e, its easier to work with and easier to terminate (CCTV Cameras dont use much bandwidth hence Cat5e is fine).
Think about wireless access points, drop a few cables into central locations (hall / landing). you may not need them now, but you may want them later. I ran a pair of CAT6 to my second story, where I have a second Netgear switch. I use the Pair in a LAG between the top floor switch and the Node 0 switch. Installing a pair of connections behind TVs is useful (most of my TVs are hard wired). Is 4 ports in your office enough ? I put in 4 ports, I now have them all occupied and a 5 port switch - 2 printers, 2 pcs, Blu Ray Player, AV Amp, Smart TV.
Tools - Simple Network Tester (Test each cable as you make it off and mark it with a bit of tape as tested), Cheap Cable Toner (ideal for finding that one cable in a bundle), Ratchet Crimper (ratchet work better than the cheapo ones), Krone Tool (buy a decent one, nothing worse than a single punch-down in a krone block that you missed), Electricians Scissors (great for trimming and cutting cable), Cable stripper (either cyclops or peg), small straight bladed screwdriver (to straighten pairs when terminating with RJ45 plugs), fishing tape (nylon and steel), set of cable rods (never done a job where I didn't use rods at least once), Decent battery drill, Wood bits, small bright torch, lots of electricians tape (various colours), sharpie pens to write on cable (get a few), cable ties, a roll of self-velcro (great for bundling cables together) and a truck load of patience.
Good Luck
Think about wireless access points, drop a few cables into central locations (hall / landing). you may not need them now, but you may want them later. I ran a pair of CAT6 to my second story, where I have a second Netgear switch. I use the Pair in a LAG between the top floor switch and the Node 0 switch. Installing a pair of connections behind TVs is useful (most of my TVs are hard wired). Is 4 ports in your office enough ? I put in 4 ports, I now have them all occupied and a 5 port switch - 2 printers, 2 pcs, Blu Ray Player, AV Amp, Smart TV.
Tools - Simple Network Tester (Test each cable as you make it off and mark it with a bit of tape as tested), Cheap Cable Toner (ideal for finding that one cable in a bundle), Ratchet Crimper (ratchet work better than the cheapo ones), Krone Tool (buy a decent one, nothing worse than a single punch-down in a krone block that you missed), Electricians Scissors (great for trimming and cutting cable), Cable stripper (either cyclops or peg), small straight bladed screwdriver (to straighten pairs when terminating with RJ45 plugs), fishing tape (nylon and steel), set of cable rods (never done a job where I didn't use rods at least once), Decent battery drill, Wood bits, small bright torch, lots of electricians tape (various colours), sharpie pens to write on cable (get a few), cable ties, a roll of self-velcro (great for bundling cables together) and a truck load of patience.
Good Luck
Either it was damaged or you did it badly.
Also these cable rod thingies are invaluable for putting cables in walls with minimal holes.
Soldato
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2008
- Posts
- 12,082
You can do a lot of cable pulling using a steel tape measure such as https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-stht0-74816-8m-tape-measures/2086h.
My guess is it was kinked so not all four pairs were working, thus the NICs dropped down to 100mbit (which only requires two pairs).
This is great! Thanks for sharing all this! I'm looking at home network install but really want to keep everything neat. If a patch panel is used, does anyone have any example of neat non-rack mounting solutions? I don't want to put a cabinate in really for a 24 port panel.
Also, I'm confused about all these U numbers with regards to panels? 1U? 6U?
Also, I'm confused about all these U numbers with regards to panels? 1U? 6U?
You can get wall mounted cabinets pretty cheap and would rack the switches in there as well. Depending on the size required you can pick them up for around 40-50 quid up.
The U is a rack unit of height equating to an 1.75 inch’s, so when purchasing a rack or cabinet it would give you an ideas of how much you can fit in. Most home office sized patch panels and switches are 1U.
The U is a rack unit of height equating to an 1.75 inch’s, so when purchasing a rack or cabinet it would give you an ideas of how much you can fit in. Most home office sized patch panels and switches are 1U.
That's cool... and I wonder if that could be mounted vertically from ceiling or floor, to save it protruding 6 inches...? the cat6 cable could then drop down into it or up through floorboards to save wall chasing?