Structured cabling or wireless setup in home?

[Kishywish]

Very soon, I'm going to begin the fun process of getting most of my house gutted and renovated.

One of the issues I'm having is deciding whether to have structured cabling set up through the house or continue with the existing wifi setup that I currently have (wifi serving tvs, laptops and consoles).

Is the structured cabling route only a 'necessity' if I were to have a home server set up, or has a modern wireless router now superseded that?

I'd appreciate fellow user's thoughts on this.

 

[Zefan]

I'm pretty certain home plugs would be a more convenient way to go if you ever wanted to do it in the future.

 

[d_brennen]

I'm pretty certain home plugs would be a more convenient way to go if you ever wanted to do it in the future.

Probably cheaper too, for a few homeplugs, than to rip the place up installing cable. There is WiFi extender plugs now too, which are good for tablet/laptop use in hard for WiFi to reach bedrooms, for example

 

[Makhaira]

As already said, if you don't need the speed, I'd use homeplugs/wifi. That said, if you're gutting the house to the point where installing cables isn't a great effort, then I'd definitely do it. It's a nothing of a job if you're already lifting floorboards, and could save you a lot of work if you decide in the future that you need it.

 

[Furyus]

To be honest wifi is fine for laptops and just browsing, I've started using netgear home plugs for my tv and desktop pc, but that's just how I prefer it. No long cables ect.. check them out

 

[Participant]

Personally if I was gutting my house, I'd absolutely without doubt lay cat6 ethernet cable all over the place. I'm sure home plugs are good, but they're not as good as ethernet.

 

[LiGhTfasT]

Yup lay cat6 and a few hdmi cables come in handy too. Just make sure its not copper clad cable.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

The problem is with home-plugs is the throughput is generally well below advertised. So if your running fibre broadband you could find yourself maxing the home-plugs (as I am currently doing) before the internet.

See the first review on OCUK product page, 500Mbps theoretical only 67Mbps in real application.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-071-TP&groupid=46&catid=1604&subcat=2025


Nothing is a substitute for proper cables.

 

[newbiejim]

Cat5e ok for gigabit and cheaper than Cat 6, I've did all my house in Cat5e, MUCH better than wireless, stream HD np etc AND more robust and secure.

 

[Duke]

No reason not to lay some cat5/6 if the house is being worked on.

 

[BeanBandit]

If your gutting the house, it's a no brainer to run cat 5/6 throughout. If you don't do it now you'll more likely to regret it in the future. I did mine two years ago with Cat 6.

 

[DogsBody]

Just bought a new build and I had the builder put CAT6 in for me, wish I had chosen the "hub" location more sensibly though

 

[Kishywish]

Thanks for the comments.

As advised by you lovely people, since I'll be pulling up all the finishes it's easy to install the wiring now instead of later.

If I never end up using it, it won't be a huge regret anyway.

 

[£15]

Just bought a new build and I had the builder put CAT6 in for me, wish I had chosen the "hub" location more sensibly though

May I ask where you chose and why you're regretting it?

I'm trying to decide where to place my 'hub' and under the stairs is a contender, but I'm grappling with the pros and cons of various locations.

 

[Woogie]

May I ask where you chose and why you're regretting it?

I'm trying to decide where to place my 'hub' and under the stairs is a contender, but I'm grappling with the pros and cons of various locations.

I am having a similar debate myself. Currently Under the stairs is the prime contender but I also considered my loft and then decided against it as it is essentially a furnace up there. The Garage is also an option but think I will stick with under the stairs, purely because I have about 1m worth of clearance under the floorboards so I will pull them up and make a hatch, then mount a rack under the floor boards to keep it all out of sight.

 

[Kishywish]

Going down the cat6 route, with all cabling terminating back to the hub under the stairs.

I can see the benefit of data and/or bt lines being run via the cat cable; anyone had any experience of running the tv aerial cable through this too?

 

[Makhaira]

I wouldn't bother - coax cable is designed to carry shielded signals, whereas ethernet is UTP - Unshielded Twisted Pair. Nothing to stop you running some coax at the same time as your other cables though .

 

[a1ex2001]

Cable it if you gutting the house anyway, we didn't and it is one of my only regrets from our total refurb!

 

[DogsBody]

May I ask where you chose and why you're regretting it?

I'm trying to decide where to place my 'hub' and under the stairs is a contender, but I'm grappling with the pros and cons of various locations.

When I originally spoke with the electrician I said under the stairs or if that is too much extra work then feed it all to the "office"
The office however is just one of the bedrooms converted to an office, so if I ever needed it to be a bedroom again in future I'd have to hide the network cab somewhere, and it will always be in the way in the office as well.

I wish I had pushed him to go under the stairs, he chose the office due to the electric feed being under the stairs, so purely to not have so much cable feeding back there, but that really doesn't matter when it is hidden.

Oh well.

 

[p_r_i_m_e]

make sure he labels up EVERY cable as there is nothing worse than having a bundle of 20 or more cables and working out which is which when it comes to wiring it all up! oh and put in a few spares it'll save time hassle and money in the long run.