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home network wiring - need suggestions

L

LoyalServant

Android Expert
We bought our house about 4 years ago now and one of the projects I intended on tackling was cabling it properly.
One thing that was done that I am not pleased with is that any new jacks for say, telephone..
They pulled the cable along the outside of the house and drilled a hole thru the wall and installed a jack on the molding on the inside. YUCK.

I tore all of those off within 6 months of buying the house and sealed the holes.
We had no telephone service nor intended on getting it at the time, and the intention was to pull jacks into all rooms properly.
We have a crawlspace and an attic in this house.

The second thing that was slightly better.... but only slightly was how Time Warner installed cable tv.
They at least ran RG-6 in the crawlspace but it's just running along the ground then up thru the floor in several rooms.
This is actually still there - I never tore this out since we WERE using it at the time.
Last year we 'unplugged' from TWC for TV and got Netflix and watch TV off the air. (Great decision!!)

Then.... cable in our neighborhood got really, really slow during prime time making Netflix unwatchable.
Switched to DSL and no more problems! :D

That forced me to run a temporary telephone line to where our router,switch, etc. etc. currently is located.

Now that it's getting warmer.. damn near hot for this northerner in the south.... :eek:
I need to tackle this project of running Cat5/RG6 and so forth into each room PROPERLY and installing jacks on the walls as it should be done, not having wires poking out of the rug or laying on the ground in the crawlspace. :eek:

My wife also wants to reclaim the closet where the switch/dsl modem/wireless router/firewall/NAS/UPS and other stuff sits in.

I have 2 options since she REALLY REALLY does not want that stuff in any of the closets IF I CAN avoid it...... the crawlspace or the attic.

This is the south, the attic is simply too damned hot in the summer.
We are talking 120-130 degrees hot.. that means death to equipment.

Anyone have any pointers for me?
Build some kind of enclosure in the attic OR crawlspace to house this equipment?

Any tips would be much appreciated!:D
 
Neither of those options are good at all. Both the attic and the crawlspace are going to be either too hot, too cool, too damp, too humid, etc.... Ideally, you'd put everything in it's own room. If that's not an option, then a closet is the ideal. You don't want any of that stuff in the attic or crawlspace.
 
A.Nonymous said:
Neither of those options are good at all. Both the attic and the crawlspace are going to be either too hot, too cool, too damp, too humid, etc.... Ideally, you'd put everything in it's own room. If that's not an option, then a closet is the ideal. You don't want any of that stuff in the attic or crawlspace.
Click to expand...

Agreed... i am thinking about one the the hall closets.
And coming to a compromise with the wife....
 
An interior hallway closet would be best... and the more centralized the easier it'll be for you. And the farther from an exterior wall the less chance of the heat transfering to the room from the outside.
 
NYCHitman1 said:
I guess you haven't heard the phrase.. "if the wife isn't happy, nobody is happy."
Click to expand...

He has not, apparently.
We actually made a compromise.

It's going into a small closet we have in the hall.
The dimensions are 2' wide by 1.5' deep.
It's prefect for what I need to do and was slightly cramped for what she wanted to store there.

We have another closet literally across the hall from that one that's several feet wide and deep and will accommodate her.

Whew.. no stuff in attics or crawlspaces :D
 
Isn't it great that she's trained you to give up prime closet space for crappy closet space and it's called a compromise?
 
Considering I had -NO- space I would say it's am improvement.
The gear was on the floor next to my desk :eek:
She likes things to be neat and I would agree with that.

All joking aside, we do things collectively.
I don't make decisions unless she is involved and vice versa.
There are exceptions, such as her choice of a Droid 2 over a Droid X.
It's her device.. I am not going to use it.

I offered to get her an AT&T iPhone if she wanted one but she picked the Droid over the iwidget :D
I plan on finishing my cable pulling this afternoon then I am all done... until I pull more for IP cameras :D
 
Your best bet would be a recessed structured wiring panel. They can easily be recessed in the wall of a closet, or if that is not an option, they can be surface mounted as well. You will need power to the panel as it would contain amplified cable or satellite splitters, and your modem, router, switch, etc.... I installed many of these while working for a home automation/audio video company for many years. The laundry room is a great place for them, and if you are worried about wireless connectivity, you can always run one or two drops from the router/switch to a couple of locations in the house and add wireless access points. The WAP's are small, and unobtrusive, and they even have POE versions of them that can be flushed mounted in the ceiling, and can be painted. I recommend running cat6 for the data, and a minimum of RG6 or RG6 quad shielded coaxial cable for video. Quad shield is much better if you are running near electrical wiring. If running under the house in the crawl space, use hangers to keep the wires off the ground, and out of reach of the critters lurking under there as they love chewing on wires. Label the wires as you run them, and terminate them, it really helps down the road if you ever have to troubleshoot a problem.

Check out products form Leviton, On-Q Legrand, ICC, and DataComm. They all offer panels, and all of the associated modules for the panel, as well as all of the wall plates and termination tools needed for terminating the cables.
 
If all the rooms you want to wire are on the same floor, run all of the cables from all of the rooms to where your router will be. Punch through the wall header, get some network jack plates, a metal frame (see Home Depot) to hold the plates.

Here's what I did in a previous home.

In each of the four bedrooms upstairs, I punched through the header in the "attic" and ran the line down inside of the walls. I cut openings for network jack plates, borrowed a punch tool and wired everything up.

Since my computers were in the gameroom upstairs, I ran all four of the cables to a single wall plate with four jacks. All I had to do was plug cables in from there into the back of my router.

Tada!

If you go this route, PM me and I'll send you a picture of the metal frame.

I can't wire my current house since my computers are downstairs. :(
 
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