Hi All,
I am in the process of roughing in for a home office and I would like to find out what type of wire(s) I need for what will become a wireless system in my home. My only real needs are Internet service and fax capabilities. What is still the norm in todays world, cat-5, co-ax, blah-blah-blah. Thanks
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Replies
"wireless system in my home."
I hate to be a smart ####, but what the h*ll I am one.
If it is WIRELESS then you don't need any wires <G>.
But you need to get the internet to the wireless router some way.
If it is going to be from cable then you will need co-ax.
If DSL then it comes on the the "phone wires". It is common to use CAT-5 (although you can run lesser) for phone. It has 4 pairs and can support upto 4 phone and fax lines.
And if you want to run an hardwired LAN's such as for another computer or a printer you want to run cat-5 from the router to the other items.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I was thinking the same thing !.
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What is still the norm in todays world, cat-5, co-ax, blah-blah-blah.
If you are truly going wireless, then you don't need anything but a feed to the wireless access point (often combined with a router). You may want to mount your WAP in a high, central location, so don't forget to rough-in a piece of Cat5e there. If your walls are open or you have good access for wiring, I would consider running wire in as many locations as you might possibly use. You may never have that opportunity again.
Cat5e is still what we normally run for data. If you'll be wanting to locate a cable modem or TV in the office, run some RG-6 Quad Shield coax as well. I still run a lot of Cat3 for telephone, although many installers run Cat5e for that as well. If you want to plan for the future, flexible conduits would allow for future upgrade to Cat6, Fiber, etc.
We use low-voltage mounting brackets instead of boxes to avoid having to bunch the wiring (especially the RG-6QS, which is rather stiff) into the confines of the box.
As for trimming out, you can get wall plates that will hold up to 6 modular (voice/data/video) in a single-gang bracket.
Bob
Edited 2/22/2008 8:07 pm ET by bobguindon
I wouldn't be as concerned about what wire to put in now, as I would be about what to put in tomorrow.
Put in a conduit run.
rlrefalo,
Don't bother!
My son-in-law does those installs for home theatre and such and even when there are conduit lines run for just such events they never wind up where they are needed and actaully make more work for the installers.. Look at your house today and look at it ten years ago chances of the TV/computer being in the same location or needing the same feeds are so slim as to be non-existant..
Sure if you know that the home owners intend to put the Computer right over there and never move it that might save some work.. maybe. If the exit and entrance is well marked and doesn't violate codes.. Just dumping it in a wall cavity and noting it on the blueprints is likely worthless.. either the blue print get's lost or the place is mismarked or measured from someplace inaccessable or whatever..
Not far from now, everything will wireless(well as wireless as you can get), they are already working on wireless TV, land lines for phones are on the way out. You wanna know why? Because I just ran miles of cable for phone, tv and internet, thats how I know.
Allready have wireless internet and a cell phone
For internet wireless, you don't need anything once you connect the wireless router to the cable/dsl modem. You can run cat 5e for phone lines and mid-speed internet (100MBs). High speed wired internet (1 Gbs) uses cat 6. If you are trying to future proof your house, consider running fiber optic cable (I don't think it's worth it personally). For TV, I would recommend RG6 quad shield. I haven't seen anything wireless for TV yet, but I'm sure it son't be too much onger.
" I haven't seen anything wireless for TV yet,"WHAT?Wireless TV has been around for 60 years..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Ha! Also, they're coming out with wireless HDTV connections:http://www.wirelesshd.org/
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was referring to distributing the TV signal to various points within a house given only one point of entry (satellite dish, standard antenna, or cable). I've seen the stories on the development of wireless HDTV distribution systems, but I don't think they're available yet.
The TV in my bedroom upstairs has a wireless connection to the cable box in the living room downstairs, a little thing called a Leapfrog from Terk. Works pretty good.
http://www.audiovox.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=14138&langId=-1
If I was roughing in my home office, I'd put a bank of duplex outlets above desk height. I hate crawling under the desk fishing around looking for another slot.
Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
a bank of duplex outlets above desk height. I hate crawling under the desk fishing around looking for another slot.
I kind of like a 24" or 36" strip of 3-prong plugmold 34" AFF. Seems to have enough spacing for the warts all the accessories seem to require.
A clock recepticle is kind of a neat way to plug in the UPS under the desk, too, and the depth lets you push the desk a bit closer to the wall. Or, install a regular duplex, but 6" AFF so it's between the base adn the bottom of a desk.
I've become a convert to using the 200 & 300 VA UPS (which are under-powered for modern CPU) to keep fax and multi-function units powered up (or, maybe I'm a fan of not having to reprogram them after an outage. Ideally, an outlet pair 24" horizontal centered on the unit location is elegant, that or a duplex to one side and telco & data to the other. Wireless-G, and now N, are making a data connection a tad redundant.
A shlving unit, 19" to 24" wide with vertical plugmold and all of the demarc recepticals is handy for creating the "hub" for a wireless install. My bias is to "home run' each service back to its demarcation POTS, and not a 'leg' i nthe rest of the system. So, fro mthe cable demarc to a dedicated hub recepticle; telco the same. This is the only place I bother with glass in new installs anymore, too--the cable operators all seem to run glas to copper coax, running glass after that is just more work.
Oh, and no matter how or where you set up the "hub" location, leave a set of "hard wire" connections for when you have to drag the laptop in to diagnose what is "up" with the supplied conncetions. Sometimes that'sthe best/only way to diagnose dsl or cable modem hiccups. But, I'm biased along those lines.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
For your reference Arlington makes a couple of interesting products.This is a recessed box that will take any standard device, power or LV.http://www.aifittings.com/whnew100.htmAnd one for flat screen TV that is big enough for everything.http://www.aifittings.com/whnew98.htm.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Distribution panel, like this one:
http://www.smarthome.com/868s16r.html
Well, maybe not exactly "like." Search the site, they got more.
Very cool site. Thanks for the link.
Pop, lock, and drop it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChIdFwQwoYM&feature=related
Not exactly what you asked, but I now wish I had a wall switch that would turn off the receptacles under my desk, and another that would turn off the TV, stereo, etc. All this instant on stuff uses power and is a major bother to shut off.