OK, last question about wiring, I think. All the line voltage wire is pulled in the shop, and it’s time to get the phone, TV, and whatnot roughed in.
The existing phone lines (2) are connected to the house, and the tv dish is on the house as well. We have a DSL modem in the house connected to one of the phone lines. There is a single 1-1/2″ conduit from the house to the shop dedicated to lo-vo. I figure I need to pull either phone wire or CAT5 wire thru the conduit, along with coax for the TV.
The TV part seems easy–use a splitter in the house, extend coax to wherever the TV will go in the shop and hook up a receiver.
The phone/internet part I’m not as clear on. I want two-line phone jacks in three locations in the shop. I want DSL at one of those locations. First of all, is CAT5 the correct wire to pull, and second, do I need some sort of patch panel for all of this?
Advice appreciated, as always.
Replies
You don't need phone wire, Cat5e is fine. Just make sure you use the same config at each end, obviously. Cat5e is cheap, run it all over and don't daisy chain it. You can get small panels at Home Depot, Lowes, Menard's, etc. You can get a Linksys workgroup switch at Office Max for $29.95. Put that next to your modem (In the place where the phone line comes into the house and then goes to the shop), one line goes to the house computer, one to the modem, one to whichever cable you'll use in the shop. If you do home runs, you just need to unplug the one you stop using and plug the one you want to use into the switch. You can get "Keystone" jacks and plates, cable, RJ-45 ends and crimpers, RJ-11 jacks and ends, etc at Parts Express, Home Depot, etc. If you don't know how to crimp them and don't want to know, ask around- you probably know someone who does. There are two wiring codes for networking- if you buy a punchdown module (like Channel Vision), it's using the TIA-568A and this is typical for residential. The Keystone jacks are marked for A and B- Use A on that end. A punchdown module allows you to run your Cat5e to the destination and then connect to the switch and modem with short pre-made jumpers. No muss, no fuss.
Bad splices will drive you nuts when you start losing service, speed and any other performance.
FYI- you can use Cat5e to send video, too. You just need "balun adaptors" at each end. Electrical supply houses can get them or you can google other sources. MCM Electronics sells them but you will need to set up an account in order to buy them. Keep your splitter use to a minimum. Every time you split any signal, you lose signal strength and picture quality. If you split it enough times, you'll need an amplifier. The splitters from Home Depot are actually pretty good.
You could run a Cat5e cable to the shop from the DSL modem in the house and connect your computor to it. You would have to crimp your own RJ 45 jacks on each end and when crimping, the eight wires in the cat 5e cable must be crimped in the same order. Internet by wire is faster than wireless and private. Houses with aluminum lathing in the walls should really consider wire over wireless. Or you can purchase a long ethernet cable already crimped and pull it through. For the phone, pull through another cat5e and note that there are four pairs in it. Your first or main number can be given the blue/blue-white pair. The other number can be given the orange/orange-white pair. There are two more pairs left. You can use cat3e to branch off. Category 5 enhanced wire is twisted and reduces interference while "phone wire" does not. Take a look at a structured wire panel made by Pass & Seymour ( http://www.passandseymour.com ) for small situations and apartments. You might like the ability to adjust your wiring on the fly as your shop takes on different purposes
"The TV part seems easy--use a splitter in the house, extend coax to wherever the TV will go in the shop and hook up a receiver."
I gather that you only have on sat reciver now.
You can't "split" the signal.
You need a multiplexer.
The receiver sends a signal to the antenna to tell it is to select left or right hand poloraized signals (depend on which channel is selected).
With the multiplexer you get two feeds from the dish and the multiplexer selects which to send to which receiver.
http://www.hometech.com/learn/dss.html
Edited 11/26/2006 1:22 am by BillHartmann
You may also want to check your dish. Newer dishes from DirecTV have the multiplexer built into it so you just need to run an additional wire from the dish to your shop...Ed
You guys are referring to multiswitches. If any "splitting" is necessary, a multiswitch is needed and as long as it has enough outputs, it'll be fine.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Yes, I mistyped. I was thinking back to college w/ mux/demux...=)Ed
Mux/demux is still done, probably more than ever.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Most internet modems only allow you to connect to a single computer. To set up what you want you need a router, which essentially makes all of the computers that hook to it look like a single computer to the modem. This also gives you the opportunity to add wireless which is great if you have a modem.
Routers also provide a hardware firewall, which makes it harder to attack your system.
You can use cat5 for both the internet and phone. You need a separate cat5 for each computer (well, you could pull just one, and use a switch in the garage to plug in more), but you can run multiple phone lines over a single cat5 cable.
Cat5e is a little better and will future proof a bit.