Need some help, home CAT5 wiring

[Likwid]

I was going to buy a wall fish and cabling and wallplates when I realized this shit is expensive if you're only going to do your own home. I know some folks here have good experience with home wiring so I'm looking for someone to help me out. I'm in NEO so I think that knocks out moose (I know you do home wiring and such)

I can either hire you to do it yourself or you can rent me your equipment and sell me the materials.

Or anywhere in between those 2 extremes, please let me know

Thanks

[Likwid]

FYI, I do have a spot in the attic that I believe can be fished down to the basement. It's a Ryan Homes so I'm pretty sure they keep the wiring easy but someone more experienced would know for sure.

[jporter12]

Wireless?

I have a few of the tools needed but not enough to take on a job.

[Likwid]

Wireless?

I have a few of the tools needed but not enough to take on a job.

I am using wireless right now, but it's unstable at times and I'd like my office to be hard wired/wireless combo. I'll still be using wireless for laptops and gaming consoles, just want wired for my PC and work laptop.

Are you missing the big things or just things like RJ connectors and jazz?

[jporter12]

I am using wireless right now, but it's unstable at times and I'd like my office to be hard wired/wireless combo. I'll still be using wireless for laptops and gaming consoles, just want wired for my PC and work laptop.

Are you missing the big things or just things like RJ connectors and jazz?

I just don't have anything for fishing the wires. I have lot's of connectors.

I use most stuff on the wireless here, other than the PC, and the 2 servers. The servers were both in the closet where the router is, but now I have one in here, it helps a little bit with heat!

My download speed is a little bit faster than the wireless, so the PC that I use for downloading I wanted wired. I just have a cable poked up through the floor for it, behind the desk though, since I rent, I don't want to put in wall plates and stuff.

[justin0469]

There's a lot of products that do it but here's one:

http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XEPS103.aspx

• Extends secure 14 and 85 Mbps Powerline network connections to any electrical outlet
  
• Reduces clutter on power outlets—one plug supplies both power and network extensions
  

[Cdubyah]

Do you have tubing running behind the drywall, that you are going to feed the wire through?

[Likwid]

There's a lot of products that do it but here's one:

http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XEPS103.aspx

• Extends secure 14 and 85 Mbps Powerline network connections to any electrical outlet
  
• Reduces clutter on power outlets—one plug supplies both power and network extensions
  

I was looking at those solutions, do you have any experience with them? Seemed kind of "too good to be true"

Do you have tubing running behind the drywall, that you are going to feed the wire through?

No, just holes

[justin0469]

I was looking at those solutions, do you have any experience with them? Seemed kind of "too good to be true"

just googling xeps103 and xe104 (netgear powerline), i only found one bad review by a user, but quickly found quite a few positive reviews. looks like the linksys options get 3.5 of 5 or less though.

[Likwid]

just googling xeps103 and xe104 (netgear powerline), i only found one bad review by a user, but quickly found quite a few positive reviews. looks like the linksys options get 3.5 of 5 or less though.

I found this review

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9127759/Review_5_power_line_devices_that_take_you_online_where_Ethernet_or_Wi_Fi_can_t_

The measurement in the table is time in minutes, seems like a bust... would be great if I wasn't getting wifi upstairs... I should take my laptop downstairs and do a speed test before I go running wires... maybe I'm getting the best performance I could expect.

[justin0469]

I'd expect you'd get more throughput via powerline than wifi, though both can change significantly based on interference, distance, and number of devices.

[Cheech]

There's a lot of products that do it but here's one:

http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XEPS103.aspx

• Extends secure 14 and 85 Mbps Powerline network connections to any electrical outlet
  
• Reduces clutter on power outlets—one plug supplies both power and network extensions
  

I advise against powerline solutions. Intel messed around with it in the late 90's, and there's a reason why it didn't take off. 14mb and 85mb are just theoretical numbers, good luck trying to find something that maintains stability, and you have to add another $70 device every time you want to add a leg to the network.

Short term solution: Where is your AP located in the house? If there's a way you can get it to a central point, then either get higher gain antennas for it or pick up a WRT54G that you can hack to boost power THEN get higher gain antennas, you might be better off. Also see if there are driver updates for your wireless card.

Long-term solution: Re-wire the house. I've never done a residential job, I've only done a commercial factory and that's during the construction phase when the drywall wasn't up. I highly recommend getting your materials from monoprice.com, on the off chance that someone here will sell you something for a reasonable price I'd take it, but I was able to beat any commercial quote for materials by a ton sourcing my stuff through monoprice.

[Likwid]

I advise against powerline solutions. Intel messed around with it in the late 90's, and there's a reason why it didn't take off. 14mb and 85mb are just theoretical numbers, good luck trying to find something that maintains stability, and you have to add another $70 device every time you want to add a leg to the network.

Short term solution: Where is your AP located in the house? If there's a way you can get it to a central point, then either get higher gain antennas for it or pick up a WRT54G that you can hack to boost power THEN get higher gain antennas, you might be better off. Also see if there are driver updates for your wireless card.

Long-term solution: Re-wire the house. I've never done a residential job, I've only done a commercial factory and that's during the construction phase when the drywall wasn't up. I highly recommend getting your materials from monoprice.com, on the off chance that someone here will sell you something for a reasonable price I'd take it, but I was able to beat any commercial quote for materials by a ton sourcing my stuff through monoprice.

Signal strength isn't an issue, and I'm running a G network... so maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill. I recall hard wired as being ZOMG AMAZING but my only real issue is the occasional dropped signal, but that could be expected I guess.

Re-wiring is what I'm thinking, at minimum I'd like to fish 2-3 cat5 cables from the attic to the basement, putting the wire down from the attic into the 2 bedrooms is no biggie, that can be done easily.

[justin0469]

14mb and 85mb are just theoretical numbers

all advertised speeds for any network technology are theoretical or "up to" speeds that you will likely never get. anyway, just offering a quick and easy solution to the potential PITA wire fishing can be. it'll definitely be faster and more reliable, just up to you if it's worth it.

[Wolf]

Maybe look into Wireless N, It's faster than G if you want better speed, I've been doing N in the 5GHZ band with a Netgear router, and it's been pretty solid.

[jporter12]

all advertised speeds for any network technology are theoretical or "up to" speeds that you will likely never get. anyway, just offering a quick and easy solution to the potential PITA wire fishing can be. it'll definitely be faster and more reliable, just up to you if it's worth it.

Exactly. How fast is your internet connection? My wireless speed tops out at about 17,000 kb.s transfer rate, where the wired will run up to about 22,000 (talking file transfer rate, more meaningful than 100MB ethernet rate) but it's not on anything wireless that I need that much speed, and not very often on the wired.

[jporter12]

Also, are you doing any serious file transfers between computers? THAT is where wired will rule the roost.

[vroddave]

are you sure that your dmark is in your attick?

[Likwid]

are you sure that your dmark is in your attick?

There's one cable line that runs from the basement to the attic... I know that....

The telephone stuff is basement/first floor

[max power]

are you sure that your dmark is in your attick?

He's trying to get Cat5 to his upstairs bedroom from the basement, through the attic.

[Meanie]

I ran cable from the basement to the attic in my house, but I used an interior wall behind the washer and dryer on the second floor. It wasn't too bad. However, if you are looking to run it through an exterior wall it can be a pain in the ass. I getting ready to do a few wallfishes for a friend of mine on Sunday. They are interior walls, but every wall has insulation in it. They aren't long runs though, just adding outlets to run HDMI from the box up to the TV on the wall.

[Likwid]

I ran cable from the basement to the attic in my house, but I used an interior wall behind the washer and dryer on the second floor. It wasn't too bad. However, if you are looking to run it through an exterior wall it can be a pain in the ass. I getting ready to do a few wallfishes for a friend of mine on Sunday. They are interior walls, but every wall has insulation in it. They aren't long runs though, just adding outlets to run HDMI from the box up to the TV on the wall.

I've got a couple options. The place I was thinking is an interior wall, the attic is blown in insulation so that's a bit of a pain...

[max power]

I ran cable from the basement to the attic in my house, but I used an interior wall behind the washer and dryer on the second floor. It wasn't too bad. However, if you are looking to run it through an exterior wall it can be a pain in the ass. I getting ready to do a few wallfishes for a friend of mine on Sunday. They are interior walls, but every wall has insulation in it. They aren't long runs though, just adding outlets to run HDMI from the box up to the TV on the wall.

Interior walls with insulation??

Try to get in front of the plastic covering the insulation. If you can, it is easy, if you cant, try to get between the insulation and drywall. good luck.

[ohdaho]

I think I have 40ft of cat5 ill sell ya for cheap.

[Cheech]

Interior walls with insulation??

Try to get in front of the plastic covering the insulation. If you can, it is easy, if you cant, try to get between the insulation and drywall. good luck.

Yeah, I fished a trunk of cables for my wall-mounted flat panel through a exterior wall. Just go slow and be patient, you start ripping up that plastic you're going to have a mess on your hands.