Need Help Prewiring My New Home

[sevendustweb]

I'm getting ready to retrofit a two-story brick house, and I need some suggestions on how to wire my network.

My house is two stories, but it features and unfinished basement that has no insulation in the floor joists. My initial thought is that I should run my networking and home automation servers in the basement and network the rest of the house for high-speed Cat6 wiring with some Cat5e wiring for use in POE applications.

My issue involves wiring to the second floor of the house. Do you think it would be cheaper to run every line from the basement to the various rooms throughout the house, or do you think it would be cheaper to run one line to the second floor which then connects to a gigabit switch and from the upstairs switch it patches into the upstairs rooms?

My basement will have the cable modem running into a new Cisco wireless router which will then connect into a 24 port D-Link POE switch.

Thank you for any comments you may have.

 

[upnorth]

home runs

pull all cables to demarcation point

 

[sevendustweb]

Anyone else? Surely someone else has experienced this issue before.

 

[SamS]

Run all lines to wherever the switch is going to be.

 

[sevendustweb]

Can I install my networking equipment in an unfinished basement?

Run all lines to wherever the switch is going to be.

I have an unfinished basement with a concrete slab that seems like a good centralized location in which to run wires from. Initially, I am wondering about the temperature (hot during the summer, cold during the winter). Has anyone installed their networking equipment in an unfinished basement?

Thanks.

 

[jdabbs]

Many switches specify a operating temperature range in their documentation.
The DGS-1210 series recommends between 32° and 104° F. You should be able to estimate how hot/cold your basement is going to get.

 

[kanewolf]

I run a used HP commercial switch in an attic in TX (20F to 140F) without any issues. Check the Environmental Specs of the equipment you desire to use. Humidity could be a bigger problem in a basement than temperature.

 

[clintb]

I'm of the thought to pull everything to one common point, and that tends to work better (not best) in practice. However, it all depends.

Dependencies:
Budget
Access
How many runs

You specifically used the term "prewire" and that, for me, brings up the vision of a house that has yet to have drywall hung, thus access between studs. In your case, I'm thinking that's not accurate.

If it were me, and funds were not unlimited (read: limited moolah), I would get at least two CAT5e/CAT6 and two RG6 (tri or quad shield) to the outside demarc for your incoming services. On the inside, I would do everything possible, within budget, to get AT THE VERY LEAST one CAT5e/CAT6 and one RG6 to every room FROM the common point in your basement. If that is not do-able, then your idea of a switch on the second floor and distributing from there is not a problem. If you go the second story switch route, pull at least two runs of CAT5e/CAT6 between the basement and second floor switch location. If one run goes bad, you have a spare. You can also do some link aggregation if you're ever in a position to push tons of data.

 

[coolspot]

My issue involves wiring to the second floor of the house. Do you think it would be cheaper to run every line from the basement to the various rooms throughout the house, or do you think it would be cheaper to run one line to the second floor which then connects to a gigabit switch and from the upstairs switch it patches into the upstairs rooms?

It's cleaner to terminate in a single location - i.e. in the basement. You won't save much doing what you're thinking as you're only saving on the cabling and not on labour.

 

[Motofixxer]

This is an old thread but for the benefit of anyone that might read this later...It's best to wire anything new with a Home Run. Essentially meaning run all new jacks to a centralized location in the home. Generally in a basement or near the breaker panel.

The idea is to future proof the home as much as reasonably possible. Imagine you have a fancy room you're using as your office with lots of racked goodies then you start adding wiring to your next room over which is your home theater living room area. Then the wife says hunny we need to talk and suddenly that office is being turned into a nursery and all that wiring terminates there...not a good situation.

So if you're adding new wiring a couple of things to keep in mind. If you're needing 1 port...pull 2...if you're needing 2 pull 4. And run everything back to a centralized location where most of your networking equipment can sit. The future users will thank you.

Another good idea wiring a home before sheetrock goes up is to use some sort of conduit runs through inaccessible areas. Examples are the plastic conduit or the Smurf Tube aka blue flexible stuff that snaps right into the low voltage boxes. If you ever have to rewire stuff...you will be very happy.

I even worked with a friend and convinced him to add 2 3" pvc pipe from basement to attic for future wiring needs...be sure to cap them when unused and sealed up when in use. If you ever wanted to add ceiling or wall speakers etc...you will be very thankful.

Be sure to add plenty of extra data ports. You always need more.

 

[sinshiva]

This is an old thread but for the benefit of anyone that might read this later...It's best to wire anything new with a Home Run. Essentially meaning run all new jacks to a centralized location in the home. Generally in a basement or near the breaker panel.

The idea is to future proof the home as much as reasonably possible. Imagine you have a fancy room you're using as your office with lots of racked goodies then you start adding wiring to your next room over which is your home theater living room area. Then the wife says hunny we need to talk and suddenly that office is being turned into a nursery and all that wiring terminates there...not a good situation.

So if you're adding new wiring a couple of things to keep in mind. If you're needing 1 port...pull 2...if you're needing 2 pull 4. And run everything back to a centralized location where most of your networking equipment can sit. The future users will thank you.

Another good idea wiring a home before sheetrock goes up is to use some sort of conduit runs through inaccessible areas. Examples are the plastic conduit or the Smurf Tube aka blue flexible stuff that snaps right into the low voltage boxes. If you ever have to rewire stuff...you will be very happy.

I even worked with a friend and convinced him to add 2 3" pvc pipe from basement to attic for future wiring needs...be sure to cap them when unused and sealed up when in use. If you ever wanted to add ceiling or wall speakers etc...you will be very thankful.

Be sure to add plenty of extra data ports. You always need more.

kindly do not spam the forums with essentially the same post such as this, it just looks like a SEO bait and switch, especially with these ancient threads

 

[System Error Message]

Try to see about wiring everything in a central way such as switch in basement, have a panel (rectangular pipe) to wire things from basement around the house. I have seen many places use this for neatness but it does require some modification to the wall although having this visible for the purpose of access. The panel will be visible but is the neatest and maintainance friendly way to wire a place.

You can also just run cables around and place them wherever they fit and out of path as much as possible. This is very cheap since there are no modifications (such as running cables above/under doors). Cat5e or Cat6 have a specification of 100M but if you are getting Cat5e be sure to use solid cores instead of copper clad aluminium. They may be heavier or pricier but it works for gigabit for 100M whereas those cheap copper clad aluminium cables will run only 100Mb if you get a 20M or more.

Having all your networking gear in one place is easier to manage especially if you plan to have your own bunch of servers in the basement.

Some places run have panels mounted on the ceiling for cable runs.