Home ethernet wiring installation

You're on your own. However the method I used was a little different. I plugged a short patch cable from my patch panel to each port on my switch and turned it on. The next step is to take another patch cable and a laptop and plug it into each port in each room. Check the switch after each port and verify the "link" indicator is on. Being able to establish a link tests the physical layer i. No IP addressing or anything needed for testing.

This is also a good time to make sure your labeling matches on both ends. For example you can make sure that "Master Bedroom Port 2" on your patch panel actually goes to the second port in the master bedroom. To the internet, and beyond! Now that we've got this fancy network, we want to connect it to the internet right?

First the cable modem setup. Since I moved my cable modem from my second bedroom office to the distribution room I needed to change the way my cable was split. Rather than the main cable into the house being split 3 ways I split things a little differently. I split the incoming cable with a 3-way splitter first.

I connected the splitters using a male-male barrel connector. Now that the cable modem is in the right place we can continue with our network setup. Depending on your internet provider some of this setup may vary.

I'm going to discuss the specifics of my environment only. I'll provide tips for others when possible. From the "Trusted" port, I connected to the first switch port on my switch.

If your switch has one, plug into the port labeled "Uplink" instead. Depending on the switch or cable modem and or router, you may need or already have crossover cables for these connections. In addition my entire network is protected from outside access by the firewall. Although it is not integral to this instructable, I also plugged a wireless access point into my switch so that I can have wireless access as well. Since my wireless is both encrypted and has MAC filtering I feel comfortable with it on the "trusted" side of my firewall.

If for some reason I wanted to provide open wireless access but still protect my network I would need a different configuration of connections. I won't go into detail about these changes but I wanted to note them depending on what your network goals are and how they might incorporate wireless access.

It also acts as a router and provides DHCP IP addresses to all other hosts on my private network via the switch and cabling we just installed. What the hell do we do with it now?!? There are some cool additions that you can make to your home network that will make your geek friends drool! This allows me to stream all the multimedia on my server to either of my TVs! No more is watching Hulu or other media limited to just my computer screens. They don't care if you have "The Notebook" on your laptop, they only want to watch it on your TV!

It's probably overkill but so is a Bugatti and we all want one of those. If you can't afford one with enough ports for your entire network, you can segregate 2 networks. With the patch panel you could plug port 1 and 2 from each 4 port location into the gigabit switch and the other 2 into the slower switch. But come on, you might as well blow the money and get the whole she-bang! Each card can record different shows from your cable and store them on the file server. Who still has a home phone!?!

But if you need one, at least you can skip the phone company bill. IP Cameras - You can put security cameras in any room which you've run network drops to and record them to your file server.

No more worrying if the babysitter is shaking your kids or snooping in your bed room. Your wife or girlfriend might not like your sex lives on the internet though! Question 1 year ago on Step 2. You can run gigabit ethernet over cat5e; cat6 is not required. If for some reason I wanted to provide open wireless access but still protect my network, I would need a different configuration of connections.

It also acts as a router and provides DHCP IP addresses to all other hosts on my private network via the switch and cabling we just installed. What the hell do we do with it now?!? There are some cool additions that you can make to your home network that will make your geek friends jealous.

File server or NAS. I added and mounted a 1U file server in the distribution room that holds all of my multimedia. RAID is not a backup, but I feel better about not losing my media if a hard drive takes a dump With this I can stream media to any computers on my network! This allows me to stream all the multimedia on my server to either of my TVs! No more is watching Hulu or other media limited to just my computer screens.

Gigabit switch. I touched on this before, but upgrading to a gigabit switch allows super fast file sharing between machines on your home network. With the patch panel, you could plug port one and two from each four-port location into the gigabit switch and the other two into the slower switch. But come on, you might as well blow the money and get the whole shebang!

DVR anywhere. With a file server set up, you can also install a bunch of DVR cards in it. Each card can record different shows from your cable and store them on the file server. Assuming you set up the routing and or VPN access, you can access those shows from a laptop with decent bandwidth anywhere. We can help. IP phones. Some manufacturers are making IP-based telephones that can connect to the internet. Who still has a home phone!?! But if you need one, at least you can skip the phone company bill.

IP Cameras. No more worrying if the babysitter is shaking your kids or snooping in your bedroom. Everything you should know is here. Be creative! Difficult to say exactly as it depends on how difficult it is the get the cable to the rooms and if you want it hidden or not.

Your email address will not be published. Getting Started The first and most important part is creating a plan. You will need to consider: Will you have a Central distribution point? How many rooms will you wire? What are the Wiring routes? How many sockets in each room? Socket locations? Ethernet cable — Cat5, 6 or 7 Cable? Next you need to make a list of what you will need. Basic Tools e. Ethernet Switch or switches.

Networking Components Overview Cable — For home networks cat 6 is probably the best choice today. Wall face plates — These Cover wall sockets. They are part of a wall socket, Keystone plug is the matching male connector, usually attached to the end of a cable or cord. What is in the Central Location This is where all of the cables from each of the room sockets come together, and plug into a switch.

You have two option for the cable ends: Wire into a patch panel most professional Terminate with RJ plug. Using a patch panel gives you more flexibility, but is probably an overkill in a small network.

Do you Need a Patch Panel? Notes: Label cables at the end in the central location as you need to know what room and socket they connect to. Wiring Standards This is what cable colour is wired to what pin on the connectors. Estimated Costs Example 2 Storey house. Best wishes. Did you have them installed? They may need to connect to a switch? Thanks Steve. It is a new build and were already installed in the house. Best wishes Ikor.

Not sure what you mean by central ports rgds steve. These are just my opinions based on facing some challenges in my own home. Can you share what rack you purchased that houses your switch, patch panel, etc? Hi Steve, This — along with your other posts — is really helpful. Very informative videos! I have a lot of questions regarding the patch panels and switches. Yours, Yannick. Hi In the patch panel, how many times can I krone into a single strip?

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We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. As with any project, you should start with a plan. We not only need to know where we want our wired ethernet connections but also where they come together and how to get there.

You can run your cables through your HVAC ducts or any other air circulation duct. But keep in mind that you may need to use plenum cat 6 cables for this. You can use the Unifi Design Center to help you with planning your home network installation. The tool allows you to place the network equipment and draw all the wires. You can use a floorplan as an underlayer to draw your walls.

Next, you can place your home network equipment and ethernet wiring in it. The ethernet cables are not placed as neet as I would like, but this is just to give you an idea of the possibilities. And one of the cool, and really useful things about the Unifi Design Center is that you also can see your wireless network coverage. So you can pick the right spot for your access points or maybe at an extra one if necessary.

If you want to know more about placing your access points, then you should read this article where I explain more about the best locations for access points. So with our plan completed, we are going to look at what we need. And the most important part is the ethernet cable of course. Ethernet cables are rated in categories Cat. The categories determine the speed of the cable, how fast it can transfer data over the cable.

When selecting the cable for your home ethernet wiring, not only the speed is important, but also the quality of the cable. To get the best performance and speed out of a UTP cable, it will need to have a really low resistance, which can only be achieved with full bare copper cables.

Due to the higher resistance, the cables will get hotter and over longer lengths, they will deliver less power to the device. Another problem with CCA cables is that they are brittle and not really flexible. This can result in wires that break inside the cable. These days Cat 6 UTP cables are the minimal standard to use in installations. Now there is always a lot of confusion about the difference between Cat 6 and Cat 6a.

The latter is more expensive, almost 2x, but do you really need it? As you can see there is something going on with the speed of the Cat 6 cable. It supports 10 Gbps, but only over a distance up to meters.

Any longer and the speed will drop back to 1 Gbps. But that is not all, Cat 6 also has a lower bandwidth, Mhz Cat 5e only has Mhz. Now, why is that important? You can compare the bandwidth with the lanes on a highway.

On both highways, you can drive 70 mph, but Cat 6 only has 2 lanes, where Cat 6a has 5 lanes. So Cat 6a can transfer much more data at the same time than Cat 6. So which one should you buy? For home use, Cat 6 is most of the time more than enough.

The Mhz is more than enough bandwidth for your home network.