Cat 6 Cabling

[Hornin Hong Kong]

If you have 100Mbps fast ethernet coming into your house (this is in HK but not everywhere - will be soon tho) this is optical fiber right?

Then it comes into your house you need to have a cat 6 cable network to hook into the fiber then you can run that to your router for the computer.

In HK they are doing HDTV over fiber as well - do I need 2 different cable systems for that or can both TV and INternet come on the same cable?

Probably not right?

 

[homer]

stop asking us about alien technology. it makes us mad.

 

[Hornin Hong Kong]

this is all over the US Dude, HK sucks for broadband.

 

[Fried JJ Pickles]

Nope. Cat 6, like cat 5, is copper wiring.

 

[PiGuy]

CAT6 is copper wiring like CAT5.

CAT5 should support up to 100Mbps while CAT6 will support a Gigabit.

Theoretically, you shouldn't need CAT6 if the connection speed is 100Mbps, but it wouldn't hurt. However, you'll need to make sure you have a Gigabit router/switch and Gigabit ports all on the equipment you want to use it with, otherwise you'll be stuck at 100.

The other advantage is a Gigabit network will make transferring files inside the network a lot faster.

FWIW, it sounds like you're renovating/building a new house -- I would run a lot of CAT6 to every room. Probably at least two feeds. It doesn't necessarily have to terminate anywhere, but it will work as great low-voltage utility cable should ever need to connect anything either back to a router or to low-voltage devices that aren't on the network.

Edit: I see LukeDuke has the same advice in the lighting thread -- listen to that.

 

[PiGuy]

To answer your specific questions:

Yes, they're probably sending fiber into your house. It will get into a box probably outside the house or int he garage that extracts the internet, tv, and phone lines.

These will then go into the house like any other internet/tv/phone services would and get connected to their necessary devices.

Internet to a modem, TV to a set top box, phone to phone.

You'll need to attach the modem to a Gigabit router, then attach the CAT6 to there.

You don't need to different cable system inside your house for TV over fiber, it will likely just be fiber coming to the house and then Coax or some other typical RF cabling inside of it.

 

[Anastasis]

In reply to:

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[Anastasis]

Oh, and I'd drop speaker wire in the walls while you're there as well. You can come along later in install multizone audio with ease if the wiring is all in place.

 

[kevwun]

Actually, you can run gigabit over cat 5 as long as you have gigabit patch panels, routers, switches, and network cards. Make sure none of your cable runs are over 328ft. That limit applies to cat 5 and cat 6. It may work at longer distances than that without a repeater, but you are asking for trouble.

 

[BLESSMEHORNS]

Wi-Max is right around the corner

 

[Anastasis]

Yeah, I run gigabit on Cat5 in my house, but if you are going to do a new install, might as well run the cat6 unless it is too much more expensive? You will never reach gigabit speeds anyways. Hardware limits transfer speeds for a home LAN, not network speed.

 

[Ignatius]

Since it sounds like your house is pretty much torn apart anyway, I would run a 6-cable drop of structured cable into each room in the house (maybe a couple for your office and media room). Each cable will contain two RG-6 (coax), two Cat 6, and two fiber optic cables. This was going for about $.90 per foot when I dd it a couple of years ago, don't know about now...

 

[Hornin Hong Kong]

Oh god this is making my head spin - yeah the walls are all down - I think I may need an expert to do this, however

Realistically I'm really only worried about the computer room and the Entertainment room. I will do the 6 cable bundle for sure to the entertianment room to the internet router (in the computer room) and cables from all the other possible tv places to the internet room?

 

[Ignatius]

Man, it made my head spin too but in the end I'm glad I did it...

What you're describing is what I did; Iyou just want to pick a room/closet/area for the 'master control' where everything comes into. Since I had the cable and the walls were all exposed anyway, I kind of went overboard and ran a 6-cable bundle into every room, including bedrooms and the dining room; I wanted to do bathrooms for the hell of it but the wife vetoed that one...

Each of the other end of the cables all came into my 'master' closet in the TV room, where they were all terminated into blocks for (a) phone, (b) data, and (c) satellite. Each of these blocks, in turn, has connected to it (a) my master phone line from the box outside that AT&T put there, (b) my router, and (c) a 4x16 splitter connected to my 4 lines from the DirecTV dish. I would have preferred to do this in my office closet, but since the area where the phone line and the D*TV lines came into the house was right outside the TV room closet, I made that closet the command center instead and just moved my router into there. I haven't found an application yet for the fiber, but if I ever have one at least now I've got it run to every room and all terminating in a central location.

You'll want to get a wall cabinet (or two) to manage where all these cables come into your master closet and terminate all of the wires, I got mine through FutureHomeSystems.com, but there's a million places that sell them.

One thing to consider that I didn't is, since they're going to be punching holes in your top plates anyway for the cable, go ahead and put some PVC conduit in place for all of the cable to run through, that way if at some point you (for whatever reason) need to replace the cable, you've got a clear path to pull it through. With all of the insulation in place, there's no way in hell I'd ever be able to do that, although I don't have any reason to...

 

[shadetree]

Ignatius,

Where did you get your bundled wire?

Also, if you wanted to do speakers everywhere in the house, I guess you need to run an additional line, right?

 

[Ignatius]

I got that from futurehomesystems.com also, their pricing was pretty competitive...you can get it for cheaper some places if you don't get the heavier jacket around all 6, but it makes pulling across corners/tight spots a lot easier. As far as speaker wire, it won't take up a lot more space than the structured cable in the holes that you punch in the top plate/studs. One of these cables will fit comfortably in a 3/4" hole with room to spare, so if you just drilled 1" holes you should have room for a cable and 7-8 speaker wires...

 

[Hornin Hong Kong]

many thanks ignatius