Rewiring setup question.

I am going to be doing some adding of wires into rooms of a house. What wires do you usually run? I will be running cat5e, phone-cat5e, cable-coax to some,hdmi to some, component to some. What else would you add? Am I missing anything for the future?

I recently re-did my living room and ran new electrical, cat-5, phone and coax to the areas I was upgrading. From a new cabinet, I ran HDMI, structured cable (5 in 1), cat-5 and coax to the tv. i also ran speaker wire (UL approved for in wall) to the attic for ceiling mount speakers.

You really have to have an idea of your application and future needs. The cat-5 came in handy for my components that have network capabilities and u-verse comes into my living room via cat-5.

I ran RG6u Quad core for cable TV, only 1 run to each jack location
I can always run more as I have a conduit from basement to 2nd floor

I ran CAT5e for Network - 2 runs to a few places where I may hook-up either a network printer or network storage device

I ran CAT3 for phones. We really do not use the home phone a lot & will probably drop it & just use cell phones. But I ran the wire anyways. CAT3 is good for up to 100m - which is what most PC's still use. I had leftover wire - 1,000' approx = 6 pair = 12 wires
I could split this up & connect (3) 100m jacks - you only need 4 wires.

So I have plenty of room for expansion. A CAT5e can be split into (2) 100m jacks - 4 wires each. Its only when you get into Gigabit that you need all 8 wires

Since the 1st floor is accessible from the basement I only ran what I needed. The 2nd floor walls are open so I ran more up there. But I still have access from a knee wall & can run more wire if some new standard comes out 20 years down the road

In the new addition I'll be setting up surround sound etc for TV

I can't tell you the number of buildings that were wired with CAT3 ages ago & the wire was never really used. Now with 100m speeds they are still using the CAT3. But if you are buying wire then buy at least CAT5e

I'm not a wiring expert, but I have made many a patch cable in my day and was a .com kid before "retiring" to the trades

I just want to clarify one thing. Cat3 is NOT rated for 100Mb. (Mb = megabit... MB = megabyte.. M = ??) It may be possible to use fewer pairs, but you really should run Cat5 for network connections, though with wireless as cheap as it is, there's very little to waste the cost on the wire/labor to install. Only makes sense if you are running the CATV and such too.

Also if you're going to pull for phones & network just pull Cat5 for both. And really use Cat5e if you're going to go through the bother. Use the combo jacks for either RJ-11's or RJ-45's and a small patch panel in the basement or wherever and you can switch outlets between phones/data. I did this in my house in 2001 and within 1 year of doing it my phones are all wireless and so are my computers, so... kind of unnecessary!

Yeah I know that technically there are only two pairs used (green and orange if I'm not mistaken), but I believe the others are necessary to keep high signal/noise ratio. If you are splitting Cat5 into two carriers, you are likely having problems that you might not know about. I'm curious as to your packet loss stats?

Anyway, your audio/video sounds cool.. Do you just have a component closet away from the main tv or are you distributing HD signlas through the house? Using a Media-center pc? A seriously funky integrated amp? The only other thing I could figure is a thermostat wire for remote control or IR repeater if you want remote rooms to be able to control... unless of course it's pc-based and you could just use the network!

Oh, and speaker wire... The one thing probably not wireless.. for now..

- Jared

SeattleSoxFan said:

I'm not a wiring expert, but I have made many a patch cable in my day and was a .com kid before "retiring" to the trades

I just want to clarify one thing. Cat3 is NOT rated for 100Mb. (Mb = megabit... MB = megabyte.. M = ??) It may be possible to use fewer pairs, but you really should run Cat5 for network connections, though with wireless as cheap as it is, there's very little to waste the cost on the wire/labor to install. Only makes sense if you are running the CATV and such too.

Also if you're going to pull for phones & network just pull Cat5 for both. And really use Cat5e if you're going to go through the bother. Use the combo jacks for either RJ-11's or RJ-45's and a small patch panel in the basement or wherever and you can switch outlets between phones/data. I did this in my house in 2001 and within 1 year of doing it my phones are all wireless and so are my computers, so... kind of unnecessary!

Yeah I know that technically there are only two pairs used (green and orange if I'm not mistaken), but I believe the others are necessary to keep high signal/noise ratio. If you are splitting Cat5 into two carriers, you are likely having problems that you might not know about. I'm curious as to your packet loss stats?

Anyway, your audio/video sounds cool.. Do you just have a component closet away from the main tv or are you distributing HD signlas through the house? Using a Media-center pc? A seriously funky integrated amp? The only other thing I could figure is a thermostat wire for remote control or IR repeater if you want remote rooms to be able to control... unless of course it's pc-based and you could just use the network!

Oh, and speaker wire... The one thing probably not wireless.. for now..

- Jared

Click to expand...

For the phone using cat5e I have seen some nice looking setups but can't find any in person, just online. What actually do you recommend for hooking phone with rj45 to rj11 with? What type of panel? Where would you recommend getting it at? Any links would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ok, so I just found out that rj11 fit into rj45 slots so I don't need anything but rj45 connectors. All I have to do is find an rj45 panel with rj45 connectors.

Doesn't this look like an easy fix??
http://www.home-technology-store.com/structured-wiring/OH-H619.aspx
It has expansion modules if more are needed. Pretty easy to wire if I do say so myself. Plug in some already terminated cat5e from monoprice and off you go.
Anyone care to comment?

Yeah the basic Leviton outlets use the combo RJ-45/RJ-11 jacks. You do need to wire them properly though (they are color coded with A/B wiring) using a punch tool -- though sometimes a little plastic one comes with the jacks.

HD or any of the home centers usually sells those jacks as well as some patch panel options. If you have a bunch of jacks you might need to go to an electrical supplier. I had access to a patch panel from my computer days and got one from a rack that was getting thrown away Anyway, there are at least two form-factors, one that's meant for home use that kind of looks like the plastic box that the phone/cable guys attach to the outside of your house (HD has this kind) and one that is rack-mounted, which is able to handle larger/more varied quantities.

I have a standard 48 port 110 19" patch panel mounted on a hinged wall mount, but that's because I had decent access to them. 110 refers to the type of punchdown for the wires, 110 is for data, 66 is the old phone. I also have a patch panel of quickports for my coax connections. This is down in the basement and looks kind of like a jungle (even though it's wired nicely) and surely would look intimidating to someone who didn't know what they were doing.

Just looking quickly I think you'll want something more like the Leviton 47603-18P or 24P depending on the number of wall outlets you'll have (phone + data). At about $200 they're pricier than a standard 110 patch panel, but they look prettier and are less intimidating in the end. There are hundreds of options, though this probably handles the well-wired house pretty well.

You wire all outlets to the panel and then "patch" short cables any outlet to either a phone jack or a network hub.

BTW, they do have patch panels where it's just a row of Leviton Quick Ports, so you can do your phone/data, coax, even speaker and component patching all in one place, but the cost is a bit higher because you buy the panel and then have to buy all the little quick ports to fill them. Or you can get a separate box for your cable patches and do all "special" wiring from point to point through wall outlets.

Also, if you don't have one and are going to be doing all the wiring yourself you probably will need to buy/borrow a cable tester to see if you're bungling up the connections It's pretty easy once you get it right, but can be hard to figure out when it's wrong.

You beat my reply with your reply

That will work fine. Leviton is what I've always used, but it's just wires!

I don't know how to run cables with connectors on them already, but if you want to give it a try, go for it! I haven't checked monoprice, but I'd guess a spool of cat-5e is cheaper (both ends are wired into the back of female jacks) than premade cables unless you're working way under the 1000' in total.

It is a little cheaper but not much. A 50' already terminated is a little over $4 and a 75' a little over $7 with the 100' at a little over $8.
So the http://www.home-technology-store.com/structured-wiring/OH-H619.aspx looks like it would be a very easy way to go? I think you just wire the cat5e to the left block and then just plug in?? Is that what it looks like to you???? I will keep checking to make sure about this.

CAT 3 is not rated for 100m, but it WILL carry 100m
Tons of old runs & no problems
Over 3000 computers at the last site & 80% were on CAT3 at 100m

I would not plug a RJ11 plug into a RJ45 jack. the outside of the RJ11 plug lines up with pins 1 & 8 on the RJ45 jask and it will push the pins out of the way. Eventually they will not work when you want to use them later for network. Yeah a network can run on Cat3, but if you could see how hard the network has to work with sub spec wiring, you wouldn't run it on Cat3. Just my 2cents

Actually after looking into it, it will be RJ14 and not 11. I have talked to a lot of people on this and they say they have done it and had no problems at all. It's not like you will be putting it in and taking it out all the time. If something goes bad I will replace the coupler.