Wiring my House. Need inputs.

onlyravi

onlyravi

Godly Modly...
Skilled
Hi,

I just purchased a new flat and I am in the process of renovating it.
I thought that since I am going to do the furniture, decor and coloring I might just redo the wiring and make my house "Wired".

So here is what I have thought of so far.
1)Using Cat5e through out. Not interested in CAT 6 as this is DIY project and I am not expert in networking. Gigabit should be good for Home use even with heavy video streaming.
2)Planning to keep everything concealed as much as possible.

This is how its all planned.
Its a 1BHK house with a big terrace. So I am planning
1) 2 RJ 45 ports on the terrace where the ISP will terminate their lines. (1 for backup connection)
2) The terrace will also have 2 co-axial termination points if I plan to go for HD or DVR DTH services in future. For now I am good with ICC Digital
3) The main switch will be kept in the living room below the TV unit. So planning to have like 8 RJ 45 ports terminated in the wall there with the Cable wires from the terrace. This point in the living room will be like the control unit for all my stuff.
4) 3 RJ 45 to the bedroom. 1 for Network and 2 for Audio Video / HDMI signals from living room. (Google HDMI over CAT extender)
5)Terminate one RJ 45 port out on the entrance passage for IP Camera. (Passage is L shaped and 10X4 feet)
6)One RJ45 port behind the couch just Opp to my TV. No particular use. Just for future so that no cables run across the hall.

My media Unit will contain all these equipment.
1)TV wall mounted. 42" LG LW5700.
2)DTH box.
3)XBOX 360. with Kinect mounted above the TV.
4)Control Console for Logitech Z906.
5) ASUS WL-500gP V2 (Will be replaced with some n or AC model after few months)
6) Bluetooth receiver for Audio. (To be purchased) So that I can connect my cell phones and laptop wireless to my Z906.
7)Logitech Harmony Link or Harmony Smart :) (To be purchased)
8)Raspberry PI.
9) A 8 port Gigabit switch. (To be purchased)
10) My Logitech Z906 speaker system will sit besides. The inputs are on the back of the sub-woofer so need to keep this nearby.
11) Two External HDDs. - Planning to replace them with NAS or Drobo Box in the future.

The apartment is small so a single wifi router should suffice.
In the Bedroom I have a 23" LCD Monitor with HDMI Inputs. And a Artis 2.1 speaker set.
In the kitchen - Nothing... :) Planning to buy a independent Bluetooth speaker later only for the kitchen.

Currently I am looking for Face plates which can hold 4-8 RJ45 ports.
I will be doing the cabling myself and sourcing all the cables locally. The fittings and concealed wire installations will be done by a professional electrician.
Also please let me know if there is any more that I should plan for or take into account now only.
Any other suggestions most welcome.

Attaching a rough floor plan to give an idea of placement of the rooms.
 
That's quite a comprehensive plan & future-proof too (except for "thunderbolt" & HDMI in concealed wiring missing) ;)

Incidently - how do you plan/play Full HD movies onto your 42" LED ? wireless ?

I wish I could redo these kinda things at my own place (which is a mess today) :(
 
The TV will be wall mounted and the Media Unit will be just below the TV so I will play my movies directly from the WD 2TB ext HDD connecting it to the TV via USB. It works fine.
Planning for some better option in the future after I upgrade to NAS.
I am having 2 CAT 5e laid till the bedroom from the TV/media Unit in the Hall. This will be connected to a HDMI over CAT wall plate and I have HDMI.
This way if I am not watching DTH in the living room then I can redirect that signal to the bedroom over HDMI(over CAT :) ) and use my cell phone to control the DTH through Harmony Link.
 
onlyravi said:
Hi,

I just purchased a new flat and I am in the process of renovating it.
I thought that since I am going to do the furniture, decor and coloring I might just redo the wiring and make my house "Wired".

So here is what I have thought of so far.
1)Using Cat5e through out. Not interested in CAT 6 as this is DIY project and I am not expert in networking. Gigabit should be good for Home use even with heavy video streaming.
Click to expand...
Since you own the house and the cost difference isn't that great i think cat6 is better than cat 5.

cat6 will allow 10gbs in the future whereas cat5e will max out at 1Gbps.

You might not need it now but how about ten years from now. Course this assumes you will still be in the same place that long. Your call.

onlyravi said:
2)Planning to keep everything concealed as much as possible.
Click to expand...
How about running the cables outside the house with holes punched into the window frames for each room. This way all you see is just the patch panel in each room.

The downside with this design is you will be daisy chaining input/output in each room to the previous room. Any break in the cable downstream will take out all connections upstream. Its a series connection.

If the cables are accessible (ie on the ground floor) this might not be too much of an issue. It will also add a little more latency to the connection at the far end as the signal will have to traverse various interfaces on the way. Your cabling skills will have to be good to make this acceptable.

However a star topology will perform better, is more fault tolerant and easier to troubleshoot.

onlyravi said:
This is how its all planned.
Its a 1BHK house with a big terrace. So I am planning
1) 2 RJ 45 ports on the terrace where the ISP will terminate their lines. (1 for backup connection)
2) The terrace will also have 2 co-axial termination points if I plan to go for HD or DVR DTH services in future. For now I am good with ICC Digital
3) The main switch will be kept in the living room below the TV unit. So planning to have like 8 RJ 45 ports terminated in the wall there with the Cable wires from the terrace. This point in the living room will be like the control unit for all my stuff.
4) 3 RJ 45 to the bedroom. 1 for Network and 2 for Audio Video / HDMI signals from living room. (Google HDMI over CAT extender)
5)Terminate one RJ 45 port out on the entrance passage for IP Camera. (Passage is L shaped and 10X4 feet)
6)One RJ45 port behind the couch just Opp to my TV. No particular use. Just for future so that no cables run across the hall.

My media Unit will contain all these equipment.
1)TV wall mounted. 42" LG LW5700.
2)DTH box.
3)XBOX 360. with Kinect mounted above the TV.
4)Control Console for Logitech Z906.
5) ASUS WL-500gP V2 (Will be replaced with some n or AC model after few months)
6) Bluetooth receiver for Audio. (To be purchased) So that I can connect my cell phones and laptop wireless to my Z906.
7)Logitech Harmony Link or Harmony Smart :) (To be purchased)
8)Raspberry PI.
9) A 8 port Gigabit switch. (To be purchased)
10) My Logitech Z906 speaker system will sit besides. The inputs are on the back of the sub-woofer so need to keep this nearby.
11) Two External HDDs. - Planning to replace them with NAS or Drobo Box in the future.

The apartment is small so a single wifi router should suffice.
In the Bedroom I have a 23" LCD Monitor with HDMI Inputs. And a Artis 2.1 speaker set.
In the kitchen - Nothing... :) Planning to buy a independent Bluetooth speaker later only for the kitchen.

Currently I am looking for Face plates which can hold 4-8 RJ45 ports.
I will be doing the cabling myself and sourcing all the cables locally. The fittings and concealed wire installations will be done by a professional electrician.
Also please let me know if there is any more that I should plan for or take into account now only.
Any other suggestions most welcome.
Click to expand...
Ensure earthing in the house is proper and you have adequate surge protection.

During the monsoons, there is a tendency for surges to occur and with a wired setup, one spike can take out a lot of nics. You cannot be present all the time to disconnect devices so a more practical solution needs to be found.

Since you will be sourcing materials locally, i think you need to need to be aware of quality differences in wires & interfaces. Basically to cut on price, they cut on copper and this can affect signal quality some. There is no way to tell them apart other than price or somebody with experience of brands.

Whether its significant is what sets the branded devices apart from the generics. Check out the prices and go mid-range or better. Cheapest is not the best.
 
@blr_p I will settle for Cat 5e as the max usage will be for streaming HD content across rooms. The wiring will be concealed inside a pipe and a small cutting will be done in the walls to carry those pipes across walls and rooms. Just like they do for electrical wiring of a new house. So incase a LAN cable is faulty it can be replaced without damaging the walls :)
I am also channeling the network cables from a totally different pipe to isolate them from the noise of electrical wiring.And using a wider diameter pipe so that 2 wires can be added or changed in future.
Flat is on 2nd floor. Mainly there are only 2wired rooms. Living room and Bedroom. Since the Switch will be in Living room it will be a star topology using gigabit switch.
Earthing will be tested again but monsoon spikes will still be a risk for internet lines.
My friend owns a electrical and electronics shop so will be sourcing most of the material from him. He gives me dealer rates. (Hence the future proofing).
With wireless AC band coming in, even wifi will be powerful now but somehow I still prefer wired network ... I find them easy and reliable.
I am using Intex or Dlink Cat 5e cable. I hope Intex is good. Any idea on Intex cables?
 
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onlyravi said:
I am also channeling the network cables from a totally different pipe to isolate them from the noise of electrical wiring.And using a wider diameter pipe so that 2 wires can be added or changed in future.
Click to expand...
Forgot to mention this but its advisable that the distance between electrical & network cables be no less than 15 inches to minimise interference. Tube lights is another source of interfernce as well.

onlyravi said:
Earthing will be tested again but monsoon spikes will still be a risk for internet lines.
Click to expand...
When my nic got busted on two occasinons, the first time was a cable wallah connection coming through the trees. The second time was faulty ground resulting in the desktop taking out the laptop nic (!)

ADSL Airtel did not cause a problem here.

onlyravi said:
With wireless AC band coming in, even wifi will be powerful now but somehow I still prefer wired network ... I find them easy and reliable.
Click to expand...
Agree, if you can use cable then go with it.

onlyravi said:
I am using Intex or Dlink Cat 5e cable. I hope Intex is good. Any idea on Intex cables?
Click to expand...
What is the cost differnce between the two ?
 
blr_p said:
Forgot to mention this but its advisable that the distance between electrical & network cables be no less than 15 inches to minimise interference. Tube lights is another source of interfernce as well.
Click to expand...
The electrical wiring is all done at the top part of the wall. Will redirect all new network cabling at the bottom end of the wall.
blr_p said:
What is the cost differnce between the two ?
Click to expand...
Both are almost same cost but Intex seems to be the running item here....
Is there any parameter to check the copper quantity in the cables? Some reading on the box or some code?

I will also be passing rear speaker cables for the rear speakers behind the couch.
 
If you look at the ethernet cables you get locally, there are two main variants - CCA (Copper Clad Aluminium) and Copper (Even this has sub variants depending on the amount of copper and other factors - CM, CMR, CMP etc). Almost all manufacturers have both these variants, and the CCA cables are very cheap and is not recommended at all. You can distinguish these cables easily by the smell of PVC and will be relatively light.

I've seen 100m CCA cable on eBay.in for about 500-600 shipped, so you can guess the quality of these cables.

http://serverfault.com/questions/79917/what-is-the-difference-between-pvc-and-plenum-cabling
http://www.cetecglobal.com/technologies/cabling/cca.htm
 
@varkey Thanks for that input. I was wondering why there is no difference in the price of CAT5e and CAT6.
I have decided to go for CAT6 cables from DLINK. Again what kind they are I am not sure. But will surely try to find out today evening. The max distance of a single node in my house will be 40feet tops. But from the cetecglobal.com link u shared I think its better to spend a little more and go for copper cables. Will get more info on the same.
Thanks @vishalrao I will go through that article also.
 
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Cat6 is not very different in price from Cat5e, and even Gigabit is sufficient for 4k+ streaming. Even so, Cat6 has a bit more performance headroom.

Any 8-module wallplate can take 8 Ethernet ports, but each port costs about Rs 200 or so - and Cat5e/Cat6 ports are about 300 each when I bought mine. I would much rather wire up a gigabit 8-port switch wherever you might need that many ports.I might suggest that single switch in a single location is probably not an efficient way to serve a network inside a home - unless you have dedicated server space. The other issue with the way you are planning this is that your main living room unit will have a bunch of wires for the switch emerging from it unless the unit is in-wall. And if it is, troubleshoooting the network will be a pain in the ass.

Lastly, I find that between fixed wire and a good 5GHz wireless connection, there is little difference in performance in real world terms. I have my main HTPC connected over Cat6 and a second machine over 5GHz N wifi off the same router and both display identical data rates for even file transfers - which is therefore limited by storage subsystems, not by the network. 2.4GHz is slower - not because of spec, but because of interference from other networks. Not to say that you shouldn't wire it up now, you absolutely should, but might think that you can judiciously route and mix connections to get the right network strategy. More wire means more chance for interference to leak into the router - specially from electricals. CFLs and tubelights, for example, can be very troublesome for both wireless and wired connections in their proximity.

In my case, I have a 4-port bog standard router and that serves 2 wired clients, has its third wired port terminated to a wallplate for later use, and the 4th is unwired for later expansion to wireline or other usage. There is also a wireless repeater 3 floors down, which provides internet service on the ground floor and a stable signal for an IP camera. 1 device on 2.4GHz band, and 2 on 5GHz. My flat is ~30 years old and I didn't want to punch the walls too thin, so I opted for a mix of wired and wireless for this round of renovations.

Good Luck.
 
... @cranky You are absolutely right about the cost of RJ 45 keystone jacks. But in my case
The biggest wall plate I could find is 4 port AMP NetConnect in Pune.
I will be sniffing the market 2moro for a bigger one else settle for 2 4port.
My living room is kind of center for all my equipment so I prefer to keep the switch here. It will be concealed in a wall hanging Media unit.
No of ports will be

Terrace - 2
Entrance - 2
Couch in Living Room - 1
Bedroom - 3
Living Room - 8 (this is where all ports from the house will terminate).
Total - 16.
Dlink Cat6 jack is costing me Rs 185 each. And plates are costing 70 each.
Total cost of ports + jacks = (185*16) + (6plates * 70) = 3380 for entire house. This will be cheaper than gigabit switch. Also Since these ports will be terminated in the wall a wall jack will be better than a cable hanging out to a switch in terms of wear and tear. Also I am not really bothered about trouble shooting later as I dont see any thing going wrong so soon. (If it does my bad luck).
Also I am not a heavy user and wont be using this network everyday for heavy usage. This DIY activity is just out of curiosity and coz I am currently in the process of doing my home.

I will try to post the floor plan which will give a clear idea. Its not a very big house nor messy cabling.
 
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I may be missing something here, but if you are not going to use a switch, how are you planning to interconnect all these cables terminated at a wall plate?
 
people have suggested some really good points. my inputs:
1) go for CAT6 cable
2) it'll be difficult to repair the cables in future if you make it a totally concealed installation. network cables easily get crumpled when passed through bends in concealed conduits. i faced some tough issues with my concealed network. but it's your choice in the end.
 
varkey said:
I may be missing something here, but if you are not going to use a switch, how are you planning to interconnect all these cables terminated at a wall plate?
Click to expand...
All the cables from diff places in my house (bedroom, terrace, couch,etc) will terminate at the wall plate inside the media cabinet. Then I will place a switch there and use small patch cables to connect each wall plate port to a port on the switch. Cost wise I am paying for the wall-plates and RJ Jacks used in them but
1) It gives me the tidiness of no cables hanging out of the wall.
2)In wall Cables are not pulled or handled each time I do something with the switch/cables, thus increasing the life and perf of my in wall cables.
3)Neatness of pulling the cables only from the wall plate to the Switch. (Wall plates are like my patch panel here) and shut off completely some port which is not being used.
4)I am planning to use flat CAT cables for patching from wall plates to switch.
5)Currently I will be using a router as I have not yet purchased the switch.
 
namrata said:
people have suggested some really good points. my inputs:
1) go for CAT6 cable
2) it'll be difficult to repair the cables in future if you make it a totally concealed installation. network cables easily get crumpled when passed through bends in concealed conduits. i faced some tough issues with my concealed network. but it's your choice in the end.
Click to expand...
Like I have said above I am using CAT 6 cable.
I am using PVC pipes for running the cables thru the walls so there is a scope for adding a wire or changing a damaged one + PVC will isolate the cables from further disturbance/noise.
 
@onlyravi : Ah ok, my bad. From your comment below, I thought you were avoiding the gigabit switch altogether. Using wall plates is definitely a cleaner solution. :)

onlyravi said:
...
Total cost of ports + jacks = (185*16) + (6plates * 70) = 3380 for entire house. This will be cheaper than gigabit switch. ...........
Click to expand...
 
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Added a rough floor plan to the main post. Tried to resize it to a thumbnail size but could not. Mods please resize it to a thumbnail if you can. Thanks.
 
@onlyravi For the coaxial cables, do not use any Airmaster cables. They are very hard to terminate; i.e. the external black coating tears off while making a connector. Airmaster cables can be recognized by taking a cross section of the cable, the internal while coloured foam has air pockets in them. Also opt for 95% copper cables. They tend to last longer and transmit the signal as required as opposed to cables that come with steel / aluminum mixed in them. They lose signals of some bands and those channels start tracking on STB's. The 95% copper wires will cost you more but they will ensure you get what you want, i.e. a setup where wires are not visible. Also insist on joining the coaxial cables with proper splitters (2 way or 3 way as required) coz if the electrician just joins the inner wire and the outer mesh, there will be lots of loss and the whole setup will fail.

And yes, those RJ45 face plates cost a bomb :(
 
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