To run cables or not??

Nowadays I'd investigate running smooth conduit between your wiring points, put in your cat 6 cable now and use it to draw through whatever upgraded product turns up in 10 years time.

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Do you know which specific standard or regulation covers this?

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AS3000 covers this, but I don't have my copy with me. There are minimum segregation requirements between data and mains, as there are with coax and mains power. You used to be able to get a double GPO with an antenna outlet in the middle, but there were a couple of deaths associated with this, so rules have changed.

It's not as far apart as you think though - I think it just has to be on a separate wall plate. All our new office partitions have data and power not far apart, but the exact distance I'm not sure of.

Hi,
I built in 1986, and ran smooth conduit every where from one access point in the garage, on someone's advice at the time. I was imagining some sort of intercom or security system, network in houses was unheard of at the time.

One of my better moves; now the modem lives in the garage and all the bedrooms have cat5.

cheers

Cables are soooo '90's. Having said that, my approach is to pick the top 3 or 4 candidates - either:

• bandwidth hogs
• critical/core devices
• devices that don't have wi-fi

and cable only them, providing they are unlikely to move. Everything else can go wi-fi. Eventually there will be no cat6 in the home...
In my home, the following have cat6:

• IP Phone base station
• My PC (doubles as media server and AULRO client)
• Wife's work laptop (saves me investigating "potential" wi-fi issues if her VPN drops out!)
• The most-used Apple TV

Other PCs, laptops, TVs, Blu-ray players, phones, iPads, printers, xBox etc are all on wi-fi.

FWIW, my WiFi router is bolted upside down to the ceiling in the centre of the house up stairs in an out-of-sight location. It gives me great coverage in and around the house. The power is fed through from the roof cavity.

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Originally Posted by bacicat

AS3000 covers this, but I don't have my copy with me. There are minimum segregation requirements between data and mains, as there are with coax and mains power. You used to be able to get a double GPO with an antenna outlet in the middle, but there were a couple of deaths associated with this, so rules have changed.

It's not as far apart as you think though - I think it just has to be on a separate wall plate. All our new office partitions have data and power not far apart, but the exact distance I'm not sure of.

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I don't remember the exact measurement that is needed for segregation when going down the wall, the reason I believe you could run them in the office is because they have separate channels for the different cables.

Richard

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Originally Posted by WhiteD3

I'd run the CAT6 cables for sure while you have a chance.

Having said that, I've just built a new gaming PC for No2 son and put an "n" dual band wireless card in it ($45) to match the "n" wireless router they have at their end of the house. The connection speed is 300mbps! The best you get from the CAT6 is 100 unless you've got a gigabyte router.

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You get 300mbps until you connect a second device or there is a lot of wifi in your area, then it will drop off really quickly.

Unless your internet is 300mbps you wont get that either, you will share 300mbps to your access point only.

My network at home is a mixture of gigabit ethernet, 300mbps wireless and ethernet over the power lines as well, I still get better throughput on the ethernet connections streaming high definition. When I go to the internet the limiting factor is the ADSL2 which only syncs up at about 10Mbps.

Richard

Don't know about this separation requirement for power and signal. In office buildings workstations have a cable tray where power and cat5 or 6 cable is run. It may be a case of what insulation rating you have?