Thread: To run cables or not??

cable. Saves on WiFi repeaters to get over poor speeds etc.

Go and speak to the electrical cable retailers and ask them what is being put into premises these days.

When I put in more tv antenna points around the house (1 to each bedroom) I also ran in 2 x cat 5 to each point as well, and also did 2 x cat 5 behind each of the existing points as well as I have devices that use the internet as well.

Currently these run on wireless but you get much better performance over wires than wireless.

If you have access I would run connections to anywhere you think you may want one in the future as the cost of the cable is negligible compared to having to try and do it later.

You should check the difference in price between cat 6 and cat 5e as both will most likely do what you want (cat 6 has slightly better specs and better resistance to crosstalk so may only be better if you want a really long run) and if cat 5e is significantly cheaper should be considered. I went cat 5e when I did home as I picked it up from a wholesaler for less than $50 a box, compared to cat 6 at the time was heaps more expensive.

Wifi I found is good for when you want to be mobile or for quick connectivity, whilst a permanent device is better on fixed. Depending on where you live and who else is using wireless around your wireless may not work real well (I have seen this lots of times in my work). If you do want to run wireless buy a purpose built Wireless Access Point which has diverse antennas, and will allow you to mount the Access Point in the best location even if its not where your internet is, the one I currently got can be powered via Poe which is very useful as well. I also installed quite a few for work and they were far better than any of the low end ones and not that much more expensive.


Richard

I went and had a look for the Access Points I was installing at work and these are the ones (not that I have bought them from here):

Ubiquiti Unifi AP Wireless Access Point UAP 2 4GHz 802 11N UAP | eBay

We used to buy them in 3 packs for about $400. These allow you to place multiple point around the office/home and use the same wireless setting in each one and it will pick the best access point.

If you go to there web site you can download the management software, and if you have a scale drawing of your place it will allow you to place the location of the access point on it and it will give you a good indication of the coverage.

I found that these will go through floors quite easily if you have 2 stories and have a good coverage zone.

I would personally still run cables and use these for mobile/casual access.


Richard

Yep, run two cat 6 cables to the TV points. One for the telly and one for another device such as gaming console. The bedroom could be adequately serviced by wireless but if it's easy to run a cable, why not.

At the risk of stating the 'bleeding obvious', for TV and Ethernet all cables must be run from a central point and not looped point to point as is done with the AC power wiring.

This is not in any way to infer you don't know this Weeds but a casual reader may be unaware of this.

Deano

PS. Don't run either of these cables through the same holes that carry power, bad for interference and safety. Also illegal.

Personally I always run cable instead of Wi-Fi. Yes Wi-Fi is great, but you will always get faster, more reliable speeds via cable...

Yes I would run cat 6 to all of the rooms - you never know what you might want to do in the future, and it's much easier to run cable now rather than later...

That's just my 2 cents worth!

Originally Posted by DeanoH

PS. Don't run either of these cables through the same holes that carry power, bad for interference and safety. Also illegal.

Do you know which specific standard or regulation covers this?

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Do you know which specific standard or regulation covers this?

Cant remember the actual Standard, (AS3000 maybe) but, from memory, there has to be a minimum of 300mm physical separation between power & data.

This also applies for mains voltage, and low (think 12v) cables.

So, make sure you plan your cable runs, as the electrician that does the final connections wont, or shouldn't, pass it if it doesnt meet the regs.