Hi y’all,
I’m getting a new house built and builder has asked me if I want cat 5 connections installed. I am thinking of having these cat 5 ports installed where the tv’s will be and where my office will be. Wifi for rest of the devices. It’s a three story house. Would cat5 wiring be run separately from each port to a central location in the basement? Im guessing that my main internet line to the house will come into basement.
Would I install modem in the basement and individually connect all these cat5 wires into the modem? Do I require anything else from the builder side? Does a wifi booster need a cat5 port? Anything else you guys foresee I should get before the drywall goes in?
Sorry for the noob questions. House is in Canada if it matters (we have optic)
Thanks!
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Yea the wires should run to a central location. Wifi boosters typically repeat a wireless signal, but you can install wireless access points that are plugged in and can form a cohesive wireless network with proper handover and mesh, but you’d need to hire someone as that’s more of a prosumer /professional thing. The wireless whole home coverage from your ISP is probably just going to be wireless repeaters.
If you don’t have enough ports on your ISP modem just add a switch.
Thank you for the response. If a add a router, would all the wires have to run to the router? I’m thinking of running all the wires to the modem in the basement and then have a router on the third floor through cat 5 port. Am I thinking about this correctly?
Not at least by the terms used.
A modem converts say cable/dsl/fiber to ethernet.
A router plugs into that and does NAT to hide your internal network from the world. Technically it’s a firewall but typically misused term is router in home networking.
A switch plugs into that.
Wireless AP’s plug into that along with any wired devices.
Your ISP will often give you one box thats all of these things in one.
The modem in the basement connected to a router with one more more AP’s around the house. I have 4700 sqf on 3 levels it’s 3 AP’s to get excellent coverage.
That makes sense! Mine is 2200 sqft. I think with modem in the basement and AP on the main-floor via cat, I should be good
Not even close. Think of everything else you will want hard wired for. Extenders are not worth the trouble if you can get a good wired AP to various locations.
It depends on the wall materials and thickness. It may not reach the far corners on upper and lower floors.
You will likely also see significantly reduced wireless speeds. At the moment with best in class wifi you may be able to reach 1.5Gbps near the router, but that could be 200Mbps or less a few rooms away.
I agree with others that you should run cat6a to all rooms. But atleast run to each floor so you can connected wired access points for better wifi.
You should never use a wifi extender, and mesh may not work good if distances and building materials attenuate the signal too much. Nothing beats wired for reliability.
Another thought, if your additional router is just for wifi then plug in via a LAN port not its WAN port, then it’s just for wifi and won’t do any routing. You’ll want to disable DHCP on it so it won’t fight with your ISP router.
It all really depends on what your ISP gives you, if they give you a modem-router combo device then that has to stay in the basement, and all the home runs connect to it or your switch and then to it.
If they give you a modem and a separate router like an eero or something, that separate router could go anywhere as long as it runs back to the modem over one of the cats. You could also connect your own routers WAN port to one of the combo modem-rourers LAN ports and then ignore it from there, unless you need to change port rules or whatever. But your switch needs to be connected to your router not the ISP one, which ignores those home runs you put work in for.
The hierarchy is modem > router > switch > device.
Cat6a. The wall jacks and cabling should be cat6a. Also, run two per run. It’s cheap wire, but the labor isn’t any more.
A patch panel is nice but not essential.
Run it all to a central location, where a switch will tie them all together.
Your cable modem/router can be anywhere that a cable is at, or put it in the central location.
You can use the cable to connect devices or wireless APs.
You want cat 6 ran to all bedrooms, offices, backyard, garage, living room and family room. Minimum 1 run per room.
er side? Does a wifi booster need a cat5 port? Anything else you guys foresee I should get before th
This is the answer, if its a new build put it in every room, why not?
$$$$$$
Because these shitty fucking builders charge $100/drop when walls are open, even if it’s 4 drops to the same spot. Highway robbery, honestly
I like wired better than wireless in every case. If you have any locations where you want security cameras I would provide for them in addition to televisions, computers, and other electronics. In particular I would include cat6 to locations where you would have flood lights etc. on the outside of your house to provide for future POE cameras. Make sure that your ethernet runs go back to a place that is suitable as a wiring closet including appropriate space for rack mounting nas, media server, video network controller or other hardware you may desire. The wiring closet should also be where cable, phone, fiber, etc. come in and are distributed to the rest of the home/property.
Cat6 is all I would accept. If they are installing cat5 they have no idea of cabling. Walk away. Anyway, network drops are least of use now. We install 2 cat6 lines for every TV or other devices so client can use for IR transmitting and other smart home functions. And prewire for hard wired cams, access points whether you use them or not. Even upper end doorbells are POE now, so run cat6 home run to the doorbell along with regular bell wire. Home run everything, for standard homes. All devices in a nice size closet or rack space. You have no idea how much space amps and other things take till you have to install them. Cannot over emphasize how you should spend the money now to get that wire in the walls for things you might want later. And don’t let the ISP dictate where your internet should enter.
Cat6e minimum and shielded twisted pairs for permanent installations. You may not have interference from other things today, but it makes sure you don’t have it tomorrow either.
There is 1 starting point to which all things return, a main router/switch somewhere, could be your basement however, from there you can have multiple switches following that. It means you don’t necessarily have to cram 30 cables in 1 pipe.
For me, I have a Unify router with wifi downstairs which is immediately connected to a 16-port switch. From there it feeds the ground floor (TV, front door, few other things). From there a single cable connects to an 8-port switch in the attic. That switch connects the room in the attic, but also goes to the 1st floor through the roof to connect all those rooms. The office (through roof from the 8-port attic switch) has a pair of switches, 1 per sit/stand desk to keep them as much cable free as possible (only power + LAN).
BTW, based on how you formulated your question. Cat 5/6/7 are cable standards. RJ45 is the plug, which you find on hardware and in wall sockets.
Cat6e is the minimum you want nowadays, but better even is cat 7, but it’s also quite pricey still.
When it comes to the question of “how many wires to run?”, it will depend on your use cases where they terminate.
For example, I have one terminate are the front door. The use case is the came doorbell. It needs only 1 cable for ample capacity. Heck, capacity left over for another camera, maybe even 2.
Another example is the office/gaming room. Multiple screens and gaming, so more cables would be beneficial for both capacity and lag reduction with dedicated cables.
Note, for most “home” use cases, having 1 cable with at least 1Gbps throughput should be plenty. Less is plenty for only home automation products such as relays, lights, motion, and many other sensors. You should pay attention to throughput requirements for home security (video),as video does take a lot of bandwidth.
Another thing to note, just in case it applies to you. If you have the need for say 3Gbps throughput, but only use 1Gbps cables, some routers/switches allow the bundling of ports to be 1 (virtually fused to be 1). Meaning 3 ports of 1Gbps on a swiftch can be connected to 3 ports on a next switch and configured to be 1 connection. If this is something you need, make sure you get hardware that supports this feature (not standard on most hardware). This feature is called a channel group.