Networking a Home with Cat5e

[Ice2Cool]

Hey guys,

So my adsl router is in one corner of the house, upstairs - and its the only telkom jack in the house. I need to get wireless throughout the house, so I bought a powerline adapter and another router - but the powerline adapter doesnt work very well - especially when I do something throughput intensive, the conenction seems to cut.

i have tried feeding a cat5e cable through the Electrical ducting, but the ducts are full and looks like I cant feed them through. I was chatting to a friend about this and he mentioned that feeding network cables through electrical ducting was illegal? I didnt realise this but dont want to do anything illegal?

Whats my best options then of networking my house? Its a 2 story house, about 250sqm. The wireless signal from the adsl modem router on the top floor to the bottom floor is really bad even with wireless N.

 

[medicnick83]

I wouldn't run network cables over long distances with electrical cables... not going to work... will cause interference... if it was 1m or 2m, then ok, but for long distances, don't do it.

 

[PsyWulf]

Ideally if you want it done right get some shielded Cat5 and get a cable company to run it through the walls imo

 

[medicnick83]

Ideally if you want it done right get some shielded Cat5 and get a cable company to run it through the walls imo

And budget to pay a nice amount for that job!

 

[PsyWulf]

Best option is not necessarily the cheapest,the 2 are usually mutually exclusive

 

[LCBXX]

Just do it. Cat5e is cheap/m and unless you have some serious voltage running through your ceiling, the speed loss to interference is negligible of you connect 100meg-full-duplex.
Just make sure you buy solid stranded Cat5e. You should be able to do your whole house for less than R200, excluding a crimper. I even use Cat5e to carry RCA-AV signals to the diffirent rooms where there is TV (12-20m of Cat5e). Works like charm!

 

[FrancTheTank]

The easier option is maybe changing the location of your telkom port to the middle somewhere of your home, two strands and an extra phone jack are cheap as chips. Then using your wireless N connection.
my 2 cents..

 

[AstroTurf]

Easiest two options:

Either go wireless or run the cables outside the house.

 

[grok]

Or you could try those internet over power plugs, one at the phone jack, one at the comp all connected via existing power lines.

 

[SirFooK'nG]

just use Securestic glue, glue the cable to the top corner of the ceiling, paint over it. Or you can buy trunking, use no nails glue to stick it onto the walls. Run the cable in the trunking. Take shortcuts by drilling completely through a wall with a 20mm+ drill bit, insert a piece of 20mm conduit, plaster fill to keep it all neat (you can do the same to go through the 1st floor to the ceiling of the ground floor - you will need a really good drill such as a Hilti) . Many ways to run cabling neatly and inexpensively.

 

[bin3]

I had a company (http://www.crankshawnet.co.za) do mine, worked out fairly cheap; done very quickly and never looked back.

If you are experienced it's pretty easy to do but it's a crap job imo: Save a bit and get a cabling company to do it and just enjoy.

Would maybe recommend looking at Cat6 though -- I know it's more expensive, and I know that theoretically Cat5E is just as good, but if you are going to do it, you can just as well do it well ...

 

[BeoTeK]

just use Securestic glue, glue the cable to the top corner of the ceiling, paint over it. Or you can buy trunking, use no nails glue to stick it onto the walls. Run the cable in the trunking. Take shortcuts by drilling completely through a wall with a 20mm+ drill bit, insert a piece of 20mm conduit, plaster fill to keep it all neat (you can do the same to go through the 1st floor to the ceiling of the ground floor - you will need a really good drill such as a Hilti) . Many ways to run cabling neatly and inexpensively.

Agreed!