Home Networking

Following on from this thread on the Fibre Broadband page, I have just purchased a new property and am in the process of moving in.

I had an Openreach engineer round yesterday to install the OR G/Fast Modem, whilst he was there I mentioned some "network cabling" that the previous owner had installed. According to the engineer the cable is actually alarm cable, and it's in a pretty poor condition.

Long term I now need to think about how to replace this cable in order to hardwire some of my components. I have a Desktop PC I prefer to have Hardwired, I have a Network Amp, I now have a Network Audio player (purchased with the house), and the CCTV DVR is networked.

Also I have a Summerhouse which appears to have one of the same cables inside it, so I assume a run was made from the house to the Summerhouse.

Would I be right in saying: Use CAT5e/CAT6 UTP cable for inside, and then something like this for the run from the house to the Summerhouse?

It's not something I can do in the short term, as the main room floor is wood as is the bedroom floor (where the DVR is located).

In the meantime I may have to resort to a PowerLine adaptor/system for now.

Any opinions/views/recommendations welcome.

TIA

Edited by CJT (Tue 12-Jul-22 10:24:32)

Yeah you have the right idea, you can fairly painlessly run ethernet cables around the house if you happen to have a crawl space under the floor if you have a concrete floor there's no easy way, have you tried the existing runs they will probably still work at 100mb so still usable.

I'd strongly recommend fibre for any inter-building connections. When lightning is nearby, currents can be induced in copper cabling which can damage equipment, not to mention humans.

You'll just need a switch with an SFP port at each end, a pair of 1000baseLX SFPs (less than a fiver each from fs.com), and a cable with at least one fibre pair which you can get pre-made and pre-terminated to the correct length - although I'd go with at least 4 pairs because "you never know". You definitely want single-mode fibre: it is the one that telcos use, and it is both better *and* cheaper than multi-mode. You will be terabit-ready

If you decide to do it with CAT5e or similar, then there are special network surge arresters you should install at each end. They must be properly bonded to earth. (The same does apply to fibre cables, if they have metallic sheath).

cat5e is much easier to work with than cat6 which is a much stiffer cable. Although cat5e is rated for gigabit, it'll do 2.5Gb on the relatively short cable runs you'll have in your home (I'm assuming it's not a mansion).

Also I have a Summerhouse which appears to have one of the same cables inside it, so I assume a run was made from the house to the Summerhouse.

Would I be right in saying: Use CAT5e/CAT6 UTP cable for inside, and then something like this for the run from the house to the Summerhouse?

Fibre it…safer, cheaper, faster, upgradeable on tap…

https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/multiuser/f/468521...

You can do quite a bit with wifi these days and it is easier to install. I have rj45 outlets in most rooms of my house, but then the first router I bought which was reviewed on this website did not have wifi.

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

I think I may get a CAT5e or CAT6 run from the house installed, I found some UI Ethernet Surge Protector's which should protect the CAT cable at each end. I can then run a length of internal CAT cable back to the switch.

In the mean time I have another issue to resolve, I need to have WiFi in the Summer House to run some smart lights, so I think I need a Wireless Access Point?

I found this and this from TP Link wondering if either would be suitable at all?

Thanks in advance.

Edited by CJT (Wed 27-Jul-22 20:32:29)

If you only need wifi in the summer house it should be fine, if you might have anything connected by ethernet you can get ap's with a 4 port switch as well.

In reply to a post by DG834MAN:

If you only need wifi in the summer house it should be fine, if you might have anything connected by ethernet you can get ap's with a 4 port switch as well.

Thank you DG834MAN, I took the plunge and bought it. It's working fine for my needs.

Just wanted to keep it basic for now. Next task is installing a proper fibre connection from the house to the Summer House.