cat 5e cable for home. need help

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chinked|out

Gawd
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
Messages
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i was thinking about doing some self cat5e wiring for my new home. i need approx 200-500ft cable from my router to my living room. ws wondering if the brand of the cable or the style of the cable that is good even with bending. something that won't loose data over the transfer. does brand actually matter? where do i buy these? i don't know how to strip cable so i need something with connectors on both end.
 
Uhh, the standards limit the length of a run to 100 meters (roughly 300'), just so you know.
Also, if you bend any cable to much it will have problems, their isn't a way around that since it's just copper wire.
 
i sorta have the same problem, just wondering could you do like 300ft of cat5e cable, then have a hub/switch/something cheap/small to connect it to another 300ft cat5e cable? would that work or not so much?

if that doesnt work i guess fiber would be an option? but i donno really anything about it and i think its pretty expensive
or u could go wireless
 
with typical cat5e (ie: unshielded twisted pair, or UTP), each cable length can go up to 100 meters (~300 feet) between machines/hubs/switches/routers/etc. the largest pre-made cables i've seen in a brick/mortar store is 100-feet, so that's well under what you're needing.

cat5e can be bought (depending on where you live) for about $45-65 for a 500-foot spool from just about any large chain home improvement store. crimpers are about $10-20 (or higher if you want really nice ones), and the connectors are dirt cheap.

if you need more than 300-feet of wire distance, then with the UTP wire you will need some switch or hub between two 300-foot-maximum lengths of cable. if the wire length is less than 300-feet, then use a single length of UTP wire.

alternatively, STP (shielded twisted pair) can go up to 500 meters in a run, but that's a lot more expensive per foot of cable.
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so what does all this info mean for you? your first task is to find out exactly the length of the cable run you need to do, then decide what wiring method from the above info to use.

and if you're not wanting to make the cable yourself, then goto a networking computer store, and ask them if they can make you a cable. i did that a few times in the past when i couldn't justify buying the extra tools and tester at the time, and i was charged the cost of the wire, plus a little extra for the labor.

hth !!
 
sm0k3d said:
i sorta have the same problem, just wondering could you do like 300ft of cat5e cable, then have a hub/switch/something cheap/small to connect it to another 300ft cat5e cable? would that work or not so much?

if that doesnt work i guess fiber would be an option? but i donno really anything about it and i think its pretty expensive
or u could go wireless
Click to expand...

That would work fine.
 
thanks for the help. i think i would be needing 200 ft cables. that should work fine with my network. does brand make any difference? also which kind is better for data transfer without loosing speed
 
My first question is, how big is this house? Up to a 500 ft run, that's 1.66 football fields!!!

My second question, if you can afford a house that big why not pay someone to do it?
 
Yeah, what is this. Trump Towers ?

PHUNBALL said:
My first question is, how big is this house? Up to a 500 ft run, that's 1.66 football fields!!!

My second question, if you can afford a house that big why not pay someone to do it?
Click to expand...
 
chinked|out said:
thanks for the help. i think i would be needing 200 ft cables. that should work fine with my network. does brand make any difference? also which kind is better for data transfer without loosing speed
Click to expand...
not really from what i've worked with. the bulk box of cat5e at home depot is what i've been using (the normal stuff, not the plenum-rated stuff that's designed to run alongside vents or air conditioning ducts).

if you want to ensure that the cable is correct, you can get a line tester for cheap.

realistically, your primary bottleneck on speed would be the router/switch (ie: brand, 100 Mb vs. Gigabit, etc.), and the number of hops that a packet would have to go through to go from one point on the network to another.

if you have about $6-10 thousand burning a hole in your pocket, you could go and buy a line validator that actually tests the physical speeds achieved through a line (though this is really only used in large-scale multi-floor building wiring projects that requires a team of people working for days on installations). not something for the home user at all. :D
 
PHUNBALL said:
My first question is, how big is this house? Up to a 500 ft run, that's 1.66 football fields!!!

My second question, if you can afford a house that big why not pay someone to do it?
Click to expand...

With a 100,000 square foot house, I would imagine he's a bit house poor :D
 
PHUNBALL said:
My second question, if you can afford a house that big why not pay someone to do it?
Click to expand...

Penny wise, Dollar foolish comes to mind. (not accusing the OP of this, just see a lot of this mentality)

I think he's overestimating... that or he doesn't want to drill holes and would rather pull wires around walls rather than through them. Making cables is easy... obviously has internet access... google it. Plenty of sites available that show the order of wires needed.

Cabling tip for the do-it-yourselfers... NEVER FORCE A WIRE BY PULLING ON IT. Wires should be pulled gently... if you have to force it, you may damage it... find the kink or restriction, fix it, continue routing the wire path.
 
NordicRX8 said:
Cabling tip for the do-it-yourselfers... NEVER FORCE A WIRE BY PULLING ON IT. Wires should be pulled gently... if you have to force it, you may damage it... find the kink or restriction, fix it, continue routing the wire path.
Click to expand...

That, and fish tape is your friend. steel cable won't kink or run somewhere that will easily kink cable; then it's (usually) just a matter of making sure your cable keeps a bit of tension so that it coil back on itself.

It helps greatly to have a second person minding the box if you're pulling off a spool to make sure no loops get fed through.
 
well it's a 3800 sq ft house. 3 stories. so i need to route cables along the wall from 3rd to 2nd floor. doing internal wall stuff would cost a lot right? over $5000. i don't want to spend that kind of money just to install cables
 
chinked|out said:
well it's a 3800 sq ft house. 3 stories. so i need to route cables along the wall from 3rd to 2nd floor. doing internal wall stuff would cost a lot right? over $5000. i don't want to spend that kind of money just to install cables
Click to expand...

Um, not really. You can run wires through your house all by yourself. Doing internal wall stuff is the easiest kind (no insulation to worry about). Just don't drill into the celing somewhere (I've done it in the kitchen once before...)

You might even look into a wireless solution. Get a directional antenna for an access point (uses all its energy in one direction rather than all directions), and receive it up on the third floor, where it then goes back to wired.

No wires to run. The question would be wether or not the wireless would reach (it probably will if you use directional).
 
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