Google "HOW TO FISH WALLS"

I suggest you scope out your attic first. See if you can get to the top plate to drill the hole (down into the stud bay) before you start knocking holes in walls. Avoid outside walls. Watch out for blocking in the walls. Get a stud finder. And don't put the Cat5 in the same bay as the house wiring.

Or switch to a wireless router.

Go up in the attic with a drill, a sharp bit 3/4 to 1", and a good flashlight. Locate the wall you want to enter. Drill two holes in the top plate. If it is a double top plate you will need a bit extension or just chuck the bit close to the end where it will be long enough to push thru.
Shine your light down one hole and look down the other. This way you will be able to see if there are any obstructions or blocking. You can stick a ruler down if there is room, to see if it is open to the floor.

Then, go to the room and cut out a piece of drywall the size of an old work box, or an old work ring, which you will install after you pull the cables in, to give you something to mount your plates to. Just trace the box or ring, then cut it out. Be sure to get it level, since LV plates have no adjustment.

Next, get a length of ball chain, sash chain, or a dog leash chain. Something that will smoothly drop down the wall, about 12 feet. If you decide to use your dog's leash chain, make sure he is securely stashed away in the backyard first where he won't hear it! Fasten it to your Cat 5 and feed one end down the wall thru the hole you drilled in the attic. have your helper reach into the 2 x 4 hole you cut in the drywall and catch it, and pull in the proper length. Put it in the old work box, or thru the ring, punch it down to your jack, and screw the wall plate on.

If you have plaster instead of drywall it's harder to cut for the box. If you have wall blocking you will have to cut a hole in the wall and notch the blocking, then feed the chain thru. If you try to use ordinary chain it will hang up.

Just curious, nathan, as an IT guy, why aren't you going wireless?

Thanks for the suggestions - the reason I won't use wireless is because of the security and speed losses.

-Nathan

I'll make another off subject suggestion...use CAT6. May as well be ready to take advantage of it's capabilities when you want.

Noffo...why not use a stud bay with house wiring? I've had more than one person tell me it won't cause a problem (if you're talking about noise on the line) Are they wrong?

cobraguy, you can cross over house wiring, but when run parrallel all ethernet and telco cabling should be kept at least 12 or more inches away from AC lines to prevent voltage induction and noise. easiest way to do this in a closed cavity is to stay out of the same stud bay.

As I understand it, the only advantage of cat 6 over 5e is the longer uninterrupted runs of cable, it doesn't permit any higher speeds....

I'm glad I read this, I've been planning to run cat 5e in my place myself, and I want to add recessed lighting in my upper floor too - I had been planning to try to fish wire directly down to my breaker box, but I hadn't thought of the issue with the insulation, since it's in the outside wall. I didn't really want to add to any existing circuits, since it looks like one breaker covers a ridiculous portion of the upstairs power and lighting already (pretty sure it was original wiring 25 odd years ago, and consequently ought to be up to the British Columbia code of the time, but I want to add separate circuits...so how does one fish an outside wall if you have to, without ruining the insulation? I could probably fish an inside wall, but not easily....and I doubt the space where the furnace/hw chimney runs is a legal or sensible place to do it, either. I suspect I'll be cutting some access places in the ground floor ceiling and using plenum cable.

I'm no IT guy, but I have owned a computer since 1987. In my present system I have one computer hardwired into my hub, and two laptops on wi-fi. We are WAY out in the country, so security is not a concern, and for what we do, I can't say I've ever noticed a problem with speed when we use the laptops. Of course, we only use them for web surfing and basic word processing, so I have no idea how they would work for other uses. I do my heavy spreadsheet and database work on the hardwired PC.

The only one who ever has a problem is our son, whose Apple seems to have a very hard time staying connected. All other visiting Apple users have not had the same problem, and they love that they just have to open their latops anywhere in or near the house and start working, and not have to plug in to our network. All in all we've been very pleased with our wi-fi system, and anything that keeps me out of the attic, running wires in 110 degrees, is a very good thing.

btw, instead of cutting the wall to avoid blocking, one can get a long drill bit at places like HD etc. that's over four feet long--that allows drilling a hole in that block.

cobraguy says:
"I'll make another off subject suggestion...use CAT6. May as well be ready to take advantage of it's capabilities when you want."

It wouldn't hurt. It doesn't cost much more. But do you need it? Will you ever need it?

The thing is, most people aren't even fully utilizing CAT5e right now. How many people have gigabit ethernet in their home?

CAT3 handles 10Mbits/sec. CAT5 handles 100Mbits/sec. CAT5e handles 1Gbits/sec. CAT6 is expected to handle 10GBits/sec, but probably won't.

As a rule of thumb, divide the bits/sec by 10, and 75% of that is about the practical data transfer rate in bytes you can expect. YMMV. Using the appropriate network interfaces, that makes CAT3/10BT good for 750Kbytes sec, CAT5/100BT for 7.5Mbytes/sec, CAT5e/1GBT good for 75Mbytes/sec and CAT6/10GBT good for 750Mbytes/sec.

If you're mainly using your home network for internet access then it really doesn't need to be any faster than your provider speed. Depending on your broadband provider, you could be getting 500-600Kbytes/sec right now. A 10BT network would be marginally sufficient, and a typical 100BT network is several times more than enough.

Even if your computers are talking to each other, then 100BT is plenty and 1GBT is luxury. It'll be a long time before you see 10GBT in consumer hardware.

cobraguy says:
"Noffo...why not use a stud bay with house wiring? I've had more than one person tell me it won't cause a problem (if you're talking about noise on the line) Are they wrong?"

Its a general rule. You probably wouldn't be able to detect a problem. But there could still be a problem. For example, checksum errors will cause packet retransmits. You'll have a loss in performance even though things will work.

http://web.anixter.com/anixter/anixter.nsf/StandardsGuides/ElectromagneticInterference