I think I get it, Russ. I believe you were initially suggesting a closet beside the basement powder room for the structural closet. That could work. I became confused when you described that area as the main level. I consider the main level the one with the kitchen, great room etc. I like that basement closet as it is close enough to outside and centrally enough located (there is living space two floors above this basement closet as well). Any cons to a basement location for the structural cabinet?

I think we will avoid the garage for the structural cabinet as there is already a sea of wires coming form the main power box over the garage ceiling. Also we need to foam part of the garage ceiling as there is living space over the garage and the in floor heat needs lots of insulation to go up and not down to the garage.

Thanks!

Carol

Personally, I would advise putting the wiring cabinet as close to the middle of all your drops/runs as you can. In a residential environment, it's probably not that big of a deal since it would be extremely rare to have a 300ft drop in a house. It would be a good idea to make it fairly accessible if you're using modems/routers provided to you by your internet service provider. Depending on your service, you may have to power cycle those things occasionally to get them back working so having them accessible makes that a little easier as opposed to putting them up in a conditioned attic. I'm putting mine in the attic, but it's a managed router that I can log into remotely.

Thanks Brooks. I will make sure we can access the cabinet (not put too much storage in front of it). Do you see the centre of the basement as a logical spot for the cabinet (maybe the closet beside the basement powder room)?

Carol

So if I were doing that job, I would first see if there's anywhere to put it on the main floor, but that looks like it might not be the case for you. I would probably then go basement and try to find a spot where you can run conduit up to each floor without having to make any turns and break out your drops from there on each floor. It would be nice if the spot where the breakout on each floor was still accessible after walls are covered up. I would try to actually to keep a spare conduit to each floor as well if they will be accessible and probably one more up to the attic in case you wanted to run satellite or something like a tv antenna.

Hi everyone, I am a commercial network engineer building my first home and thought I could lend some tips and suggestions to this forum post.

Wireless networking (WiFi) is a bit of a black art. Typically in a home you would have a modem, which provides your internet signal from a provider (ISP). The modem then feeds to your router which handles your internet, network security and traffic from within your home. Sometimes these devices can be combined into one unit and/or also provide an antenna to distribute this signal wirelessly to all your connected devices.

Consumer wireless is provided on the largely unregulated 2.4GHz radio band. It is susceptible to interference in many ways. For example a cordless phones or your microwave oven can emit on the same 2.4GHz frequency interfering with the signal. Even rain falling outside can have a similar effect. In fact a microwave is simply using radio energy to heat the water content of your food to cook it. This along with the growing amount of 2.4GHz hotspots and a limited number of available channels in densely populated areas the standard grew to include the 5GHz radio band as well. Generally 2.4GHz has a greater range but slower connection speed than 5GHz which has a shorter range but faster connection speed. The latest 802.11 wireless standards, AC for example, include multiple radios allowing for simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz operation and most modern wireless devices, such as your mobile phone on tablet, have dual radio receivers and can switch between these bands to give you the most optimal signal.

Here is how I attacked this situation in my new home. The days of one centrally located WiFi base station just doesn't cut it anymore. With connected smart devices showing up in all corners of the house you literally want WiFi coverage in all corners of your house. The goal of my network system had to include these important features:

• Great coverage.
• Hardwire ethernet connections for video streaming devices.
• Expandability.
• Accessible remotely.
• Granular control.
• Seamless to the end user.

As I get the time I can go into detail on how I planned out my new home network if anyone is interested. Let me know I would be glad to help and answer any questions.

I agree with all the statements above. When I say place it somewhere, I am looking for a room, close to the center, main floor, etc.. but you have to keep in mind. (for instance):

1 - if you put it at the top of a 3-floor house, and run it to a basement, CAT6 has a max transfer rate of 100mbps (sorry.. said gbps earlier).. heh.. but as that approaches a distance of 164ft, it is degraded to the point of CAT5e.. so.. by placing it on the main floor, you get the full benefit of CAT6. To place it on one end or the other or top vs bottom of a house, you lose the benefit of having Cat6.

2 - I cannot see the designs well, so I look for a central closet or something to place the control box in. Lacking that (i.e. if your kitchen and den are center).. I do not advise adding it to a populated or traffic area, so I look for the closest access area to where the technicians will be adding your internet etc to the outside of the house (we added ours to the laundry room, behind the door.). Again, if you add it on the left side but time warner etc add the hook-ups to the right side, you can gave a very long run to get TO the box.

So, find an area tucked away and central to your home, not just one you think no-one will ever see (like an attic). Adding coverage is not about going through walls, like Wayland said, phones, electrical lines, etc all can add to disruption, hence why I always double up around the master bedroom.. to make momma happy ;)

Feel free to post your home layouts and I am sure one of us will be glad to offer advise!

Russ

Welp.. just got home...

Ontariomom, I will put this in here then look over yours and reply in another post, if that is okay?

First off, I am not an expert. I have a lot of years behind this
stuff, but there are people that do it for a living, me.. I handle this
sort of stuff for others, but I no longer do it for a living because I
don't like working in the heat.. lol So, it is always good to get some
help from people local and don't be afraid to talk it all out.

This stuff is a lot of "I want a PC here..." then, okay.. that is where I run a wire.

Take everything one wire at a time, and you will be fine. Don't think
of it as a network. Don't get that deep. If you do not do this for a
living, you will scare yourself to death and then pay a lot of money.
Just take it room by room and add onto a drawing every single thing you
want. Then, when you are done, if you have more than you can afford or
more than your cabinet will accommodate, scale back the things you don't
need.

Remember, you can always add a small hub later and split a network wall jack where you think you need another PC or something.

The goal is to run to every room and everything you will need and
cannot do after sheetrock.2nd goal... get quality in the things you
cannot replace easy. Like the 3 C's of building, Carpet, Cabinets,
Counter.. you have things you cannot replace easy in a network.. wiring,
wiring, wiring.. heh

It is okay if you cannot add a WAP (Wifi Access Point), just get the
wire to that location and cap it like you would an electrical outlet
that has a blank cover. You can add the WAP later.. but running the
wire.. that is hard.

Sorry if I ramble, but a lot of folks ask these questions and while
CP and others are awesome at house and kitchen design, I am not great at
that.. but this is right down my alley so I love helping folks ;)

In her house, I recognize 4 zones. (cp I will probably call them different numbers here, but they are just zones.. heh).

Zone 1, the office 1st floor left side.

Zone 2 the entire common area

Zone 3, the master bedroom

Zone 4 upstairs.

Always keep the router you split everything from in the control box.
Your line from your provider will feed whatever modem/router they give
you. Now, if you are okay with using that as your router, you are good
to go. Me, I like my own router as I like to control every single aspect
of my security. You all more than likely will never ever remote to your
router so using the one they provide is totally fine.

I could get 5 zones out of this, but efficiency can be added. In MY
home, the control box is located in between 2 zones so it is pointless
to add a wifi router when all the wifi access points overlap the box
area.I design a network to allow a WAP anywhere it a structure change
occurs. This is not a wall to a room, it is a change in the main
structure, like a hall goes off to another "wing" as in this. That marks
my zone.

Then, the master bedroom is always a zone. The owners never ever should worry about connectivity.

The common area is all one zone unless you live in 100 room homes.. lol

Now, WAPS come in ones or 3's, the quality ones like Ubiquiti.. lol... so I buy a box of 3.

If you look at her home, wifi can easily permeate upwards, so long as
there is no solar board, like the roof. So, you have three of them
covering the entire house so adding one upstairs in the middle, provides
more than enough coverage.

There's your three.

Now, CP loves her office upstairs and is a far more internet savvy
user than her husband who does not care about the network. It's okay..
he gets the wifi router anyway.. lol.. and CP's upstairs gets coverage
from all the others.

That is how you break down wifi. Master always (unless it is right
outside in the hallway anyway). Common areas center, any major structure
change. Look at what is covered downstairs and if all that coverage can
extend upwards to all areas of the upstairs, you center one upstairs
and you will blanket anything you have.

Do you need the one upstairs? maybe not, but it comes in 3's..
lol..so why not :( At 175 for 3 WAPs.. too darn cheap to go cheap.

---------------------------------------------------------

Network drops are in BLUE, COAX in YELLOW, WAPS in RED,
router/control box is GREEN plus you have an external WAP that is GREEN
in the back.

We like to sit on the deck a lot when it is cool. Wifi may or may not
travel outside especially if you have solar board etc... so...external
WAP is an easy way to enjoy that and yuo can add wifi cameras anytime ya
like. Plus, this one is positioned to provide excellent coverage for
CP's outside upstairs deck.

Network and Coax - While you see them on whatever wall, you can put
them anywhere. I pick where the TV will go and I drop a wall jack there
that looks like this:

You can even get the ones with a 3rd port for HDMI so your wires to
your cable box etc do not run up the wall, but you need to run a 5-15 ft
hdmi cable through the wall ahead of time also. Not hard, we have
them.. but I did not want to confuse you all.. heh. Run what you can
behind the walls.

Speaker wires are the same.

I'll let all that soak in and answer Ontariomom's question.. heh
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Okay, thanks Russ, Wayland and Brooks. I will try for a spot in the laundry room as that is the east side, the same side where the lines come into the house and overtop of the garage (electrical breaker box is in garage). I will likely put it in either the laundry room closet, or on the wall in a box. It is the centre floor (main floor), but over to one side of the house. The house is only around 35 feet wide at the maximum point (closer to 30 where the laundry is located, and ceilings are generally 8 foot tall)

I'm on a couple other forums and I'm getting conflicting info on the access points. Guys over on the Unifi forums are telling me one on each floor is plenty. I don't know what to do.

You bet. One on each floor can be plenty. I do not design for "plenty" I design for "damn right you have signal!" lol.

I am in a..1000-ish square foot apartment.. going to a house that is about 3000 sq ft, with an upstairs etc. I have issues with my wife and the roku not getting great signal every now and then just in 2 rooms away in the apartment.

You can get by with just a wifi router supplying the entire house. You can get by with a single hot spot / access point per floor. Does not hurt to add a 2nd one on a floor, etc

Each AP can cover a 300ft radius. Add in electrical lines, microwaves, cell phones, cordless phones, wifi cable boxes.

Totally up to you. Will not hurt to add more, and you will never get another chance to run a wire through a wall this easy.

I will not be offended in the slightest if you go to 1 per floor.. heh, it is all about whether you have the money to buy a couple more APs and whether you want to worry about it.

R

p.s. huge project going on at work today and tomorrow so if I respond slow after this, sorry. I will respond, but may be slow ;)

Russ and Wayland Kramer,

It sounds like wifi signals do not go through concrete block walls very well - is that correct?

I'm building a new home: Essentially two stories plus finished basement, so let's say three stories. Small footprint but 3 stories. Concrete block construction. Wood trusses between floors. Metal roof.

Plan to use Comcast xfinity for TV and Internet. I assume they will provide a wireless router, and that it probably has 4 ethernet ports on it. I plan to place this on the main floor, in a centrally loaded mechanical room near the electrical panel, along with the "Optical Network Terminal" (modem).

It's my hope that the provided wireless router will service all three stories of the main part of the house, since it will be centrally located on the middle floor, and since the main part of the house has a small footprint. What do you think?

The house will have a "wing" off of the main level, separated by a concrete block wall, that I'm guessing might need one of these wireless access points.

And the house will have a lot of covered outdoor areas. Signals would have to pass through concrete block walls to get outside. I'm guessing I'm going to need an outdoor wireless access point.

I'm planning a CAT6 run to each wireless access point (2 of them) and to each TV in the house (6 of them). I'm also going to have 4 cameras that are wifi, but I was thinking of running CAT6 to them anyway. That's 8 or 12 (if I include cameras) devices that I want a CAT6 run to, but the provided router only has 4 ethernet ports.

To handle my 8 or 12 CAT6 runs, I think I need to get two switches (hubs), one with a POE injector (for WAPs) and one without, or else one big one with some POE ports and some regular. Any advice on this?

Last question: when running CAT6 cable, can a POE-run and a regular run be right next to each other and tied together? Or do they need to be kept physically separate the same way that you don't want to run CAT6 next to an electrical line?

Any other comments at all? Thank you!

Russ, I agree with you I will probably go with around 4 inside the house to ensure good coverage.

As I continue to stuggle as to where to put this structural cabinet, I wondered two things:

1)What would be the approx width/height and depth that I would need to find room for? I can see the image posted by Russof a finished structural wiring cabinet in the July 2016 building post does not look very deep. However, do we not need extra depth for the router?

2)Also, how much regular access would I need to the cabinet? So if it is behind hanging laundry, coats or among pantry goods, how much of a nuisance would that be?

Carol

The box goes between two "normally spaced" studs so I assume.. 18"? Let me see.. sec..

• Dimensional Data
• Height: 42 Inch
• Width: 14.38 Inch
• Depth: 3.6 Inch

That is mine. Now, it says 3.6" but when you install it, the tabs come out on the sides so it mounts about 1/2" above the frames, so plenty of room behind it that it does not stick out the other side of a 2x4 frame

That is the one I got.. and it has plenty of room. Cannot have too much, but you can have too little.

You can easily put it behind those clothes as you should not need to go in it any more than you would your breaker box. We put it behind the laundry room door.

R

Keywest - hard to say without a drawing, except that yes, wifi will have issues going through solid walls. Will it work? maybe, but it will not be as good of a signal.

The modem they provide may or may not have 4 ports. Either way, that is usually not enough for a "standard" home, much less one where you know it will need WAPs. I would say get yourself a small switch and use 1 of the 4 lines to feed the switch and then come off that to however many more lines you need, plus you will have the 3 other ports.

Not sure adding all the WAPs at this point, for you, makes a difference. Add the ones you want to add and if you need more, you still have to drill through concrete.. heh.

For PoE, just get a port injector. The injector is pretty cheap and it has 8 ports. I think the power supply for it depends on how many you want to actually use. look for 8 port poe injector on amazon. It is 20 bucks and they can tell you which power supply you will need.

Get a 16 port switch. This will be where all your lines come off of, then however many cameras you have, will route through the PoE injector and then to the cameras. The switch I got cost like 60 bucks, so not much... made by dlink and is gigabit.

You can run all your lines together and it will be totally fine, not to worry.

That sounds like it will be a very very heavy house!

R

Ontariomom, unless you were talking about an enterprise-class router, depth really shouldn't be an issue. If you were using your own switch that has 24 or more ports in it, you might be getting into something that were about 12 inches deep or a little more. I can't think of a reason why you would need any more than 20 inches of depth. You can probably get by with 16, I just like to have a little room to get my hands in if I need to.

On the question about access, it really should be "set it and forget it" for the most part. I know some people can have chronic internet issues that require a reboot of the modem a couple of times a week. But there are also people who can have them running for months on end without having any issues. It really depends on your service, the lines coming to your house, the hardware (router/modem, etc) you are using. If it's something you're having to reach behind clothes for, I wouldn't worry too much about it, as long as you can reach the power plugs to power cycle, you'll be fine.

Thanks Brooks and Russ on the dimension estimates and access. Russ, you estimated around 3.6 inches of depth. Brooks, you estimated we might need 12-16 inches of depth (especially if we use our own switch with multiple ports). Finding space for 12-16 inches will be a lot trickier than 3.6 inches of depth. Can either of you elaborate more on which depth will be needed in our situation?

We plan on wired internet and cable in each main room, speakers in wall or ceiling, etc (something similar to the pre-wiring Russ described in the July 2016 new build thread). We will not have more than 3 TVs in the whole house (none in the kids' bedrooms). We don't plan on putting gaming systems etch into this wired cabinet. We also would like to pre-wire to add lighting scene controls in some rooms at a later date. We prefer to have wired scene controls vs radio Freq controls. So we will need room in this cabinet for the centralized lighting relay.

Carol

Great Coverage:

Typically when planing out a wired/wireless network system a site survey is completed. This includes specialty equipment and software that will test your environment to provide optimal placement for networking equipment including RJ45 ethernet jacks and access points. Many factors contribute to signal strength. Note that all wireless manufactures publish max theoretical speeds and coverage distances. Think of this as if you set up you're wireless access point in a wide open field. Adding walls between the user and the access point can reduce the signal strength and distance. Not all walls are constructed the same either. Interior/exterior insulated, Drywall/wood paneling, wood or metal studs, all contribute differently to passing the WiFi signal.

New construction is a challenge since a lot of the network infrastructure has to be in place before one can survey the site. I picked a location in a unfinished storage area in our basement that would act as our "data center" or base of operation to house all the networking and entertainment equipment. From that location we ran 24 CAT6 ethernet drops to various locations around the home that will act as a wired backhaul. CAT5e has been the residential standard for networking and telephone for at least the last 20 years. It is completely adequate with gigabit transfer speeds. The CAT6 standard has been around a while as well. It's basically CAT5e with more shielding to prevent interference or "crosstalk". Still mainly limited to gigabit transfer speeds and possibly faster over short distances. CAT6a is one of the latest standards that can provide in theory 10gb transfer speeds over long distances. You won't find many CAT6a residential installations though as it is very difficult to install in that environment.

This ethernet infrastructure allowed me to hardwire locations that I would need a reliable interference free connection removing wireless from the equation. For example, I ran 2 drops to each TV location where I plan to use steaming services such as Netflix or a home movie server on a AppleTV or Roku device. You can even distribute HDMI (video/audio) over ethernet using the HDBaseT standard. This would allow me to place all the cable boxes in my data center and distribute this signal to the various locations around the house. This makes for a very clean install.

A modern WiFi system will include multiple access points that provide excellent coverage to every location in your home for todays mobile and connected smart devices. This all would include some built-in smarts allowing your devices to hop from one location to another as you roam around your home. Originally we planned ceiling mounted Ubiquity enterprise UniFi access points. However these devices are designed more for enterprise and require more expensive Power over Ethernet (PoE) networking equipment and some management after install. More importnaly placing on the ceiling restricts you to not being able to change your placement easily later to make coverage adjustments. Luckily there are many great new devices on the market that help solve this problem. I had been testing a series of devices called EERO and have been more than impressed with its performance. The system includes 3 puck devices that connect to each other via ethernet backhaul or as wireless repeaters to spread the WiFi signal across your home. The smartphone app allows remote access to monitor and advanced management of your network, if you so choose, easily. Some of the most important features include automatic updates, security and parental controls. There are other competing products such as LUMA and PLUME as well.

You do not need it to be 12" deep, you can place it on it's side like this:

The modem is set on it's side, so it is not over 3.6" deep.

You need length for more objects that will be on their side.

Carol, my bad, I wasn't reading the context of the enclosure you were talking about. I was referring to the larger cabinets that you mount a switch/router in a horizontal fashion. The ones you were talking about are the ones that are mounted in between studs I believe to house smaller networking devices. That should work for your environment and it gives you the benefit of putting it "almost anywhere".

This is what I was thinking about, but would probably be a little overkill for what you would probably be using.

Thanks for the clarification you two. I think inside a deep/narrow coat closet (closet is 2 feet 5 inches wide and 3 feet one inch deep) on my main floor might be the best choice of all I have examined so far for the structural wiring spot (inbetween two studs). I like the idea of placing it on the side of the closet vs the back of the closet so we only need to sweep coats to one side to access.

Still puzzled as to whether we would still need a modem/router beside our desktop computer. We have been in the habit of unplugging this modem nightly as a way to prevent the teens from being online in the wee hours or over indulging on screen time. If we shove the modem/router inside a wiring closet, it will not be as easy to remove each night. Or do we still keep that modem beside the desktop in this configuration.

Carol

lol! Well, as my kids learned this last week.. Daddy has the ability to remote into the modem and set a time limit on the mac address of the devices they use ;)

shutting down a modem all the time can prevent it from getting it's updates, if it does so automatically, and can sometimes be harmful, especially if you just pull the plug a lot.

BUT.. if you are not a tech guru.. ya do what ya gotta do, right?;)

Just an fyi - you do have options and many routers have parental controls you can turn on.. a great tool to use.

Think of the modem/router that sits next on your desktop as just another wireless access point. It is nice to have it there so you can grab it.. but if you tuck it away.. it still provides access, just less clutter on your desk.

R

Yes, look up the model number of the devices you are using, whether it's a firewall, router, switch, modem a lot of them now have controls built in to quota time to a certain device or completely block it to the internet during certain hours. If you are only using an ISP provided modem/router/firewall, you should be able to google something along the lines of "(Model of device) parental controls".

Ok in the same vein, my sister has her cable box for the TV's down her basement. This way she didn't have to have it in the room her tv was in. She just points the remote at a little red light or something. What is that about and how can we get one?

(Can you tell I am so not a techie?)

CP, that is doable.. but ya gotta know what you are doing.. really.. or you end up messing up a cable box. What it sounds like they did was they connected an IR device that uses the same frequency as the cable box and ran that remotely to the TV. So, they simply point the remote at that and it carries the signal to the cable box.

That is more than I personally care to get involved in since I will have a surround sound there anyway.. heh

R

There's a couple of ways that is happening. The first that comes to mind is on DirecTV. They have remote controls that you can set to either IR or RF. If you set it to IR, it's like a traditional remote that you point at the tv and it works line-of-sight. If you switch it to RF, it works via a radio frequency that doesn't have to be line of sight. It's made so you can put your tv box out of sight. I've never tested the range on those things, but I've used RF controllers in other applications that have good range. The other option would be that they're using some sort of an IR repeater or extender. They come in pairs. You have a receiver that you have out by your tv and then a wire that runs from it to the repeater (where the cable box is located). It's basically re transmitting the signal. There are probably wireless IR repeater options where the two communicate with each other via RF.

LOL about the Parental controls. We tried that for a while vs just unplugging the modem. Either the tech savy teen sons figured out how to outsmart it, or we got tired of changing the internet time out times as they vary. Perhaps a few times I was on GardenWeb and the darn internet stopped because of the parental controls. Anyways, point taken about possible modem damage. We will re-look at the parental controls vs pulling the modem plugs out each night.

I am back and forth still on the location of the structural wiring box. While we could put it in the small coat closet on the main floor, it will not be our way nearly as much if we put it in the centre of the basement in an unfinished storage area.

Carol

I can set the parental controls, but I go back to the tried and true parental control of, "now, it is set.. if you touch it.. I am going to sell you on ebay. If you bring my Internet down in the process, I beat you.. then fix the internet.. then sell you on ebay as refurbished"

lol

Go ahead and put it in the basement. Nothing saying you can't, just a little more wire and work. as long as you do not run the wires over 160-ish feet each, you should be fine and not noticed the difference. Just more and longer line runs.

R

Thanks Russ. I will check if we are under the 160 feet recommded max length if the structural wiring closet ends up in the basement. I believe it will not be nearly as long as 160 feet as the ceilings are only 8 feet and the basement location is centered. If we do have it in the basement, does that impact any other element of the design (e.g. more WAPs on the main level)?

Carol

Not at all. The only thing you will want to double check is to make sure to run all the lines to the external point where the tech will hook services up. Once you have that, you are golden.

R

@Ontariomom - You are correct. Those 3 lines (2 coax and 1 cat6) are the "feeds" for all that services incoming to the house.

The last house I owned, the people there had wires going everywhere on the outside of the house. They had a coax running up and across the front porch, the right side, the back.. etc. Now, most of that was due to a lazy cable tech that did not feel like getting in the attic, but I take the chance of that happening out of the equation by saying, "here is your connection...everything else is already hooked up. If you tie into this line, it will feed all the others."

The cat6 is for a phone line, that will feed the phone patch panel if I ever need it. I got lazy too and did not run an actual "phone line" to each room, but I have access to all of the rooms in this house and do not expect to need a phone line.. heh.

You can run an extra "cat6" to each room and just punch it out as a phone line by using only 4 of the 8 wires, that is totally fine. Or you can run the cat6 to the patch panel and then run regular ol phone line to each room, your choice. Either works.

I will take a picture of what we did for the TVs in the house. I have to run by the house and re-run one section of the lines to the outside, so I will snap some photos to add to the post that should make that stuff more clear.

R

Carol, if you anticipate possibly wanting satellite, you will need to have 4 coax (RG6) cables running from your writing panel to where your dish would be positioned on your house. I know the newer dishes on DirecTV use 4 cables, I'm not sure about dish network. My suggestion was that you can buy dual RG6 rolls of cable where it's actually just 2 lines of coax stuck together so you would only have to make two runs of that cable to get the 4 needed for your dish.

One other thing on running cables to the exterior of your house, make sure when they get outside, you have a small drip loop hanging slightly lower than the hole where it goes through the wall inside. Rain has a tendency to grab onto wires and will run down them. You don't want your cable leading water towards a hole in your wall even if it is weather sealed.

Yea, I do not know anything about Sat TV.. I have always used cable. Agree on the loop, I always leave about 6 ft of cable for the tech to work with and a box, vs having it go directly into the house.

Thanks again for your explanation.

So we do need two Cat6 hook ups in rooms where we want both phone and internet, in addition to the coax for cable. In the past, I am sure we just used a junction box of sorts that allowed both a phone and computer to plug into the same spot. Any disadvantage with using one of these old school junction boxes? Running two Cat6 lines to each bedroom seems to be a lot of extra wire and effort if the one Cat6 line can serve both phone and internet.

Okay, we will have the drip line outside. The box you refer to in the post above, Russ, is that the same as the cable penetration that is shown in Brooks' photo above? Also is is okay to take the three feeds (two coax and one cat 6) through the same exterior exit hole in the house? Or should the cat6 be separated on the exterior from the two coax?

TV wiring is a whole other area of mystery for me. Below you will see the future TV/cabinets in our home that will be in our great room. If you click on the photo, the image should enlarge. The other TV will be in the basement on a simple stand and will also have an Xbox.. We might pre-wire for a future TV in the master bedroom, but may never add it ourselves. The doors on some of the doors/fold downs will be wire mesh (shown by grey shading on the doors) so sound should carry through them if we go with some speakers on the unit. The wire openings will also allow the units to stay cooler. The TV is behind bi-fold doors on the right. There will need to be spots for the dvd player (still have many DVDs for the younger kids), X-Box, TV speaker (?), as well as some old school audio stuff (we still have lots of CDs).

Anyone want to take a stab at advising me on what in the terms of wiring cables, connections, port locations, etc I need to rough in for this arrangement?

Thanks ever so much for your patience for my endless questions.

Carol

The electrician will let you know what sort of box you need, but yes, he shows a box on his too.

Yes, you can use 2 lines of cat6 with a dual phone/network plug, that is what we plan to use in a couple rooms, but with coax, not phone.

My thought is, when you can buy a cordless phone and run an internet phone, and you do not need to plug phones into phone lines for them to work...why run a phone line? It is all personal preference and some folks love their land lines, that is also just fine.

Here is how we have our TV / Cable box setups going in:

And the other box:

So the TV will mount above the mantle and then the center speaker wire is run to that area, with extra line to spare. (I had it out when I took the picture)..

Before they sheetrock, I will run the hdmi cable as well. That keeps the connection from the cable box and surround sound from running up the walls and across the mantel to the TV... all behind the wall.

May not be the best way, but it's the easiest was I have done it.

Sorry, I can run cables, but the best person to help you with your layout in a specific design is the person that is running all the electrical or cables. Hard to know what works best, I am just a 30,000 ft picture guy ;)

R

Thanks for all your help, Russ. Unfortunately, DH is running all the line voltage electrical and it will be inspected first by an electrician (who may help with the trickier bits and tie it into the electrical box). The low voltage wiring DH is also planning to do himself (I am trying to help him plan it out). We don't have the financial choice to do this build any way by DIY. Wish would could hire out lots more help.

So in your design, you are running an hdmi cable to the TV area? From where to where is the hdmi cable going? Would a hdmi run be the same as an extra cat6 line that can be plated with a cat6 to hdmi port? I have read that baluns are the peices that can be soldered or terminated on the ends of an cat5e/6 cable to be able to plug in HDMI.

I clearly have lots more research to do. I have learned a great deal from this thread.

Carol

Oh, I meant the locations etc on the picture.

I try not to tell people where to put their surround sound etc.

Now, if it were me...

I guess you have the cable box and surround sound in with the TV so when those doors are open, you have access to that? Than just run it all there?

My HDMI cable is going from the white box lower left to the TV above the fireplace. It will all be behind the walls when done.

Thanks again. So your HDMI cable does not need to tie in to your structural wiring closet? It does not need to come in from the outside. It only joins the cable box and TV? May I also ask what the two wall plates will look like at the cable box and at the TV box (e.g. what ports will be on both)?

Carol

Oh no, not at all. I just run it to connect the surround sound to the TV so I do not have any wire being strung in the open.

Here is a link to the wall outlets I got. I think LeGrand sells them at Lowes for 30 bucks each, but I got them off Amazon or ebay for like $9... heh

Recessed media outlet.

Then I will add a brush plate on one side and electrical outlet on the other.

Brush Plate

Will sorta look like this:

There are lots of fancier ways to do this, but I think I have gotten fancy enough so I am good with it;)

Again, helpful post, Russ. Thanks!

Carol

Russ, et al.

I'm thinking of placing all of the AV equipment and networking equipment to the same location in the basement. I'd like it all contained in a cooled cabinet. Obviously, this well require some special wiring. What is the best way to control a cable box that is located in a a different location than the TV?

You will have to google that as I am not sure. I do not tend to get that fancy, sorry :(

If you had a 6yr old like I do.. you click a button.. and he turns the channel downstairs once for every shock you give him?;)

rmverb - the easiest way to do it is with IR extenders - essentially you have a tiny IR receiver near the TV which is attached to a cable which carries the signal down to the basement. The other end of the cable is an IR emitter, which is placed near the cable box so that it can receive the signal.

The bigger issue is getting the video signal from the cable box (or DVD player) up to the TV. HDMI signals don't carry well, and the longer ones which do are very expensive.

I bit the bullet and decided to have someone come in and run all the wring as well as consult on where/what to wire in order to achieve my goals. They charge per "drop" and I'm going to have them do a bunch of Cat6 drops, coax, and speaker wire. All of this will be run to the basement where I will eventually set up my network, AV, and possibly home automation. All of the drops I want might cost me around 2k, but it's money well spent in my opinion.

Oh, agreed. If you have the cash to do it, it is always nice to have it done for you and the way you want.

rmverb - agreed. I did sort of a hybrid of that - I planned and laid out the low voltage locations and types, and paid my electrician to actually run the wire (which I purchased as well to make sure it was quality) in the walls. Once the sheetrock and paint are up I'll terminate everything on both ends (they have tools now which make this rather easy). It'll take him 2 days, which means it would take me 4 - and I just don't have the time or interest in that. My DIY time can be spent much better - both economically and enjoyment wise. If you don't mind my asking, how much are you paying per drop? I have about 40 drops, and with the cost of wire, boxes, plates, etc. It'll end up around $1600, or $40 per drop. I saw from other posts that new development builders charge around $100 (though of course that includes termination).

This thread is very helpful, thank you Russ and others!

No questions at this time, just wanted to say thank you and that I'm reading this thread over and over again to try and wrap my brain around all this. We are meeting with electricians/GC tomorrow to hammer out details for cable/ethernet/other wires, and I am hoping we don't screw it up!

I cannot crawl into people's attics like I used to, but I sure do enjoy helping folks wire it all pretty ;)

R