I'm looking to take on a task I've been putting off for years - wiring my house for ethernet. I've got wires running through several rooms already but they are just tacked to the floorboards and ceiling which is ugly. I even have a few running from one room through the air vents to another room (ouch!). I don't have a lot of specific tools for wiring but I do have lots of cable. Here is the current layout and considerations that I have to plan for:
1. Due to poor pre-existing coax cabling my cable modem is in my bedroom at the far end of the house (strongest incoming signal is here from a room addition to the house). My router is in my office (old master bedroom before the addition) to give better wifi throughout the house.
2. I've run a 50 ft ethernet cable from the cable modem to the router along the hall. 50 ft is too long but I didn't take the time to shorten the cable and re-terminate it. I then ran another 50 ft cable back from the router to the master bedroom to a four port switch in there to provide wired connections for my TiVo extension, Roku, and any future expansion.
3. In the office I have two additional six port switches. These ports provide connections to several personal network storage devices, two wired computers, my home phone, a TiVo extension box, runs to two bedrooms (these are the ones through the air vents since they are across the hall from the office), and a long run to the living room.
4. In the living room I have an eight port switch with connections for two more network storage devices, the main TiVo, TV, Blu-ray player, and media player.
The house has no basement or crawl space below. I do have a crawl space above the ceiling but it is filled with insulation (the house was built with UFFI which was sprayed throughout the "attic" making it difficult to run much up there after the fact. I no longer use a "conventional" phone so I went to look at the phone wiring. The house was built in 1980 so I was surprised when I looked and found the existing telephone lines at the junction box are four pair twisted (eight wires). This is good news. The bad news is the junction box is on the outside of the house with no power outlets nearby. I'm also not too sure how to tell which connection goes to which phone outlet in the house. Unfortunately when the house was originally built they didn't put a phone outlet in every bedroom (who does that??). Not only that, but they didn't even put a phone outlet in the living room!
Ok, enough of the background. What I'm looking for now are thoughts and ideas for the easiest way to wire the house without a lot of tear out and wall construction. How might I best use the existing phone wiring to at least minimize the cable runs I have to add? Any other options I should consider?
1. Due to poor pre-existing coax cabling my cable modem is in my bedroom at the far end of the house (strongest incoming signal is here from a room addition to the house). My router is in my office (old master bedroom before the addition) to give better wifi throughout the house.
2. I've run a 50 ft ethernet cable from the cable modem to the router along the hall. 50 ft is too long but I didn't take the time to shorten the cable and re-terminate it. I then ran another 50 ft cable back from the router to the master bedroom to a four port switch in there to provide wired connections for my TiVo extension, Roku, and any future expansion.
3. In the office I have two additional six port switches. These ports provide connections to several personal network storage devices, two wired computers, my home phone, a TiVo extension box, runs to two bedrooms (these are the ones through the air vents since they are across the hall from the office), and a long run to the living room.
4. In the living room I have an eight port switch with connections for two more network storage devices, the main TiVo, TV, Blu-ray player, and media player.
The house has no basement or crawl space below. I do have a crawl space above the ceiling but it is filled with insulation (the house was built with UFFI which was sprayed throughout the "attic" making it difficult to run much up there after the fact. I no longer use a "conventional" phone so I went to look at the phone wiring. The house was built in 1980 so I was surprised when I looked and found the existing telephone lines at the junction box are four pair twisted (eight wires). This is good news. The bad news is the junction box is on the outside of the house with no power outlets nearby. I'm also not too sure how to tell which connection goes to which phone outlet in the house. Unfortunately when the house was originally built they didn't put a phone outlet in every bedroom (who does that??). Not only that, but they didn't even put a phone outlet in the living room!
Ok, enough of the background. What I'm looking for now are thoughts and ideas for the easiest way to wire the house without a lot of tear out and wall construction. How might I best use the existing phone wiring to at least minimize the cable runs I have to add? Any other options I should consider?