Spec my network cable

[Harry Flashman]

My Ubiquiti Pro WAP is utterly rubbish. Impossible to set up, and won't connect to half the clients it needs to (like the Honeywell Evohome system). I spent hours messing around with the setup software before giving up. Totally user unfriendly.

I've just used a spare BT homehub as a wifi extender and chucked the Ubiquiti in a box somewhere.

Utter waste of money!

[chasingracecars]

eliot said:

Mate I've been in IT for 30 years - Man and Boy.

So far I'm the only person on this thread to have given the o/p the best advice which is to ensure that he buys cable made of copper - because regardless of CAT5/6/etc and regardless of the quantity of drops and regardless if you put a switch on the end of your single run, if you use cheap CCA cable you will have problems.


Cheap-o cable:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW-ROLL-OF-305M-U...

And why it's cheapo:
http://www.twistedpairtech.co.uk/caution-using-coo...
http://www.cetecglobal.com/technologies/cabling/cc...

Edited by eliot on Thursday 2nd March 12:58

WOW careful your head doesn't explode!

[Mgd_uk]

Chucklehead said:

I'm having a house built and I need to supply the cable runs that I need.

The plan is to run two lines from three rooms up to the loft where I'll install a switch. The main purpose is for a hard line connection for my office, a hard line for the alarm, and future connectivity for cctv possibly.

I think I need 100m of Cat5e FTP LSZH solid core cable. I'm not doing Cat6 because I'm concerned that the runs will prove a challenge and the installer won't get me full Cat6 spec once complete.

I'm finding it hard to get a cable of that spec.. Cablemonkey do 305m worth, but I don't need that much.

Am i over-spec'ing what I actually need?

I would advise they run a 6/8 pair from the main telephone point and have it terminated next to the network cables your installing, it will make your broadband install much neater.

[WinstonWolf]

Harry Flashman said:

My Ubiquiti Pro WAP is utterly rubbish. Impossible to set up, and won't connect to half the clients it needs to (like the Honeywell Evohome system). I spent hours messing around with the setup software before giving up. Totally user unfriendly.

I've just used a spare BT homehub as a wifi extender and chucked the Ubiquiti in a box somewhere.

Utter waste of money!

They're bloody brilliant, but you need a bit of experience to get them running their best

[megaphone]

Harry Flashman said:

My Ubiquiti Pro WAP is utterly rubbish. Impossible to set up, and won't connect to half the clients it needs to (like the Honeywell Evohome system). I spent hours messing around with the setup software before giving up. Totally user unfriendly.

I've just used a spare BT homehub as a wifi extender and chucked the Ubiquiti in a box somewhere.

Utter waste of money!

This why I don't advise using Ubiquiti Unifi products in a domestic situation or as a standalone AP, they are really designed to work in multiple units, in an 'enterprise' environment, or in a larger home with multiple APs. Their new Amplifi range looks ideal for domestic use, much more end-user friendly, just not available in the UK yet.

[Harry Flashman]

WinstonWolf said:

Harry Flashman said:

My Ubiquiti Pro WAP is utterly rubbish. Impossible to set up, and won't connect to half the clients it needs to (like the Honeywell Evohome system). I spent hours messing around with the setup software before giving up. Totally user unfriendly.

I've just used a spare BT homehub as a wifi extender and chucked the Ubiquiti in a box somewhere.

Utter waste of money!

They're bloody brilliant, but you need a bit of experience to get them running their best

Any tips appreciated!!

[WinstonWolf]

Harry Flashman said:

WinstonWolf said:

Harry Flashman said:

My Ubiquiti Pro WAP is utterly rubbish. Impossible to set up, and won't connect to half the clients it needs to (like the Honeywell Evohome system). I spent hours messing around with the setup software before giving up. Totally user unfriendly.

I've just used a spare BT homehub as a wifi extender and chucked the Ubiquiti in a box somewhere.

Utter waste of money!

They're bloody brilliant, but you need a bit of experience to get them running their best

Any tips appreciated!!

Have you got a quarter of a century to spare?

[Harry Flashman]

[onlynik]

gavsdavs said:

what If (and I know this would never happen because you've thought ahead) - a mate comes round to your house and wants you to fix his PC. it needs a network connection. with your "only one central switch" approach you're stuffed. You have to patch a new cable through the walls back to the central location. What if (get this) you had a switch in the room with a spare port on it. you could immediately give this guest device a network patch immediately. Amazing - i know.

Having switches in every room is a botch job, which ever way you look at it.

I've 8 ports in the living room, patched through to the central location where the NAS, router, wlan controller, modem and UPS are. If I need to plug something in I just do.

In my home office there are 4 live network points, all going back to the same location, of which I currently use one, so the others are free if I ever need to test anything else. I could also just connect to the wifi, there's also two points in every bedroom, but none of them are currently in use.

[onlynik]

Harry Flashman said:

WinstonWolf said:

Harry Flashman said:

My Ubiquiti Pro WAP is utterly rubbish. Impossible to set up, and won't connect to half the clients it needs to (like the Honeywell Evohome system). I spent hours messing around with the setup software before giving up. Totally user unfriendly.

I've just used a spare BT homehub as a wifi extender and chucked the Ubiquiti in a box somewhere.

Utter waste of money!

They're bloody brilliant, but you need a bit of experience to get them running their best

Any tips appreciated!!

Set up one last week, was up and running within 10 minutes. I've ordered a second one for the top floor, which should arrive tomorrow.

Where is your controller? The setup was quite easy though, pick a username and password, pick an SSID, as far as I remember.

[ATG]

Here's my heretical take. The bandwidth needed to run consumer devices around a home is easily met by a single run of CAT5. More to the point, the bandwidth supported by WiFi is sufficient for the vast majority of applications and that means you don't need to tether your devices to the wall - a very big win. So give yourself a wired backbone to several APs and you are largely done. If you have a desk that always has one or more computers sat on it, then a single run of CAT5 plus a switch or hub is fine and the extra bandwidth of the wired connection may well be useful for backups between those devices.

Future proofing: having six sets of an obsolete thing installed in your house won't stop them being obsolete. Future proofing means building in flexibility so you can adapt, and for wiring that means making it easy to rewire, and that makes conduits seem like a pretty good idea.

I too can't imagine ever wanting to run HDMI down a cable that dissappears into the wall in one room to emerge in another. Or running a thermostat over a dedicated run of CAT6.

[alock]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Including halls and landings, we have 12 rooms in our house. Following your model that would be 144 runs of cable. And then you only use 4 of them! I would imagine your alarm and heating gateway are in the cupboard with the router as well so you're only actually using 2 of the 144 wall sockets?

I cannot be the only one who thinks that is massive overkill?

[chasingracecars]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Soo true TTN me too!! 20 years and it seems we know nothing compared to others on here! Hundreds of successful installs and market leaders trade show visit and on top of next tech. I haven't run Cat5 for years.

If you don't understand why people want a 120 connections in their house then why does someone want a fast car (Ferrari etc) because they can and they want to. Hell they might have a track to use it on you don't know. Houses flooded with Cat6 can do amazing things if you want. That's all.

[chasingracecars]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Thats OK, most of my clients want the latest tech. In order to send 4K video down cables you really need Cat6 if you want full fat then you defiantly need Cat6a.

For homes Cat5 is ok provided you don't want to send 4K video down the cables.

With regard to CCA you buy cheap.....

Edited by chasingracecars on Thursday 2nd March 20:07

[gavsdavs]

onlynik said:

gavsdavs said:

what If (and I know this would never happen because you've thought ahead) - a mate comes round to your house and wants you to fix his PC. it needs a network connection. with your "only one central switch" approach you're stuffed. You have to patch a new cable through the walls back to the central location. What if (get this) you had a switch in the room with a spare port on it. you could immediately give this guest device a network patch immediately. Amazing - i know.

Having switches in every room is a botch job, which ever way you look at it.

I've 8 ports in the living room, patched through to the central location where the NAS, router, wlan controller, modem and UPS are. If I need to plug something in I just do.

In my home office there are 4 live network points, all going back to the same location, of which I currently use one, so the others are free if I ever need to test anything else. I could also just connect to the wifi, there's also two points in every bedroom, but none of them are currently in use.

No, its not, it's where you end up, like it or not.

I did not get to build my house or specify how many patches I wanted in each room. I had to drag cables down any power conduits I could find, and there was only just room for one. Not all houses have the scope for 6/8 patch cables wherever you fancy it.

You are always going to get to a situation where you need more permanent patches than you have - after which you need to break out more ports as I'm doimg.

My lounge currently requires 5 patches after starting needing one and a telephone cable. Bedroom 1 requires 5 patches. Bedroom 2 requires 3 patches. I don't have any gaming consoles but that's the kind of thing that comes along and demands you have another patch.

Ethernet ends in this shape anyway, core, distribution and access layer are pretty common terms. These switches in rooms are just the access layer. I suspect the number of people commenting with actual networking qualifications is actually rather few.

For all of you guys saying I'm doing it wrong I suspect all of you have been forced at one point in time to put a local switch in place when you've run out of ports. You end up where I am. I don't have a house which permits me to flood wire it, so I so,ply use the technology to do it for me.

Hugs

[Dave_ST220]

Wow. This thread has turned into some right willy waving! 120 points in your home?! Silly me, I forgot we were on PH where everyone lives in a mansion. All from someone asking about which cable. Only on the Internet....

[dmsims]

chasingracecars said:

Poorly installed or kinked Cat5 is quite likely to break.

Is that an urban myth ?

I have never seen one break and some of the server rooms I have worked in you would not believe

I have just bent the cable to my PC through 180 degrees with 0 radius 10 times and it still works

[Dave_ST220]

I'm surprised there is any room to live with all that cable and faceplates on the walls Seriously I've renovated where we live now. I rewired the whole place. The fact is it would have been ridiculous overkill to even think about 120 outlets. By the time mains cabling is in and the plumbing you aren't left with a great deal of room to get that amount of data cabling in. Each to their own.

[Dave_ST220]

dmsims said:

I have never seen one break and some of the server rooms I have worked in you would not believe

Oh I would I've seen CAT5E patch leads linking main servers crushed under cabinet feet or the wheely chair the IT bods like to use. I find the bigger the company the bigger the mess. Until we come in and sort it if course

[Dave_ST220]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Solid core will take a lot more than a few bends to physically break. CAT6 can be taken out of spec simply by using too much pulling force. That's why in the early days they invented a tool to prevent it.