Laying Cat 5 around the house

[LaSarthe+Back]

Without taking the walls apart, what is the best way to distribute Cat5 cable around the house (at least one cable to every room) without it looking shoddy?

Is there an easy way to put cable through the walls? I really don't know...

Thanks

[jkennyd]

Well I would use Cat6. But saying that why do you need to run the cabling? Would homeplug or wireless not do or are you intending to do heavy data transfers. A sfor the cabling it really depends on the structure of your house to work out best methods.Under floor, down cavities raggled walls the list goes on

[john_p]

Depends what the walls are made of, cavity/brick etc, and what flooring?

I got CAT5 into most places by lifting the carpet a little, and laying the stuff around the edge of room, between the gripper rods and the skirting, and digging small channels under doors etc (concrete floors). All running back to a cabinet in the hallway, no fuss.

[Sheets Tabuer]

Get flat cable.

[Gingerbread Man]

Take up a few floor boards?

[londonbabe]

Surely cat5 is a bit obsolete in the home now?
I put cat5 in my flat, but these days it's not used. I just use wireless.

[LaSarthe+Back]

londonbabe said:

Surely cat5 is a bit obsolete in the home now?
I put cat5 in my flat, but these days it's not used. I just use wireless.

stuff like video needs reliable data transfer, which wireless does not provide.

[gtidriver]

Drill hole in corner of the room ceiling.Run cat5 down the wall.Staple cable into corner. Paint over and you'll hardly notice it. thats only any good for upstairs though.Or if it cavity wall with ariel cables in use the ariel cable as a draw string.

[davidd]

Is homeplug (ip over mains) an option?

D

[Dave_ST220]

Plenty of installs are still CAT5e, CAT6 will present more problems in the domestic environment than it is worth unless at first/second fix stage.

[satans worm]

LaSarthe+Back said:

londonbabe said:

Surely cat5 is a bit obsolete in the home now?
I put cat5 in my flat, but these days it's not used. I just use wireless.

stuff like video needs reliable data transfer, which wireless does not provide.

Give it year or so and that wont be the case, i beleive some leading TV manufactures are already producing/planning to produce wireless HD for TV

Wireless is the future, not CAT5, IMO

[Plotloss]

satans worm said:

LaSarthe+Back said:

londonbabe said:

Surely cat5 is a bit obsolete in the home now?
I put cat5 in my flat, but these days it's not used. I just use wireless.

stuff like video needs reliable data transfer, which wireless does not provide.

Give it year or so and that wont be the case, i beleive some leading TV manufactures are already producing/planning to produce wireless HD for TV

Wireless is the future, not CAT5, IMO

Wireless HD is already here however it doesnt work over WLAN frequencies, it uses its own.

Wire is the better solution 100% of the time.

[satans worm]

Out of interest, what exactly can cat5 operate?

I looked briefly into fitting in our new home but could not see the point, for my internet I put the main BT socket in the bedroom/study where all fixed pc's for work/ personal are, along with the XBOX/playstation, so all hard wired, then wireless for the lap top in any room.

What else does cat 5 do/used for?

[Deva Link]

satans worm said:

Out of interest, what exactly can cat5 operate?

It's simply a type of cable over which you can run an ethernet network.

[Plotloss]

Deva Link said:

satans worm said:

Out of interest, what exactly can cat5 operate?

It's simply a type of cable over which you can run an ethernet network.

And much much much more.

Applications of Cat5e

HD Video both analogue and digital
Digital Audio
Analogue Audio
Control Networks (RS232, Proprietary (Lighting control etc))
Various Extensions over Cat5e (USB etc)
InfraRed
Plain old packet switched ethernet (which covers various applications including unicasting, multicasting etc etc etc)

Theres more I'm sure I've forgotten.

Cat5e isnt going anywhere any time soon.