Renovation and wifi vs cat

[mr_tony]

I'm going to be fairly busy on here in this forum for next 18 months or so I think. Am embarking on a major renovation / extension of our family home - a 1920s early international style building that's seen better days.

Ffor future proofing I'm looking at wiring in Cat 7 to all th old rooms while I'm stripping the render and channeling the electrics / plumbing in. (Floors even upstairs are all solid concrete with parquet on them so everything needs to go in the walls!

However what's the collective wisdom on Cat 7 in a house build right now? Is cable obsolete? Will everything be wifi in 5 years? Should I bother?

Any thoughts?

[Hayek]

My opinion is Cat5e properly installed is fine. I think you can get 10Gigabit over Cat5e over 35m!

Cable will not be obsolete within the next 5 or even 10 years IMO (I'm a tech/developer). Wifi cannot come close for latency for a start. Read more... https://www.reddit.com/r/wireless/comments/3na97l/...

[Accelebrate]

Personally I'd run enough Cat5e to support however many access points you need to provide good wireless coverage, and provide a couple of runs near to things that don't move like TVs and leave it at that.

[mr_tony]

I'm in tech too, and agree that for serious throughout cable is necesssary, I guess I'm thinking about more home automation and entertainment / web etc etc, more and more of this stuff seems to be wifi / Bluetooth...

Is it really worth putting Cat 5/6/7 cable into bedrooms to take video when more and more we all have personal wifi screens / iPads etc. I'm kind of speccing it and wiring it in myself anyway at this point because I figure it's better to have it and not need it than want to out in after the walls are rendered and there's a parquet floor on top of the concrete...

Are there wifi extender systems ( the house is largely 1920s concrete full of rebar so it's a faraday cage basically - already need wifi repeaters in most rooms..)

[mr_tony]

Are there wifi extender systems ( the house is largely 1920s concrete full of rebar so it's a faraday cage basically - already need wifi repeaters in most rooms..) that run at higher bandwidth. The uniti system seems to be limited to 10mb, which vs the gb connection on cable will limit things eventually? Not found anything yet...

Edited by mr_tony on Wednesday 20th September 09:17

[Accelebrate]

mr_tony said:

Are there wifi extender systems ( the house is largely 1920s concrete full of rebar so it's a faraday cage basically - already need wifi repeaters in most rooms..)

Look into setting up multiple hard-wired access points, much better than repeaters or extenders. These work well - https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifi

[mr_tony]

Accelebrate said:

Look into setting up multiple hard-wired access points, much better than repeaters or extenders. These work well - https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifi

This is what I have, but it's limited in bandwidth, and the access points are noisy (like crickets!)...

Ideally I want something heavier duty..

[sjg]

Cat7 Even 6 is overkill and very unlikely to be installed to spec in a domestic setting.

If wifi is problematic (and with concrete floors, it may well be), putting in a few proper access points like the Ubiquiti Unifi ones will be worthwhile. You typically put them in the ceiling for best reception so worth thinking about the cabling for that up front.

It's absolutely worth putting in cables for anywhere you'll have fixed equipment that needs it - so a few by TVs (for DVR, games console, streaming box, etc), office desk (PC, printer, etc), if you'll be using audio systems like Sonos, and for IP CCTV cameras. If there's other security things like an alarm then think about sensor placement and putting appropriate cable in for that. Also if the BT master socket is in an inconvenient place, then consider moving it to where you're putting other network stuff.

Not a fan of just putting a load of network sockets in rooms without thinking about it - hopefully you've got a good idea of where stuff is going so you can put it all where you want it.

[mr_tony]

Yep - pretty well planned out. It's a major project, we've spent 12months on the plans with architects and going through planning for second time before kicking off.

We're chopping 30% off the building (non original badly made 70s extension, and extending). The original 1920s end of the building is what I'm renovating now prior to planning coming through on the extension. Overall it's a huge project, and that's not including the 15x8 garage I've got specified

As such room layouts are well understood as it's existing architecture.

Good point on alarms, hand to figured on cable runs for that in the existing building, better get the claw hammer out again!

Overall I'm just glad you folks are still saying that cable isn't dead.

Right now I've got all my network cables terminating in a netgear FS728 24port switch. I figure I'm going to need way more than 24 ports - so any pointers on how to select the right kind of domestic 48port switch welcome as I'm more a coder by background than an engineer when it comes to networks...

[NorthDave]

mr_tony said:

Yep - pretty well planned out. It's a major project, we've spent 12months on the plans with architects and going through planning for second time before kicking off.

We're chopping 30% off the building (non original badly made 70s extension, and extending). The original 1920s end of the building is what I'm renovating now prior to planning coming through on the extension. Overall it's a huge project, and that's not including the 15x8 garage I've got specified

As such room layouts are well understood as it's existing architecture.

Good point on alarms, hand to figured on cable runs for that in the existing building, better get the claw hammer out again!

Overall I'm just glad you folks are still saying that cable isn't dead.

Right now I've got all my network cables terminating in a netgear FS728 24port switch. I figure I'm going to need way more than 24 ports - so any pointers on how to select the right kind of domestic 48port switch welcome as I'm more a coder by background than an engineer when it comes to networks...

I dont see cable ever becoming obsolete. Wireless technologies usually exist for convenience or retrofit - they generally have a compromise. I would probably just put good quality Cat5e everywhere if it were my home. You are going to be a lot faster than your ISP for many years with Cat5e I think.

Plenty of options for high end wifi - we install one behind every TV as a general rule.

Why not search out someone who does this for a living who can design this for you? There will be a cost but at least you have some confidence of doing it right.

[randlemarcus]

Might be worth looking at the Ubiquiti inwall APs that they do for hotels and the like if each room is a Faraday cage, but set them all to the same SSID, and hope your device do proper handoffs. inwall.ubnt.com

I've found the Ubiquiti POE switches excellent especially if you use the Unifi stuff. Stick one of their USG devices at the internet edge, and you can control everything behind the router from one place.

[Mr Pointy]

Op: just putting in CAT7 cable won't get you an installation that runs at higher speeds: you need every element to be CAT7 (patchcords, patch panels, outlet jacks) & you need to know how to make it off correctly. If you don't, it will still work, but you probably won't get the speed you think you should, you will have had to work with a much stiffer & bigger cable & you will have spent more money. In general CAT5e is adequate although Vex (board member) has posted that CAT6A gives more overhead if you are extending signals like HDMI over the network infrastructure.

I'd suggest that either CAT5e or 6A will be fine but make sure it is good quality cable (not CCA or coper clad aluminium). Consider running cables to:

• speaker points if you are planning a distributed sound system
• front door (for camera?)
• CCTV points

[mr_tony]

I'm using copper core Cat 6 cable.

I will get someone in to design it all at some point, but sorting the cable runs on these 3 rooms is simple enough, got a 2 year build ahead of us, I'm just fixing what I can right now myself...

[andy43]

I put in cat 5 to every TV location, plus a couple extra to each other room for luck. TV and Amazon Fire - hardwired, networked PCs - hardwired, Sonos base - hardwired. Secondhand switch from ebay next to the router. Unless it's a portable device I'd always stick to hardwired - it all just works.

[WinstonWolf]

mr_tony said:

I'm going to be fairly busy on here in this forum for next 18 months or so I think. Am embarking on a major renovation / extension of our family home - a 1920s early international style building that's seen better days.

Ffor future proofing I'm looking at wiring in Cat 7 to all th old rooms while I'm stripping the render and channeling the electrics / plumbing in. (Floors even upstairs are all solid concrete with parquet on them so everything needs to go in the walls!

However what's the collective wisdom on Cat 7 in a house build right now? Is cable obsolete? Will everything be wifi in 5 years? Should I bother?

Any thoughts?

Cat 7 is a tt, we installed one of the first large commercial installations in the country. Non-standard connectors, yuk!

The best way to truly future proof is to install clear ducting and conduit for all cable routes, that way you can replace it if you need.

Ducting is future proof, everything else is just guesswork

[randlemarcus]

WinstonWolf said:

Ducting is future proof, everything else is just guesswork

Amen Brother

• Though you'll still need to second guess bend radii and its all going to go horribly wrong when the contractor yanks it that last two feet*

[robbieduncan]

mr_tony said:

This is what I have, but it's limited in bandwidth, and the access points are noisy (like crickets!)...

Ideally I want something heavier duty..

You must have older generation ones. My UAP-AC-PRO Access points have 2 gigabit ports on them and are, as far as I can tell, silent

[KamSandhu44]

robbieduncan said:

You must have older generation ones. My UAP-AC-PRO Access points have 2 gigabit ports on them and are, as far as I can tell, silent

These are awesome. Run three in my house, never missed a beat.

Just done the whole rewire thing last year, CAT 6 to each room, TV points and data points. CAT 6 in the ceiling for access points. Node 0 under the staires. Ran a few long HDMI cables for TV, OK for HD, useless for UHD. Wish I had run fibre now.

[98elise]

When we extended our house I didn't put cable in as everything was going wifi. I really regret that now.

Put it this way, if you put cable in and don't use it what have you lost? We're now looking at options for getting cable to our TV, which is going to be a real pain.

[WinstonWolf]

KamSandhu44 said:

robbieduncan said:

You must have older generation ones. My UAP-AC-PRO Access points have 2 gigabit ports on them and are, as far as I can tell, silent

These are awesome. Run three in my house, never missed a beat.

Just done the whole rewire thing last year, CAT 6 to each room, TV points and data points. CAT 6 in the ceiling for access points. Node 0 under the staires. Ran a few long HDMI cables for TV, OK for HD, useless for UHD. Wish I had run fibre now.

"Ducting"