Want to rewire whole house with cabled ethernet?

Question

Hello,

I just bought a house and the seller agreed to replace much of the electrical wiring within the house because its the old k**b and tube wiring. I was thinking I would like to provide ethernet outlets to many of the rooms while the electrician strung new wires through the walls. But would crosstalk from the electrical wires make this a pointless thing to do? I was also considering using fiber optic cables instead and perhaps having a media converter here and there to convert them back to coppper. But the problem with that is....all the media converters I have seen online are very expensive like $190 and up. (The fiber optic cables are actually not that expensive.)

Before someone says wireless connection....I really dislike those for a variety of reasons.

Any suggestions? Ideas? Or perhaps know of good media converters that are not as expensive?

Answer 1

nope, because the electricity and the internet signal have different frequencies so you should be OK

i even saw and article in popular mechanics about a little adapter that you can plug into any outlet (you will still have electricity outlets coming out of it) and the internet signal will actually travel through the electrical wires because its different frequency, you should look onto that because it really seemed interesting to me

Answer 2

I'd say have them install the cable even if you did go wireless - if nothing else it gives you the option, and if you go wireless you can use the existing wires to connect access-points wherever you need one for optimal coverage.  I wish my parents house had eithernet wireing - it would have saved me a lot of time and effort!

If the electrician knows what they're doing and installs the cable correctly (I don't know the distance specs off hand but I think it's like a foot away from other wires) there's no danger of cross-talk.  Just make sure they understand it needs to be HOME RUN cables to a central point (not daisy-chain like telco) and that they know it needs to be installed for computer eithernet.

Some companies sell shielded Cat5 cable, that would be preferable if you're concerned they may run it close to electric cable but it's harder to find and probably more expensive.

I have my network cables running through the same plastic tubes as my power cables and extension cords to my main "central" desk and don't notice any adverse effect on file-sharing speed...

Answer 3

No to all your questions and comments.  If the new wiring is Romex (not in pipe), you're going to have a problem unless you stay far from it - even with UTP (twisted pair) cable.  And cheap converters?  That's a case of "you get what you pay for".

There's nothing wrong with wireless, though - I maintain quite a few wireless LANs, both home/SOHO  and big commercial ones, and have no problems (until the UPSs run out of juice during a power failure).

Answer 4

fiber optics would be pointless. they would be connec via the router and computers with standard rj-45 cable, so you will only be able to get as much bandwidth as comes through the rj-45 (cat 5) cable, which is 100mbps, or 1000mbps mbps dependent on if the router is gigibyte ethernet supported, and even then all the computers in the house would have to have a gigablyte ethernet port and cat 6 cable. there is no interferne from electric wireing   the electrician ran cat 6 cable throughout my house wen it was being built next to the electric wires, and there is no interference. the  only reason to run fiber optics in yor house is for a surround sound speaker system.

Answer 5

You can get shielded cat5 cable this prevents packet lose and should be used over a longer length, I would suggest you talk to a cabling expert, they should be able to tell you the best cable to use for where you are running the cables and what length.

Running ethernet cable with power cables isnt too bad as long as they are not heavy duty cables i.e. 45amp cable for an electric shower.

You could always get a cable expert to quote it for you then just go buy the stuff and do it yourself.

I can understand why you dont want to use wireless and dont blame you for wanting to cat5 the house always a good idea if you can do it before you move in :) saves a lot of hasle.