[oxicottin]

Hello, I have bought an older home and wanted to set up a home network. I have run Cat5e cable for the internet and also a separate Cat5e for the phone Incase used as data phone some day as well as RG6 for CATV all to keystone jacks in locations threw out the house. All these wires run to one location in my basement where the cable company and phone company would run their wires to. Now I'm stuck on what to do next. Ok lets start with the phone line, there is no phone line coming in the house yet so what kind of box will I need to purchase so I can bring my inside the home phone lines to so the phone company can connect their line from outside to it. Is this box that I need called a telephone distribution module? Now for the internet, I have a Linksys WRT310n Wireless router so I can use my laptop wirelessly and have a few desktop PC's in the house. All the wires I ran to each room do I need to put them into a cat5e patch panel then into the router then modem? As for the RG6 for the cable I can figure that end out. I would like to put all this into a cheap metal box....


Thanks!

 

[petern]

You might want something like this http://www.google.com/products?q=str...oducts&show=dd to run your wires into. There are multiple brands & styles of enclosures. I like the OpenHouse stuff, but there are plenty of others.


You're after a telephone distribution module ... you might want a telephone surge protection module which may include an RJ31x jack (for if you have a monitored security system). Run a cat5 from the phone interface on the side of your house (usually that's where the phone co's responsibility ends--same deal with the cable co.) into the box for your phone line signal.


You could use a cat5 patch panel for your network wiring, or terminate the wires with RJ45 connectors and plug straight into your router.

 

[WonHung]

This is what I did with my house comms wiring:

My house phone wiring is a bit complicated due to having a surge protector module in my whole house surge protector and having a home security system. I opted to use a Leviton bridge which I installed into the whole house surge protector chasis, as I have the phone connection 3 phone lines (security system panel, original builder installed phone wiring, and new phone wiring from the new rennovations) to wire into the single hand off from the Telco box. The new pull from the rennovations is looped through a regular 12 port Cat5e patch panel which I use the first 8 ports for phone service and the last two as console ports for my Cisco ASA firewalls. All the drops in the house are pulled to this location and terminated with RJ45 ends. If I want to turn a drop into a phone drop, I just plug the RJ45 end into the patch panel. If I want to turn the same port into a LAN drop, I just move it to a port on my backbone switch.


I looked at the phone distribution modules and with my situation, the bridge board worked out better.


You can use patch panels for everthing to make things more tidy but I felt it was more expense than what I really needed.

 

[TurinTurambar]

If you want to do it "right", this is what I would do: (other people's opinions will differ...)


1 Channel Vision Central (CVC) Structured Wiring Cabinet
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/41/48

...and a cover
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/44/48


1 CVC Data patch panel for each 8 network jacks
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/25/73


1 CVC Simple Telephone module (up to 4 lines and 15 phone jacks)
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/307/72


1 CVC Amplified CATV distribution block (up to 16 cable drops)
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/305/50


CVC universal product brackets for modem, router, and switch
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/297/70


Maybe one of these if you want to keep everything plugged into one neat spot in the can (also makes a handy way to reset your internet freezes )
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/103/71



You should run (2) RG-6's (quad please) to the point of entry for CATV, and (2) Cat5e's (Cat6 if you like) - one for incoming phone, and an extra for more phone or for Ethernet when fiber optic service comes to your neighborhood.


That should do it. All of this stuff is readily available on the internet.


Best of Luck,

Chris

 

[oxicottin]

Wow thanks everyone! My one concern OR I have no idea how to wire is the telephone module? How would I wire it up? I understand it requires a puch down tool. Lets say there is a wire coming in the house for the phone now what? Thanks!

 

[lorenkoeman]

For phone, it really depends on whether you want to change stuff often and how pretty you want it. In a standard situation the phone company will put a Network Interface device on the outside of the house. This is the connection from their wiring to yours. You can run up to 4 lines on a Cat5 cable, one of the 4 pairs for each line. So you will run one Cat5e to carry the signal from this box through the wall and to wherever you have homerun your wiring to the jacks.


In the simplest of cases, all you need to do is match all the common colored wires from each cable together, put a wire nut on it, and wrap some electrical tape on it. The rest is just organizing things to make them easier to change in the future and look better. The telephone module should have a number of punchdown blocks. All the 1st positions are connected to each other, the 2nd the same, and so on. You simply "punch down" one cable to each block, starting with the white with colored stripe wires, following the coloring on the block. To punch them down you first strip back the outside cable jacket only as far as needed. Then push the wires (unstripped) into the slots, leaving extra hanging beyond the block. ( I often use my fingernail) You then take a punchdown tool with a 110 tip. One side will have a sharp extension for trimming the cable flush with the block, make sure this is facing the end of the wire. Then just use the tool to push the wire into the slot untl it clicks.

 

[TurinTurambar]



Quote:
Originally Posted by oxicottin /forum/post/15459158


Wow thanks everyone! My one concern OR I have no idea how to wire is the telephone module? How would I wire it up? I understand it requires a puch down tool. Lets say there is a wire coming in the house for the phone now what? Thanks!

The "manual" that comes with each of those modules explains the hookup quite well. In reference to the telecom module, I believe the top left punch-down is "in" and the other 15 connections parallel to it, so whatever you put on the blue/white pair will be on that pair at every jack connected, etc.

I'm going to dig up a .pdf here somewhere.... hang on...

...

.....

Nevermind - they took the browser versions down, but if you have Adobe Reader you can download it here: http://www.channelvision.com/manuals (choose C-0439 from the list)

You may be best served going to your neighborhood electronics store and see if they can refer you to a quality low-voltage guy who does side work to punch all this stuff out. If you do it yourself you'll need one of these:
http://www.datacomtools.com/catalog/punch-down-tool.htm

The same tool is required for the data patch panels.


Good luck,

Chris

 

[oxicottin]

TurinTurambar, One last question. What exactly is better about the Amplified CATV distribution block than a regular RF splitter? One plugs into an outlet and the other doesnt.


Thanks,

Chad

 

[TurinTurambar]



Quote:
Originally Posted by oxicottin /forum/post/15465616


TurinTurambar, One last question. What exactly is better about the Amplified CATV distribution block than a regular RF splitter? One plugs into an outlet and the other doesnt.


Thanks,

Chad

What's better is just that - it's amplified. It will balance the distribution of signal to all the required locations. If you're not connecting too many things for now, and the cable runs are not overly lengthy, you might be okay with a large, good-quality splitter.

Amplification and proper distribution are where I always start from, and I've never been a fan of splitters, Y-cables or splicing. Yeah, they'll probably work, but mostly they make things messy and create service calls within a couple years... I like happy clients.


Cheers,

Chris

 

[petern]

The cable company is meant to give you enough "signal" (voltage, really) to run 8 TVs or boxes within your house. You can get up to an 8-way passive splitter and that generally does okay; but depending upon the level of the incoming signal you may not be able to split it that much without seeing herringbone patterns or picture drop-outs.


If you have more than 8 tvs or picture quality issues, you'll need to boost their signal so that your TVs & boxes maintain good picture quality.

 

[TurinTurambar]



Quote:
Originally Posted by petern /forum/post/15467290


The cable company is meant to give you enough "signal" (voltage, really) to run 8 TVs or boxes within your house. You can get up to an 8-way passive splitter and that generally does okay; but depending upon the level of the incoming signal you may not be able to split it that much without seeing herringbone patterns or picture drop-outs.


If you have more than 8 tvs or picture quality issues, you'll need to boost their signal so that your TVs & boxes maintain good picture quality.

Yes, that says it better than I did, Thank you.

C

 

[oxicottin]

I wont be going over 8 locations in my home so what would be a good cheap amplifier thats out there?


Thanks,

Chad

 

[TurinTurambar]

Something like this: (several manufacturers make 1-in / 1-out amps)
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/16/50

Into something like this:
http://www.yourbroadbandstore.com/pr...php?pid=701778

Channel Vision version that will look nice in your panel:
http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/98/49

 

[lorenkoeman]

If you are not going over 8 locations, I would try to just use a passive splitter without an amplifier first, with just the leads you will use hooked up and terminators on unused ports. If that gives too poor a signal, you can always add a drop amp.


Check out this thread for more background info on cable signal strength and splitting http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=974435 the link in my second post is pretty good background info as well.


I have some extra of this equipment if you are interested. Check here for the splitters: http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11760 and I think I may still have that drop amp, I would have to check.


If you have any questions after reading the background stuff, let us know.

 

[oxicottin]

lorenkoeman, for some reason I think I should just buy the amp because if I do then I know im good instead of taking a chance and then havig to purchase the passive splitter. Do you know of any good cheap RF Amps? Thinking of mabe in the future I might add a few more cable lines

Thanks,

Chad

 

[oxicottin]

Does anyone know of a RF amplifier that would be cheap and cover 8 or so cables.


Thanks,

Chad