Rewiring house

[noahbody]

I'm going to rewire my house starting next week and I have spent months planning it out, but am not positive I have planned it out correctly. So I have a few questions.

If you click on the diagram it shows what my plan is. I'm going to attempt to wire the house using one line coming from the NID and a coax line coming from the cable company box.
The line coming from the NID is CAT5e. It runs from the NID to a corner in the basement which I have set up as the wiring center.
The line coming from the NID will go into a DSL filter.
2 patch cords will come out of the DSL filter; one will go into a punchdown block and the other will go into a DSL modem.
From the punchdown block, lines will lead up into the main part of the house, to RJ-11 phone jacks in wallplates.
From the DSL modem, a short patch cord will go into a nearby router.
Ethernet cables will be plugged into the router. These ethernet cables will run up through the walls to RJ-45 keystone jacks.
There is an RG6 coax cable coming into the basement which will connect to an 8-way amplified splitter.
RG6 cables will come out of this splitter and go up through the walls to F-connector jacks in wallplates.

Will the configuration shown in the diagram work?

The idea is to have 6 ports in each wallplate. I'll run 3 CAT5e cables to each location. 2 will be for data, and one for voice. The one for voice will be split up at the wallplates into 2 jacks. And 2 RG6 coax cables going to 2 F-connector jacks in the same wallplate.

I'm not sure what kind of punchdown block I need. I will be using CAT5e cable, so I guess that means I need a CAT5e block. But the wires connected to the block are supposed to be mainly for voice - I should be able to use them for DSL though. So should I use a CAT3 punchdown block? How exactly are they different?

Am I supposed to connect the DSL modem to one of the phone lines coming off the punchdown block, or connect it directly to the punchdown block itself, or is it correct in the place where I have shown it?

Can you connect CAT5e to regular RJ-11 keystone jacks? Because I want to have at least one regular phone jack in each location, preferably 2. I think one of these voice jacks will carry the same line that is carrying data to one of the RJ-45 jacks, but I might be mistaken. If I'm not mistaken, you will be able to get internet off one of the phone jacks, rather than plugging it into the ethernet jack. Not that you would, I'm just saying you would be able to if you wanted. In other words, say I'm paying for one DSL/voice line from the phone company. It should be live in any ethernet jack which is connected to the DSL modem, AND in any phone jack which is connected to the same pair on the punchdown block. Am I right?

Another reason why I want to know if you can connect CAT5e to RJ-11 jacks is because I have a lot of

these things and maybe I should try to use them instead of buying new stuff. They are combination RG59 & RJ-11 wallplates with the jacks built in.
Does it make any difference if I use these things rather than buying RJ-45 jacks and RG6 jacks?

 

[SYQUEST]

The Category rating of cable ONLY applies to Ethernet transmission paths on UTP and STP - nothing else!

So, you can use whatever cable you want for the phone cabling - CAT3, 5, 5e, or ? The block you use for the phone stuff is entirely your preference - 66, 110, BIX, Krone or ? My statement above applies to the blocks too, if they are used for phone stuff. For the data cable runs, you should use a patch panel with a matching Category rating with sufficient capacity for any future additions. All cable runs should use best practices for the cable paths and how it is dressed and protected.

For the COAX runs you will get best performance from quad shielded RG6. There are several good brands from which to choose.

The DSL filter can be connected on the connecting block along with a jack for the DSL box. This will give you wiring flexibility for any changes that may be needed later.

Keep phone and data separate.

You should have no problem using Cat5e rated cable on Modular 6P6C keystone jacks. You just have to untwist the pairs a little when connecting to multiple modular jacks.

Hope this helps!

....JIM....

 

[noahbody]

So I think you're saying I should use completely separate blocks for the phone and data, even though one of the data jacks and one of the phone jacks will be on the same line.

Or you might mean I should use a basic phone block and attach a data patch panel (data block) to it, and connect the ethernet cables to this patch panel.

I think you mean I should attach the DSL filter to the phone block by punching it down there, to a live phone line, and provide an ethernet plug on the DSL filter to plug in a DSL modem.
But the DSL modem needs to be attached to a router so all the ethernet jacks can access it. But then you're saying the ethernet lines should be attached to a patch panel, not a router.

I'm confused now..

 

[Dexman]

For wiring, I would keep voice & data separate. I like 66 blocks for voice and patch panels for data.

If it ain't broke, I haven't fixed it yet.

 

[LkEErie]

You started out ambitious and then got cheap on us!!!

If you want to put 3 data cables and 2 coax cables to a jack, your cheap RJ-11/RG-59 combo jack is pretty worthless.

Since I'm a Leviton house, I recommend that. I don't know how many total jacks you have, but you would need a patch panel for the data, a termination block for the cables used as voice, and a place to terminate the RG-6 cables. You buy the keystones according to what you need. When I terminate 4-pair cable for voice, I split 2 pairs per jack and use 2 different colors. Here's a product line catalog.

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibcGetAttachment.jsp?cItemId=77198&label=IBE&appName=IBE

LkEErie

 

[SYQUEST]

To keep things simple and organized, the DSL filter is the first thing connected to the phone line pair coming from the NID, since all phone jacks for that line need to be filtered. The DSL box will connect to the DSL port on the DSL filter, if yours is so-equipped. Otherwise it will connect ahead of the filter.

You will use Category rated patch cords to connect the router, data switch, patch panel, computers, and Ethernet of the DSL box together according to your picture.

Phone cables and data cables should not be shared, but you can do whatever your preference dictates. The connecting block for the phone cables is where you cross-connect the various jacks and devices with jumper wire as required so phone lines appear on the right pairs, etc.

....JIM....

 

[DTSMAN]

Here is a consideration.

http://www.deepsurplus.com/Network-...ium=email&mc_cid=98887f30da&mc_eid=cc64372e48

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[LkEErie]

I'd be really quick to get it. The "easy to staple down" claim just seals the deal

 

[noahbody]

SYQUEST,
I am using DSL now. I plug my phone and modem into the same phone jack through a phone splitter and they both work, no problem. The phone is plugged into a DSL filter which plugs into the jack.
But I know the best way is to have separate jacks - ethernet for the computer and RJ-11 for the phone. So I'm going to try to wire the house that way. I only want to pay for one phone line though. I want all phones and computers to run off that phone line. The other available lines in the jacks won't be live, but they will be there in case I want to pay to make them live in the future.

I have drawn 2 more diagrams because I think you, LKEERIE and DEXMAN were telling me to do something different from the first diagram. Basically I think you are telling me I need 2 separate punchdown blocks; 2 different kinds; one for phone and the other for data. And these blocks would be fed directly from the NID, not from each other in some way.

Can you guys tell me which diagram is the best? The one in my first post is called 'A' and these 2 are 'B' & 'C'.



DTSMAN, that product is perfect. I have never seen it before.

LKEERIE, you're right, I probably won't use those combo jacks. I just have a ton of them sitting in a box and no other use for them.

 

[Mountainbear]

Not sure on your available resourses but one option is to terminate all house wire in the basement on a patch panel then use patch cords, cat5e for data and cat3 for voice. for cost savings I normally seperate data and voice. You do not want to send your modem line thru a filter, just the analog phones and their is no reason to pay for a second line unless you want it.
Your second drawing is exactly how I would do it except the DSL filter only goes to the phone lines not the modem.

 

[noahbody]

Mountainbear,

So you're suggesting to use the same punchdown block for all the cabling, then using CAT3 to go to the phone jacks.

And you say not to filter the data lines.

In that case, I don't understand where to place the DSL filter. Wouldn't I have to get many DSL filters, and place them after the phone cabling?

But if I use 2 separate punchdown blocks, one each for data and phone, then I can use only one DSL filter. I'll edit the drawing to make the NID feed the data block directly, NOT through the DSL filter.

I assume you meant drawing 'C' when you called it my second drawing.

 

[SYQUEST]

Mountainbear,

A patch panel doesn't work very well when you break out the pairs for two or more jacks. Unless you want to put each pair on their own patch jack, then bridging is a "cluster-F".
With cross-connects you get maximum flexibility.

I believe Noahbody already has all the 4pr cable to do the wiring, unless I misread his posts. His DSL filer is the "whole house" type that has a DSL out connection, which gives the best DSL performance. (keeping the DSL on its own pair!)

....JIM....

 

[Mountainbear]

Using one patch panel for everything is a deluxe way of doing things and I almost never do it that way. you would need to replicate the incoming dial tone several times, but it does allow you to "plug and play" any jack to any device useing patch cords. I didn't mean to confuse you with the one patch panel idea as it is not needed and is quite expensive.
I am not sure what your DSL filter is like but a filter takes out the "data stream" so you can hear the conversation. You certainly don't want to filter out the data from your internet modem. If your filter has a DSL out port or "to modem" then your drawing C would be correct.

 

[noahbody]

Yes, the sort of DSL filter I want to use is the one Syquest described.

So I'll use diagram C. I'll use a 66 block for the CAT3 phone lines and a 110 block for the CAT5e data lines. The modem and router will be placed on the basement wall, near the blocks. The plan is for one network router to serve all the data jacks, but I think if I wanted to have 2 or more separate networks, I could put 2 or more routers in the basement and just connect them to whichever jacks are going to use those respective routers.

If somebody wants to use a wireless router, they would probably have to put it in the apartment plugged into a jack, not the basement, so the signal would be strong enough. But who would want to use wireless when the whole house is wired with CAT5e?

 

[crooter]

Just a quick simple question, are you actually going to run all the cable in your house, or will you have someone else do it?

crooter

 

[noahbody]

I hired an electrician, he is here right now helping me out.

 

[crooter]

If you have an electrician running the cables, I am presuming you are doing a bit of open wall remodeling and the electrician is just placing the cable where you want it??? I was going to say, if you had someone doing the cabling for you, following your plan, that did cabling as a profession, then that person would understand how to do all the terminations, and what cables should be run to where.

Homes are really a big pain in the butt unless you can cable before the drywall is put up or if you have really outdone yourself and run smurf tube throughout the home in case you ever want to add more or upgrade locations. Otherwise walls are only accessable from a basement, crawlspace or attic and life becomes challenging.

Good luck