[OT] Re: [SLUG] Home Network

[Anand Kumria <wildfire@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au>]

On Wed, Jun 07, 2000 at 01:12:50PM +1000, Jim Clark wrote:
> 
> I am in the process of building a new house, and
> I would like to put in a network while it is relatively
> easy to do (ie, before the gyp-rock goes onto the
> walls).

good plan, I did the same thing myself.

> What I had in mind was to run Cat-5 (solid core)
> from a central patch panel (conveniently located
> under the stairs) to most of the rooms in the house.
> The idea being that any of the RJ45 outlets scattered

I would suggest that each outlet have at least 2 RJ45 ports

> around the house could then be configured as an
> Ethernet, phone, or video outlet (I just found that
> Jaycar sell baluns to convert from video on coax to
> RJ45 on Cat5, so I figure I can do away with separate
> coax cabling).

Admittingly I checked the baluns situation out in '96 when
I was getting my stuff done but this stuff was not able to
handle (crappy) broadcast quality TV. It was able to handle
mono security video type stuff though.

I ended up running coax for TV around the place (RG6 so if
any of the cable providers pull their finger out; I can handle it)

> I am also figuring on putting power outlets near (not
> too close) to the patch panel, so that a hub, active
> video splitter, etc can be powered up there).

I recall 10cm as being the minimum distance between power and
cat5 cables. I got someone else to do the cabling though ...

> Does anyone have tips/suggestions for what I should
> consider when putting in this network?

At an extra point for place where you might want to
put a phone in. Also buy yourself an MDF and wire it up
before whomever comes along puts the phone in. The telstra
techs were suitably impressed I had a (telstra labelled ;)
MDF and fixed a few other things for me.

> Any recommendations for places to buy all the bits and
> pieces I may need? (Jaycar sell 305m rolls of Cat5e - $255,
> and 24point patch panels - $149 - but I don't know if there
> are better places to buy).
> 
> Does anyone know if Cat5 would work as a replacement for
> TV aerial coax (is that 75ohm?) - with appropriate balun? - 
> I would like to be able to use a tv/computer/vcr/dvd or whatever
> comes out next year, just using the same cat5 cabling...

The guy I got to do my stuff had just finished doing Murdoch's
Elizabeth bay house - over there they use $20K converters to
put the signal onto Cat5.

One at each end ... hopefully the converters have come down in
price (but I doubt it). I think you may find the cost of running
coax for the aerials is far cheaper than any quality baulns
you might get. 

Anand
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