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Wiring a House While It's Still Being Built?
digitalamish asks: "Back in 2001 Slashdot had this Ask Slashdot about wiring a new house for networking. Some of the comments in that discussion talked about running fiber vs cat5e. It's more than two year later, I'm starting to build a house, and I'd like to update this topic. So, what's the current state of people's thinking. Is good old Cat-5e still good enough, is fiber a better option? What about other options like Cat-6? Or with the state of wireless, is wiring a house even worth it any more?"
Oh yea.
Label *everything*. All gang-boxes should have a number corresponding to a number in the wiring closet. Every piece of cable you run should have a number or letter or color or whatever. When it's time to hook up a new phone or TV, you just look for wall plate 6 wire 4 downstairs and you're done.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
Just go with Cat5e; it supports gigabit speeds (GigE over Copper is dropping in price very fast), which is more than fast enough until you switch to wireless.
Wireless is advancing at a pace that wired solutions never did; in just a few short years we've gone from 11mbit to 108mbit, with faster speeds and longer ranges in the cards for the future. By the time gigabit ethernet isn't enough for you, I'm certain wireless will be the solution you adopt.
Funny, obviously, but this may actually be worth considering. Depending on your building, you could have trouble reaching all rooms with good wireless coverage. Antennas dispersed throughout the house mean you get high speed connections everywhere and you can also lower the signal strength, which means you're less likely to attract freeloaders and you reduce radiation risks. Not that many geeks are afraid of a little microwave radiation, but you never know.
While your at it, put in a central vacuming system. I know this is a little off topic, but since we're running tubing all over the house... You can add a vacuming kick panel in the kitchen- sweep dirt right into it.
I dont do meaning of life questions.
While I agree that the story sounds contrived, if the installation jeapordized an inspection's passing, the contractor would have been well within his rights to do what was described.
Licensure isn't required, but you do need to have an agreement with the contractor to do work in the house before it is completed.