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?"

Comments

Re:Some thoughts...

[eric2hill]

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.

Re:Plan for the future

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Central Vacuming

[JANYAtty.]

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.