Organizing Home Network Cables?

not-so Anonymous Anonymous Coward asks: "A few years ago, while finishing our basement, we wired each room of our house with two CAT-5 and two RG-6 cables. All of the cables were run to a central place in the basement, with the intent of building a "cabinet" to house and better organize the cables. Well, it is time. As you can see from the pictures, it is a jumbled morass of spaghetti. So I'd like to get ideas from the Slashdot crowd as to how to finally organize this mess, build the cabinet, etc., etc. No doubt there are many other readers in a similar situation, wanting ideas for organizing all the communications/network cables in their home."

Comments

rack

[mstich]

I've been wanting to do something like that for a long-time, but the time investment is just too large.

You should probably get a couple of patch panels and mount them in a rack..that's the most elegant solution!

Re:rack

[walt-sjc]

You can get wall-mount mini racks that would work for something small like this.

Something more appropriate is the Leviton Integrated Networks system that has a panel and modules that are DESIGNED for smart-home systems. Reading comments further down I'm hearing "go wireless" - my answer is that there are MANY other things you can run over cat 5 - like an IR repeater system, digital AV senders, intercom, cameras, digital volume control for whole house sound systems, etc. - you should think outside the box.

When I did some major rewiring of my house, I actually put in 2 sets of jacks in bedrooms allowing for easy reconfiguration. That puts 4 RG6U and 4 Cat5e in each bedroom. For the main entertainment system, I ran 8 Cat5e and 8 RG6U to the back panel of which most is already used. The leviton boxes I felt were a little limiting, but some of the components were useful such as the IR and AV modules. The little 8 port switch was not enough - I use an HP Procurve 2400 24 port switch that I got on ebay for $200 (new). I ALSO use wireless, but limit the use to laptops. 802.11g is pokey in certain cases - I do network backup to a server with an autoloader DLT drive, but still use the server for most storage.

One thing I reccomend is putting a 4'x4' 3/4" plywood on the wall behind everything (in my case 4x8). Makes attaching stuff easier - not everything rack mounts nicely. For the few bits of rackmount equipment I have, I built a simple frame out of 2x2's, glued and screwed (and even some angle blackets) and used some door hinges to make it swing out from the wall. Total cost was about $10 compared to several hundred for a commercial wall mount rack system.

OK, I admit it, this is over the top, but I'm a geek. Wife thinks I'm nuts but also doesn't complain about the whole house audio, being able to watch her soaps that she has tivo record (which is in the basement) on any TV in the house, etc. Oh yeah, did I mention the Asterisk VoIP phone system? She likes that too - no more telemarketers. Power bill is a little high though :-)

Not too hard

[danpat]

Here, buy these bits: Patch panels:
Krone
Siemon
Small, shallow rack enclosure:
here Connect the leads coming out of the wall to the back of the patch panels and use short cat5 leads to link them together (or into a rack mountable hub/switch, like this one here). If you do buy a rack mountable switch, make sure it's not too deep for your cabinet.

Not sure what to do about the RG6 cables, but I imagine you can get patch panels for them too (although too many joints may kill your signal..)

Well. In the end, how much do you want to spend?

[millisa]

Get a Paladin Toner and Probe (somewhere around $80) or something similar. Get your son/wife/trainedchimp to go through jacks plugging in the toner (cellphones help here; or just yell real loud) while you tone the cable to find which one is which.

Assuming you are putting these cables in a Patch panel you can just masking tape label them until you get them into their ports. Worst case is the tape comes off and you have to retone your wires (you didn't seem to have more than 30?). As for Making it look pretty just go with whatever cable management fits your budget and your mounting method. If it's in a basement and the stuff isn't gonna be bumped, you might as well go with an open relay rack bolted into your floor (you can hacksaw them down to size fairly easily since they are usually aluminum).

Supplied links are my personal hardware preferences . . .

Leviton is your friend

[renehollan]

They make "universal" metal enclosures (i.e. a box with cover that can even be locked) with plywood backing in 14" and 28" by 16" (wide) sizes, designed to mount between (or on, for retrofit, on-wall, installation) studs.

They also make "universal" patch panels that accept up to 12 snap in connectors (like you can get at Home Depot -- they're cheaper in contracter packs). These come in 8P8C, 6P6C, Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, RF, line level audio, and blank varieties. Terminate the incoming lines to a connector on a patch panel. Then you patch from there to whereever (a satellite multiswitch, or RF amp, or router/firewall) as appropriate.

For POTS (telephone lines), you can use cheap BIX-66 blocks (which happen to be the same size as the universal ones): you don't need fancy patch panels for that if you get good with a punch-down tool. Hint: get a good one, like a Greenlee. Last time I checked, they were about US$45 at Home depot, and the extra blade was another $15: you'll want a 66 and a 110 blade.

Save $$$ and make your own patch cables: get a spool or Cat5e and a crimping tool -- I happen to like Greenlee, but that's just from personal experience and satisfaction. The crimping tool goes for around US$60 and comes in a kit with a bunch of 8P8C and 6P6C plugs.

I did this in the first house I wired, as a retrofit withe the enclosures mounted on-wall. I used two enclosures: one for RF stuff, and one for voice and data. this was for a five bedroom 3200 square foot house. Yeah, 2xCat5e and 2xRG6-U cable to each drop.

Don't forget to allow for incoming lines: like from the phone company, cable company, and/or satellite dish. Hint, wire TWO cables to the POTS and cable entrances: that way you can "return" a feed to legacy house wiring (all in parallel) from your head end to the point where it used to enter the house.

In the next house I wired, I actually got an on-wall SwingLine rack (Ebay is great!), and rack-mountable patch panels. This costs a bit more, but lets you mount rack-mounted equipment, like multiswitches, routers, etc. Do leave a "universal" mounting board (plywood) nearby where you can mount equipment that can't be mounted in a rack. Alternately, have a shelf for such equipment (though I prefer wall mounts wherever possible).

Re:Leviton is your friend

[BrianRaker]

Actually, 100base-t requires the same 2 pair that 10base-t require. Only needs the orange and green pairs (1-2 and 3-6). Blue and brown are free for use in POTS, but I'm not sure about the crosstalk once a 90vAC current is put down the wire for the ringer on a POTS phone versus a 100base-t connection... >.>

2 RG6 to each room? Who are you Jennicam?

[Radical Rad]

First put your drywall up. It looks like you already have an electrical outlet nearby. You might want another one there and now is the time to do it. I would make separate holes for the Cat5 and the RG6. Then put up a 2'x2' plywood backboard to screw things into. Screw that into the studs with drywall screws. Go buy a drill bit that makes 2" holes so it looks nice where the cables feed out.

Forget the cabinet. Just buy a little 19" rack with about 12 RJ45 jacks (modular racks are much more expensive but then you could probably terminate your RG6 into it) and terminate all your cat5 wire neatly. Punch down all 8 conductors. That way you may be able to do 1000Mbit networking on your cat5 wire IF the runs are short and IF you bought cat5e connectors for both ends and IF you terminated to 5e spec using the 568a or b wiring standard.

Also make sure that the rack you buy lets you plug RJ12 into the same connectors so you can use the wiring for phones if you feel like it. Of course you would need dialtone down there to do that and a way to split it out. That's why I suggested a rack with 12 connectors. Punch down several of those to a 66 block and then you can cross connect dialtone to any of the new connectors.

You don't need a 19" switch to mount in the rack. Just mount your little switches or routers above the rack to the backboard using woodscrews. It will still look very nice and neat. Use 3' patch cables to reduce clutter. This whole project should cost you about $120 not counting the drywall or the short patch cables.

Re:One word: Ether...

[jazman_777]

...I put ports everywhere except to bathroom...it is very difficult to predict usage patterns. Where will you sit with your laptop?

Are you serious? 2 + 2 = 4. Bathroom = Sitting. Sitting = Laptop Use.

as you can see from the pictures??

[(eternal_software)]

Hint: When you post to Slashdot, make sure your post does not contain the words "as you can see from the pictures"!

Re:all you need

[walt-sjc]

I suggest velcro over tie wraps. Easy to undo and impossible to tie too tight (which I see all too often with Cat5 cables.)

A web site for everything

[pauljlucas]

Really, Google is your friend: Structured Wiring How-To.