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Getting a rewire and folks keep suggesting Cat 5.
I think it would work for security cameras and for playing music throughout the house from one stereo. I had chat with a mate and he mentioned a comms rack?
So I assume I need to choose a room, the one we use the most? Or any room?
As you can see I'm struggling with concept...
go cat 6 if your starting from scratch.
comms rack you would probably want to put out of the way and out of site.
If only we could invent some sort of networking without wires. Cat5 was cool in a house 5 years ago but if you've not got any kit already where you're wishing you had cabling then you might as well just but the wireless appliances in the first place.
Quite a fan of the pure wifi stuff even if the lounge is a bit of a faff
I looked into it recently while extending the house. I went for wireless as it's easier, simpler and has been completely reliable with a wifi repeater / access point.
You could get power to your loft and stick some network storage up there, all your music all video, CCTV security automation all routed to any room in your home and backed up safely so of any machine does you lose nothing, tip of the ice berg though, have a look at web bricks and the like, you could monitor anything and everything in your home, fire alarms, water flow meters, pir or door switches and hook it all to the Internet so you can be emailed or sms'ed if you house floods or catches fire or gets broken in to... Or you could just stream your music and films....
after a couple of years of flaky wi-fi, I opted to have a few cat-5 cable runs installed.
Point A is near your router. Point B is in the destination room(s) near your computer(s). Cat 5 Sockets at each end of each run.
Plug a short Cat5 patch cable into each socket on the router, and the other end of it/them into the sockets at point A. Plug a longer Cat5 fly lead into the socket(s) at point B, and the other end of this into your computer(s).
bingo no flaky wi-fi.
But potentially a trip hazard, so make sure you run the fly leads around the edges of the rooms...
I would've thought a Comms rack not necessary unless you're planning a large scale network - which for a house I would imagine would be unnecessary.
You might also want one or two runs near the TV if you want to connect your games console / bluray player / sky box / etc to t'internet
I'm not sure (as I'm not a cable expert) how it would work for security cameras or for music throughout the house though - Cat5 cable would be overkill for these applications, as speaker cable is two core, security cameras are typically co-ax (like the TV aerial cable) and Cat 5 is 4x twisted pairs.
sms'ed if you house floods or catches fire or gets broken in to
The automated text we all dread
"ur house it totes on fire, lolz"
Sorry just to be clear I stream music from a nas in a lossless format over cat5e to a mac based media server, then out via a dac to the amp and speakers, you can get debatably higher quality than cd and you don't then also need a big self or case full of all your albums or DVDs and blu-rays
that's me told 😳
mind you I am a luddite. I still hit wooden cylinders with thin plastic membranes at each end, with sticks
Clear as mud 🙂
So cat5 is old hat and I can play music to speakers throughout my house using wifi repeaters?
I have to admit that I have no need to stream video around the house and can't imagine why I would. In fact I struggle to find the time to watch an hours TV a day.