[Closed] Yet another Cat 5e cabling question...

You can but Gigabit will become 500 mega bit each if both appliances start calling for lots of data simultaneously. Bandwidth requirements are only going to go up, fitting 1 cable per outlet would seem sensible but may be expensive.

I've honestly got no idea if it could work but I'd assume no. Given how sensitive network cables are anyway, I'd be loathe to do it even if it does work. Buy a bigger switch. Or two and stack them.

If you can, run 1 cable per device. You can get double sockets that fit a 1 gang faceplate.

That being said, I moved to a house where it's not possible to route cable through it easily. Instead, I bought the powerline networking stuff. I was sceptical about it, but it's completely changed my thinking. I bought the tp-link av1200 stuff. I got ones with 3 ports on it. So 1 block plugs into a single socket , has a pass through power socket, and provides 3 Ethernet ports. The speeds are way more than my traffic needs, and a single block easily handles my Tv , Sky on demand and an Apple TV.

Takes 30 seconds to install and can be moved to any socket. It's about 70quid for a pair of devices. I have 4 in total and that total cost isn't McPhail different from e cost of cables, switches sockets and time/effort.

May be worth a look.

Ok.

Gigabit Ethernet uses all 8 wires in the cable. 100Mbps Ethernet ("Fast" Ethernet) only uses 4. So you [i]can [/i]get splitters which combine two FE connections to run over a single cable by utilising the four unused wires and then separate them back out at the other end, so long as you're happy with the performance hit.

But, in your case that wouldn't help as you'd still need to split out the signal to two ports at the switch end so you're not saving switch ports. You can't just divide an Ethernet connection in two electrically like you could with, say, an audio cable; it doesn't work like that.

So you'd either need a bigger switch or, if you do only want to run a single cable, have a second switch at the TV end. A 4-port switch would give you two ports for the TV and console, one for the uplink to the other switch, and a spare if you needed it. The advantage here would be future-proofing should you later add another connected device there, downside is added complexity (and an extra power socket used) and a shared 1Gbps uplink for all those devices (which is broadly irrelevant for most practical purposes).

Thing that puts me off powerline is some reports of stuff like washing machines basically making so much noise it knocks everything off the network. Speeds maybe not at max but more like with wifi will fluctuate based on the amount of noise.

Depends on your speed needs though. I stream from my NAS and also copy files from desktop to NAS and back and appreciate a Gigabit speed. Mind you, my house is a mess of cables loose round the skirting board. Can't be bothered to do it properly 😀

Thanks all. I think I'll return the 8 port and get a 16!! Odd that double the number of ports on a switch equates to four times the price!

Building a new house would have been simpler...

Idly wondering, you'll presumably have a four port router to go with that eight port switch, so will have ten useble ports. You have that many devices?

Go fibre optic. Cat 5e probably won't be able to cope with 4D pr0n in a few years time.

Cougar - as you may have guessed, this isn't my field and I'm struggling to understand fully what I need (want!). It may be that if the switch remains accesible then I can just have cable runs to that point and plug them into the switch as and when I need them?

My thinking was that I need to plug the router into the switch, the NAS drive into the switch, one laptop in each office (we both work from home, I will be in a garden office soon so would like hard wired connection). That's 4/8 accounted for.

Then one for TV and one for console (6/8). One in kitchen (wireless would probably suffice here but new kitchen going in anyway - 7/8). One in each bedroom and I'm up to 11/8!! A networked printer - 12/8.

If I want a cctv installed at any time etc etc

My thought process may be flawed?

You will need to keep the network switch accessible in case it goes wrong needs replacing/rebooting.
I have used these:
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JS604AS/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B003ST1PG8&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=NY35W1Z8HMJ6CTWTNKJY ]12 Port wall mount patch panel[/url]
Run all the cables to a single point and put this on the end then put the switch on the wall and use short patch cables to connect.
If the router is in another room you can patch it in from here as long as it's near a wall socket.

I would think about a gigabit Poe switch , 24 port

Netgear do some cheapish ones

If you start adding IP cameras or access points lots can be powered via Poe
Poe is power over Ethernet

Muddy bum - the idea was to have all cables arriving at a single point and straight into the switch. The switch will be in the same wall cupboard as the consumer unit - easy access. Access points then dotted around as needed but all connecting cables hidden in walls.

In theory you shouldn't put a socket on one end and a plug on the other.
Each cable runs from a socket to the panel in the cupboard. Then a short patch cable goes from the panel to the switch.
If the phone line is in the same cupboard then the router can go there as well otherwise it needs to be near a network socket so it can be patched into the switch along with other devices.

I can just have cable runs to that point and plug them into the switch as and when I need them?

Exactly this. In corporate environments it's normal to have 'dead' ports, you patch sockets in as required; you'd typically have far more sockets than switch ports as many won't be in use. At home, well, you need a switch port for every device, there's no harm in running cable runs to fresh air if they're not in use. Though if they're going to be used in the future you want capacity in the switch to cope with that of course.

Again, in a corporate network you'd have a patch panel in a cabinet as muddy suggests. Whether it's required in a small home setup is debatable, but certainly nice to have. If you don't use a patch panel you'd need to be meticulous with your labelling unless you're going with having all ports live all the time.

PoE is handy for things like CCTV as Paul suggests, and also typical with VoIP handsets. Saves on needing lots of power points. Whether it's something you need now is really a question of how likely you really are to add them in future.

That's 4/8 accounted for.

It's 5/12 accounted for, assuming you have another three ports free in the router. But yeah, I reckon you're looking at a bigger switch or a second one next to the telly (which is probably what I'd do if you might later want to add a Sky box or media header or a.n.other connected device into the AV stack).

I've done something similar to what Cougar suggests although mine is via powerline connectors rather than cabled network.
Front room has a 5 port switch for TV, amp, set top box, blue ray and link to powerline.
Back room has a 4 port switch with one to networked music player, blue ray and link to power line with a spare port.
I could change to a bigger switch if I get more devices requiring a connection.
So far no problems with them.

Perhaps a bit pricey, but these wall plates make the powerline idea very neat indeed:

[img] [/img]

Thing that puts me off powerline is some reports of stuff like washing machines basically making so much noise it knocks everything off the network. Speeds maybe not at max but more like with wifi will fluctuate based on the amount of noise.

I read about the noise issues with the power line stuff as well which formed a large part of my skepticism. So far, I've not had any issues myself. That being said, my dishwasher etc is on the kitchen ring circuit, whilst all the power line devices are on different circuits.

The other point I've avoided is having the power line unit on an extension block. For example, beside the TV I have a double socket in the wall. 1 socket has an extension block on it with the TV, sky and ATV plugged into it. The other socket has the power line in it and a floor lamp running of it.

As I say, its performance hasn't given me any issues or thoughts of the speed being affected by other units in the house.

To me, its a viable option, and in reality can be used in combination with a wired/switch setup in the house too. No reason why you can't have a powerline setup hooked into a switch to talk to other areas of the house.

Thanks all - some clarity now. Appreciate the advice.

Sorry for the thread revival!!

I've finally got sorted with the garden office and other building work but having problems with the set up re cat5 cabling.

At the moment I've an eight port switch in a small cupboard where the consumer unit is. I have all my cat5 cables arriving at this central cupboard and plugged directly into the switch (no patch panel).

I don't have room to stick the router in this cupboard so I have it connected (from the same room) to the 8 port switch via a cat5 socket in the wall. We both work from home and one computer has an ethernet cable straight into the router and works flawlessly. I'm out in the garden office and supposedly connected via wall sockets and long cable runs.

I just can't seem to get everything to work consistently. Netflix (via PS4) in the lounge works and then stops working, same with the garden office. I've just moved the router so that I can plug it straight into the 8 port switch and the garden office worked immediately. The lounge not!!

Should the router always be plugged straight into the switch or is it acceptable to use a wall socket and cable run? I also want a NAS drive soon and am inclined not to bother until I get this nailed.

It almost seems like I have to re-start the router every time I want to use a device attached via cat5. Is there somethiing I'm doing wrong here?

Thanks

The Router can connect to the switch over the building wiring, is there another port near bu you could swap out to see if that works better?
When you terminate the ends you need to make sure there is the minimum distance between the cable sheath and the actual punch down. I run a cabling business and we get a lot of calls where people (often electricians who undercut us) leave loads of stripped back cable in the box. The cables should also be kept away from power and shouldn't have any really tight bends.
Also try swapping out the patch leads as these are often produced in the far east and aren't tested so can be a point of weakness. Also worth make sure that they are paired correctly. have you tested the cables other than by just plugging them in?

Is it gigabit on both devices?

cougar - gigabit on both - yes.

Android - it was a spark that did the work. First one I asked wouldn't even touch cat5, this one had never terminated them before and had to but the tool!! It was part of larger works rather than a specific job.

Haven't tested the cables but the router did work from the wall socket but is just unreliable. With all of the cables ending in the consumer unit - this could give problems do you think?

To be honest, I wouldn't have known that there were specialist cabling companies out there. If you're clsoe to Macclesfiedl happy to pay you for your time to come and take a look.

Thanks for the advice.

Cat5 or Cat5e cabling? they're very different in what they support.

Also are you actually getting a Gb connection on the dodgy connections or it is actually making a 100Mb connection (possibly due to Cat5 cabling being used). If it is Cat5 cabling and devices are connecting at 100Mb then fix the speed rather than let it auto-negotiate (on the switch port side as well as the device side).

Any idea how long the cable length is (especially for the garden office run)? 100 metres is the official/standards limit but with ropey cabling you could get issues well before that.

Run a cable tester across it.

Hi CB,

We are based down south, but do get up around your area so will let you know if I can get there whilst we have another job in the area, you wont want to pay the price for us sending someone on a special trip.

FW since the cabling went in in the last 4 months there is little chance of it being Cat 5 We have been installing 5E since 1997.

You can get a cheap continuity tester for £11 (but it will only tell you if there is continuity) and a punchdown tool for 7 from Screwfix. [url= http://www.screwfix.com/search?search=network ]Linky[/url] but it will only tell you if there is continuity. You really want to get a Fluke tester on it to find the issues and that will cost from about £5k< or about £400 to rent. My advice would be take the faceplates off and have a look if these a load of spaghetti in there, get some termination tools and repunch them down keeping the pairs twisted and as short as possible.