Nice advice! As a professional installer these are great tips. You may want a smurf tube to the door for a smart doorbell. Plus, don’t forget speaker cables for distributed audio and surround sound for the main TV especially if you lean towards being an audio aficionado.
Smurf tubes are a must! Also, when we built our house in 2020 (before crazy price hikes), I had them run Cat6 to every corner under the soffit. I ended up building a workshop about 150' away from the house and installed gigabeams to extend the network to it. One of the under-soffit Cat6 came in handy. When the sprinkler system was installed, I had them lay a 2" conduit between the house and workshop. Plan is to eventually run fiber in the conduit. Then, reuse the gigabeams to extend from the workshop to my tractor shed (250' away). Point is, think ahead because you never know.
So true... Either put the cables in ahead of time that you can use or a pathway to get cables where you need them down the road... Nice thinking on you build!
Great stuff but you are speaking to the choir. I have been telling these things to friends and co-workers for years when they start to build. I like to wire everything, only using wifi for portable devices. I don’t even like wireless alarm systems but that idea appears to be gone. My friends usually just get glazed eyes and tell me they will never need that capability. Then they forget I gave them that advice 2 years later when they ask for help because they can’t get their cheap “wifi booster” to work. I went to an open house recently which was a somewhat high end spec build. There was ZERO low voltage cabling….no Cat6, no coax, no conduit for a service entrance. It was all about the countertops and appliances. When I asked about the wiring the realtor person just said the future is WiFi. At least coax would give the opportunity to use some of the excellent MoCA equipment recently developed. Keep giving the good advice so that those who seek it can find it here.
I'm always blown away to hear this. We live in an age where this should not be special request... (Mind Blown) - Thanks for be a good representative to doing this right!
At 15:30 you discuss not going crazy with running too many wires to too many places because it will drive up costs with your network as you will need a larger and more expensive switch & other networking gear. I would say that it’s fine to run as much wire as you can afford to future proof as you don’t have to hook up every wire you run. My house has 2 network drops in every room, but I don’t have a massive switch because I don’t have every port active. You can always start with a small switch, or the likely included 4 network outputs common on most home routers, and later add a small 5 port switch if you need more, and later a 16 port switch if you need even more. Heck, you could even not terminate the cat6 to save money on the outlets if money is that tight, but as you pointed out once that drywall goes up everything gets a lot harder and more expensive if you change your mind.
Wholeheartedly, agree, here! I’d much rather have a cable that is just sitting there and not used (not connected to a switch so I don’t need a larger switch) than wish I had more cables for that neat new toy that I find five years from now!
This is a very fair statement. I can't disagree. I think if there are areas that it would be impossible to get a cable to at a later date, then your advice would be the best route... But if you put in the tubing to be able to add cabling later, that could also be a solution.... This tip comes from me being in so many houses where the home owner got talked into pulling cabling EVERYWHERE and 85% of the time, most of it sat abandoned. However, it is fair to say that 100% depends on the person in the home. I appreciate you commenting and sharing your opinion. It gives the other viewers something to think about. Cheers!
@@ethernetblueprint Wholeheartedly agree about the tubing! That's probably my favorite of your tips. I wish I had the foresight to put tubes in when the house was being built rather than retrofitting 10 years later. When my house went up, CAT5 was hard to find and even CAT5e wasn't even in anyone's dreams yet. I now have CAT6 in most places but there are still a few rooms that I can't easily rewire. Too late for me, but your tips are GOLD for those who are/will be building! Thanks!
Excellent video! I have a few additional thoughts. - Prewire cable - I would recommend at least CAT6A (10GB) opposed to CAT6 (1GB) this will push your data capabilities farther into the future for that new technology that may appear down the road. Only $50 to $100 more than CAT6A for 1,000 feet. You could also get approval from the builder for you or your electrical friends run in the CAT cables and termination boxes. That way you could install all those extra locations at a minimal cost and you would not have to terminate them in the switch at that time. You may just have to sign a disclaimer for this DIY CAT project. Wear an OSHA approved hard hat when making your request along with that $50 Amazon gift certificate for the contractor. - I agree that adding additional cable locations could be expensive, but if you are unsure of a specific location for something like a media center in a room, I would run the extra cable to the 2nd location that you may install the media center at. You do not have to terminate that cable in the switch until you need it. Or maybe just add an inexpensive smart switch off of the main switch for those additional CAT cables. - This suggestion covers your main service panel and a suggested second service panel (same manufacture and model as the main electrical panel), but the second panel is only for your ISP drop, Sat.., OTA TV, Energy Management and Home Automation equipment. The second panel looks so much better than those cheap plastic ISP weather proof boxes. Also request a 2.5" conduit feed to the attic for both service panels. I had 24 electrical circuits in the old 2" conduit. No room for even a single wire to be added. When I upgraded the Main Service Electrical Panel to a Leviton Smart Service Panel, I replaced the original single 2" conduit with (2) 2.5" conduits to the attic. One for the 120VAC circuits and one for the 240VAC circuits. Plenty of room for my future electrical additions (Energy Management). I mounted one service panel on each side of the electric meter. Wife approved! She even said I did a nice job and it looks much better than the old box that the cable company installed. - One last suggestion regarding the service panels. Pull in a thin rope that is 2x as long as the run from your service panels to a point in the attic where you can access the cables. Secure each end, one in the attic and one in the service panel. The extra slack will either stay in the attic or in the service panel for future cable pulling. Since the rope is twice as long as needed and terminated at each end you can pull the slack back to the needed end and connect the next cable to pull and pull it back with the new cable attached. I use it as a "Permanent" fish. Works great! - One of my most important suggestions is laying 2' X 8' X 5/8" plywood planks in the attic so that I can navigate through the attic without worrying about visiting my wife by going through the ceiling. I also added 5 light fixtures in the attic on a switch by the attic access panel. Another good move. I just need to replace the old 100 watt CFL bulbs with new Ultra Bright LED bulbs, but maybe I will try only one to see if the LED circuit can withstand the 130+ midday temperatures in the attic (Florida). I hope that one or all these suggestions may help someone with new construction or a renovation. Sorry about using so many words to get my suggestions across.
This guys f*cks. Also, if you want to future proof for 10GB and above another way is to just run SM fiber and have converters on tap. I'm prepping to run Cat6a through my house but I'm only running it for some of my IoT devices that I want to run with POE. The rest of the connections will be SM fiber with a bunch of fiber-to-copper conversion boxes in storage. It costs a bit more and you have to be WAY more careful throwing fiber through walls but it pretty much gets rid of any future limitations on speed. I work with enterprise networks so this is overkill for 99.9% of people so I don't think anyone will ever do this besides me. Running fiber to specific spots in your home allow you to run more ethernet without having to run it back to your MDF. You're able to utilize smaller switches and if you're a nut like I am you can have failover to another main switch inside the house. Your attic plywood idea is one I've been wondering about for weeks now. Just closed on a house a month ago and had a water leak that dripped for days straight in the attic. Ceiling fell in. I got it fixed and literally the next day I almost fell through it. Thanks for the idea. I'm heading to Home Depot. lol As far as the video, my opinion on the amount of network drops is alittle different. Once you close those walls it becomes a hassle to run more copper. I'd just run extra copper to certain points in the house that I think I might need them and leave them there unterminated. If you don't use them then they're out of sight. If you need them you know where the extra is spooled at and instead of a 60ft run you now have a 16ft pull and some holes to drill.
Thanks for the reply. Everyone is a little different when it comes to their planning. If this video gets people thinking about it (even if it is different than what I suggest), then it did its job. Doing nothing is FAR WORSE than over planning. I appreciate you taking the time to make your suggestions. One thing, I will add is that Cat6 will do 10Gb up to 55M/165ft which most home pulls are under that distance (obviously the size of the home and location of the closet play a role in this) so you may not have to upgrade to 6A to get 10Gb networking. Every run in my home is under that distance with my head end in the basement... Not saying your idea is wrong or bad, but wanted to throw this out there. Love your permenant Fish string idea. So smart. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for weighing in. I don't think there is necessarily a right or wrong method. Everyone has different needs (take your SM fiber runs for example - you are right, that is overkill for most of us) Thanks for giving the viewers something to think about here.
@@YunqTab Lets say that if a person installs CAT6 (new residence or remodel) opposed to Fiber based on their current needs, the positive side of this is, if they did not staple in the CAT6 (inside the walls) it can become a future fish for a Fiber upgrade. The only location in my house where I believe a future Fiber cable will be needed is in the living room media center and yes I left a fish in the wall just in case. Although I currently have a 50' fiber that runs from my UI USW Pro 24 switch in the utility room to a hidden location in the house where the UNVR is located to handle recordings from my 12 UI outside cameras. This house was built in 1957 so the plaster walls made most of the CAT6 pulls a challenge. At 75 I would say that I do not have to worry about any future technology breakthroughs. Enjoy
@@ethernetblueprint I loved the video man. I’m going through planning myself right now and it gave me some insight. I develop enterprise networks all the time and I must say my home network is just as much as a hassle. LOL
Thanks for this comprehensive video! I’m in the process of building a 5,000sq home; we’ve had a conversation with the low voltage folks who are also doubling as the security company. I’m very green at this, but I’m about to have another conversation about “future proofing” our home. I know they do a simple “in-wall” setup in the head end, but I’d like to have a small rack or tray so I could put a raid setup, and some other things like a Lutron setup for blinds (?) They currently charged me $160 for a 16 port gigabit switch (Trendnet TEG-S16DG which costs 64 bucks), I’d like to include at least 3 drops behind each tv (TV, Sonos, maybe an Apple TV?), then there’s the media room, to which I was planning on housing all the Sonos amps (5 or 6). My general questions are how can I get to go future proof where I am in the future able to build my own home network.
I assume that the "inwall" solution they are offering is one of those built-in enclosures. Those suck and don't allow for any room for things like a NAS, UPS devices and sometimes even tht router/modem from your ISP doesn't fit. I would see if you can swap that solution with a rack. You can get a 9U open frame rack on Amazon for around $120 bucks which makes them a very affordable way to house you head end. (you will need some shelves and other items too, but they don't break the bank either). There are obviously lots of ways to future proof a home when it comes to cabling. You can pull extra cabling like you suggested or, depending on your layout, you could have a ENT tube from the Head end to the attic (like I showed in this video) and also ENT tubes from the locations that you may want to add cables later (like the media room and TVs that will have multiple devices.) A couple of things that come to mind: 1) If you are pulling cable for the apple TV, make sure it has an Ethernet port. The new Apple TVs have removed that. 2) You could pull 1 or 2 cables to the media room and then add a switch in that room to allow all your amps to connect to the the network. Might be easier than pulling several Cat6 cables to there. 3) I don't know how many TVs you are planning to have, but I don't think you would need 3 cables to each one... Usually extra cables are pulled to TVs that have mulitple devices like you mentioned or so you can convert at Cat6 cable and run audio/video through it for a whole home AV like setup. That part is a little over my head since I really focus on the network aspect. And last, you don't have to keep that switch they sold you. You can upgrade to a Unifi switch/router and APs any time you like. How are you doing WiFi in the home? It wasn't mentioned...
@@ethernetblueprint hey, thank you for this detailed answer, and my apologies for getting back to you late! To give you an update, I had a discussion with the low voltage folks and they clarified a few points 1. There would be tube that goes to the attic for future cabling needs. 2. For TVs, I asked if they could drop 2-3 cat 6 cables behind the TV to cover the TV Ethernet, Apple TV, and maybe a Sonos soundbar; I was told that they would rather use a small switch; I’m wondering if that would affect the quality of my connection? 3. I also informed them that I would like to have an actual rack rather than the built in enclosure, which is something they can do. WiFi APs are EERO 6e, they were trying to upsell me on some commercial grade netgear switches
A good tip regarding TV's, generally most have Wifi and Ethernet connection, but that ethernet is usally in most cases a 100Mb port adn therefore Wifi is actually faster in most cases. Cable is still best for most devices thou.
#6 Do not forget to run coxial / cat6a to the roof or another point where you may install an antenna in the future for satellite communications (starlink) or TV, or both. Thank me later
Good call out. I don't see many antennas installed these days (or RG6 for that matter), but yes... either pre run those cables or make sure your conduit to the attic space can accommodate those runs if that is a route you are going to go with!
Coax! A must... for future affordable Local TV. I still have 6 Coax cables in my old house. (Bright-house (Spectrum) installed years... ago). The old Coax is still in use as my primary OTA antenna to my Tablo HDMI DVT/4 box in the media center and one in my home office. Free Local OTA HDMI TV on any video type device with a local IP address. The signal/picture is GREAT. Primary purpose is for Hurricane season if we lose power and no internet (Summer of 2004 and 2005). StarLink Mini is in our future. More toys. We may soon drop RUclips TV as they are getting as bad as the cable companies, because the OTA broadcasters keep charging them more each year for local TV rebroadcasts. We started with RUclips TV for $29/Month and here it is a few years later and we are up to $72/Month, for the same package. A few years ago the OTA broadcasters made $11 Billion dollars a year for rebroadcast fees. Ridiculous. All the re broadcasters need to get together and boycott the OTA broadcasters all at one time, which would put a nice dent in their $11B annual ripoff. Unfortunately, their contracts expire at different times, smart OTA broadcasters. I believe program selecting should be "Ala Carte" Why pay for programming that no one watches, but is part of a package deal. Enough! Keep the Coax
Great tip! I was on the fence about running RG6 except for my cable internet entry point. I decided to run RG6 to every point where I planned for a TV also. Glad I did that after losing internet for several days. I have an antenna in the attic that I get 28 digital channels from including our local news channels. So at each TV location, I have two Cat6 and one RG6. You just never know.
Do you have a video for people whose home is already built? I need to drill through insulation, get cameras outside of vinyl siding... ALL SORTS of stuff which i've never dealt with.
Very informative video. On the final tip of running cable for APs and cameras, you noted that more cables equals more network kit. There's no requirement to have the kit in place before you use the AP / Camera cables - so more an incremental cost than an upfront cost. The import bit is getting the cable runs done as part of the initial build. Finally, what is your view(s) on installing fibre as well as CAT6/7?
I just wrote about this in a comment to someone else. I tell people that fiber is only for people who NEED the speed and have the pockets to match the speed. I'm running a few lines of SM to my office and to all of my TVs because I'm hosting a few PLEX servers, 4K encoders/decoders, and some mini PCs. Most device NICs aren't running over 1GB so it's a waste to run it to multiple areas as a just in case. If you have a fairly large house and you're expecting to hit the limits on CAT distance yes run a few strands. Expect to spend more money getting SFPs, converter boxes, and NICs capable of 2.5/10GB speeds.
Nice call out. Everyone will have an opinion on the best way to do it and none of them are wrong. The important thing is that people are planning and talking about it. It sucks to do after the walls are up!! As far as Cat7 and Fiber, I think they overkill for most everyone out there unless you are are like the commenter below (@YungTab) that has a plan and the equipment to utilize it. You can run standard Cat6 and get 10Gb speeds in your home. If you have cable distances that will be over 165ft (most homes don't), then run Cat6A to those locations which can do 10Gb speeds up to 330ft. A safe bet would be to spend a little more and just run Cat6A everywhere to cover your bases. It is a bigger cable though and can be tougher to work with. For Cat7 and Fiber, I just don't see the benefit to spend the extra money for "most users", unless you have a specific need for it) That is just my opinion though.
Hi Tim, love your videos! For a two storey home, in your opinion, would it be beneficial to have one switch for ground floor and another for 1st floor instead of running all LAN cables from both floors to a single switch?
Thanks for watching... I appreciate your kind words. There are pros and cons to doing that. To me it is easier to troubleshoot issues if you just have everything going into one switch. Everytime you add "a hop" to another device, you have another location that you need to look into issues. I think that setup can be beneficial in larger networks and is generally how office buildings are set up, but in a house, I don't know that I would that. If you ever had an issue with the cable from the router to the second floor switch, then half your house is down until you get it repaired... And I don't think it would save you much money cost wise just doing home runs... Plus if you ever sold the house, the next home owner would be forced to do the same thing. Those are just my thoughts. I will tell you that there isn't a right and wrong way of doing this stuff... more of a best practices.
Nice advice! As a professional installer these are great tips. You may want a smurf tube to the door for a smart doorbell. Plus, don’t forget speaker cables for distributed audio and surround sound for the main TV especially if you lean towards being an audio aficionado.
Great add. Thanks for watching!
Smurf tubes are a must! Also, when we built our house in 2020 (before crazy price hikes), I had them run Cat6 to every corner under the soffit. I ended up building a workshop about 150' away from the house and installed gigabeams to extend the network to it. One of the under-soffit Cat6 came in handy. When the sprinkler system was installed, I had them lay a 2" conduit between the house and workshop. Plan is to eventually run fiber in the conduit. Then, reuse the gigabeams to extend from the workshop to my tractor shed (250' away). Point is, think ahead because you never know.
So true... Either put the cables in ahead of time that you can use or a pathway to get cables where you need them down the road... Nice thinking on you build!
Great stuff but you are speaking to the choir. I have been telling these things to friends and co-workers for years when they start to build. I like to wire everything, only using wifi for portable devices. I don’t even like wireless alarm systems but that idea appears to be gone. My friends usually just get glazed eyes and tell me they will never need that capability. Then they forget I gave them that advice 2 years later when they ask for help because they can’t get their cheap “wifi booster” to work. I went to an open house recently which was a somewhat high end spec build. There was ZERO low voltage cabling….no Cat6, no coax, no conduit for a service entrance. It was all about the countertops and appliances. When I asked about the wiring the realtor person just said the future is WiFi. At least coax would give the opportunity to use some of the excellent MoCA equipment recently developed. Keep giving the good advice so that those who seek it can find it here.
I'm always blown away to hear this. We live in an age where this should not be special request... (Mind Blown) - Thanks for be a good representative to doing this right!
At 15:30 you discuss not going crazy with running too many wires to too many places because it will drive up costs with your network as you will need a larger and more expensive switch & other networking gear. I would say that it’s fine to run as much wire as you can afford to future proof as you don’t have to hook up every wire you run. My house has 2 network drops in every room, but I don’t have a massive switch because I don’t have every port active. You can always start with a small switch, or the likely included 4 network outputs common on most home routers, and later add a small 5 port switch if you need more, and later a 16 port switch if you need even more. Heck, you could even not terminate the cat6 to save money on the outlets if money is that tight, but as you pointed out once that drywall goes up everything gets a lot harder and more expensive if you change your mind.
Wholeheartedly, agree, here! I’d much rather have a cable that is just sitting there and not used (not connected to a switch so I don’t need a larger switch) than wish I had more cables for that neat new toy that I find five years from now!
This is a very fair statement. I can't disagree. I think if there are areas that it would be impossible to get a cable to at a later date, then your advice would be the best route... But if you put in the tubing to be able to add cabling later, that could also be a solution.... This tip comes from me being in so many houses where the home owner got talked into pulling cabling EVERYWHERE and 85% of the time, most of it sat abandoned. However, it is fair to say that 100% depends on the person in the home. I appreciate you commenting and sharing your opinion. It gives the other viewers something to think about. Cheers!
@@ethernetblueprint Wholeheartedly agree about the tubing! That's probably my favorite of your tips. I wish I had the foresight to put tubes in when the house was being built rather than retrofitting 10 years later. When my house went up, CAT5 was hard to find and even CAT5e wasn't even in anyone's dreams yet. I now have CAT6 in most places but there are still a few rooms that I can't easily rewire. Too late for me, but your tips are GOLD for those who are/will be building! Thanks!
@@ethernetblueprint The tubing to the attic and demarcation is excellent advice, thank you for pushing that out!
Thanks Everyone! Love that you are all weighing in!
Excellent video! I have a few additional thoughts.
- Prewire cable - I would recommend at least CAT6A (10GB) opposed to CAT6 (1GB) this will push your data capabilities farther into the future for that new technology that may appear down the road. Only $50 to $100 more than CAT6A for 1,000 feet. You could also get approval from the builder for you or your electrical friends run in the CAT cables and termination boxes. That way you could install all those extra locations at a minimal cost and you would not have to terminate them in the switch at that time. You may just have to sign a disclaimer for this DIY CAT project. Wear an OSHA approved hard hat when making your request along with that $50 Amazon gift certificate for the contractor.
- I agree that adding additional cable locations could be expensive, but if you are unsure of a specific location for something like a media center in a room, I would run the extra cable to the 2nd location that you may install the media center at. You do not have to terminate that cable in the switch until you need it. Or maybe just add an inexpensive smart switch off of the main switch for those additional CAT cables.
- This suggestion covers your main service panel and a suggested second service panel (same manufacture and model as the main electrical panel), but the second panel is only for your ISP drop, Sat.., OTA TV, Energy Management and Home Automation equipment. The second panel looks so much better than those cheap plastic ISP weather proof boxes. Also request a 2.5" conduit feed to the attic for both service panels. I had 24 electrical circuits in the old 2" conduit. No room for even a single wire to be added. When I upgraded the Main Service Electrical Panel to a Leviton Smart Service Panel, I replaced the original single 2" conduit with (2) 2.5" conduits to the attic. One for the 120VAC circuits and one for the 240VAC circuits. Plenty of room for my future electrical additions (Energy Management). I mounted one service panel on each side of the electric meter. Wife approved! She even said I did a nice job and it looks much better than the old box that the cable company installed.
- One last suggestion regarding the service panels. Pull in a thin rope that is 2x as long as the run from your service panels to a point in the attic where you can access the cables. Secure each end, one in the attic and one in the service panel. The extra slack will either stay in the attic or in the service panel for future cable pulling. Since the rope is twice as long as needed and terminated at each end you can pull the slack back to the needed end and connect the next cable to pull and pull it back with the new cable attached. I use it as a "Permanent" fish. Works great!
- One of my most important suggestions is laying 2' X 8' X 5/8" plywood planks in the attic so that I can navigate through the attic without worrying about visiting my wife by going through the ceiling. I also added 5 light fixtures in the attic on a switch by the attic access panel. Another good move. I just need to replace the old 100 watt CFL bulbs with new Ultra Bright LED bulbs, but maybe I will try only one to see if the LED circuit can withstand the 130+ midday temperatures in the attic (Florida).
I hope that one or all these suggestions may help someone with new construction or a renovation. Sorry about using so many words to get my suggestions across.
This guys f*cks.
Also, if you want to future proof for 10GB and above another way is to just run SM fiber and have converters on tap. I'm prepping to run Cat6a through my house but I'm only running it for some of my IoT devices that I want to run with POE. The rest of the connections will be SM fiber with a bunch of fiber-to-copper conversion boxes in storage. It costs a bit more and you have to be WAY more careful throwing fiber through walls but it pretty much gets rid of any future limitations on speed. I work with enterprise networks so this is overkill for 99.9% of people so I don't think anyone will ever do this besides me. Running fiber to specific spots in your home allow you to run more ethernet without having to run it back to your MDF. You're able to utilize smaller switches and if you're a nut like I am you can have failover to another main switch inside the house.
Your attic plywood idea is one I've been wondering about for weeks now. Just closed on a house a month ago and had a water leak that dripped for days straight in the attic. Ceiling fell in. I got it fixed and literally the next day I almost fell through it. Thanks for the idea. I'm heading to Home Depot. lol
As far as the video, my opinion on the amount of network drops is alittle different. Once you close those walls it becomes a hassle to run more copper. I'd just run extra copper to certain points in the house that I think I might need them and leave them there unterminated. If you don't use them then they're out of sight. If you need them you know where the extra is spooled at and instead of a 60ft run you now have a 16ft pull and some holes to drill.
Thanks for the reply. Everyone is a little different when it comes to their planning. If this video gets people thinking about it (even if it is different than what I suggest), then it did its job. Doing nothing is FAR WORSE than over planning. I appreciate you taking the time to make your suggestions. One thing, I will add is that Cat6 will do 10Gb up to 55M/165ft which most home pulls are under that distance (obviously the size of the home and location of the closet play a role in this) so you may not have to upgrade to 6A to get 10Gb networking. Every run in my home is under that distance with my head end in the basement... Not saying your idea is wrong or bad, but wanted to throw this out there.
Love your permenant Fish string idea. So smart. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for weighing in. I don't think there is necessarily a right or wrong method. Everyone has different needs (take your SM fiber runs for example - you are right, that is overkill for most of us) Thanks for giving the viewers something to think about here.
@@YunqTab Lets say that if a person installs CAT6 (new residence or remodel) opposed to Fiber based on their current needs, the positive side of this is, if they did not staple in the CAT6 (inside the walls) it can become a future fish for a Fiber upgrade. The only location in my house where I believe a future Fiber cable will be needed is in the living room media center and yes I left a fish in the wall just in case. Although I currently have a 50' fiber that runs from my UI USW Pro 24 switch in the utility room to a hidden location in the house where the UNVR is located to handle recordings from my 12 UI outside cameras. This house was built in 1957 so the plaster walls made most of the CAT6 pulls a challenge. At 75 I would say that I do not have to worry about any future technology breakthroughs. Enjoy
@@ethernetblueprint I loved the video man. I’m going through planning myself right now and it gave me some insight. I develop enterprise networks all the time and I must say my home network is just as much as a hassle. LOL
Thanks for this comprehensive video! I’m in the process of building a 5,000sq home; we’ve had a conversation with the low voltage folks who are also doubling as the security company.
I’m very green at this, but I’m about to have another conversation about “future proofing” our home.
I know they do a simple “in-wall” setup in the head end, but I’d like to have a small rack or tray so I could put a raid setup, and some other things like a Lutron setup for blinds (?)
They currently charged me $160 for a 16 port gigabit switch (Trendnet TEG-S16DG which costs 64 bucks), I’d like to include at least 3 drops behind each tv (TV, Sonos, maybe an Apple TV?), then there’s the media room, to which I was planning on housing all the Sonos amps (5 or 6).
My general questions are how can I get to go future proof where I am in the future able to build my own home network.
I assume that the "inwall" solution they are offering is one of those built-in enclosures. Those suck and don't allow for any room for things like a NAS, UPS devices and sometimes even tht router/modem from your ISP doesn't fit. I would see if you can swap that solution with a rack. You can get a 9U open frame rack on Amazon for around $120 bucks which makes them a very affordable way to house you head end. (you will need some shelves and other items too, but they don't break the bank either).
There are obviously lots of ways to future proof a home when it comes to cabling. You can pull extra cabling like you suggested or, depending on your layout, you could have a ENT tube from the Head end to the attic (like I showed in this video) and also ENT tubes from the locations that you may want to add cables later (like the media room and TVs that will have multiple devices.)
A couple of things that come to mind: 1) If you are pulling cable for the apple TV, make sure it has an Ethernet port. The new Apple TVs have removed that. 2) You could pull 1 or 2 cables to the media room and then add a switch in that room to allow all your amps to connect to the the network. Might be easier than pulling several Cat6 cables to there. 3) I don't know how many TVs you are planning to have, but I don't think you would need 3 cables to each one... Usually extra cables are pulled to TVs that have mulitple devices like you mentioned or so you can convert at Cat6 cable and run audio/video through it for a whole home AV like setup. That part is a little over my head since I really focus on the network aspect.
And last, you don't have to keep that switch they sold you. You can upgrade to a Unifi switch/router and APs any time you like.
How are you doing WiFi in the home? It wasn't mentioned...
@@ethernetblueprint hey, thank you for this detailed answer, and my apologies for getting back to you late!
To give you an update, I had a discussion with the low voltage folks and they clarified a few points
1. There would be tube that goes to the attic for future cabling needs.
2. For TVs, I asked if they could drop 2-3 cat 6 cables behind the TV to cover the TV Ethernet, Apple TV, and maybe a Sonos soundbar; I was told that they would rather use a small switch; I’m wondering if that would affect the quality of my connection?
3. I also informed them that I would like to have an actual rack rather than the built in enclosure, which is something they can do. WiFi APs are EERO 6e, they were trying to upsell me on some commercial grade netgear switches
A good tip regarding TV's, generally most have Wifi and Ethernet connection, but that ethernet is usally in most cases a 100Mb port adn therefore Wifi is actually faster in most cases. Cable is still best for most devices thou.
I hear what you are saying... My 2 cents on this is that speed is only part of the equation when it comes to buffering and streaming.
#6 Do not forget to run coxial / cat6a to the roof or another point where you may install an antenna in the future for satellite communications (starlink) or TV, or both. Thank me later
Good call out. I don't see many antennas installed these days (or RG6 for that matter), but yes... either pre run those cables or make sure your conduit to the attic space can accommodate those runs if that is a route you are going to go with!
Coax!
A must... for future affordable Local TV. I still have 6 Coax cables in my old house. (Bright-house (Spectrum) installed years... ago). The old Coax is still in use as my primary OTA antenna to my Tablo HDMI DVT/4 box in the media center and one in my home office. Free Local OTA HDMI TV on any video type device with a local IP address. The signal/picture is GREAT. Primary purpose is for Hurricane season if we lose power and no internet (Summer of 2004 and 2005). StarLink Mini is in our future. More toys. We may soon drop RUclips TV as they are getting as bad as the cable companies, because the OTA broadcasters keep charging them more each year for local TV rebroadcasts. We started with RUclips TV for $29/Month and here it is a few years later and we are up to $72/Month, for the same package. A few years ago the OTA broadcasters made $11 Billion dollars a year for rebroadcast fees. Ridiculous. All the re broadcasters need to get together and boycott the OTA broadcasters all at one time, which would put a nice dent in their $11B annual ripoff. Unfortunately, their contracts expire at different times, smart OTA broadcasters. I believe program selecting should be "Ala Carte" Why pay for programming that no one watches, but is part of a package deal. Enough! Keep the Coax
Very good callouts!
Great tip! I was on the fence about running RG6 except for my cable internet entry point. I decided to run RG6 to every point where I planned for a TV also. Glad I did that after losing internet for several days. I have an antenna in the attic that I get 28 digital channels from including our local news channels. So at each TV location, I have two Cat6 and one RG6. You just never know.
Do you have a video for people whose home is already built? I need to drill through insulation, get cameras outside of vinyl siding... ALL SORTS of stuff which i've never dealt with.
ALL valid and good tips ! Good video !
Thank you for watching!
Very informative video. On the final tip of running cable for APs and cameras, you noted that more cables equals more network kit. There's no requirement to have the kit in place before you use the AP / Camera cables - so more an incremental cost than an upfront cost. The import bit is getting the cable runs done as part of the initial build. Finally, what is your view(s) on installing fibre as well as CAT6/7?
I just wrote about this in a comment to someone else. I tell people that fiber is only for people who NEED the speed and have the pockets to match the speed. I'm running a few lines of SM to my office and to all of my TVs because I'm hosting a few PLEX servers, 4K encoders/decoders, and some mini PCs. Most device NICs aren't running over 1GB so it's a waste to run it to multiple areas as a just in case. If you have a fairly large house and you're expecting to hit the limits on CAT distance yes run a few strands. Expect to spend more money getting SFPs, converter boxes, and NICs capable of 2.5/10GB speeds.
Nice call out. Everyone will have an opinion on the best way to do it and none of them are wrong. The important thing is that people are planning and talking about it. It sucks to do after the walls are up!!
As far as Cat7 and Fiber, I think they overkill for most everyone out there unless you are are like the commenter below (@YungTab) that has a plan and the equipment to utilize it. You can run standard Cat6 and get 10Gb speeds in your home. If you have cable distances that will be over 165ft (most homes don't), then run Cat6A to those locations which can do 10Gb speeds up to 330ft. A safe bet would be to spend a little more and just run Cat6A everywhere to cover your bases. It is a bigger cable though and can be tougher to work with. For Cat7 and Fiber, I just don't see the benefit to spend the extra money for "most users", unless you have a specific need for it) That is just my opinion though.
Hi Tim, love your videos! For a two storey home, in your opinion, would it be beneficial to have one switch for ground floor and another for 1st floor instead of running all LAN cables from both floors to a single switch?
Thanks for watching... I appreciate your kind words.
There are pros and cons to doing that. To me it is easier to troubleshoot issues if you just have everything going into one switch. Everytime you add "a hop" to another device, you have another location that you need to look into issues. I think that setup can be beneficial in larger networks and is generally how office buildings are set up, but in a house, I don't know that I would that. If you ever had an issue with the cable from the router to the second floor switch, then half your house is down until you get it repaired... And I don't think it would save you much money cost wise just doing home runs... Plus if you ever sold the house, the next home owner would be forced to do the same thing. Those are just my thoughts. I will tell you that there isn't a right and wrong way of doing this stuff... more of a best practices.
@@ethernetblueprint Hi Tim, appreciate your response.
You are welcome... all just my opinions
Yeah. I had to run Ethernet throughout my home built in the 1980’s about 2 years ago and it was a nightmare.
I bet it was. I also bet you were glad to have the drops afterwards!
@@ethernetblueprint yep, I’m pretty happy with them. Also added 2 lines for WAP’s so that has really helped.
WAPs are the best way to get internet (IMHO) - nice job!