cat 5 cable and run length

[mookieo2]

Make sure to get plenum rated cable.  It has a  much higher ignition temperature, and would be safer in the event of a house fire.

Not really necessary, Its like triple the price too. I`m sure that if these couple of cat5 cables smoking from a fire are causing harm than you have a much much bigger problem.

We do A/V for large residences and are not required to run plenem cable. The last house we finished was 17k Sq ft and had about 200 cat5e wires and most runs were 100ft +.

[Raux]

Biggest difference:
ethernet = dedicated bandwidth
wireless = shared bandwidth

In a more urban area (like my place) I put my tivo & PC on ethernet.  I have 10 or so wireless networks in my area and a couple wireless devices on my network that can step on each other. In more rural areas where you only have one wireless network available it shouldn't matter. It probably doesn't matter much either way, but I like my ethernet.

You going to give it the David Carradine test?

shared? only if they are running on the same channel/network. and even then most wireless now are switches not hubs, meaning that each connection is a full connection.
i mean set up your own internal and secure wireless network.

[Popeye the Sailor]

I find wired networks are slightly faster and less subject to interference from other household devices. For example, when my microwave is running, my internet does not work. While this doesn't really happen all that much, it is sort of nice to have a wired connection handy.

My hosue is wireless, but I'll be adding cat 5 outlets at some point.

[mookieo2]

The only thing about cat6 is that most people can not punch it down and terminate to spec. If you buy the cables pre made which for this short of a run I would get the cat6 pre made to make your life easier. If you are going to buy bulk cable and terminate yourself and you are not a pro you won`t see an advantage. The tolerances are very tight to terminate to spec.

Right.  I'm guessing I can't hang my 270 pound girth on it either like I can with romex when it gets hung up in the wall cavity!

I think they say about 22lbs of force can potentially break it. I haven`t seen that happen yet and I`m sure me and a few people we`ve had work for us have abused it more than that.

[ducpainter]

CAT5 limit is 100m (328 ft)

(ha! i beat derby)

I want to go farther.

What should I use?

I'm really surprised neither derby nor yourself didn't just tell us.

[derby]

I want to go farther.

What should I use?

cheap: cat5/5e/6 and a repeater every 100m.

not cheap: fiber

I'm really surprised neither derby nor yourself didn't just tell us.

i just did. 

[ducpainter]

all again is right in the world.

[superjohn]

shared? only if they are running on the same channel/network. and even then most wireless now are switches not hubs, meaning that each connection is a full connection.
i mean set up your own internal and secure wireless network.

Not to mention your biggest bottleneck is going to be your Internet uplink, which is the same speed (and much lower) than wired or wireless.

Surfing the net and casual use? Rely on wireless. It's fine.
Running a video game tournament or something like that with local connections and then certainly wired is going to be better.

[Rev. Millertime]

Just my two cents, if your going to the effort of running wire, I'd run cat6 and future-proof yourself. Cost is almost the same but it will support higher speeds than cat5. I've been running wireless n in my house and it works ok when I stream from my home server, but it starts lagging when I stream off the Internet. My router supports 10/100/1000 and I tested the Internet speeds by dragging a 100ft cat6 arround the house. The streaming issues were resolved. as with anything, YMMV, good luck!

+11tyb

I'm doing some wiring at a friends house and pulling Cat6 all over the place.  All his phone outlets are Cat6, 2 cables to every data jack and 1 cat 6 with each CATV jack (pulled two RG6 to each jack as well) I'm all about redundancy when pulling wires in a home.  Every cable is being terminated on each end (both the twisted pair and the coax) and tested as soon as we are done pulling.  Once the sheet rock is up, it's tough to replace a bad cable.   I guess it helps that my company has a data division that does a lot of commercial wiring so I have access to all necessary test equipment.

The electrician was pregnant doging this morning about all the wire I pulled, and the amount of wall space I was using up for the patch panel, switch, punch down blocks for phone and coax cabinet.  I laughed and told him: "Not everyone is happy with pulling just enough wire and leaving a birds nest for someone else to deal with."  

Not to mention your biggest bottleneck is going to be your Internet uplink, which is the same speed (and much lower) than wired or wireless.

Surfing the net and casual use? Rely on wireless. It's fine.
Running a video game tournament or something like that with local connections and then certainly wired is going to be better.

True, but I have been doing FTTP projects that run both data and video on twisted pair, so wiring the house if you have the ability while it's tore apart is not a bad idea. 

[MendoDave]

Make sure to get plenum rated cable.  It has a  much higher ignition temperature, and would be safer in the event of a house fire.

You know, that's something Ive always been worried about. When the house is burning down and I am crawling on my hands & knees under the thick smoke toward the exit, one of my greatest fears is that the Cable in the walls might go up in flames any minute, and add to the catastrophe.

To say nothing of the worry about overheating the cable to the flashpoint while downloading a youtube video.

[Rev. Millertime]

Most homes are filled with far more materials whose smoke will get you long before the cabling in the walls should be of any concern.  Furniture and carpet alone will put out far worse fumes than burning data cable.   I think plenum rated cable applies more to commercial applications where the area above false ceilings and and below "clean floors" (where cabling is run) is also used for air circulation in the buildings.

We recently worked on two big arse buildings for the Microsoft campus here in Fargo.  Both buildings have "clean floors" that not only house all the wiring, but also act as one big arse duct system to move air around the building.

I keep putting clean in quotes, since at the beginning of the project everyone was warned about keeping the area below the floor clean because of the air flow... by the end of the project, there was a complete mess (concrete dust, saw dust, wire trimmings, etc) under the floor.

[derby]

I keep putting clean in quotes, since at the beginning of the project everyone was warned about keeping the area below the floor clean because of the air flow... by the end of the project, there was a complete mess (concrete dust, saw dust, wire trimmings, etc) under the floor.

much easier to just call 'em "raised floors."

[Rev. Millertime]

much easier to just call 'em "raised floors."

the general kept correcting me every time i was on site and called it a raised floor.  got used to calling it a clean floor to avoid even having to talk to the dipshit. 

[angler]

Bought cat6 because it wasn't that much of a difference in cost.  Will fish it this weekend.