A quick tip...

When you pull a wire pull a strong string with it, one at slightly more than TWICE the length of the cable. Tie it off at both ends. When (if?) you need to pull another wire just use the string to pull it through.

Saves untold amounts of time!

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

I definitely agree. The other thing, which several members suggested and was a life saver, leave yourself extra slack. If the connector ever goes bad you can always add a new one without having to run another line.

Curious if anyone knows, when running the cable is it important that both ends be configured under T568A or T568B ( I assume if one end is T568A and the other T568B this will cause a conflict). My question, aside from both ends being the same will this affect anything else? For instance, lets say you ran a T568A setup, but the patch cable you are using is a T568B, will this not work?

This was a great learning experience, and I must say the intimidation factor that was there before I started this little project is gone. I wonder what else I can get into trouble with around the house????

ALSO, this is what I love about the MediaSmartServer forum. It is not just about the MSS. I probably would have never thought about running cables or building my HTPC if it wasn't for the folks here, so hats off to everyone

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I tried that when I wired my house and even though I made sure I used a strong string, the one I selected had too much stretch to it so it didn't work out well. I ended up fishing 3-4 cables at a time using one of those chinese-fingerlock-type cable holders. I ran 8 Cat5E cables + 1 CATV cable from the basement to the attic and from there to all the rooms.

For the actual fishing I only used the fishtape to pull the wires up from the basement (through conduit that came with my home) and those glow-in-the-dark fish-sticks everywhere else (I highly recommend these -- saved tons of time vs fishtape).

It'll still work. The convention is for the colours of the wire only -- the pinout is still the same.

Alright, next question. My next run will be from my basement to the first floor. There is already a wire run from a closet on the first floor to the basement for my alarm system so I was thinking about running the cat6 along this hole. What tool can I use to help snake the wire from the first floor to the basement, would I use a fiberglass rod?

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I used a steel wire spool my buddy had bought from Home Depot, it was called fish tape and retracts into a round plastic body.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
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If the overall hole is vertical, straight and of sufficient size just tie a weight (long and thin is best) to a string and drop it down the hole. (Works like a charm for me going down from attic to basement in a 2-story home. Just a little jiggle a couple times and I was done in about the time it took to type this!)

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Well done! These jobs seem easy to the experienced person but to the inexperienced it is quite daunting. I've done all sorts of things around my house that I had never done before and I do things pretty much just like you did. Research, research, then proceed slowly. Of course I ALWAYS have to buy a new tool or two for these projects. If the project is initiated by the wife I can usually get an extra tool or two. So again, well done.

_________________
HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool

And now you, too, are experienced..!

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

I am happy to report that I just finished the second run of Cat6 that went from the utility closer in the basement across the length of the house, through a ceiling in a closet and into the playroom on the first floor. My HTPC which is on the utility closet side on the first floor can now download at an average of 40mb/sec vs 10mb/sec prior from my MSS (on the playroom side), so mission accomplished and I should now finally be able to play my HD mkvs on my HTPC without issue. That is not to say it was all easy. I bought a 1/8'' x 48'' round rod from Home Depot for $2. Since there was already a hole in the floor on the first floor leading to the basement, I simply put the rod in the hole (ok, I could go in a completely different direction with that statement, focus!!!). The rod was sturdy enough that with a few jabs it went right through the ceiling drywall in the basement. I then taped the Cat6 to the rod, went down to the basement and pulled the rod through along with the cat6. Now for the problem, I was pushing the Cat6 down the hole from the first floor, but didn't realize by doing so the Cat6 wasn't going through and instead just bunching up in the ceiling/floor. When I realized and tried to pull the Cat6 out it had gotten into a knot and wouldn't come out. Needless to say, there is about 5 ft of chopped off Cat6 floating around in the walls!!! So overall this has been a great experience. 9 out of my 10 fingers went uncut, and even the one I cut I was able to wipe the blood off of the cat6!!! I will try and post a couple of pics soon. Once again, thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions, couldn't have done it without you guys.

OK, so even though a one armed man is handier then me, I have one more task to tackle and need some quick advice/thoughts. When I had coax/Cat wiring done in my house (before I knew how to do it) I had the company run Coax into my office but they just decided not to connect it to anything. They also ran coax in the playroom which is right next to the office (with my garage in between). Since the playroom is directly below my bedroom, they put a splitter in my bedroom ( I already had coax in that room), ran a line from my bedroom through the garage and to the playroom. Where the coax comes down in the garage is also where they ran the coax from the office to, but it is just cut off there (explains why I get no signal in my office)??? So if you look at the picture below the bottom left coax line is coming from the bedroom upstairs and is being connected to the coax that then runs into the playroom. The chopped off coax above is of course the office line... So what do I have to do to get this working, put a connector on the chopped off line, then just connect everything to a splitter?

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Yes, that will probably work. The cable guys tell me that the more you split the cable, the more your signal degrades. If that happens, you might need to get a signal booster/amplifier. I have about 6 runs in my home, some pretty long -- and I am fine with no booster.

The good news is that you are doing a new project -- which means the wife will allow you to purchase a new tool. And of course you NEED one! It helps to use a compression crimping tool, though you could get the screw on type (shhhh! Don't tell her!). Seriously, I find the screw on F-connectors hard to use and sometime have to redo it a couple times. I bought a crimper a while back and it made these jobs a lot easier. HD and Lowe's have them, among others. Amazon has a pretty slick package that gives you some other useful tools, though you could do without them. Example here.

Check your cable size (focus here too) - I can't tell from the picture. I have at least two types in my home. The newer stuff is quad shield -- since your house is pretty new this might be what you have. The designation of the stuff I have is RG-6Q. Make sure you get the right size tool and connectors. Some cables are just for cable TV, others are better for digital service and video.

Thanks. I am still left scratching my head why the installation guys left the wires as is in the first place, but that is my fault as they did the installation while I was at work and my wife was at home. I have a signal booster/amplifier set up so hopefully I shouldn't run into any problems. I already have a splitter, so looks like I just need to get a compression crimping tool and the f connectors. Shame I didn't know any of this stuff earlier, wouldn't have paid those clowns in the first place...

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Just look at it as though you're doing your part to stimulate the economy.

_________________
HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool

Is it possible they just pulled a spare wire for future use? Or that they pulled it, tested it and found it bad, and just left it in place?

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

It is a little confusing but the original plan was to have coax run to the office and the playroom, and this was going to be fed off the coax line in my bedroom above the garage. When the company first came they only ran the line for the office. We were still doing work in the playroom and weren't sure where we wanted to put the tv, so the company didn't want to run the line to the playroom nor connect everything to the bedroom line until we were sure where everything was going. Well, a month later when we got everything situated in the playroom and they came back to run the wires to the playroom, they completely forgot they had even done anything with the office, and thus the reaosn why you see the coax line in the garage connected to nothing

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Just crimp a connector on it and hook it up to a 2 way splitter (although I'd purchase a high quality splitter rather than a cheapee). For data you should be fine without a signal booster. The signal loss from multiple splitters only gets problematic for HD TV.