Yeah, I figure the signal is getting split to my office and playroom. My office just to watch some tv from time to time on my PC and playroom for my son to watch Noggin and Disney, so picture quality for those two rooms is not a concern. Now when my son starts complaining that he can't watch his Noggin/Disney in HD, then I am in trouble!!!

_________________
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

Damian, I found this crimp kit at my local Lowes for a price that was comparable to just the 10 crimp connectors. It's cheap but worked well enough to do my entire house. I did buy a coax stripper (focus!) tool along with this kit.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
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So now that all my wiring is done I thought I would post some pics. I doubt I will win the "Wire Guy Of the Year" award, but it works!!!

This is the hole in the first floor closet that was already drilled when my alarm system was installed. I snaked the Cat6 down this hole into a closet in the basement. I used the steel rod from HD to put down this hole and poke through the dry wall in the ceiling below, taped the Cat6 to, and then pulled through from the basement.


Cat6 being run out of basement closet


Cat6 run along the ceiling in the basement to the utility closet. At some point I will put up moulding to cover this up.


Utility closet in basement. My cable modem and router are kept here


Cat6 coming out of closet on first floor to be connected to wall plate. Other Cat wires run throughout the house.


Switch on first floor that connects Cat6 from utility closet to the rest of the house. So unfortunately what is now going to become my son's playroom is also where all the network connections for my house come together.


Cat6 going into wall then wall plate


Finished the cable wiring in my garage that the installers forgot to do

_________________
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

Looks good Damian, when you get that molding (moulding for Cougar ) in place you won't even be able to tell.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but when I was wiring my house from the unfinished basement I actually managed to shear off one of those long 4-foot flexible drill bits trying to go down into the basement from inside a wall.

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Alex Kuretz
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Yeah I managed to burn my flex-bit out when I hit a (hardened wood) joist or maybe it was a nail in that joist. Either way it doesn't cut at all anymore and there's no good way to sharpen it (It has a threaded tip to help start the drilling and I screwed it up a little further trying to sharpen the cutting edges by hand with a stone).

There isn't much to show of my wiring job though -- it's all tucked away in the walls & attic. Thank goodness they ran conduit from the basement to the attic just for the purpose of future wiring. I would have gone nuts fishing all the wire otherwise.

Unfortunately I spend a lot of time dealing with clients in London, so some of the spelling habits of theirs I have picked up on as well. That is where the "Cheers" in my signature originated from over 10 years ago!!!

_________________
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

So what's the story behind Rodney or is that you?

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

I'm going to buy you a dictionary for xmas Alex!

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Last Christmas I got no respect. I gave my kid a B-B gun. He gave me a sweatshirt with a bullseye in the back!

_________________
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 just wanted to confirm, there should be no issues running Cat6 in an Attic, correct? It gets pretty toasty up there in the summertime, but I assume that Cat6 can handle this without issue.

I think my next project is going to be wiring my other 3 bedrooms upstairs. Right now my bedroom is the only room that has a network connection, so I was thinking I could do the following:

- Install a 3 Port Keystone Wall Plate w/ Keystone jacks in my bedroom next to where the current network connection is
- Use Cat6 patch cables to connect each Keystone Jack to my gigabit switch in the bedroom
- Run Cat6 (x3) from the Wall Plate in my bedroom through the attic to each room.
- Connect Cat6 in other bedrooms to Wall Plate w/ Keystone Jack
- Enjoy house finally being completely wired

I don't know how much flexability the wife will give me on this since #2 is due in August and I am sure my wife has other projects in mind for me to do around the house!!!

_________________
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

Attic temperatures shouldn't bother Cat 6 cables. I'd likely give you a different answer if you asked about a switch, router or MSS though!

_________________
....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

Do you know of any Wireless Access Points that can take the heat? I purposely left an unterminated drop in the attic for that eventual purpose.

I have never looked into that.You may want to get a temperature and humidity reading up there and then see if anyone else has anything...

_________________
....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 have never seen a switch, router, etc installed in a place with such varying conditions such as an attic. I would avoid it.

dbone1026 - You may want to consider running a couple cables to each room. I found myself kicking myself now because I have to buy switches for each room that have only one port. One big gigabit switch to cover your entire house is cheaper than one small one for the house and one for each additional room.

Great idea. I should run at least 2 for each room, so at a minimum I am covered in case one line goes bad.

Do you guys know what the life expectancy is of Cat5/6 wiring, assuming no conditions change and no physical damage is done?

_________________
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