On basic telephone wiring, there's no real technical need for homeruns...
I COMPLETELY disagree. At a minimum home runs eliminate the same problems you mention with daisy chained TV distribution. Owner wants a second line added to a jack, nothing like moving a wall unit and other furniture to open up all the other jacks to cut the pair through. That's assuming you even know how it's run. I've been known to walk away from jobs like that.
Nowadays with home offices and kids multiple lines are a given in many homes. Home run wiring provides the flexibility to easily configure any jack for up to 4 lines or allows the use of a key system if an owner chooses.
4 pair cat3 homeruns for voice actually is a standard for residential and you are going to be running home runs for everything else anyway.
ToHo, there is no standard for what to provide at each location. Obviously a telephone for instance may not always be located with a TV or computer and installing wiring for everything at each location is a waste of time and money. I've seen that stupid "everything under one jacket" cable (2-RG6, 4-cat5's, 2-fiber) home run to a telephone table in a hall. Can you say DUMB!
I have always been a believer in a well thought out installation. Plan where the jacks are going to go then add more because nobody ever knows how the rooms will be arranged beforehand. Consider that future owners will have different ideas too. Run only the services required to each jack with individual home runs.
RG-59 really has no use in this application anymore. Higher bandwidth requirements have made RG-6 the norm. Always nice to use a cable swept to 2Ghz to allow for satellite distribution. Quad shield is normally not necessary, by the way so save your money. 60% braid over foil is just fine.
-Hal
[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 01-03-2005).]
