ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Do you do the whole job?

I have to laugh at people who have to have the latest cat5e or 6. It's all hype folks, gotta have that speed. For what? Unless you are heavy into extensive local data transfer even cat3 will work just fine for data. Even high speed DSL or broadband internet doesn't even begin to come close to the old 10 baseT capacity. Now we are using 100 baseT with cat5e. It's like doing a 400 amp service for every house.

CAT6 to a refrigerator?

-Hal

hbiss

I disagree...

The collision/cancel rates are too high on cat-3 for some things like video or MP3 transfer. (over a distance of 100' to the hub, then out to whatever devise.)

I even run 5E MPC riser for doorbells now! 'Cause once they move in and see what thier neighbor has, they too will want the $5k+ German video intercom! And I'll sell it to them. Another 10+ cents a foot, for the opprotunity make a $1000.

Same with phone systems.

Well, I'm not advocating that we use cat3 for data. I just was trying to make a point.

You are right about streaming video and audio and I did mention that. But in the vast majority of instances, especially in residential networks, this stuff is downloaded via DSL or broadband and stored on the machine it's played on. The network isn't used for anything faster than internet, print sharing and file transfers so there is no need to waste money on "cutting edge" networking technology.

Yeah, I know about those multi-million dollar homes with networks that rival a fortune 500 company...

-Hal

Hal,
I agree that cat3 on a 10BaseT network is sufficient for most people for browsing the internet and exchanging small files. I always laugh when I read posts on forums recommending cat5 cable or better needs to be installed from the MPOE to the DSL modem. Since Mark (e57) and I both work in Silicon Valley are customers are the people that invented much of the technology now in use. They don’t mind spending money for high performance home networks and do make use of them. I don’t think any of my customers are now using anything less than 100BaseT networks and many of them are now using gigabit. Multimode fiber is also frequently installed. If you are willing to pay $2,000,000 for a ¼ acre empty lot I’ll install any type of network wiring you want.

Curt

LK, I only do custom homes, when I do homes, and I haven't had a problem with the customer wanting the locations changed repeatedly. If that's the case, cost for changes should be made known up front. Sign the change order and move on.

Here in Austria I can't remember seeing Cat 3 for sale anywhere and Cat 5 is dirt cheap, so it's installed everywhere.
Standard phone wire is 2 pair, non-twisted, no shielding whatsoever. Color coding yellow, brown, green black. Yellow and brown are used for line 1, green was originally intended to be ground but is now often used for the second line if there is one (not too common, PABXes are much more common than 2 physical lines, especially with the loads of cell phones we have around now).
Cat6 to the refrigerator... where on erath would I hook that up? My refrigerator is early 90ies, the seconadry one 1960ies...
I think those ideas of the automated home are pretty ridiculous.

Cat5 is available worldwide because it complies with the ethernet standard used by all PCs. I wouldn't say it's dirt cheap. Here you can pay nearly $250/1000feet for plenum rated cable. That's why we use CAT3 for voice wiring plus the lack of a tight twist makes for faster termination.

I think the telephone technology is a bit more advanced here in the US. Non-twisted pair voice wiring has been outlawed to eliminate crosstalk in multi-pair cables.

What do you mean by "PABXes are much more common than 2 physical lines, especially with the loads of cell phones we have around now"?

I assume you mean that people use their cell phones as their second (or maybe only) line? What do PABX's have to do with it?

-Hal

Dirt cheap is compared to what it used to cost.

Sorry, I somehow mixed up extensions with 2 physical lines
Seems like I wasn't really awake or too concentrated when I wrote that...
Well, the untwisted cable is only used for in-house phone wiring, and I don't know any recent phone installations, all i have seen is about 10 years and older, back when we only had one phone company that was owned by the government.

I have not did a home in years but don't you think that the best thing to do is run E.M.T or E.N.T to a box in the wall?
That way you can do anything you whant

I agree Big Guy. I've been saying that for years. The only way to make this stuff future proof is to make it so it can be easily replaced.

The big BUT here is the future of wireless. I suspect in a few years time network wiring in homes at least will be a thing of the past.

-Hal