Buying my First Home(townhouse).. Best way to get Ethernet/Wire Living Room

mwaarna

All,

I am in the process of starting to close on my very first home.
It is a town house with 3 full bedrooms upstairs...

There is carpet upstairs and the very first thing I plan on doing is painting/ripping out the carpet.

BUT here is my question to you guys..
What is the best way to run Ethernet to all bedrooms?
I will only need it upstairs in the 3 bedrooms and into the living room hub with my tv/etc...
Should I run it under the new hardwood flooring I plan on putting down?

Also what is the best way to run speaker cable for all 5 speakers?
I want to get the wire hidden somehow..

Also anything else that I should do before moving in??

Equipment I will have in the house:
Bedrooms:
2 Full Desktops
2 HD TV's
UVerse from ATT
1 Xbox 360's
Boxee Box (once its released)

Living Room:
2 NAS's (Ethernet gigabit required)
Popcorn Hour - Media Streamer
1 HD TV
5.1 Surround Setup with Pre-Amp/AMP
Wii
PS3

Thanks for your help in advance!

-Matti

thsmith

I am really liking the powerline devices. I use the Trendnet 200mps devices.

I would not run any wire under the HW floor, around the baseboards maybe.

rdb2001

Well I will say I was lucky that the previous owners of my house prewired it with ethernet jacks in the living room, master bedroom, and one of the guest bedrooms that we use as an office. From what I can tell, it was ran down the walls from the attic. My cable modem and router sits in the attic.

txcoastal1

I own a security instalation company no longer to residential but before wireless systems just scan the house and plan. 3ft diversa drill bit will help...(home depot/Lowes). Also where you decide to keep carpet pull edge up gently with pliers or dikes try not to pull carpet off the tack strip but just tuck your cable

A few things to think about.

When I laid my hardwoods I had to raise the baseboards which leaves a gap.
Fishing non-insulated walls. (Also insulated but sometimes not so easy)
Stairs usually have nice gaps
Using closets or cabinets to hide wire especially when they line up upstairs and down
Return air chases

If you are going to paint run cables first sometimes you may have to caulk or float to get wires where you want.

And if you get 1 ethernet cable upstairs use a switch to break out to other locations

Good luck

jdwmap

I would imagine you could also look at some wireless solutions unless you really enjoy running cables . . . Look over Netgears wireless solutions for Home Theater.

blairfrischx

If you tried REALLY hard, you could probably run the cables through the wall. Other than that, your best bet would probably be running behind the baseboards of the rooms, which is also a whole lot of work. I wouldn't advise running it under the hardwood floor, though.

mole'

+1 for wireless

mwaarna

Thanks for all the feedback...
I do not want to do wireless due to speeds..

Have you guys ever tried on wireless to transfer anything over 10gb or 100gb for that matter?

I am currently running a gigabit network in the apartment I am running, but the cabling is visible...

WIRED>>Wireless

Going through the power lines is not something I am looking at as an option either.

I am a full on Nerd, but little to none carpentry experience.

I plan to Run CAT6..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable

I will be running a Gigabit Ethernet network initially, but the cabling will support 10-Gigabit Ethernet. In the future once 10Gigabit switches become a reality(aka cheap enough for consumers), I will just swap out the gigabit switch for a 10gigabit switch..

So I was just looking to see if anyone else had gone through the experience of running Ethernet through out the house.

Getting it from upstairs to downstairs is the least of my concern.

I just want ethernet Jacks through out my bedrooms.. All the bedrooms will go into my Closet into a switch. and from the switch one cable will run downstairs to another switch which connects to the router.

Also on a side note, I will be installing a few of these into my house as well:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/05/10-usb-power-outlet-leaves-no-plug-behind/
http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=458

TrashyTrucker

+ 2 for wireless.

It only requires some wireless network router, cards. But hey guess what? You will be a homeowner now... best of all you dont have to ask to anyone anymore. Just make the mortage payment each month and knock yourself out. (pun intended) BTW congrats on the new home and do what ever you think is right. Dont mess withe the floors! ceilings, yes!

My .02 cent worth.

Matt

leftwinger57

I used to install security systems and you'd be amazed at what a snake and bit would do . The wireless route for stereo is not advised. In most houses closets line up and if you have a garage take advantage when and were possible. If your handy at taking off mouldings then go ahead ,there's plenty of room once you clean the void.....LW