Help with planning out wiring for TV/Internet

exalted512

So I've been building my house and I'm at the stage where I want to go ahead and put Internet / cable in. Kind of.

So I've essentially built a 1 bed/1 bath 'house' inside of a 2000 sq ft shop. A barndominium for those of you that have heard the term. The living area is only about 650 sq ft. We will be building a house in about 5 years.

Anyway, the plans are for the living room and bedroom to turn into air conditioned shop space. The kitchen will stay a kitchen for my wife's side-dessert business. Laundry room will probably stay there as well and definitely the bathroom.

Here's the somewhat to scale plans. The wall (red with yellow stripe) separating the bedroom from the living room will be taken out completely and double doors to the shop will be going in there. The yellow wall will be put up to separate the space (shop from kitchen)



The openings are doors.

So the wiring will come into the shop through the slab behind the washer. The blue star represents where I'd like to put the modem, switch, and wireless router for the Internet. Then green is where the TV's currently are.

Right now, I'm thinking about putting a coax and cat6 to each TV location. I'd also like to put a coax/cat6 in the shop side of the wall, about where the yellow line is, in case I ever want to get TV out there. Having said that, I'd also like the ability to duplicate what is playing off the directv box from the living room and put it outside where the shop is. I know I wouldn't be able to change channels, but that's fine. What would be the best way to do that?

This is the first time I've really ever messed with wiring from scratch. Right now, the coax from our dish is coaxed straight to the box in the living room (just ran over the floor as a temporary solution). There's no wiring into the house at all other than that. The DSL people are supposed to be here Monday to make the run from the box by the side of the road to our house.

I guess the plan is to wire it to a gigabit switch from the modem and wire that directly to the wireless router, then to the other 3 places (bedroom, living room, shop) and of course terminating them in the walls. I don't want a hack job. Is a patch panel necessary? What is the best way to go from the router back through the wall to all the locations...just a gang plate with all the necessary number of Ethernet jacks? I might do some IP security cameras later, but not at this time. But if there's something I need to know to make it easier down the road for that, I can do it.

So the only other question I had is just a vague any general suggestions for wiring the house for Internet/cable?

Thanks!
-Cody

kevhed72

Just remember only certain existing phone line receptacles can accept your router / modem. Our house was pre wired and I believe the DSL guy had to locate a certain receptacle-something to do with the actual wiring.
I just ran four runs of cat6 from the actual router to different spots in the house due our router has four jacks so a separate Ethernet plate with jacks was unnecessary.

exalted512

kevhed72 wrote: »

Just remember only certain existing phone line receptacles can accept your router / modem. Our house was pre wired and I believe the DSL guy had to locate a certain receptacle-something to do with the actual wiring.
I just ran four runs of cat6 from the actual router to different spots in the house due our router has four jacks so a separate Ethernet plate with jacks was unnecessary.

That's essentially what I plan on doing, just running Ethernet to where I want it. There's no wiring in the house, phone or otherwise. I've built/installed everything, only wiring is electrical
-Cody

mantis

I suggest running a 2+2 to each location. A 2+2 is 2 coax quad shield and 2 Cat 6 cables.
You want to run everything to a central location where your cable feed enters the house or shop if you will and your network head end will live. I suggest making that area the same.
Get a Can meaning a Structure box. This is a good place to distribute out from and keeping everything in one place clean.
Get a Network switch 10/100/1000 of at least 8 to 16 ports. This will give you more options for hard wired locations. Hard wire is much better then wireless.
Keep wiring away from power lines at least 6 inches. If you have to run them near power then cross over instead of running parallel .
Do not bend the cat 6 cable or the cow of you will ruin it. Soft turns and bends soft 45's work the best.
Do not use a tight staple gun to hold wires in place. Rather use Wire hooks so the wires lay in and are not crushed.
Terminate in T568B , this has been the standard for many years. T568A is old phone but will work for network. It is said not proven to be a slower connection. I've never seen a loss but it's said in the industry.

exalted512

I couldn't find anything on what a structure box is, can you provide a link?

I'm thinking an 8 port switch is good for me. I can't think of needing anymore than that, even long term. If it was a house, I'd go way overkill, but in the shop, I don't foresee a lot of things that I'd network (via wire) other than multiple cameras and a tv or three, short term or long term.

Will do on the T568B.

Thanks for the help!
-Cody

exalted512

Also, just curious to the point of running 2 coax's to every location? I think behind the living room TV, I will be running 2 coax's. One will be the input for the directv box, but the other will actually be an output that I'm running from the output on the DTV box and run that to a TV in the shop. I'm not real concerned about picture quality in the shop because I don't plan on putting nice TV's in the shop.
-Cody