My wife and I have finally gotten to a point where we can buy a house near Athens, AL! With all our student loan debt gone, we're in position to build a new house. We've figured out a housing plan we love, but we need some help figuring out how to wire it all up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Background:
- Will be getting 1Gb/s AT&T Fiber
- We don't plan to be in this house longer than 6 years but need to be prepared to stay here long term in case the market crashes
- The homebuilder does CAT6 (I don't know if he does CAT6A, but I'll go with that if the price isn't too much higher)
- Right now, he only does 2 drops...One at the Fireplace/TV in the Living Room and one in the Master Bedroom (RED SQUARES)
- Adding a drop is $90 (what that entails I'm not sure)
- I don't want to add optical fiber...I'd much rather have CAT6A where I can use POE
- I'm thinking of going with 2 possible setups for router and AP's
- Ubiquiti Setup
- Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Machine Pro
- Ubiquiti U6-Lite-US (BLUE CIRCLE on 1st Floor)
- Ubiquiti U6-LR-US (BLUE CIRCLE on 2nd Floor)
- Ubiquiti USW-24-POE
- DIY Setup
- 1U Pfsense Build
- Ruckus R510 (BLUE CIRCLE on 1st Floor)
- Ruckus R610 (BLUE CIRLCE on 2nd Floor)
- MikroTik CRS328-24P-4S+RM
- I want to have all the cables to lead back to either Bedroom #3 or Bedroom#4 (PURPLE STARS)
- Whichever room they lead back to will be where my office and server rack is so I won't need an additional in-wall drop
- I would like to have a drop point in every single bedroom and in the Game Room
- My wife is hesitant about the additional cost, so that might not be possible; I still need to talk to the builder to see what can be doneView attachment 17397
- Questions:
- Is the $90/drop fair? Do you think I have any wiggle room to do it myself or help with the cost?
- Is the bigger/more powerful AP on the 2nd Floor going to be enough coverage for the area beneath it on the 1st Floor?
- Does it make sense to have a drop in every room?
- Any anything I should ask the builder in particular?
Use the "keystone" style jacks.
What Is a Keystone Jack? (cablematters.com) They come with a plastic punch down tool. If you are not color blind they are easy to connect. You can test with this tool.
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Amazon.com: CableCreation Cat6 Keystone Jack RJ45 Keystone Jack, 20-Pack Keystone Cat6 Modular Female Connectors UL Listed, White : Electronics
Amazon.com: trueCABLE 3 Port Single Gang Keystone Wall Plate, UL Listed, Low Profile Design, Universally Compatible with Modular Ethernet, A/V, Coaxial, and Optical Fiber Keystones, 5 Pack, White : Electronics
When I built a house 20 years ago I used Cat5e and it handles 1Gb/s perfectly. I installed them in every room and in laundry room and a couple of closets. I installed a switch on each end of the house. All jacks are tied to the switches on each end, those tied to a central switch that my servers are tied to. My builder agreed to drywall around any boxes I installed (for free), and I could do the low voltage wiring as long as it did not delay the building inspection. A blue plastic box is $1, You can buy the keystone connectors in bulk, so this can be done very cost effectively. Local fire inspector would not let me have a cable run that was not caulked shut between floors. I had stuff the wire runs full on insulation but that was not good enough. they had to be caulked. There is no way to run an extra wire later. Where my server was located, I could not have room for expansion. Later I added 10Gb/s fiber but it took me a long time get the courage to drill a new run. My suggestion is put in a central vac run to your probable server locations. You can bluff that that if for future vac addition to appease the inspector. Somehow a pipe for a central vac is OK with the inspector, but a wire run is not allowed. The central vac is easily repurposed for a cable run.
My builder had some of the bedroom light switches in bizzarro places and in rooms without overhead lights there were not enough switched outlets. You don't want a lot of extension cords. You should be able to review the blueprints to see where the electrical outlets and switches are. It will also show which outlets are switched. You can then layout where the hardware will be. Make sure you have power. The builder asked for $10 for every additional electrical outlet. Inflation will put that higher.
I installed now useless RF and a phone lines. My multi room speakers/intercom is Alexa wireless devices. I ran speaker wires to many spots as well that I have gotten good use. I have 7.1 Stereo in the living room and in the basement rec room. All the speaker wires feed to a terminal strip so the speakers can be reconfigured easily. This was handy when the TV screen grew and the wall the entertainment center was on had to change. In some rooms I suggest installing multiple Cat6 of cat5e wires. There are balun designs that allow video or other signals all over the Cat5e wiring. With 2.5Gb/s wires and future proofing perhaps Cat6 is best, but it is more expensive and harder to deal with than Cat5e IMO.
On thing I wish I had done was switched, under the eaves outside power for Christmas lights. If you want outside power make sure to have it run before concrete deck or sidewalks are poured. I put PVC pipe under the sidewalks. Later I ran power in them and a hose for irrigation of flower beds.