I am in the process of building a new house at the moment. I am doing most of the work myself and am currently at the stage of putting in the services
prior to plasterboarding. Obviously i am running in all the plumbing and standard electrics i.e. lights sockets etc. I plan to put Sky and TV cabling
along with phone cable into all day and bed rooms.
What else should i be looking to put in at this stage to keep my house as future proof as possible? I have been looking at the Windows Media Centre
and like the look of having all my electronic media available throughout the house at the touch of a button. All my music is MP3 and all my
photographs are digital. The Windows website does give some information about networking.
What is the easiest way to make sure that i can view photos on my TV in the living room from a PC in the study etc? I have spoken to a couple of
people who have mentioned Cat 5 cabling and ethernet cabling - maybe this is the same!?. Anyway, maybe someone out there could give me a few pointers
on the basics.
I am not very technical with this sort of thing, although at this stage i am just wanting to make sure i run the correct cables to the correct places.
I can worry about the technical connections etc at a later date.
Any help/guidance appreciated.
Cheers
Andrew
cat5 is a type of ethernet cable 
(get cat5e then you can go gigabit)
make sure you have plenty of runs to each area to a central point, you can put your phones over cat5 aswell.
you can get small devices that connect to the network and your tv and let you view pictures / videos and play music through your telly from your
pc.
[Edited on 6/11/07 by dan__wright]
[Edited on 6/11/07 by dan__wright]
Thanks for the quick reply.
So is a Media Centre just a brand of this small device that you mention? or is the Media Centre something different?
The central point that you mention, would that ideally be in the Study for connection to a PC?
Thanks
Andrew
Wot he said.
Think of the cat5 cable as the entertainment cable. You'll need a central location that you can plug all the cables together (via a switch / hub
/ rack combination). You can also have you phone lines go to this point - then route the phone cable down a cat5 cable (that is now dedicated to
phone) to a specific room. The issue is making sure you get the cat5 termination points in a room in the right place (and enough). Proper builders
have design patterns to help them (ie if room is this size and window here, put sockets there, etc).
The simple solution is to use wireless, if i had the choice i'd go for a combination of both & wire a cat5 socket to main power sockets in
the house (eg by the tv), by the desk in bedrooms etc.
Cat 5 and Ethernet are the same thing.
I would plan for a ADSL modem and 8 port router to be located near where the phone line enters the building and then run Cat 5 cabling to each room
brought out to a socket plate (like a mains or light switch plate). This will give you the quickest most reliable computer network in the house. The
modem/router could also be wireless so you or visitors can access the network and internet wirelessly, but for static PCs and multimedia devices
cabled connection is better IMHO.
I'm in the process of doing the same to my house albeit co mplicated by the fact the house exists.
Other things you could implement might include...
VOIP telephones where the telephone call is placed via your ADSL connection over the internet (cheap).
IPTV where TV can be distributed around the house over the computer network accessed via the internet.
Remote access to PCs, DVRs, lighting controls, heating controls etc.
The possibilities are almost endless....
media centre is just a general term, it can be software on a pc or a physical device.
Windows Media centre is just a version of Windows, like XP or Vista, which is specifically geared around media - TV, HD content, music, games, etc.
You can get a media centre type thing, which I think Philips or Panasonic make, with a central server where you put all your music, and have small
players plugged into the network around the house.
If you wanted to be able to see all your stuff (DVDs, etc.), around the house, you would need small form-factor PCs around the building to present it
to you. In this case, Cat5e cabling would be the way to go, then you could use gigabit networking. As it's much easier to cable up now, put in
more cables than you think you need (so if you go for one socket in each room, put in two) - new technologies will come along that you can use it
for, and you'll already have the cabling in place.
The central point mentioned can be anywhere - not necessarily near a PC. one other thing to point out is that Cat5e cable runs should be no more than
100m end to end.
Hope this helps, feel free to u2u me if you have any more specfic questions.
Cheers
Vince
Thanks for the pointers, i knew people here would help me out!
Is there a general rule of thumb for each room? What i mean is; for a living room i would probably have TV & Sky cable, i would want to be able to
view photos, listen to music etc controlled over my TV. Would that be one Cat 5 cable from the living room to the central hub, or do a i need a cable
for each service i.e. one for Sky, one for phone, one for music etc I suspect (and hope) it is just one, but i am not very bright with these things -
as people that have tried to help me with my car wiring will testify!!
(Vince you have more or less answered my questions while i was typing them! Thanks)
[Edited on 6/11/07 by albertz]
one each. you can get adaptors to run coax over cat5/rj45 but never seen it used with sky, normally for cctv.
one network for your media centre, one for your phone, once for coax for sky (2 if sky+ or hd) and maybe a spare
I build offices for people and we normally work on 3 outlets per person, 1 x phone, 1 x data and 1 x spare (for printer / fax etc). In a domestic
situation I would allow a quad outlet per room, or 2 twins if you want to seperate them. (That would give you a phone, data, network printer and an
IP web cam for example).
Remember though, that CAT5e has 4 twisted pairs of wires, but only actually uses 2 pairs (+ve transmit, -ve transmit, +ve receive, -ve receive). So
you can get away with 1 cable per twin outlet (subject to not wanting to upgrade later!).
I had about 8 rolls of CAT6 cable left over from a job, so brought them home and have started re-cabling my house too!
At the moment I have the BT line coming in, that goes to a wireless modem, with 4 wired ports on it. From there I have connected my PC and run
another cable to a 10 way switch in the understairs cupboard. I am working away from here to the other rooms.
Also, for domestic use, don't think that you have to run 10 cables from the GF to the FF, run one and stick another switch on the first floor and
wire from there.
Hope that helps.
Mike
Wires? what are they?
How about considering a local wireless network?
I have just put the SONOS sound system in my home. It's like an ipod for the house and it uses a 500gb server so holds more data than I have, but
this can be added to at a later date when needed.
[Edited on 6/11/07 by Hammerhead]
With a new build first step is to ensure phone & Sky come into the building at sensible places, chose a spot for your router and run a cat 5e or
Cat6 cable from that point. Cat 5can also can also be used for phone extensions but it is easier run phone cable as well.
Rather than run multiple cat5e cables to the upper floor I normally just run one cat 5e cable to an up stairs bedroom/office where it connects to a
cheap dumb network hub an run cat5e cables from the hub via the loft to any other upstairs rooms that need network points.
Same goes for burglar alarm cables -- for the upstairs run one or two cables (+ one for the bell box) and have distribution box in the loft.
All this isn't as critical as it used to be as wireless technology and networking and telephone extensions via power lines are making hard
wired cabling less vital.
You might find thes URL of interest
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=A09HG&DOY=6m11
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221173&&source=14&doy=Search
[Edited on 6/11/07 by britishtrident]
quote:
Originally posted by Hammerhead
Wires? what are they?
How about considering a local wireless network?
how do you know they're searching for pr0n - do you hack into their wireless network 
You could go for Ethernet over power and not worrie about caberling.
a mate of mine mentioned something that you plug into your plug socket on the wall and your data is transferred via your domestic electricity wiring
throughout your house to another chosen plug socket.
Smart eh?
I use ethernet over power (one of the netgear ones here. Works a treat.
quote:
Originally posted by locoboy
a mate of mine mentioned something that you plug into your plug socket on the wall and your data is transferred via your domestic electricity wiring throughout your house to another chosen plug socket.
Smart eh?