I specified a number of combined telephone and network connections on my house plans. About half of the telephone connections had matching network connections included. I decided to use category 5 UTP for both telephone and network wiring. A single category 5 wire allows up to 4 telephone connections, two 10 Base T connections or a single 100 base T connection. It addition it could always be used for intercom wiring, etc.
All cables should be run from the junction box to the utility panel in the basement. This is known as a "home run". This gives the most flexibility and is appropriate for the star layout of 10-base-T networks.
I will be supplying and wiring the wall plates myself. Here are the instructions I wrote for the wiring contractor.
All phone and network wiring should be Category 5 unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables. Each of these cables consists of 4 twisted pairs (8 wires total). The owner will supply 1000 feet of this cable. [Only about 800' was used in my 1500 sq. ft. house.]
Two such cables should be run from the basement utility panel to each junction box marked on the plans as telephone "+Net". These junction boxes should be single width ("single gang"). Junction boxes marked as telephone-only should be single gang with a single such cable installed.
All telephone and telephone + Net junction boxes should have blank wall plates installed. The cable ends should be left unattached inside the junction box with approximately 8-12" available for later wiring.
The following guidelines should be followed when installing the cables:
| All cable runs are "home runs" |
| Avoid kinks and tight turns with the cable. |
| Cables should be at least 8" away from power wiring - do not run cables through the same holes or parallel to power wiring. |
| If you must cross over power wiring, cross at a perpendicular angle. |
Two cables should be run to each cable television junction box. All cable television wiring should be RG-6. The junction boxes should be single width ("single gang") with two standard cable jacks. All wiring runs should be home runs to the utility panel in the basement
I used the following sources to develop my house wiring specifications.
| http://www.hometeam.com (home of Electronic House magazine and lots of useful information) |
| http://www.netspec.com/helpdesk/wiredoc.html (In-depth discussion of UTP wiring) |
| http//www.wildtracks.cihost.com/homewire/ |
| news:comp.home.automation |
| Cabling FAQ |
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