Advice on setting up home ethernet (with unused cable already in the walls)
I live in a townhouse (built in 2002, if it matters for context)
it has ethernet cables in the walls, that have apparently never been hooked up (yay futureproofing)
they’re cat 5e cables (I checked on the cable sleeve, because I wanted to make sure it would support gigabit ethernet and not just 100mbit)
behind each wall plate, the ethernet cable is just coiled there, not terminated in a connector and not connected to anything (along with coax cable and telephone wires which are hooked up to the wall plate, but which I’m not currently using at all)
the cables run to a wiring box in one of the bedroom closets. here they are also just hanging around, unterminated and unconnected to anything.
I have a rough idea of how to DIY this, but I've never done it before - the extent of my networking knowledge is layer 2 and above. so I'm looking for any protips of the sort that you figure out after doing it several times but that aren't obvious the first time you do it.
right now, my shopping list is:
- a patch panel (I’m eyeing this one) which will terminate the cables in the wiring box
- a punch down tool (maybe like this one) for…umm…punching the wires, it seems like?
- a gigabit switch (I have a spare 8 port one that I’ll use, there's only 6 runs of cable total) to go in the wiring box
- a wall plate (like this) for each of the 6 endpoints
I really only care about 2 of the 6 - the motivation behind this project is that my modem & router are downstairs, my home office is upstairs, and currently I run powerline ethernet between them. powerline ethernet isn't great, but it sucks especially hard when something like a portable AC unit is running on the same circuit, and that's currently making the internet speeds in my home office suffer. but the 6 cable ends in the wiring box are unlabeled, and so it seems easier to just wire them all up rather than play guessing games to figure out which of them are the 2 I care about.
the main thing I'm unsure about is the termination of the cables with the punch-down tool. I've crimped ethernet cables, years ago, and hated it, due to having clumsy hands and large, ungainly fingers. this doesn't seem quite as bad, but I'm still cautious about having to do all this in the fairly cramped closet space, and with limited ability for "do-overs" due to the finite amount of cable installed in the walls. I'm thinking I may buy a cheap ethernet cable and sacrifice it for some test runs of the punch-down tool.
That sounds about right. I hate making cables but punch downs are a non issue.
They make those wall plates in punch down form as well. It would probably be a little easier.
For example https://a.co/d/f5cCK4p
I’d maybe add a cheap cable tester to make trouble shooting a bit easier. Something like https://a.co/d/8rvOYU4
I’d also recommend labeling each cable where you can.
I'll second the cable tester. I have that exact one, and its saved my butt so many times. Though I suppose if you're only doing 2 cables you could manually test.
Even punch down is not foolproof. Sometimes you get an unlucky break in the cable.
One thing I've learned is once I have the equipment to make my own ethernet cables, It's become trivially easy for me to make my own for myself and friends outside my original use case.
You can get a tester for like $15. It's cheap enough to just get and save yourself potentially hours of confusion.
I know you aren't thinking of making your own cables but you should know that it's never been easier. Get yourself some pass through connectors and terminating the wires becomes a breeze. No more guessing if the damn wires will all bottom out at the same time.
Pass-thrus are truly amazing, wonderful, and worth the extra bit of money. This is fantastic advice. I used to make a ton in the field and changing over to pass-thru eliminated so much time and headache that in hindsight, I’d have been fine paying double what the pass-thru crimper and ends cost. I think it’s even cheaper now.
They're awesome for the few cases where you'd need to terminate backhaul Ethernet with a plug (wall/ceiling mounted APs and cameras), but generally wisdom these days is that patch cables should be flexible and it's just better/easier to buy those premade. Dealing with crimping 28awg stranded wires probably isn't worth the fuss.
As someone who just made like 10 patch cables and hated every second of it, holy crap why have I never heard of these before? I'm ordering a bag!
Pass through and the Klein ratcheting crimper are good for the field. Punch down though should be easier if you can get away with it.
That's basically all you need, aside from enough patch cables to hook the patch panel to the switch - if you hate making your own cables, just buy some pre-made. Most patch panels and wall plates even have the colors of the cables printed right on each punch-down point, so they're hard to mess up. Punch down termination is a lot more forgiving and less fiddly than crimping on a plug, at least in my experience, so I don't think you'll run into problems there.
I recently did a similar project, I used:
this punch down tool https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AZK4D
this stripper https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073YDM1J6
these keystone jacks https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F35THYR
this cheap tester mostly to figure out which cord went to which room https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08318BM98
Mine were already terminated into wall plates in each room but I did have to take one wall plate off to figure out which wiring standard they used (A or B) so I could do the same wiring on the other end. If you’re doing your own wall plates just make sure you do them the same on both ends.
It’s a pretty easy job, I’ve never worked with Ethernet before and was able to do the whole thing just after watching a YouTube video about punching down a keystone jack. Punching down a keystone seems waaaay easier than crimping a cable.
I know it's been said but definitely get a tester. They range in price from very cheap to very expensive, you don't need to spend more than $20.
Is cat5 a typo? That will reduce network speed to 100Mbit, that is not nearly enough. Cat5e is the bare minimum, and I would personally go for Cat6a because the price difference isn't even that big nowadays.
Cat6 is the same connector type as cat5/5e. I would definitely replace cabling with cat6 if you own the place. Might even want to place a rack if you plan on adding devices (i.e., nas). I'm guessing this is a typo as everything else is accurate and you are more likely to see cat5e in search results. Monoprice doesn't even list the old cat5 on their website. While naming metters i don't think there's much harm with this typo.
I think it's a great idea to practice first, but wouldn't an rj45 crimping tool be easier? Or is there no room?
Also, do you need a patch panel and a switch? Wouldn't just a switch suffice?
The patch panel lets you punch down your runs into female RJ45, then you can run patch cables from the patch panel to the switch. Punching ethernet is a lot easier and faster than crimping connectors.
Ahh, that does make sense. Thank you.
I took up a related project recently.
Things I got that you don't list:
I watched a few videos on how do the termination before I started. One used the stripped jacket to unwind the twists, which is a great trick.
I was wiring up a POE camera. Apparently there are issues with POE if you use the A spec, I couldn't get it to work until I switched to B. I'd found a conversation about it on Stackoverflow when I was trying to figure out what was wrong.
Oh, and check the reviews/sizing for both the keystone jacks and wall plates, some have reviews saying they're a nonstandard size.
The first programming job I started in early 2000s indeed had this kind of setup!
We used to have ethernet hub back then but gigabit switch sounds way better! As long as you have the right drivers installed (netbios, netbeui protocol or whatever, etc. which I think come pre-installed on windows these days), you're good.
But really, in this day and age, the most efficient solution is to just create a WiFi access point or WLAN. Even a very basic smartphone has that ability these days, you might need a proper router if the area is too large, of course.
But the ethernet idea is also good as a memoir or old school experiment!