My plan was to run cat 6 to have plug ins in all rooms to have direct TV or computer connections...and not have to depend on wifi. Will have plenty of other things tied in wifi (pool automation, outside tv)

Will have xfinity internet service. Outside of that I'm not really sure what I need from my builder to set me up right.

In addition to what you're already doing, I ran coax to several rooms too so that I could do over-the-air TV, and don't forget to run a coax to your hub in case you want to use HomeRun tuner to broadcast your cable or over-the-air through your network. I also ran cat6 to the ceiling In strategic locations in the house (and outside the house) so that I could mount POE WiFi access points on the ceiling. Best decision I could have made. I also ran cat6 to exterior locations for POE security cameras.

Other than that, consider where your TV will go and make sure you run speaker wire and HDMI so that you don't have to have wires showing. Only thing I regret is not running a conduit from my hub to the exterior of the house in case I wanted to run another cable (like a fiber optic from the ISP).

FlowCtlr said:

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In addition to what you're already doing, I ran coax to several rooms too so that I could do over-the-air TV, and don't forget to run a coax to your hub in case you want to use HomeRun tuner to broadcast your cable or over-the-air through your network. I also ran cat6 to the ceiling In strategic locations in the house (and outside the house) so that I could mount POE WiFi access points on the ceiling. Best decision I could have made. I also ran cat6 to exterior locations for POE security cameras.

Other than that, consider where your TV will go and make sure you run speaker wire and HDMI so that you don't have to have wires showing. Only thing I regret is not running a conduit from my hub to the exterior of the house in case I wanted to run another cable (like a fiber optic from the ISP).

---

Good points about wifi access points in ceiling...not sure what a Homerun Tuner is
I guess I need clarification on equipment needed.

#1 I will have modem/wifi router in a closet somewhere
#2 off of that I will want to run cat 6 hard wired to each room I want to have a wired connection?
#3 put in ceiling hard wired cat 6 Wifi POE (I assume these are access points?)

What are switches and how they come into play?

I plan to run speaker wire to outside mount locations and possibly some in the living room....will probably wire up a "media" game room as well.

When you say HDMI you mean from like a cable box area to the tv? What else would I need to have HDMI preran for?

When you say conduit, you mean a tube that wires are ran thru that would run and stick out to a back of the tv location of an outside tv?

Thanks

Quote:

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When you say HDMI you mean from like a cable box area to the tv? What else would I need to have HDMI preran for?

When you say conduit, you mean a tube that wires are ran thru that would run and stick out to a back of the tv location of an outside tv?

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1 - I think he means, for example, if you plan on putting your TV above the fireplace, but your a/v receiver and cable box (if using cable) will sit in a cabinet/console on the ground beside the fireplace, run speaker wire and HDMI from the a/v source to the tv and planned speaker locations. For the HDMI, pending how long the run is, probably easier to put a conduit which leads to

2 - yes - typically just a PVC pipe (rigid or flex) with holes in the wall at each end to facilitate running cables.

If you plan to put all of your equipment in a central location, such as a coat closet, add an HVAC return air vent so it sucks the air out of the closet. This prevents equip from overheating. You don't want a vent feeding air to it because that can contribute to over heating. Air coming under the door to the closet should be sufficient.

The return air vent is even more important if the closet is on an exterior wall of the house that gets a lot of direct sunlight in the summer (assuming you live someplace hot like TX).

I'd also run wire for security cameras since doing it after the fact is a huge pain in the ass and the wireless kind can be real bandwidth hogs and cameras will still need electrical power anyway. I think most of them now are PoE now.

classof2019 said:

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not sure what a Homerun Tuner is
I guess I need clarification on equipment needed.

---

https://www.silicondust.com/

Essentially takes your OTA antenna signal and puts it on your LAN. Would eliminate the need to run coax to every room to get OTA programming.

DirectTv/dish still requires RG6 coax at least to main location. I would recommend multiple coax runs to support OTA or back feed options.
To TV locations run 2 Cat6 and 2 coax and hdmi(or two extras cat6 with balun), plus anything you might need like toslink from set/sound bar to equipment location. Duct is handy if you are doing wall mounted TV panels. Don't forget about any surround/sub locations you need to have for them.
Also duct/conduit and multiple cable runs from where the utilities like cable/internet/phone enter the house to the wiring center, I have MM fiber also. The wiring center boxes are popular but have limited space for people who's networks are out of control like mine. I have 2 48port patch panels for Ethernet in my house and still at times have places I wish I had put a network drop. Run cat 6 to places you would want a phone. Can use for legacy phone or network phone. Network phones & cameras typically support POE and I prefer it to wifi based devices and having to plug them into power.
Also you need a low voltage wiring plan document. Get a floor plan and mark up all your wiring outlets and paths they take to get between points. I took pictures while the walls were open.
Also if you have a detached garage make provisions for connectivity there. A conduit if you don't know what your needs are now.
Also ducts and conduits need to be larger than you expect. no 1/2" I have 1.5" duct between things like screen location and their associated electronics. I have 4" ducts between the wiring closet and strategic places that traverse hard to reach places. With vaulted ceilings and such many places are hard to access to add anything.
Wireless is nice, but wires will supply more and more reliably.

classof2019 said:

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FlowCtlr said:

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In addition to what you're already doing, I ran coax to several rooms too so that I could do over-the-air TV, and don't forget to run a coax to your hub in case you want to use HomeRun tuner to broadcast your cable or over-the-air through your network. I also ran cat6 to the ceiling In strategic locations in the house (and outside the house) so that I could mount POE WiFi access points on the ceiling. Best decision I could have made. I also ran cat6 to exterior locations for POE security cameras.

Other than that, consider where your TV will go and make sure you run speaker wire and HDMI so that you don't have to have wires showing. Only thing I regret is not running a conduit from my hub to the exterior of the house in case I wanted to run another cable (like a fiber optic from the ISP).

---

Good points about wifi access points in ceiling...not sure what a Homerun Tuner is
I guess I need clarification on equipment needed.

#1 I will have modem/wifi router in a closet somewhere
#2 off of that I will want to run cat 6 hard wired to each room I want to have a wired connection?
#3 put in ceiling hard wired cat 6 Wifi POE (I assume these are access points?)

What are switches and how they come into play?

I plan to run speaker wire to outside mount locations and possibly some in the living room....will probably wire up a "media" game room as well.

When you say HDMI you mean from like a cable box area to the tv? What else would I need to have HDMI preran for?

When you say conduit, you mean a tube that wires are ran thru that would run and stick out to a back of the tv location of an outside tv?

Thanks

---

Having the wifi access points mounted on strategic places on the ceiling is great; there is never a spot inside my house or around the exterior where I do not have a strong signal. e.g. I mounted one on the patio ceiling so when we are enjoying ourselves outside on the patio we never have to worry about signal strength on our phones. The beauty is that they are all POE (power over ethernet) so all that is needed is the cat6 connection. I use the Ubiquiti UniFi AC Lite access points, and your wifi devices will just seamlessly grab the strongest signal of the multiple access points. It's a very elegant solution in my opinion.

If your modem/router will be in a closet, then that is officially your hub; I am assuming that's where you have designated your internet provider coming into your house from the exterior (whether that is a coax or fiber cable). That should connect to your modem, which from there should connect to your router via ethernet. Would I did and would recommend is you disable the wifi on that router and simply use it as a gateway. Then, connect a POE switch via Ethernet to your router. Then connect all of your cat6 cables that you have run from the ceiling locations to your closet to that POE switch. Now you can broadcast your wifi network via those access points, and your router doesn't interfere and is dedicated to being a gateway only. This is all almost plug-n-play, by the way. You can connect another, non-POE (and cheaper) switch to your gateway router and connect all of your other cat6 cables that you have run to misc. rooms to that non-POE switch.

By the way, a switch is just a device that routes the network traffic. Can think of it as a way to take a single ethernet connection and split it among multiple connections. Your gateway router likely has a switch built in but they typically only have 4 or 5 ports, which isn't going to be enough for your purposes.

When I said HDMI, I did mean something like a TV that would be mounted up on a wall and running the HDMI behind the wall so that you didn't have to see the HDMI cable going down to your media receiver or device. You can put it nice wall plates on either end and make it look very professional, although some people just opt to leave the cable dangling on either end. (I did the former)

And yes, conduit being just a plastic tube that is run from point A to B so that you can run wires through it after the house is built.

If you shoot me a PM with your email address, I can send you a couple diagrams of my design, if that would help.

We're currently building our house and plan to use UAPs like we did on the last one, I felt like I learned a lot about too much overlap and not enough from that design. But our new house I've been struggling with proper placement to maximize the connections outside. If I could get a copy of your plan I think that might help. Thanks!

Email sent.

Another thing I did was set up a home audio network. I installed speaker wire to various places, like the garage and patio, and ran the speaker wire back to my hub. In the hub, I connect a pair of speaker wire to a small stereo amplifier (<$40) and from there the amp is connected to an Apple Airport Express (they cost around $50 on ebay). I can then use Airplay 2 from my iphone or mac to broadcast music to that specific set of speakers. No bluetooth connection necessary, as it is all broadcasted over the wifi (or wired) network.

FlowCtlr said:

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classof2019 said:

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FlowCtlr said:

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In addition to what you're already doing, I ran coax to several rooms too so that I could do over-the-air TV, and don't forget to run a coax to your hub in case you want to use HomeRun tuner to broadcast your cable or over-the-air through your network. I also ran cat6 to the ceiling In strategic locations in the house (and outside the house) so that I could mount POE WiFi access points on the ceiling. Best decision I could have made. I also ran cat6 to exterior locations for POE security cameras.

Other than that, consider where your TV will go and make sure you run speaker wire and HDMI so that you don't have to have wires showing. Only thing I regret is not running a conduit from my hub to the exterior of the house in case I wanted to run another cable (like a fiber optic from the ISP).

---

Good points about wifi access points in ceiling...not sure what a Homerun Tuner is
I guess I need clarification on equipment needed.

#1 I will have modem/wifi router in a closet somewhere
#2 off of that I will want to run cat 6 hard wired to each room I want to have a wired connection?
#3 put in ceiling hard wired cat 6 Wifi POE (I assume these are access points?)

What are switches and how they come into play?

I plan to run speaker wire to outside mount locations and possibly some in the living room....will probably wire up a "media" game room as well.

When you say HDMI you mean from like a cable box area to the tv? What else would I need to have HDMI preran for?

When you say conduit, you mean a tube that wires are ran thru that would run and stick out to a back of the tv location of an outside tv?

Thanks

---

Having the wifi access points mounted on strategic places on the ceiling is great; there is never a spot inside my house or around the exterior where I do not have a strong signal. e.g. I mounted one on the patio ceiling so when we are enjoying ourselves outside on the patio we never have to worry about signal strength on our phones. The beauty is that they are all POE (power over ethernet) so all that is needed is the cat6 connection. I use the Ubiquiti UniFi AC Lite access points, and your wifi devices will just seamlessly grab the strongest signal of the multiple access points. It's a very elegant solution in my opinion.

If your modem/router will be in a closet, then that is officially your hub; I am assuming that's where you have designated your internet provider coming into your house from the exterior (whether that is a coax or fiber cable). That should connect to your modem, which from there should connect to your router via ethernet. Would I did and would recommend is you disable the wifi on that router and simply use it as a gateway. Then, connect a POE switch via Ethernet to your router. Then connect all of your cat6 cables that you have run from the ceiling locations to your closet to that POE switch. Now you can broadcast your wifi network via those access points, and your router doesn't interfere and is dedicated to being a gateway only. This is all almost plug-n-play, by the way. You can connect another, non-POE (and cheaper) switch to your gateway router and connect all of your other cat6 cables that you have run to misc. rooms to that non-POE switch.

By the way, a switch is just a device that routes the network traffic. Can think of it as a way to take a single ethernet connection and split it among multiple connections. Your gateway router likely has a switch built in but they typically only have 4 or 5 ports, which isn't going to be enough for your purposes.

When I said HDMI, I did mean something like a TV that would be mounted up on a wall and running the HDMI behind the wall so that you didn't have to see the HDMI cable going down to your media receiver or device. You can put it nice wall plates on either end and make it look very professional, although some people just opt to leave the cable dangling on either end. (I did the former)

And yes, conduit being just a plastic tube that is run from point A to B so that you can run wires through it after the house is built.

If you shoot me a PM with your email address, I can send you a couple diagrams of my design, if that would help.

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Thanks! sure would love to see some diagrams. I tried to send you a PM but it wouldnt go thru, can you PM me?

Shoot me an email at flowctlr@gmail.com, and I'll reply to you.

FlowCtlr said:

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Shoot me an email at flowctlr@gmail.com, and I'll reply to you.

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Email sent

When we were redoing our house, our architect sent us a really cool PDF with a bunch of information on wiring a complete smart home. It's written by some guys out in Utah that do this on multi-million dollar homes.

I think they do it to sell their service, but the content is really good. I can't find it on their site anymore, but here's a link where you can grab it off my dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sewhoedwe1ifz85/TYM-H0w-2-Prew1re-Y0ur-mart-H0me-1-2.pdf?dl=0

The one thing to remember, it's really cheap (relatively speaking) to pull a bunch of wire now even if you may not need it rather than do it later once the walls are done. So don't look through that and say "I'll never have a system like that" and not pull wire for it. Think of all the things you may want down the road and get some wire in there now.

honestly i feel like speaker wire is going to be a poor ROI. Everything is bluetooth nowadays. You can get a pretty sweet whole home audio setup without wires with alexa.

I would perhaps look at running cat 7 versus 6.

Sine poena nulla lex

radiant barrier works surprisingly well for that...

The attic is nice and cool, but I can't get a cell signal for *****..

Sine poena nulla lex

Never had signal problems after installing radiant barrier. Maybe some have actual foil and others don't?

Make sure you run conduit on any exterior walls or any areas you can't reach from the attic for future use.

10' of 3/4" smurf tube conduit and a low voltage box is about $5. It saves a ton of headache in 10 years when you want to move the TV to *that* wall that has insulation and is hard to get to.

boy09 said:

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classof2019 said:

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not sure what a Homerun Tuner is
I guess I need clarification on equipment needed.

---

https://www.silicondust.com/

Essentially takes your OTA antenna signal and puts it on your LAN. Would eliminate the need to run coax to every room to get OTA programming.

---

How does this work with say Xfinity? I could get one box and broadcast that channel to any tv over wifi?

maybe. The Home Run prime supports a cable card (set top box card you rent from xfinity to put into the box) and it can output one channel to wifi. There are limits as to what can be recorded. Content marked protected has to have a certified secure bitstream, and I think that currently only windows has it, but the silicon dust dvr in theory is getting it. But unlikely thinks like plex, kodi will ever have it.

Bringing this back to the top...just now starting to build the house due to the wood run up last year.

Anything changed much from a year ago as far as equipment or ideas?

Mesh system

Buddy was telling me he used this in his two story house and it works great. Is this a legit option vs going the POE and running cat 6 everywhere?

Run cat6 everywhere and use a Ubiquity Dream Machine and a POE switch and a few Wifi6 access points.

I can help with advise abd might be able to save a few bucks on equipment andy@andrewadamsav.com

Jack Pearson said:

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Mesh system

Buddy was telling me he used this in his two story house and it works great. Is this a legit option vs going the POE and running cat 6 everywhere?

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We use Nest WiFi with a base unit and 2 access points across our 2 story house with zero issues. I'm building a house right now and have no plans to put Cat 6 anywhere.

Jack Pearson said:

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Mesh system

Buddy was telling me he used this in his two story house and it works great. Is this a legit option vs going the POE and running cat 6 everywhere?

---

Given the option, you'll want both. Streaming video at best quality will require bandwidth and throughput only available via a wired connection. And POE will make life a LOT simpler when you're talking about camera systems, camera doorbells, alarms, etc.

When you're building, you should be preparing for the Internet and devices that will be available 10 years from now. Mesh Wifi won't cut it for power users.

If the budget simply doesn't allow for it, the discussion is moot.

We already have multiple TVs, 5 phones, several tablets, several laptops/desktops, WiFi doorbell / cameras, etc. all working great on a mesh WiFi. Not to mention that WiFi standards will continue to improve. I still see no reason to run cat 6 wiring anymore.

Aggie Frog reach out to me I'd love to help spitball ideas with you and help with some design.

Andy@andrewadamsav.com

Jack Pearson said:

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FlowCtlr said:

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In addition to what you're already doing, I ran coax to several rooms too so that I could do over-the-air TV, and don't forget to run a coax to your hub in case you want to use HomeRun tuner to broadcast your cable or over-the-air through your network. I also ran cat6 to the ceiling In strategic locations in the house (and outside the house) so that I could mount POE WiFi access points on the ceiling. Best decision I could have made. I also ran cat6 to exterior locations for POE security cameras.

Other than that, consider where your TV will go and make sure you run speaker wire and HDMI so that you don't have to have wires showing. Only thing I regret is not running a conduit from my hub to the exterior of the house in case I wanted to run another cable (like a fiber optic from the ISP).

---

Good points about wifi access points in ceiling...not sure what a Homerun Tuner is
I guess I need clarification on equipment needed.

#1 I will have modem/wifi router in a closet somewhere
#2 off of that I will want to run cat 6 hard wired to each room I want to have a wired connection?
#3 put in ceiling hard wired cat 6 Wifi POE (I assume these are access points?)

What are switches and how they come into play?

I plan to run speaker wire to outside mount locations and possibly some in the living room....will probably wire up a "media" game room as well.

When you say HDMI you mean from like a cable box area to the tv? What else would I need to have HDMI preran for?

When you say conduit, you mean a tube that wires are ran thru that would run and stick out to a back of the tv location of an outside tv?

Thanks

---

You can get some very small and unobtrusive routers relatively inexpensively and put one in each room where you want wifi. This is especially good if you can reduce the power output of each wifi to cover just that room.

The problem with one wifi router in a closet is that you won't cover the house evenly unless it is a small house. One alternate to that is to get a mesh network. Having a small router in each room you need coverage would probably be less expensive and provide better service.

FlowCtlr said:

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I use the Ubiquiti UniFi AC Lite access points, and your wifi devices will just seamlessly grab the strongest signal of the multiple access points. It's a very elegant solution in my opinion.

---

That's some pretty good magic.

In my experience, devices just log into whichever one they get first. In my office building, we have several routers. Sometimes my laptop will try to connect to a router 100 feet away with a poor signal in spite of having a router five feet away with a very strong signal.

I hope that your access points each have different access point names or passwords. If you have two or more routers with the same access point name and password and on the same frequency, you can end up with multiple routers trying to route the same traffic.

FlowCtlr said:

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If your modem/router will be in a closet, then that is officially your hub; I am assuming that's where you have designated your internet provider coming into your house from the exterior (whether that is a coax or fiber cable). That should connect to your modem, which from there should connect to your router via ethernet. Would I did and would recommend is you disable the wifi on that router and simply use it as a gateway. Then, connect a POE switch via Ethernet to your router. Then connect all of your cat6 cables that you have run from the ceiling locations to your closet to that POE switch. Now you can broadcast your wifi network via those access points, and your router doesn't interfere and is dedicated to being a gateway only. This is all almost plug-n-play, by the way. You can connect another, non-POE (and cheaper) switch to your gateway router and connect all of your other cat6 cables that you have run to misc. rooms to that non-POE switch.

---

My preference would be to get a rack to mount everything in. Also, use a patch panel to connect the wires coming from the various rooms and then run a short patch cable to the switch.

The reason is that those little tabs on the connectors that lock the connector in place can break off over time. Sure, it might not break off for five or ten years, but then when it does, you either have to live with a cable that slides out if bumped or have to put new ends on the cable. Terminated properly on a patch panel and that's not an issue. Patch cables two or three feet long are easy to replace if the tab breaks off.

An added advantage to this is that you can label each connection on the patch panel and they will stay that way unless someone goes in and rips everything out or something. If you just have cables coming out of the wall and attacking to the switch, it is very easy to get the cables mixed up. Even tagging them is not much of a long term solution.

I think patch panels are overkill for residential. I typically just have the ethernet lines coming out of the wall an terminating to male rj45 and label each line. then have it go straight to the switch.

Yeah... but patch panels look cool!

eric76 said:

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FlowCtlr said:

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I use the Ubiquiti UniFi AC Lite access points, and your wifi devices will just seamlessly grab the strongest signal of the multiple access points. It's a very elegant solution in my opinion.

---

That's some pretty good magic.

In my experience, devices just log into whichever one they get first. In my office building, we have several routers. Sometimes my laptop will try to connect to a router 100 feet away with a poor signal in spite of having a router five feet away with a very strong signal.

I hope that your access points each have different access point names or passwords. If you have two or more routers with the same access point name and password and on the same frequency, you can end up with multiple routers trying to route the same traffic.

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That's why you install a solution with a wireless controller, or cloud-based controller. That is what hands you off to the best AP, not your device.

With your better wireless solutions, the various APs will also sit on different channels on each frequency if they overlap signals, to cut down on RF interference.