How To Install Cat6 Cable In Your House

Networking Your Home: Ethernet

Installing ethernet in your dwelling for a loftier speed dwelling house network

Jordan Harrison on Unsplash

I covered why y'all should build a solid home network and why ethernet is of import in "Networking Your Habitation: How and Why". In brusk; you can get higher local speeds for local file and video streaming (like over the air HD Goggle box streamed to every Boob tube in the house), and go a lot of your in-dwelling traffic off the wifi network, immigration up bandwidth for all dwelling house and home office users. You can too use stable ethernet lines for of import home function or habitation school connections.

In this article, I'm going to get into the wired network side of things. Where possible, I'chiliad going to make several ethernet jacks available in every room of the firm. Is that overkill? Nigh certainly. Since I accept more than flexibility now while I'm finishing my basement, my program is to spend the fourth dimension and money to set it upwardly correctly in one become rather than trying to add together more connections afterward.

Reference listing of equipment in this commodity:

Disclosure: This article contains Amazon affiliate links to products. Purchasing via these links supports our writing at no extra toll to you lot!

• Low voltage mounting brackets
• Utility razor
• thou anxiety of True cat 6 riser cable
• Single, double, or quad jack wall plates
• Keystone modular inserts
• Fish tape
• Network repair tools
• 24 port patch panel
• Cost for this portion of the projection: $200 to $300

Getting Started

The first pace is deciding where you lot want ethernet jacks in the house. If you don't want any or tin can't change your walls, you may even so find this useful every bit a discussion of how to build your own lengths of ethernet cables to run from your router to your switch and other machines in the vicinity.

In my house, I'm wiring up three bedrooms, our living room, and my attic (where the Hd antenna is). In ii of the bedrooms, I'd like a single plug on each wall that could reasonably adjust a desk or a smart Television receiver. In the bedroom we're using every bit a dedicated office, I'm putting in quad jacks on two walls. Where our living room TV is, I'm as well installing a quad jack.

Why quad jacks? Where I know I'm going to have several devices plugged in, I would rather simply plug them into the wall than accept to use some other switch. In the office, I have a desktop, a laptop for piece of work, and a smart TV on the wall. In the living room, we have a smart Tv set, an access bespeak using a wired backhaul (more than on that in the Wi-Fi article), and a game organisation.

Photo by Author

So that'due south two bedrooms with 2 jacks, an function with eight jacks (one quad on each wall), a living room with four jacks, and an attic with one jack. That totals seventeen cables. In that location are really a couple more than that came pre-installed in the firm in odd places, so my full ends up being nearly twenty jacks in the house. Again, this is definitely overkill, simply if I do it right, I shouldn't have to upgrade again for decades.

Which Cable Practice I become? Ethernet Categories.

True cat 5, Cat 5e, True cat 6, Cat 6e, Cat 6a, Cat seven. There are many specifications to choose from. They differ in the data speeds they can reach, their price, and their flexibility (which matters when you're routing them through a wall).

Mbps is a mutual measure out of speed. It stands for Megabits per second, and is often confused with Megabytes. We talk nigh storage and file sizes in Megabytes and Gigabytes, simply speed in Megabits and Gigabits. A Megabyte would be viii Megabits (and a Gigabyte would be 8 Gigabits). If you take a file that is 100 Megabytes in size, and a 100 Mbps speed network, it would take you approximately 8 seconds to transfer that file.

Cat 5 is obsolete now. It can only support 100 Mbps. Don't buy this ane.

Cat 5e is even so a very popular choice equally it's inexpensive, can support up to 1 Gbps (one thousand Mbps) and is very flexible.

True cat vi is the next pace up in price and speed. It can besides support i Gbps, but has the capability to reach 10 Gbps for "short" distances of effectually 30 meters (different types will vary their definition of "short" to exist between 30 and 55 meters). If you're using it in a house, my estimate is you don't have a unmarried cable that volition be longer than that, and then information technology's effectively a 10 Gbps capable cable.

Cat 6e isn't an "official" category, but was marketed for a while so you may still encounter it effectually. Information technology'southward officially rated at True cat 6 speeds, but usually has some improvements in shielding or twist rates that might make it slightly better (but no guarantee). You won't likely see this proper name any more unless you're reusing former cabling.

Cat 6a is the official lamentatory up of Cat 6. It can support 10 Gbps up to 100 meters and is far better shielded than Cat half dozen, merely it's also far less flexible, making information technology harder to route through walls.

Cat seven is the current latest and greatest (there are others in the works) and claims twoscore to 100 Gbps for short distances. Information technology'south very expensive and very stiff, and too requires special grounding and special connectors.

And so what should you get? Most people should get True cat 6 cable. Having a i Gbps network is great, and when prices come downward for 10 Gbps switches and routers, yous only take to upgrade those to bound to a 10 Gbps network speed. Cat 6a won't get almost home users whatsoever improvement over Cat 6 because yous aren't making cables longer than 100 anxiety and you aren't running them side by side to other high frequency RF lines like a datacenter might.

If you're budget minded, True cat 5e is still an ok selection, merely being just slightly cheaper than True cat 6 and being stuck at 1G, I would suggest most people to skip it unless they're willing to re-run wires in five or 10 years.

Standard A or B Wiring

Some other topic that bears a petty discussion is which standard to use to wire your cables. The cheapest way to build out your ethernet network is to make your ain cables, and in that location are two ways to wire the ends: "A" configuration and "B" configuration. Which yous use really makes almost no difference as long equally you use the same configuration on both ends of every cablevision. EG: If yous have one cablevision that has two "A" ends and another cablevision that has 2 "B" ends, that'south perfectly fine and both will work in your network. If yous have a cable with ane "A" end and one "B" end, that's actually a crossover cable and it may not piece of work depending what you plug it in to.

So what'due south the divergence? There are eight different wires in every ethernet cable. Standard "A" has them laid out in the plug in i way and standard "B" has them laid out in the plug in a slightly different way. If you wire them both the same fashion, though, the color of the wire doesn't affair to the device using it, and so it makes no difference in your network.

Photograph by Author

In the photo to a higher place, annotation the "A" and "B" labels on these keystone jacks. It shows how to wire a jack with either standard. On both "A" and "B", the brown, brown striped, blueish, and blue striped wires remain the same. The green and orange pairs are reversed depending on which standard you lot're using.

With that being said, if y'all're in the Us or using U.s.a. based equipment, y'all'll probably find the "B" is the de-facto standard. The color diagrams on plugs, keystone jacks, patch panels, and everything else volition probably be the "B" configuration. So I wired everything that style.

Edifice the Wall Jack

This is really adequately simple. I had some electrical boxes already in identify (and you'll encounter that in pictures), merely using a low voltage mounting bracket is the manner to become, and this video has a great view of how to do it:

And hither'southward a photograph of one I did in my own wall, showing information technology'due south really just a band clamped to the drywall rather than a whole electrical box. These meet building code regulations for low voltage cables where I alive, only you volition want to check your local housing codes to make certain it'due south allowed where you are.

Photo past Author

Here you'll need the mounting brackets and a utility razor. A keyhole saw or drywall saw tin help brand the job easier, but isn't required.

In essence, you lot'll be marking a rectangular opening, cut it into the wall, so putting the mounting subclass in the hole and tightening it. That creates something a simple faceplate (like an electrical switch's faceplate) can adhere to. For ethernet cablevision, I don't know of anywhere that requires fully enclosed electrical boxes, then these are a great addition.

In one case you take the mounting bracket in place, you demand single, double, or quad jack wall plates with "keystone" modular inserts. This is by far the most toll effective manner of building them that I've seen and gives you the capability to move the jacks around once yous've installed them.

Running Cable

This is probably the hardest part. Allow'south walk through the process for a elementary case.

The cable itself is chosen "riser" cable, and comes in a large box with a hole so you lot can continuously pull cable out of a hole in the side. I bought 1000 feet of Cat half dozen riser for my job, which is only $100. This is the cheapest I found high quality cable available to send, and I've tested it at 1 Gbps speeds (I don't have whatsoever ten Gbps connections to exam with withal).

In my house, I had an office wall which already had an ethernet jack in it. This is where I'll be putting in a new quad jack.

Since the hole was already there, what I had to do was use some fiberglass fish tape to come up up through the hole and into the electric box. The fish tape I am showing is a single rod, simply I don't see ones quite like it any more, and this is the best rated fish tape I see on Amazon today.

Photo by Author

Information technology's more hard to do when the electrical box is a whole box instead of the depression voltage mounting subclass I mentioned in a higher place. I used a Dremel to cut out chunks of the electric box so feeding was easier, but it was still more than difficult this way.

If yous don't already have a pigsty through the framing into your basement or cranium, simply mensurate very carefully and drill 1. If that makes you sweat bullets, and then rent an electrician to practise a "wire drop". Virtually electricians won't desire to have anything to practice with ethernet (or volition hilariously overcharge for it), only if you tell them you just want them to put the low voltage bracket in the wall and drib a cablevision betwixt floors without connecting it, it won't exist very expensive. Especially if you provide the materials.

With the fish tape in place, I gathered up three more True cat half dozen cables and duct taped them to one side of the tape.

Photo by Writer

Hither's tip #1: Make certain yous stagger the ends of the cables when you lot record them together. This creates a "wedge" instead of a sudden bulge when pushing the cable back up through the wall.

Here's tip #two: If you find you're having trouble forcing the cables back up and fluctuant it around isn't helping, use vaseline. Rub a little on the duct taped surface area of the cables and that will help it slide through tight spots with less effort and without binding on as many things.

Here'due south tip #three: To run three cables at a time, I had to guess at their lengths and cutting them first. Where possible, utilise the runner cable directly out of the box. Run information technology through where you'll eventually secure it in the joists, simply don't cut the finish until yous're sure it'due south in the correct identify. This will salvage you several feet of cable on each run.

If all has gone according to plan, you'll take a cable (or multiple cables) sticking out of your wall and your basement ceiling or cranium floor.

Wiring Keystone Jacks

Now you'll need some tools to assistance build the cables themselves. This kit was a not bad price to get the few tools I actually needed for the chore.

Specifically, I'll talk nigh the cable tester, punch down tool, and the black cutters / strippers that await like a clamp.

The kickoff matter you'll practise is strip your cable using whatever tool you like. I found those blackness cutters to be perfect for the job. Yous could suit the razor's depth (use some exercise sections of the cablevision) to the right length, then just clamp down and run it in a circle like you would when cutting pipe. Strips the cable sheath correct off.

Photo past Author. Note: If you use a keystone jack you won't need to strip each private wire.

In this photograph, I'd stripped the wire ends likewise to make a male-ended cable. Don't exercise that. Instead, get out the individual wires unstripped and we'll wire upwardly the keystone jacks we saw earlier.

Photo by Author

To use the keystone jack, identify the wire that matches the color for the standard you're using on the groove above that colour, then use your dial-down tool to push the wire fully downwards into the groove.

The wires all come up paired. Brown with brown-white, orange with orange-white, dark-green with green-white, and blue with bluish-white. Each will get pushed into place and so you trim the ends. Simple as that. It does take some force to push the cables into place sometimes, but it's very like shooting fish in a barrel to do.

Photo by Author

Once the wires are in place, you can hands clip the keystone module into your wall plate. Tilt the module into place in the panel so the bottom is connected to the panel, then rotate up until the prune snaps into place. You tin can unclip these and move them effectually adequately easily (may require a small-scale screwdriver).

Photo past Author

Here you can even see my "B" style wiring, with the orange pair closer to the front of this module and greenish at the rear, as the module shows me.

Wiring the Patch Panel

This is fifty-fifty easier! Delight ignore the dust in the photos below. With basement construction in progress, the dust is everywhere. I can also recommend some ethernet anti-grit caps for any unused jacks in your patch panel or walls.

Photo by Author

A patch console is very similar to the keystone jacks we just talked about, but laid out in a long strip. In a projection like this, y'all're normally going to take a central location with a switch, and then you'll take several cables all coming together at that same spot. Wiring those cables into a patch panel gives you a simple interface to connect to the switch or alternately to connect to other devices.

Hither yous tin run across most of my existing setup (much of which I'll be replacing throughout this series. The patch panel is sitting there at the bottom of the picture with a few wires in place. These patch panels are bang-up considering they can fit easily on a shallow wall rack. I'll get more into mounting solutions later, simply for now, only know it's easy to hang them up, easy to wire them up, and you're left with a slap-up way to connect your unabridged network together.

Photo past Author

It'south the verbal same process as the keystone jacks, but with even more than space available to work. Wire upwards the pairs the mode the patch panel tells you to and test as you go.

Testing Cables Every bit You lot Go

This is where the cablevision tester from the tool kit comes in handy. At each terminate of your cable, yous should now have a female jack. I is your keystone jack in your wall plate, the other is your patch panel. You lot need to have at least two trusted ethernet cables for this exam.

Connect ane cable tester (which requires a 9V battery, not included in the kit) to your patch panel via a trusted ethernet cable and the other cable tester to your wall keystone jack via your 2d trusted ethernet cable. It doesn't matter which end goes where. If everything works, you should see the lights blink in sequence from 1 to 8 on both testers.

Photo by Author

If one light doesn't blink, you tin can come across in the tester documentation which color cablevision that number corresponds to (in either "B" or "A" configuration) and you tin can set up that single connexion at both ends.

Then you test the speed of the cable.

In that location are many ways to test the speed of the cable. A very straightforward mode is to use ii computers and your existing switch and router. Keep in mind that you'll only be able to examination speeds as fast equally the max connection speed of the computers and the switch. The router is needed for outside connections and to give you an IP address, just its speed doesn't matter for this test.

Connect either your patch panel jack or your wall jack to your switch or router with one of your trusted ethernet cables.

Connect the other jack to ane of your computers.

The other computer tin can be sitting connected to the existing network (attached to the switch or router via another trusted cable).

At present we'll fix up iPerf3. iPerf is a network speed testing tool and very uncomplicated to apply, though it does work mostly on the command line.

Mac: brew install iperf3

Debian (Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, etc): sudo apt install iperf3

Fedora: sudo dnf install iperf3

Windows (or anyone who but wants to download the binaries): https://iperf.fr/iperf-download.php

Once yous take iperf3 on both computers, you'll run it from the command line. Find the IP accost of ane calculator, and on that computer, use "iperf3 -s" to make iperf run as a server, accepting connections. On the other computer, run "iperf3 -c 192.168.1.two" or whatsoever your ip accost of the server is.

Photo by Author

For my own two computers, I used a Windows estimator with Ubuntu running in Windows Subsystem For Linux. I'm a heavy Linux user, and having the WSL is a huge, if buggy, improvement in my Windows experience.

There are a lot of configuration options for iPerf, but for our test, we desire to see if we are getting close to our max speed. My max connectedness speed is one Gbps because I don't have whatever reckoner capable of going faster than that, nor is my switch capable of going faster. Afterwards in this series I might have that capability, and so I'll revisit this test at that time!

In short, sentinel the speeds that iPerf shows you in the windows. Mine hovers around 940 Mbps in this examination, which is great. There's some network overhead in a network connection, and this tells me I'g achieving approximately gigabit speeds. Perfect. This cablevision is done.

In my own project, I'll stop wiring up the residual of the upstairs to one patch panel and every bit I build walls in the basement, I'll wire up the downstairs to a second patch panel. The flexibility this offers me even during my build is splendid. I'll be moving my router and switch and server upstairs while I build the basement, and to do so, all I take to exercise is swap some cables on the patch console (plug in new cables in the front, not wire new cables in the back). When I move it back downstairs, I only swap some cables once again and I'm done.

Source: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/networking-your-home-ethernet-1dc94cdf6c1e

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