How should I wire my two story house?

[Fit4130Rider]

The house that I'm going to be moving into was built in 1996. It is build on a slab foundation and is two stories in height with an attic above the second story.

I do not see a problem with wiring the second floor as I can easily run the wires through the attic and down the interior walls. The first floor is what I'm struggling with. Without an easy way to go up or down the walls I'm hitting a road block. I want to do as little damage to the drywall as possible.

Does anyone in here have experience running a wired network in a completed, two story home?

Thank you in advance.

[Crisp]

I'm in the same boat at you. I've been looking into running the wires behind the skirting boards, the only problem is getting them off without damaging them.

[Sikh]

EASIEST way is, mount a switch in the basement, run the first floor and run a ethernet cable to the attic and run the second floor.

Me and a Friend had to do this for his new house. Basically got some very strong thick shielded Cat6 100Ft cable that ran outside of his house, along the cable lines up to the attic, then put it into the attic where the cable went, the cable guy did this, so we used that hole and re-cawked it + insulated it.

2 16port cisco switches(a very good deal on gig switches, so bought them).

Then wired top 4 rooms and bottom 4 rooms(living room, family room, kitchen, bedroom).

[Alladaskill17]

I know this is counter productive and off topic, but are you gaming or something that you'd prefer wired rather than wireless?

Just curious.

[Fit4130Rider]

I wouldn't be doing any gaming. However, we would be streaming a lot of video up to and including 1080p. I haven't really tried to stream 1080p over 54Mbit WiFi but am afraid about latency issues which would lead to dropped frames.

I'd rather not go outside of the house since there aren't any exposed wires outside. I did think about that. Also, we don't have a basement, we're on a concrete slab.

Anyone have experience with streaming 1080p over 54Mbit WiFi?

[Phenom II]

Are Mains Network Adapters not an option ?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=46494&C=Froogle&U=46494&T=Module

[Rudy]

Are Mains Network Adapters not an option ?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=46494&C=Froogle&U=46494&T=Module

14Mbps :/

[Phenom II]

Yea that was just an example...

1GBPS

Product Features

* 1 Gbps data streams ideal for multiple HD video & Music streaming and lag-free on-line gaming

* Backwards compatible Belkin?s 200 Mbps solutions

* Power saving by dual channel technology

* True plug and play for fast installation

* One touch security button for easy set-up

* Optimized routing & bridging through ExtendNet technology

* PC & MAC Compatible

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=264968

[Fit4130Rider]

I would like as close to Gigabit as possible.

[Hedon]

Was your phone line run as CAT5 to the phone jacks? Also, what about running down through a register or cold air return?

[forster]

Id recommend homeplugs too, Ive only one 1080p vid that was streamed on 54 meg plugs (Advent Children new Jap version) and it streamed fine from my Drobo. Just wish I could afford some 1 gig plugs - is there actually any chance the the wiring would hinder the speed even if using 1 gig plugs?

(sorry dont want to hijack the thread, but if anyone knows)

[Fit4130Rider]

Thanks for all your help guys.

I think I might start looking into the powerline networking equipment.

I still would love to run CAT6 throughout the house and I'll still listen to any suggestions.

[Phenom II]

I can stream 1080p from youtube on my 6Mb/s connection - I cant see there being any problem over a homeplug connection even at 54meg

Think of it like this:

If you can copy the movie over the network faster than it would take to watch it, then it will stream fine

[Fit4130Rider]

I have Avatar, Saving Private Ryan, and Apollo 13 all in 1080p and each one is a 22GB file. With the duration of the movies it works out to be about 18Mbps. Well within the 54Mbps range but I'm just concerned about TCP overhead and interference which would lead to more overhead because of resent packets.

I'll just have to sit down (we don't have a single seat in the house yet) and get a WiFi card for my desktop and try it out.

[homeboyrocketshoulders]

Completed houses are a bitch to cable. You generally cant fish down the walls and knocking walls out is less than ideal. Most houses I cabled had openings to crawlspaces in the closets of the upstairs rooms. I think its there for installation of HVAC equipment or something. Sucks to do it because of all the fiberglass insulation, but I crawled around through there and drilled little holes down into the rooms below and ran my cables down that way. It wasnt pretty, but it required very minimal hole making. And you can always get strips of molding to hide the cables, I just didnt bother.

[Night Prowler]

The house that I'm going to be moving into was built in 1996. It is build on a slab foundation and is two stories in height with an attic above the second story.

I do not see a problem with wiring the second floor as I can easily run the wires through the attic and down the interior walls. The first floor is what I'm struggling with. Without an easy way to go up or down the walls I'm hitting a road block. I want to do as little damage to the drywall as possible.

Does anyone in here have experience running a wired network in a completed, two story home?

Thank you in advance.

Call a contractor for an onsite estimate. Explain to them exactly what you want, and you can either pay the contractor to do it or use his advice on the way he would do it, and do the work yourself.

[Fit4130Rider]

Call a contractor for an onsite estimate. Explain to them exactly what you want, and you can either pay the contractor to do it or use his advice on the way he would do it, and do the work yourself.

That's actually not too bad of an idea.

[CrossCheck]

i stream video all through my house using wireless. the have had no problems with latency, i have my gaming desktop in my living room. My wifes laptop is usually used on the couch. my HTPC is in my entertainment center these 3 computers are close to each other but my wireless router (Wireless g) is in my former computer room which is a storage room for now due to remodel of my basement(doing main floor next). The router is in the basement. I have not notice any issues whatsoever with streaming vids, when i install the new wood floors i might go back to wired with the wires behind the baseboards but is not really necessary.

[Fit4130Rider]

i stream video all through my house using wireless. the have had no problems with latency, i have my gaming desktop in my living room. My wifes laptop is usually used on the couch. my HTPC is in my entertainment center these 3 computers are close to each other but my wireless router (Wireless g) is in my former computer room which is a storage room for now due to remodel of my basement(doing main floor next). The router is in the basement. I have not notice any issues whatsoever with streaming vids, when i install the new wood floors i might go back to wired with the wires behind the baseboards but is not really necessary.

Thanks for saying that G works for you. Are you streaming 1080p?

[agreenbhm]

The powerline gigabit adapters are probably going to get the best speeds without having to wire the house, but since we're talking about wireless, why not consider Wireless N equipment rather than G? N gets 300mbps (I think there are some devices that can get a theoretical 600, but that might just be the router). That's more than enough for 1080p, even with interference, overhead, etc.

[Fit4130Rider]

The powerline gigabit adapters are probably going to get the best speeds without having to wire the house, but since we're talking about wireless, why not consider Wireless N equipment rather than G? N gets 300mbps (I think there are some devices that can get a theoretical 600, but that might just be the router). That's more than enough for 1080p, even with interference, overhead, etc.

It's because I have a Cisco Aironet 1231 Access Point. It's very robust and I'm not exactly ready to get rid of it. Plus, I would feel much better about having everything wired.

[agreenbhm]

Did a quick search on that model and while it looks expensive and fancy, you're definitely better off still getting a wireless N setup or the powerline adapters. I've heard of scenarios though where powerline adapters don't work due to different wiring segments of the house not being connected.

[Fit4130Rider]

Yeah, I'm stuck on the AP because of the price and how I don't want to upgrade. I'd also have to get N cards for the desktops that would be using it. I already have a G card.

Once I get settled I'll see how smooth 1080p is over G. We will see once I get all of my junk over to the new house.

[Bgnn32]

There are powerline networking kits that support gigabit, that would be the easiest.

[cybertimber2008]

OP, I realize you asked "HOW should I..." and not "should I...". Don't let everyone distract you.

I'm with you in looking for advice, i'm about to do the same to my parents house and my condo.

(For backstory), my parents house has too many walls, so the wireless signal doesn't travel far, and I'm about ready to set up WMC as the DVR and mini-computers to each TV for viewing. The wireless doesn't reach to their room or mine.

In my condo, there are many buildings around and so many wireless networks nothing really transfers. I did a NetStumbler project for class and in my neighbood (the whole neighborhood) there was 187 in the neighborhood, and 43 accessable from my room. (sidenote, Netstumbler + GPS + Googlemaps = win)

BUT, the person who suggested the basement/attic method sounds best to me for your purpose. Wire up the bottom floor from the basement up, and wire the upper floor from the attic down.

What I'm planning to do is add a conduit in one of my closets (similar to one already in there) to run my upstairs cables. It goes from basement to attic through a closet. Allows me to run multiple cables instead of one. On the plus side, if you do that and want it hidden, to strips of sheetrock, made into a L shape, can hide it where no one will see it or think about it ;)

As far as the walls... well that's unfortunatley a problem. It's a nightmare to think about tearing up walls, but dutch patches work nicely.

Basically you get a piece of sheetrock larger than the hole, scrape away the rock part while leaving the outer sheet larger than the hole. The rock fills in a good portion of the whole, the paper covers the entire hole plus some. Little compound, touch of sanding and some paint and you've covered it.

PS, share some pics and tips when you do, I'll promise to share mine when I start work on it this weekend (hopefully).