"MiamiCuse" wrote in message
...

"aemeijers" wrote in message
...

"MiamiCuse" wrote in message
...

(huge snip)
Yes it helps thanks!

Unfortunately it seems these wirings were added later and it sort of
tucked itself under door trims, under carpets etc...and now I need to
find ways to figure out which I need and which I don't. I guess it is
difficult to figure that out without actually having a service and see.

There are a mixture of older and newer jacks around and I can't find any
pattern or any indication on any plans.

Multigenerational wiring, including questionable surface wiring under
trim and carpet edges, with god-knows-what splices hidden away in dead
spaces, is another strong argument for just replacing it all, especially
if you will ever be using the lines for data. I'd look in local ad paper
for a free-lance wiring guy, and have him stop by to give an estimate for
running completely fresh inside wiring, starting at the demarc block on
the outside. Lotsa semi-retired or moonlighting Ma Bell guys provide this
service, much cheaper than Ma Bell or anybody with a yellow pages ad.
This small town has at least four of them running ads every week. If he
understands you are willing to do all the drywall patching and painting,
his bid may be lower than you expect. Just tell him you want a modern
setup, with everything home-run to a 110 block in the basement, on a
2'x3' 3/4" plywood wall panel you will have waiting for him. Two runs of
cat 5e, or cat 6, to each room, even if you don't want data now, would
provide that option for you or the next owner, and if he is pulling wires
anyway, the second cable is relatively cheap to add. An experienced
installer can tell you where the jacks need to be in each room.

aem sends....




Thanks what you said makes sense. To forget about those old phone wires
and do new ones all over. And yes I will be opening walls, replacing
floorings, replacing baseboards and adding doors etc... anyways.

However I also would like to consider a few things as well...

(1) Do I really need cat5e or cat6 wiring for all rooms with wireless
phones and internet nowadays. Should I really have one set of wiring done
to a den or where my desktop computer will be and where my master phone,
printer, fax etc... will be and just let wireless do the rest or is there
inherent value for have an outlet in every bedroom?

(2) On the contrary, the coax cable is in the same shape. I see cable
coming into the house. where the splitter runs along the outside of the
house under the soffit with splitters that are half way corroded and no
coax outlet in every room. So I think I need to lump the coax cable
problem with this into one bigger problem. I do like to have the option
of having a TV in different rooms and kitchen etc...

So now I am talking myself into running both coax and Cat6 to all rooms.
Am I making sense? What else should I do that may be helpful?

Thanks for all the help again!

A good free-lance installer can discuss all these options with you. Most of
the cost of a professional installation is labor. The even have a fancy
all-in-one cable that has coax, phone, and data cables all prebundled
together, that may or may not be cheaper than seperate cables. Personally, I
hate cheap-ass external wiring poked through the outside walls into each
room- it belongs under house or in attic, out of the weather. Yes, wireless
phones and wireless data are an option, but they aren't as good or reliable
as hardwires, IMHO, for security and speed issues. You or next owner may
want the office in a different room, teenage kids want their own setup in
their room, etc. Will you be keeping the house forever? If not, nice fresh
reliable wiring is a selling point, if the prospective buyer is any kind of
a techie at all. If budget is tight, you can simply have the installer guy
run the wires to each room, and stub them out in an oversize box with a
blank cover, except in the rooms where you currently need hookups. They call
that a 'prewire'. If the requirements change, they can then come back and
add a jack as needed, relatively cheaply. Ma Bell used to do that routinely
in all new construction- remember those round cover plates?

aem sends...