On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:07:15 +0100, Andy Hall wrote:

On 2008-06-28 20:48:28 +0100, PCPaul said:

I need to run some cat-5 cable in an old stable converted to an office.
Unfortunately the only way to run it is along a blank wall which is
Magnolia with a dark brown wooden skirting board. The floor is dark
carpet.

I can find D-line 'wood effect' trunking which is much too light, or
plain square brown PVC stuff. Neither of which is really neat enough
for the room which is done to a high spec and used for meeting (and
hopefully impressing) clients.

Does anybody have a better idea of how to run the cable unobtrusively?

My best shot so far is to make new skirting with cable runs along the
back, but that could be fiddly as it's an unusual custom moulding. I
don't really want to mess with digging into the walls if I can help it
as there have been damp problems in the past.

Wireless networking is a non-starter for security and speed reasons.
WPA is not good enough for this job...

Given what you have, I'd go for getting new wooden skirting and milling
a slot in the back. A router in a router table would work for this or
it would be inexpensive at a a joinery workshop, even if they have to
copy the profile and get a spindle tool made.

I'm tempted - already have the router table set up, but the profile is
tricky. And the skirting finish would have to match the rest of the
'stables' which is a sort of weatherbeaten look on dark wood. So I'[m
tempted but not jumping at the chance...

Otherwise, you might be able to paint plastic, but I have to say that it
would not look as good to have this on show.

Agreed. Although a dark wood (effect?) quadrant trunking *might* be able
to be lost in the corner where the skirting meets the carpet, if I could
find one. Hmm, I might be able to make/buy a largish wood quadrant bead
with enough room to hide a single Cat5. Have to look at that one.

As an IT solution, would something like IPSec run as a client on the
desktop/laptop machine be an acceptable level of security? There are
also routers with this built in, so you could run a protected point to
point link with the router fixed nder the desk for example.

I already have a VPN from my home PC to their router, so setting up an
IPSec link in itself wouldn't present a problem. They have a no-wireless
policy though, which makes it tricky.

There is mains in there already, so has anybody got experience with
Homeplug? Does it work reliably now? It didn't when I tried it when it
first came out...