Chuck Banshee wrote:
This is my first time installing cat5 cable in my house and I am unsure
how to connect to RJ45 jacks that I need to put in the wall.

I've installed a WISP antenna 75 feet from the house & will be routing
the outdoor cat5 cable into the middle of the house (another 25 or so
feet) - but I have a few 'design' questions I'd like to ask those more
experienced than I am.

Pictured here is what I have in the wall in the middle of the house:
http://picturepush.com/public/7212874
or
www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/7212874/1024/Anonymous/cat5-questions.gif

I'm not sure if it's best to route the wire all the way from the antenna
to the middle of the house (about 75 feet to the house and another 25 or
30 feet zig-zagging to the crawl space and then up to the newly drilled
hole at the wall).

I'm going to put a wall plate at the wall in the middle of the house; but
should I also put a wall plate where the wire enters the house?

Does breaking the line into sections degrade the signal?

If I do put a wall plate at the entrance to the house, I'll likely put
the POE (power over ethernet) at the wall inside the house (otherwise it
will go in the middle of the house next to the WRT54G router).

When I put a wall plate in the middle of the house, would you add a
second female jack (just in case for future use?). Or does that also
degrade the signal?

In summary, I'm not sure if I should strive to keep the line intact and
how I should terminate it.

Any advice?

Your description is somewhat vague, but I can give you some general
guidelines.
Assuming you're running standard 802.11 ethernet, it makes some difference
whether you're running 10Mb, 100Mb, or gigabit ethernet.
Faster requires more care.

In general, you can have exactly one device at either end of the wire.
You can have plugs and sockets in the wire, but only one device on
either end....not in the middle...at the ends of the wire.
You cannot tap a device into the middle of a wire. Devices have to be
on the ENDs of the wires. Doesn't matter if the unused end of the wire
is disconnected...the extra wire can't be there.

You can have two sockets and a jumper wire. Remove the jumper to use
the connector in the middle of the run, but that disconnects the rest of
your system.

If one of those devices is a router, you can use one router port to continue
the run while you use another router port to "tap" the signal.

What do you mean by "terminate"?
You don't "terminate" the line as in impedance matching. That's done
inside the devices you connect to the END of the wire run.
If, by "terminate" you mean, do I solder it or use screw terminals, that's
a different issue. Should be instructions with the socket you use.

On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:39:30 -0800, mike wrote:
You can have two sockets and a jumper wire. Remove the jumper to use
the connector in the middle of the run, but that disconnects the rest of
your system.

That was what I was wondering.

I 'could' put a socket at the wall where the wire enters the house. I'd
put the 15 volt Ubiquiti POE there (to shorten the length to the WISP
antenna 75 feet outside).

Then, the jumper would go from the POE to the center of the house where
the router sits.

That gives me the option of connecting a router either at the point where
the wire enters the house 'or' in the middle of the house (but not both
at the same time).

I 'am' confused - but I was mostly wondering if it badly degraded the
signal to add that jumper as opposed to stringing the outdoor cat5 cable
all the way to the center of the house unbroken.

If one of those devices is a router, you can use one router port to
continue the run while you use another router port to "tap" the signal.

May I reflect on that?

I think you're saying I can put the router itself at the point where the
wire enters the house.

Then, from the four LAN ports of the router, I can continue the 25 feet
to the center of the house.

From another of the four router ports, I can tap off to another portion
of the house.

My question is if I do that - I would want to have permanent jacks in the
wall.

So, I'd go from the antenna to the wall of the house where I'd put a jack.
Then, I'd go to the router INPUT port with a short jumper cable.
Then I'd go from one of the four router OUTPUT LAN ports back to the wall
at another jack next to the first jack.
Plus, I could go from another of the router output LAN ports to a third
jack in the wall, which connects to another portion of the house.

This makes sense to me, and fits my needs.

But are these three jacks next to each other at the wall of the house a
signal degradation issue?

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:53:20 +0000 (UTC), Chuck Banshee
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:39:30 -0800, mike wrote:
You can have two sockets and a jumper wire. Remove the jumper to use
the connector in the middle of the run, but that disconnects the rest of
your system.

That was what I was wondering.

I 'could' put a socket at the wall where the wire enters the house. I'd
put the 15 volt Ubiquiti POE there (to shorten the length to the WISP
antenna 75 feet outside).

Then, the jumper would go from the POE to the center of the house where
the router sits.

That gives me the option of connecting a router either at the point where
the wire enters the house 'or' in the middle of the house (but not both
at the same time).

I 'am' confused - but I was mostly wondering if it badly degraded the
signal to add that jumper as opposed to stringing the outdoor cat5 cable
all the way to the center of the house unbroken.

If one of those devices is a router, you can use one router port to
continue the run while you use another router port to "tap" the signal.

May I reflect on that?

I think you're saying I can put the router itself at the point where the
wire enters the house.

Then, from the four LAN ports of the router, I can continue the 25 feet
to the center of the house.

From another of the four router ports, I can tap off to another portion
of the house.

My question is if I do that - I would want to have permanent jacks in the
wall.

So, I'd go from the antenna to the wall of the house where I'd put a jack.
Then, I'd go to the router INPUT port with a short jumper cable.
Then I'd go from one of the four router OUTPUT LAN ports back to the wall
at another jack next to the first jack.
Plus, I could go from another of the router output LAN ports to a third
jack in the wall, which connects to another portion of the house.

This makes sense to me, and fits my needs.

But are these three jacks next to each other at the wall of the house a
signal degradation issue?


I would not put jacks next to the router, myself. I'd just put plugs
on the end of the cable and plug them directly into the router or
switch.. Put jacks in the wall at the endpoint.

Connections that do not exist cannot cause problems in the future.
Using a jack and jumper at the router adds 4 sets of connections to
each run. That's 32 actual potential points of failure (of which 8 are
critical on 10/100 without POE, which are totally un-needed.

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 13:37:01 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:53:20 +0000 (UTC), Chuck Banshee
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:39:30 -0800, mike wrote:
You can have two sockets and a jumper wire. Remove the jumper to use
the connector in the middle of the run, but that disconnects the rest of
your system.

That was what I was wondering.

I 'could' put a socket at the wall where the wire enters the house. I'd
put the 15 volt Ubiquiti POE there (to shorten the length to the WISP
antenna 75 feet outside).

Then, the jumper would go from the POE to the center of the house where
the router sits.

That gives me the option of connecting a router either at the point where
the wire enters the house 'or' in the middle of the house (but not both
at the same time).

I 'am' confused - but I was mostly wondering if it badly degraded the
signal to add that jumper as opposed to stringing the outdoor cat5 cable
all the way to the center of the house unbroken.

If one of those devices is a router, you can use one router port to
continue the run while you use another router port to "tap" the signal.

May I reflect on that?

I think you're saying I can put the router itself at the point where the
wire enters the house.

Then, from the four LAN ports of the router, I can continue the 25 feet
to the center of the house.

From another of the four router ports, I can tap off to another portion
of the house.

My question is if I do that - I would want to have permanent jacks in the
wall.

So, I'd go from the antenna to the wall of the house where I'd put a jack.
Then, I'd go to the router INPUT port with a short jumper cable.
Then I'd go from one of the four router OUTPUT LAN ports back to the wall
at another jack next to the first jack.
Plus, I could go from another of the router output LAN ports to a third
jack in the wall, which connects to another portion of the house.

This makes sense to me, and fits my needs.

But are these three jacks next to each other at the wall of the house a
signal degradation issue?


I would not put jacks next to the router, myself. I'd just put plugs
on the end of the cable and plug them directly into the router or
switch.. Put jacks in the wall at the endpoint.

Connections that do not exist cannot cause problems in the future.
Using a jack and jumper at the router adds 4 sets of connections to
each run. That's 32 actual potential points of failure (of which 8 are
critical on 10/100 without POE, which are totally un-needed.

True

But - wiring tends to have a much longer lifetime than the equipment
hung on the end of it - not becuase it costs much, but because of the
hassle and disruption of changing it.

So my preference and the way i have wired up the later runs at home
after this hit me the 1st time is
1. run more sets of cables than you need - always seem to use more
than i tohught i might need......
2. terminate the fixed wiring on a panel or a wall jack.

That way when the "puppy attack" mentioned by Jeff happens, you just
replace a damaged patch lead, rather than the entire run, buried in
the walls.
--
Regards

- replace xyz with ntl

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 22:33:25 +0000, Stephen
wrote:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 13:37:01 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:53:20 +0000 (UTC), Chuck Banshee
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:39:30 -0800, mike wrote:
You can have two sockets and a jumper wire. Remove the jumper to use
the connector in the middle of the run, but that disconnects the rest of
your system.

That was what I was wondering.

I 'could' put a socket at the wall where the wire enters the house. I'd
put the 15 volt Ubiquiti POE there (to shorten the length to the WISP
antenna 75 feet outside).

Then, the jumper would go from the POE to the center of the house where
the router sits.

That gives me the option of connecting a router either at the point where
the wire enters the house 'or' in the middle of the house (but not both
at the same time).

I 'am' confused - but I was mostly wondering if it badly degraded the
signal to add that jumper as opposed to stringing the outdoor cat5 cable
all the way to the center of the house unbroken.

If one of those devices is a router, you can use one router port to
continue the run while you use another router port to "tap" the signal.

May I reflect on that?

I think you're saying I can put the router itself at the point where the
wire enters the house.

Then, from the four LAN ports of the router, I can continue the 25 feet
to the center of the house.

From another of the four router ports, I can tap off to another portion
of the house.

My question is if I do that - I would want to have permanent jacks in the
wall.

So, I'd go from the antenna to the wall of the house where I'd put a jack.
Then, I'd go to the router INPUT port with a short jumper cable.
Then I'd go from one of the four router OUTPUT LAN ports back to the wall
at another jack next to the first jack.
Plus, I could go from another of the router output LAN ports to a third
jack in the wall, which connects to another portion of the house.

This makes sense to me, and fits my needs.

But are these three jacks next to each other at the wall of the house a
signal degradation issue?


I would not put jacks next to the router, myself. I'd just put plugs
on the end of the cable and plug them directly into the router or
switch.. Put jacks in the wall at the endpoint.

Connections that do not exist cannot cause problems in the future.
Using a jack and jumper at the router adds 4 sets of connections to
each run. That's 32 actual potential points of failure (of which 8 are
critical on 10/100 without POE, which are totally un-needed.

True

But - wiring tends to have a much longer lifetime than the equipment
hung on the end of it - not becuase it costs much, but because of the
hassle and disruption of changing it.

So my preference and the way i have wired up the later runs at home
after this hit me the 1st time is
1. run more sets of cables than you need - always seem to use more
than i tohught i might need......
2. terminate the fixed wiring on a panel or a wall jack.

That way when the "puppy attack" mentioned by Jeff happens, you just
replace a damaged patch lead, rather than the entire run, buried in
the walls.
If and when the "puppy attack" happens you cut the damaged cable and
install a jack. Always leave some extra cable in the wall or wherever
so you have something to work with.