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How to Run Network Cable in an Old House?
Sorry for the long post.
I am planning to network my old house with wire. I would like to learn some tips in running wire through existing walls and floors. My house has two floors and one basement. And I want to have network connection in all two floors and the basement. Seem like one way to do this is to run a wire through the exterior wall in the second floor, and run it straight down through the exterior wall in the first floor, and into the basement. By running wire inside the basement suspended-ceiling, I can easily run the wire to many areas in the basement and back up to the first floor. The problem is: How do I run the wire from the second floor to the basement? What I am planning to do: - Find a spot on the 2nd floor wall that is away from power outlet by at least 16 inches. - Remove the baseboard heating unit from one side of the wall in the second floor. - Open a small hole on the wall behind the baseboard unit. - Open a small hole near the bottom of the wall in the first floor where no one will see the hole, and where there is no baseboard. - Examine the small hole in the first floor to make sure there is no cable/pipe hidden behind the wall. - Go back to the second floor, and use a right angle drill to drill a hole through the base frame to reach the first floor. - Use a fishing wire to fish the network cable through the small hole in the second floor to the small hole in the first floor. - Fish the wire from the first floor to the basement should be relatively easy. - Use the baseboard heating unit to cover the small hole in the second floor. Use a baseboard trim to cover the small hole in the first floor. My questions a - How difficult it is to remove the baseboard heating unit and put it back? I can do basic plumbing stuff (such as cutting pipes and solder them back; but I have never touch anything related to heating). Do I need to drain the water inside the pipe and refill it afterward? Is there any documentation or book about this? If this requires a plumber, I would have to leave the baseboard unit alone and open the wall above it instead. - How realistic is this to fish a wire from the first floor to the second floor with only one hole in each floor without opening another hole near the ceiling of the first floor? If this requires opening another hole near the ceiling, I would have to cancel this project because I am not planning to re-do the wall paper in the first floor, nor to put crown molding in the first floor (where there is none) to cover the hole. - Any other alternative that I might have overlooked? I could have run the wire through the exterior wall to outside the house and drop the wire down to near the house foundation and back inside the basement. But this would be ugly and squirrels would bite the wire (my old cable TV wire was damaged this way). Therefore, I prefer to run it through indoor instead of outdoor. I could have used wireless network. But wireless network is probably marginal for streaming video through two floors (especially if the video is HDTV when it becomes common). I prefer something that can give me a higher margin of success. Thanks in advance for any suggestion. Jay Chan |
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