I've had FTTP internet installed at home and am keen to make the most of it. Has anyone had cable run through their walls before, and could you share an idea of the cost per room/drop? I've got phone lines in place that might serve as guide cables, and there are already blanked outlet plates available, so it would just be the costs of running and finishing the cables (I think/hope!) Cheers!
I can't answer any of your questions, but I can ask some more that will have a significant impact on the answers. - What wall construction? Is it the same everywhere? - Is there free access to the ceiling cavity (aka loft)? - Do you want cables running, or cables running and walls putting right? - Is there conduit for the phone cables, are the cables clipped inside, and is there space for more cables inside? - Do you want to keep the phone cables? - Have you given particular thought to the central location where all the cables will terminate? Access etc.
This is key, 'cos if you don't then you just clip the phone cable and tie one end to five reels of strong string. Pull the other end, ta-da: five pull-cords ready for whatever you want to run in their place, no muss no fuss. Five minute job. Assuming the answer to "are the cables clipped inside" is "no," of course.
Thanks both! Great points that hadn't even crossed my mind! It's a recently-built flat, so the walls are all hollow, but there's no access to the ceiling. When you say "walls putting right" - what exactly needs putting right? Anything beyond the finish to where the cables will exit? God knows about the state of the cables inside there. Everything (router, server etc) is in a cupboard with some shelves I can pull out so I think access there should be good. This was exactly my hope for making the process cost-effective (though couldn't you run a new phone cable back through with the ethernet and restore it to original state?)
They're hollow until they're not The putting right refers to all of the little routing and access holes that are liable to be cut to aid the fishing effort and navigate around joists, noggings etc. In having someone in to do it, you will almost certainly have more plasterboard cut than is absolutely necessary. Reason being they're there to run cables and run cables only, and will do things in the most effective way that is possible to run cables, because the rest is for a decorator. Also if the quick and easy way for a run is a few holes in plasterboard and job done in 15 mins vs no holes in plasterboard and job done in 90, the first is probably the less costly overall, especially if you're handy with a bit of filler. I've run around 1km of various cable in my house to date, and there were some routes in particular that I was cursing hours trying to nuance the end of a cable, rod or boroscope around a corner or through a small opening. Nobody doing this professionally would bother when there's a handy dandy saw nearby.
Not relevant to the question but reminds me of a long time ago. My Dad was a 'sparky' at the Pit and used to take on wiring jobs on new builds. He used to take me with him when I was about 3 or 4 onward, until I grew too big to crawl underneath floorboards, to drag the cabling through.
I have previously run ethernet from the phone line/cable: - Up the wall and through the ceiling, then down again in different rooms - from the ISP entry point, out through an exterior wall, up the outside wall and into other rooms - under floorboards to multiple rooms - current house we included CAT6 in separate conduit in the walls everywhere when the electrics were rewired It really depends on how many cables you want to run and where, along with how your house is constructed to determine how much work is required. One option I have never tried is replacing skirting boards with new skirting that has cable routing channels cut into the back. Won't help go through walls or upstairs though. Edit: just noticed you said recently built flat. Do you own or rent? Is it on a single floor? I assume modern electrical wiring? Have you considered powerline ethernet?
Own, single-floor, modern wiring indeed. I was hoping to get up to gigabit speeds through the ethernet - I was under the impression that powerlines would never really get close to that? Under the floor is probably very tricky due to the presence of underfloor heating. I suspect it's either **** or bust on using those phone lines as guide cables for some new wires.
Or... might save myself a lot of bother by buying a serious router and a big old set of antennae for the PC. Does anyone have any experience with WiFi antenna replacements?
Have you pulled the wall plates off to see what sort of cable was pulled in for the phone lines? On this side of the pond builders just use cat5e for phones, as it's much more ubiquitous, so it's easy to just pop off the RJ-11 keystone and put in a RJ-45.
For the cost, maybe worth trying powerline adapters first given its a single floor and the socket ring curcuit will be the same throughout. I don't think it will give you full GB but it will likely be a massive improvement on flakey WiFi. Probably others here with more powerline experience than me could comment?
Good shout, this. I've had a crack at removing the blanking plates, but to no avail. I'll need to do some googling, but I've struggled with getting the right keywords so far! A problem I've rarely encountered when staying within the comfort zone of things I already know lots about. Flashing my light down the port does suggest that there are 8 rather than 4 wires though [edit - probably I was over-eager and have imagined the extra 4 that I wanted to see, rather than what was really there!], which gives me some hope that this might be true.
I paid around 4k for a full cctv system (6 cameras) and 24 ports of networking and a few other small jobs in one go a few years back. Guy who did it specialised in minimum damage and even fixed up the damage he did after with plaster boarding and painting
On this side of the pond, it's been common practice to home run everything, even in condo(flat) builds for the past 20+ years. Can you take some pictures of the phone jacks and the blank plates?
