When we gutted the living room, money was really tight. (It’s always tight, though). Yet, I gritted my teeth and decided to shell out the additional $70 to buy materials for Cat5 installation. Cat5 is wiring for ethernet– DSL internet. Previously, we simply had long ropes of ethernet cables strewn across the living room from the DSL router to each computer. I tried to hide them, of course, but they still looked awful, like a big black spider web of cables. And in some cases, I couldn’t use Cat5 for a computer because I couldn’t string cable across a doorway. I’d use wireless for the computer, but if we use the cordless telephone in the living room, that computer would lose it’s connection. Grr.
So… back to gutting the living room. OK. We pulled out the walls and some of the noggin (bricks between the studs, my post about it is here). I installed electrical wiring, telephone wiring, and ethernet Cat5 wiring (my posts where I blogged about it are here). Here are a few visual aids:
Learning HOW to install it was harder than the actual install. That took some time. When I felt confident enough, I made a total of four connections for the living room (we use four computers for our homeschool lessons)
This is the finished project for the connections at the work station. At each computer work station, there are more modems, ready for Cat5 ethernet cables to be plugged in.
Well, anyway, today the kids and I moved the furniture (well, they moved it) and we dusted and organized the room to prepare for school lessons. And we also shifted the computers around. I had to unplug all the cables and create new workstations. And BOY OH BOY am I thankful I didn’t have to lace ethernet cables all across the floors and walls this year!! I am slapping myself on the back for it. I am SO glad I paid that $70 for the wiring and installed it.
Moral of the story– it is true, it’s better to do everything you can while the walls are open rather than regret missing the opportunity later. I am so elated that I did something right this time, lol!
:) I’m a married mom of four teenage children. We live in Upstate New York. We bought an old 1855 home and acre property, over 10 years ago. We've been in the slow, agonizing process of living in the home while (trying) to renovate it. When I'm not renovating, I'm a freelance writer and blogger.
We've learned to dig a French drain, plant huge flower and vegetable gardens, wire a circuit panel, install furnace ducting, understand the enigmatic complexities of the plumbing system, and more. It's been *quite* the adventure.
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September 23, 2008 at 9:36 am
heck yes. one of the first things we did in this house was install almost a thousand feet of cat5 cable, which all runs to the little “harry potter” closet under the stairs, where the router/modem/fileserver live.
my big old clown feet might trip and bust up a $3 patch cable that only goes as far as the wall, but no major cable failings yet – unlike what they’re wont to do if you string them about the floor, drape them over doorways, and other crazy nonsense.
remodeling or building a house and not putting ethernet cabling in… well that’d be just like building a new house without running water!
September 24, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I really wish I had been at my moms when they had their home built, one they don’t have satellite hook up upstairs and two having 5 computers at the time did not make them think to add networking during the build. Now we have wireless and between the wireless phone and the airport our internet comes and goes. You really made a good choice