Hey guys, Im renovating my house and need ethernet cables for the electrician to install. Ill be running them under the floor between each room, and I guess buying a cheap switch from somewhere. Can anyone recommend me cheap cables? I've never seen female ethernet cables, so I just run male ethernet cables to faceplates? Where is the best place to buy cheap cables, a cheap switch (can be second hand) and cheap wall plates? I'd like an ethernet outlet in each room, about 5 or 6 near the TV, and then 5 outlets for cables for ip cameras I bought in the kmart deal. Im getting Optus cable installed,
Cheap Ethernet Cables?
[Deactivated] on 30/05/2015 - 17:50
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Go to WP forums and ask for good cable suppliers
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/9I'd suggest not to buy cheap cables, in the sense that should they ever stop working, you'd have to pay the electrician to come and replace the cable. It would be better in the long run to buy good quality cables (though it may cost you perhaps 10~25% more for the cables) to prevent you having to re-do cables. So don't buy weird dodgy ones from eBay, look for local suppliers like 4Cabling.
This! 4cabling! I used them and i can say its of good quality :)
Oh and BTW, I opted for the switch to be on a shelf, so i actually terminated the cables to a wall. and then made mini 45cm Cat5e cables to connect from the wall to the switch.
(I didn't have a cupboard to hide a big hole in the wall)
That's what I was thinking of doing, It is a period house, and Im pretty sure there is no wall cavities, so Im running the cabling through the floor and roof, and putting wall plates on the skirting boards (there is a small gap between the floor boards and the wall, I can run cable through it.
Any recommendations on a switch? Im terrible with networking, but Im thinking I need a 24 port gigabit switch to be on the safe side. I can see me running about 11 or 12 cables from the outset, so I was going to put 3 wall 6 point wall plates behind where I am going to run the switch. (do switches run hot? Are they loud?)
Also what are your thoughts on flat cable? Seeing as the house is so old, Im not liking the chances of running 24 fat cables around the house.
I use http://www.tp-link.com.au/products/details/?model=TL-SG1024D
And its silent. No Fans. It runs warm, but not hot.
I've never used flat cables before. Link me?
Here is flat ethernet. Im only thinking flat because space is at a premium.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Black-White-Flat-Network-Cable-RJ…
That is a male to male. How are you going to add a gang plate to it? or is this the cable for wall plate to device?
Oh and what is a crossover cable? I don't need those, right?
No
Crossover is for direct PC to PC connections.
The 1000BASE-T (GbE) standard requires Auto-MDI-X, so you shouldn't need crossover cables when connecting any modern NICs, even for direct PC-PC. Even some non-GbE NICs probably support it.
Crossover cables really are a relic from the early 2000s and before.
No-one seems to have answered your question - A cross-over cable means that the pairs for receive and transmit have been swapped. These days they're not common (for the reasons stated by other people who have responded). They used to be used when you simply wanted to connect two devices together directly without a switch.
OP, you really should leave this to the guys doing the installing.
If you're doing the installing please note that what you're doing may actually breach the law if you're not Austel licenced - For a detailed discussion see http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/283286
Please also note that it really isn't as simple as just ordering some Cat 5E/6 cable. There are different types of ethernet cable - solid and stranded. The solid cable is less flexible, but cheaper, and is suited to being put in a fixed installation. It is then terminated at outlets. You can then use male-male ethernet cables (flexible) to connect to switches/etc.
If you are going to do it yourself, you may wish to get a cable tester to check your cables. They are not that expensive and may save a fair bit of troubleshooting in case anything goes wrong.
Trying to save as much money as possible, If I can buy all the ethernet cabling for the house for $200, Id be crazy paying an electrician $750 for the same stuff. When I get my house rewired, I was going to ask them to do do it too.
Then get a couple of quotes.
If an electrician is doing other tasks ask them to quote putting cabling through your house. Ask them if they get the cable or if "I can find a cheap deal can I supply it?"
You could also get another couple of quotes.
Have you got a quote that verifies
If I can buy all the ethernet cabling for the house for $200, Id be crazy paying an electrician $750 for the same stuff.
?
The cable is not the cost factor, it's the labour. Cat5e or Cat6 cable sold by the km is cheap. Really cheap. The electrician will have the right cable and plenty of it and will be buying the stuff at a much better price than you are likely to get.
However, most importantly, any decent sparkie will give you a guarantee on the job they do. If they supply all materials and one of the connections goes dead in 9 months time, there is no argument. The sparkie will have to come back and fix it, irrespective of whether it was the cable or the workmanship. If you supply your own cable and it dies, you can be 99% sure that you will have to pay to have it repaired.
Don't try to get a bargain on the cable, get a bargain on the entire job.
There is so much going on here…
First off - don't buy cheap cable. The reasons have been stated not going to repeat them. But you're an idiot if you do.
Second - 'Female ethernet cables' haha there is so much wrong with this that I don't think you really should be doing this yourself. Faceplates hold a female RJ45 jack - looks like a telephone jack, but bigger. You plug a male into the front. But in the back you need to wire it directly to the cable. you don't just plug the wire into it. You generally need specialised punch down tools for this task. The exact tool can depend on the type of wall plate/jack you buy and the tool it is designed for.
Third - I'd probably advise you to pull an extra cable through for each room just in case. It's not going to cost you much more and in the long run leaves you room for adding another connection if you need it in the future, or if for some reason the primary cable stops functioning properly, you have another. You don't need to terminate the extra cable, but having it there is a good idea nonetheless.
Fourth - While terminating a network cable is not overly complicated, there are things to note - a poor job can leave you with poorer connections. Perhaps you take off too much of the jacket, increases cross talk and interference. Your 1gbps capable router and cable may become a 10mbps connection if you (profanity) it up. It may be useable, but poor quality. I would definitely recommend practicing before hand if you want to try doing this part yourself.
Fifth - A cheap switch? not a great idea. Not if you plan on having ~24 connections. It really depends on how active all of those connections are, how much they are utilised, but not all switches are made equally. You can decrease the efficiency of your network merely by attaching a switch that is unable to keep up with the traffic. 20 devices browsing the web probably okay. A few devices streaming video or media and you may end up with a worthless network.
Sixth: There are concerns to be had over placement of the cable. It should not be run parallel to electrical cables or lighting. The cable should not be bent past a certain degree, and so forth. It really should be done by someone that understands networking on a physical layer.
/ Source: Studied Structural Cabling in college. I've wired a few houses back about 5 years ago. In my home country though, not Australia. unsure what specific requirements and laws are surrounding cabling here. The suggestion that it must be done by an electrician though is bizarre. Someone who knows what they're doing is more than capable of doing it. Do not recommend someone with no idea what they are doing, doing it.
So you need a licensed cabler then?
Won't any old electrician do the job?I'm not an electrician, I have no idea what an electrician should know in regards to data communications. They can likely put cable through the wall no problem. Whether it conforms to the requirements for data comms though I have no idea. Perhaps in this modern age it is something that is covered when you train to be an electrician. I only studied Structured Cabling for Data Comms.
But my point licensed cabler… unlicensed cabler, or electrician, it should be someone that understands the technology.
You sure he won't source it for you?
If you want to DIY or get materials.
Anyways! I DIYed it and used http://www.4cabling.com.au/
The installer should have the tools to punch the cables into the jacks and plugs.
****** Cheaper method but Ebay = might get shit stuff ******
Not the cheapest options out there but definitely the easiest to get all from one place.
you're alternate option is to use ebay
$85 for 300m @ Bunnings
Then ebay the following terms