Enough of this! Spack, release him!
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Speaking of sound bars, while those VESA mounts for them are a good idea in most circumstances, I imagine, my fear is that it would make my TV too top heavy. The cats would take that fucker over in a nanosecond.
Speaking of getting dumberâŚI have decided that I am going to have a crack at installing my own network hub. I know we discussed this above, but I was wary of the work involved.
However, I have been talking to an installation contractor and what he proposes is what I want, but I really donât see that it is anything I canât do myself; especially as they wonât run power so I would be doing that anyway. Having moved/added power outlets and wired up a bunch of smart switches I am feeling competent to do this.
I see a trip to MicroCenter in my future. Hopefully just one.
HahahahahahahaâŚ
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As an Amazon Prime customer, I wonder if they will deliver to me while Iâm up a ladder.
QUESTION: The previous homeowner had ethernet run through the walls but never bothered to have it connected up. I am assuming that itâs Cat 5. Is there any advantage to replacing it with Cat 6?
I figure, if yes, I can use the Cat 5 to pull through the Cat 6, which would also give me the opportunity to pull an extra line where I might need more than one.
Is the Cat5 shielded?
Not bloody likely
No idea. Itâs in a blue casing.
If you peel back the jacket on the blue insulation, you should see a metallic strip if it is shielded or look for STP printed on the outside of the jacket. Anyway if it is shielded you shouldnât have any issues, unless you plan on hosting or have a gigantic home.
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And if the build is relatively recent, itâs probably 5E. I wouldnât go through the hassle of pulling 6.
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The cable rating is printed on the jacket. âCATEGORY 5Eâ, âCATEGORY 6â, etc.
If youâve already got unshielded 5e, there arenât many reasons to pull 6/6A and/or shielded cable unless you demand 10Gbps connections or you have some hardware that specifically needs it.
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None of the above.
This is what Iâm dealing with inside the walls. There are ethernet and coax cables running through a wall box, but they are pulled tight. In this instance, there is nothing directly below, so it is unlikely that this runs to another wall box somewhere.
Is this normal? I am nervous to yank on the wire in case it goes somewhere else.
For background, this is what is in the attic. Those wires arenât going to be long enough to run down into my preferred hub location.
Maybe they just ran the slack out through the bottom of the box instead of bundling it up in the box? Thatâs the only thing that makes sense to me.
As for your attic⌠if the cables wonât reach where you want them to go, just terminate them into a patch panel in the attic. Run cables from that spot to your desired closet or whatever, and terminate them into another patch panel. Itâs not ideal - technically another point of failure, although if done right it will likely never fail - but it beats rerunning all that shit.
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I wouldnât be afraid to pull on the wires for slack. Hopefully the wire in the outlet is like Waldo said.
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Since most prewire jobs are done by electricians and not IT guys, not often but sometimes, they fuck shit up.
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Thanks. The intermediate patch panel makes sense. I was thinking of just extending each one, but having the fixed connection point will be more secure.
Yeah, this was definitely done by an electrician. The prior owner remodeled quite extensively (and well), and I think the electrical was all re-done too. Probably didnât cost much to have them run ethernet and coax, but they never bothered to hook anything up.
UPDATE: I cowboyed up and pulled on the ethernet cable and there is plenty of slack available. Rapidly running out of excuses not to do this myself.