On our most recent IoT Podcast, Judy called into our hotline and asked if it makes sense to install wired ethernet in a new home she’s having built. And specifically, she’s wondering if she should even consider locations such as her garage for wired connections.
Without a doubt, if I was having new construction be built, I’d be putting network wiring and jacks in almost every room, including my garage. While mesh Wi-Fi works for the smart home of today, it’s difficult to imagine the types of devices and services our homes may use in the future.
For example, I hadn’t thought of what connectivity I might need in my garage. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever need any. However, since purchasing an older townhouse in 2016, I’ve added a smart garage door opener and sensor, a Google Home mini speaker and I’ve even used my Lenovo Smart Display to watch YouTube TV for hours while sitting in the garage on a warm but rainy day.
Granted, all of these devices use wireless, not wired, connections. But I’d surely get better network performance if I had an ethernet jack in the garage where I could plug in a mesh access point. And then I could even expand my garage devices to include a camera, which can require a large amount of network bandwidth. It’s worth noting that many newer vehicles need a connection for software updates; extending your network into the garage makes this seamless.
In Judy’s case, we recommend wiring the house along with network ports in every room, especially wherever she may put a television set, simply because content is increasingly moving towards internet-based delivery. Additionally, wired jacks near certain windows may make sense for security cameras that need high bandwidth. And Stacey even had a network jack in the master bathroom of her old home: There’s been big growth in smart devices here such as smart showers and mirrors, not to mention smart toilets if that’s your jam.
It’s also worth noting that placing power outlets near windows and under the sink will be useful for webcams, smart blinds and water delivery or monitoring.
Judy specifically asked about using Cat-5 cable for her connectivity, but to better futureproof the network, we recommend Cat-6 cabling which supports faster speeds and reduces the potential for crosstalk, or interference between signals. Of course, if you’re getting 10 Gbps speeds then you’ll want to update all the way to the latest Cat-8 cable standards but for most places in the U.S., this will be overkill.
To hear Judy’s question, as well as our discussion in full, tune in to the IoT Podcast below:
My house is large with multiple floors. The builder was initially going to do home runs from every jack to the basement. That would have taken miles of cabling.
Instead I created five little equipment cabinets scattered around the house. They are small, a couple of cubic feet, and located in a cavities created by AC ducting having to make bends, or under a stairwell. Out of the way places that would normally be closed up. They has small access doors.
All of the room jacks make a home run to the nearest cabinet, then there are single runs from those cabinets to the basement. Put a wifi router in each cabinet. The wifi router acts as a switch and a range extender (leave WAN port unused, turn off DHCP). So maybe jacks from four rooms feed into a cabinet and then there is one CAT6 from cabinet to basement. I only use the router to activate jacks we are using, there are many more cables coming into cabinets than jacks on the router. I used the same scheme for TV coax and telephone. There is also a tube from each cabinet to basement to allow more wiring to be added (we’ve had to add two wires to correct for mistakes in HVAC wiring).
We probably have about fifty wall plates with Ethernet, coax, phone available at various points around rooms. I have about ten of those wired up in the cabinets to be active. When you move furniture around, go back to the cabinet and activate different ports.
This scheme avoided fifty home runs to the basement and a huge Ethernet switch to handle all of that. Plus you don’t need all of the wallplates active at the same time.
Doing it this way eliminated at least 50% of the needed wiring for the house.
Absolutely! Wire all the things! Use Wi-Fi only for those things that don’t have Ethernet. Cable is cheap. Use miles if necessary.
Living in Houston, in a 100 year old home on a pier & beam foundation, I pulled Cat 5 from a central closet to every room and the attic. That was back in 2001! The strategy has serves us well.
We’ve added IP surveillance cameras running on power-over-ethernet to an NVR. We have Tivo Roamio connected to a pair of Tivo Mini streaming media heads.
We transitioned to Ubiquiti AC Pro Wi-Fi access points, also POE. POE makes it easier to have the core network sustained during short power outages. One UPS in the wiring closet keeps things like security gear & APs and running continuously.
When our ISP went down for 24 hours due to an accidental fiber cut, we had local music on a media server. 200+ hours of TV & movies in the Tivo. The most annoying thing was that our Amazon Echo’s were useless.
Yes, wires everywhere you can. Wi-Fi only where you must.
I built my home 15 years ago and wired it with 2 runs of cat6 in every room including bathrooms. It’s so much cheaper to future proof on front end. I also wired with 12 strand fiber optic in each room as well. One thing I wished I would have done is ran conduit from basement to highest point in house (2story). That enables additional wiring to be added as new services come online.