[ale] Future-proofing a house for networking -- what to run?

[Phil Turmel]

Hi Derek,

I haven't had fully open studs to work with, but an unfinished basement
and an attic will do if you are willing to play with flexible drill
bits.  I've put a fair number of circuits in my house.

On 09/11/2017 09:33 AM, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Hi Alers,
> 
> If you had the ability to future-proof your house (imagine open studs,
> so you could run anything you wanted), what would you run.  Assume a max
> of 6 cables per drop?

I tend to run 2x LAN, one primary, one backup.  Two RG6/quad-shield, one
to attic for broadcast or dish duty, one to ground level nexus for cable
company.

Future installs will include a DC power connector routed to my UPS so I
can efficiently keep a few circuits alive even when the UPS is "off".

For the entertainment center location, I added fiber for digital audio,
two USB circuits, two HDMI circuits, and a headphone jack.  All of these
routed to the basement media server.

> Last time I ran 4x Cat6A and 2x RG6.  However I'm never using both RG6
> F-connectors, so I figured I could replace that with something else.
> And before you ask, yes, I *AM* using all 4 RJ45 connectors in some of
> my drops (and in one place I wish I had MORE Rj45).  So, what else
> should I run?

Consider learning to use VLANs so you don't have to waste so much
infrastructure on additional LAN cables.  Linux supports it out of the
box and small VLAN capable switches are relatively cheap.

> However I'm not sure what kind of "fiber" to run, nor what kind of
> connector I should use.

Digital audio has a standardized connector for AES and ADAT technologies.

Phil