Installing A Home Network Ep.100

[@techiecreations]

Ben is very well spoken, enjoyed his explanations

[@essentialcraftsman]

Ben is terrific in many ways!!!

[@TimBielawa]

100% agree, I came here to make the same comment. As a system admin I thought he did a great job breaking that down into something digestible to a broad audience.

[@Akira_203]

100% would make a great teacher. This is the kind of concise and explanative message delivery you want from your mentors.

[@els1456-p6n]

Agreed. Easy to listen and understandable. Explained some of the questions that may be roaming around in the head of an IT professional and homeowner.

[@horatiohornblower868]

Essential Craftsman One way or the other you have passed your own eloquence to your son in law. Must be a genetical miracle.

[@tellcommguy]

Ive been installing computer cabling for over 20 years and Ben did a fantastic job of explaing the basics and things to watch out for. Great job Ben!

[@robc7417]

You've been installing cable for 20 years and you replace every cable that kinked during installation?

[@harryhunts6171]

@@robc7417Cat 5 and fiber is less forgiving

[@challengecompleted55]

@@harryhunts6171 Fiber is like a vengeful girlfriend. You one thing wrong, and she snaps.

[@thetable123]

@@challengecompleted55 glad I only work with Corning fiber. I can get get that to about a 2" radius before I see significant loss, even in SM, but rarely do I see a break.

[@jackshett]

@@thetable123 Yeah, you've got to REALLY be rough to get a real break. Bending that sharp is a no-no but you can prevent that easily just in the method you pull.

[@donedwards5301]

He and Amanda have five lovely grandchildren of mine who come with him or he's not invited! I love it!

[@spenmac]

Im a senior computer engineer by trade, so its nice to see new houses getting this from the getgo. I have lost count of the amount of times i have to run Ethernet cable and install network gear after the fact for people.

[@blzt3206]

You run the cable as an engineer? Where I live that would get contracted to apprentice electricians.

[@SaratogaDave]

@@blzt3206 are you from a big city? In NYC you get in big trouble for running cable without union and a bunch of red tape (in commercial property). In upstate NY it's not a problem and any good engineer should know how to run and terminate ethernet

[@FishFind3000]

I’m happy my father put phone line connections to each room as a land line in each room was hot shit at the time, “2005”. Half of the lines were cat5 and others cat3 thankfully my room has a cat5 run and the main truck from the basement to the attic was cat5. I just had to cut all the phone line punch blocks off, make my rj45’s, and run my own line to the router in the basement. Definitely worth it as I’m the furthest room from the router and now have 100% throughput to my pc.

[@Stikker021]

@@blzt3206 Internationally, the guy who pulls in the network cables is commonly referred to as "the network engineer". When it comes to networking they are the second people on site after the network designer, who is usually also the administrator, but not necessarily. There, now that is clear as mud. 😁 My network career started out with 300 Baud (bps) data circuits in the early '80s and I specialised in ISO layer 1 to 4 of networking. When I was called a 'network engineer' I used to get some odd looks as I was the guy who ran circuits all the way from the from Telco's, made the street connections, ran the backhaul, installed the routers and switches and the network cabling. Usually, I was pretty worn out at the end of the day. Why did I do it? Job satisfaction and the money was very good too.

[@McCuneWindandSolar]

Been there done that. I remodeled a house that had no network or even coax. the coax that was there was ran from the out side and it look like crap. I pulled all the nasty looking stuff off the out side and fixed all the holes. Then I fished 2 stories. with Both coax and cat6 in ever room Each room had at least 2 cat6, an d2 coax. and they all when to a central location. were ever thing was wired up in a panel. Also I ran phone lines using the solid copper Cat6. and it took forever. then I had to patch and paint all the drywall.

[@HeWearsGlasses]

"He brings them or he's not invited" 😂😂

[@kevinz8867]

I LOVE that HAHA

[@ThePreacherProclaims]

I ran full ethernet throughout my entire house when it was being built. Every single room has two ethernet jacks and one coax. All of it comes back to a closet in my office, and all if it is cable managed like it's the only thing I ever wanted to do. Today when I get a new "doo dad" I just plug it in and it works. Man that was time well spent.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

Do you actually use the RG6? It seems to me that today, Cat6 is all you need except for perhaps one RG6 and/or fiber run from the exterior to the networking closet.

[@FishFind3000]

@@RoastBeefSandwich if you have cable tv or satellite it can be handy.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

​@@FishFind3000 I suppose so but it's limited use, it won't be long until every cable/satellite box is IP based. It's already the case now in my area with Spectrum and AT&T, satellite is still RG6 for the main box but subsequent boxes can be connected via IP (ethernet/wifi). Spectrum is even deploying FTTH in some neighborhoods in my area - no RG6 necessary at all.

[@terrancecoard388]

Your name is familiar...did you ever work for a LD company starting with M?

[@reviewcrewforyou]

thats the way to do it

[@timhale501]

We just got HIGH sped fiber in our town of 700 people. we were on the route to the hill where the new dished were being installed. When I built 10 years ago I installed the blue "Smurf" flexible conduits, one into the attic and one to the crawl space. It was easy to get the Fiber into the communication cabinet in one of the closets. that someday finally came. !

[@Stonesand]

SMART

[@henryD9363]

@@Stonesand and optimistic!

[@chrisdover8014]

As someone who works in the networking and computer industry, he's the type of person we would love to hire. He was very well spoken, easily explained everything in such a way that was understandable, and he even took the time to clean up the installation. One thing he didn't talk about was the two types of CAT6: CAT6 AND CAT6a. CAT6 is able to carry a 10Gb signal for up to 150ft without signal loss or a booster, which is fine for most houses, and CAT6a can carry a 10Gb signal for up to 300ft. This is important to kewp in mind with companies like Google who are expanding their 2Gb Fiber coverage. Pretty soon we may have 10Gb internet service to our homes. Whoever buys this house will have to get a pretty good network with the right hardware.

[@mackfisher4487]

Suggestion: Run 2-piece of 1/2 EMT from communications closet, one into the attic, & one into the crawlspace, Cap them off for future system expansion for such things as fiber or for whatever else technology brings us.

[@c.a.mcdivitt9722]

I was going to suggest something similar, but they'd have to remember to keep the runs almost straight, since you don't know what the minimum bend radius for the future cables would be (fiber, I know, is fairly sensitive to bend radius, and I don't see it getting much better in the future).

[@2600baud]

@@c.a.mcdivitt9722 I've run fiber though regular 90 degree EMT bends made with a bender without any issues as the bend made with a bender is actually pretty gentle to the fiber. Fiber is "sensitive" but not really as sensitive as people believe it to be, it has quite a bit of play on the bends until it starts to see major loss. A hard 90 on the EMT with a set piece is definitely not going to be good on the cable. If the distance between the devices is short enough (like a couple hundred meters, the shorter the better). It "can" still work on a rough hard 90 as long as the fiber isn't cracked and you have just maybe one of these kinds of bends. It is definitely a roll on the die though, chancing it through a hard 90 without cracking it is definitely requiring luck to be involved. If you absolutely have no other option, the only advice I can give on that is, be gentle when you pull it on a rough bend, have two people to pull and feed to reduce the chance of the cable cracking from sheer and pulling force through the bend, best to premeasure and pull it all through the bend carefully before continuing on the rest of the pull. I would not recommend doing this if you can avoid it... Edit: Tight buffer fiber would guarantee crack on the pull. Use loose tube to have a better chance of it surviving.

[@ScottPankhurst]

@@c.a.mcdivitt9722 bend insensitive fibre has been available for quite a while now, it pretty much eliminates the concern of bends. friction to get the cable through is far more of a concern. stick with P23 conduit, minimum 100mm bends and no more than three bends in the run and there are no concerns.

[@mayo4300]

Excellent suggestion, but I've always ran a 2" PVC conduit between the patch panel to both the attic for a second floor, and the crawlspace for the first floor. It's much easier to install and maintain current and future home network cables from the crawlspace to the first floor, and from the attic to the second floor.

[@EricNielsen187]

Running conduit for future expansion is a good idea but capping them can cause condensation issues. Differential temps between attic and crawl space can cause condensation whether it is metal or pvc. Instead of a cap use stainless steel wool, won't rust, stops potential mice and it will breath. I Learned the hard way, Speaking from experience and I know every locations climate is different.

[@mparim]

Please run an additional conduit from the street to the media cabinet. If the cable company moves to fiber in the future, it will be much easier to pull in the fiber.

[@ulie1960]

Just make sure that there are no tight radii in that conduit meant for fiber in at some point. Those fiber cables are even more sensibil for kinks then any copper wire. When the cable company installed the fibre here they said minimum radii is 13 cm ( ~ 5" ).

[@pro353]

Little late for that I think. All the concrete is poured so I don't think they could dig a trench out to the street.

[@ulie1960]

@@pro353 I think they can drill through into the crawspace without going through the front porch slab.

[@Stikker021]

Fibre is so sensitive to damage it is usually 'blown' in and not pulled in with fish tape, much, much easier too. Nice if there is nothing in the conduit as well.

[@audisportracer]

Because of cost and complexity of installation, ISP's are moving away from fiber to the house thanks to DOCSIS 3.1 I am running gigabit speeds over coax.

[@roscocsa]

I’m a network guy. Thanks for including us. This brought to mind making and running 10Base2 cables when I was just getting started. I bet I still have little metal splinters from putting those bnc connectors on. Good memories :)

[@MarkRose1337]

Oooo... Token Ring

[@articchar-lf]

I can still feel them reading this, lol!

[@Stonesand]

Haha _salute_ to real pros

[@TheDonN4G]

I'm a network installation engineer for an internet exchange, yet I still learned loads from Ben. Good stuff.

[@ElectricGears]

One other point about the cable specifications is to avoid CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum). It's cheaper so it might come to the top of your search results. Check the fine print since they won't be proud of it.

[@eddy491]

Very poetic ending, it's nice to hear genuine appreciation of older experienced folks to new technologies and their importance

[@vdefilippo]

We put ethernet and coax everywhere when we renovated about 10 years ago. Never used the coax once, but the ethernet is essential.

[@jasonbutler419]

Not surprising. They keep finding new ways to get more out of coax, but with Cat-6 able to push 10g, I suspect the days of coax are numbered.

[@jeffblalock6326]

@@jasonbutler419 trust me, I'm in the coax field. There are hundreds of thousands of miles of coax in the US alone. It's not going anywhere anytime soon. There's so much outside cable plant that's necessary for the internet. Ethernet in the home maybe, but not outside plant.

[@jasonbutler419]

​@@jeffblalock6326 I'm well aware of how much coax/HFC is in the OSP, and I DON'T think it's going anywhere anytime soon - I certainly wouldn't replace it unless I absolutely had to. That said, given Cat6's data capacity and ease of installation on-premises, as well as coax's inherent limitations compared to fiber (OC-XXX, GPON, etc), I still suspect that, at some point, coax will be considered a dinosaur in the data transmission world... I just wonder how long that will take. But, since I come from a Bell System background where coax wasn't used anywhere near as much as fiber systems and old fashioned copper, perhaps you know something I don't (also, I've been away from the business for a while now). What IS the top data transmission rate over coax these days? 10g? What are they hoping to hit with the next iteration of DOCSIS ?

[@vdefilippo]

@@jasonbutler419 Yeah. I cut the cable years ago and can't imagine what I would ever use the coax for now.

[@geoffmooregm]

@@vdefilippo We did the same. Coax comes into the house for internet and that's it. No cable TV for me. Cable is more of a rip off in Canada than it is in the US.

[@9009matorres]

You assume I’ve watched a few of the previous episodes? Try all. I live for this. Lol

[@SkillBuilder]

Really good video......again and I love your final comments about not letting it take you away from those things that are important.

[@williamblackmon7342]

A family with two very well spoken, highly knowledgeable subject matter experts is a rarity. Thank you gentlemen.

[@0506tristan]

Ben Brewster taught my Operating Systems class at Oregon State! A true class act. So funny to see him on one of my favorite channels. Small world :)

[@Stonesand]

Haha hi there! Glad we found each other again! Good luck out there, thanks for saying hi! :)

[@mrtopcat2]

Wow, when I saw the topic of this new episode, I was thinking "yeah, let's watch it for the sake of it and for continuity". Then I was surprised, how much there was to be LEARNED even from this episode. I can't thank you enough for this series!

[@ericfredrick3235]

Every video in this series makes me want to buy this house even more. Especially this one. The care and respect for the build is inspiring.

[@Chuck-U-Farlie]

hats off to Ben! he definitely deserves to be brought back for future videos, as many homeowners decide to do their own low voltage work and need this type of advice and instruction.

[@Jonny_O]

Scott, have you considered adding an empty 1-1.5" conduit from the outside to the cable termination point inside? This would help future-proof the design because it will allow new cables to be pulled at a later date without having to tear into the walls. Many cable and Internet providers are pulling fiber optics into the premise instead of coax these days. Down the road there could be a situation where the homeowner will utilize more than one provider, thus needing additional paths in. This empty conduit is an inexpensive insurance policy that allows for both.

[@fprintf]

Agreed. And further future proofing my neighbor did by running 1.5" PVC from basement/crawl space up to the attic space. That way if he needed to run anything else to the upstairs he could do it without fishing or tearing into walls. Even better would be to have it go into an access space on downstairs and upstairs floors like in a closet.

[@ckm-mkc]

I was going to suggest running a cat6 pair from where the coax comes in for when cable is replaced but this a better idea.

[@MattJames1]

Came here just for this comment. As an installer myself, I can't tell you how nice it is to go to houses where they put conduit in ahead of time. Real life saver.

[@stephane184]

@@fprintf Surprisingly my builder did this when we purchased our home 20 years ago. I pulled a coax cable a few years ago to install an OTA antenna in the attic and a few months ago pulled a Cat6 cable to connect a Poe access point in the ceiling of the top floor. Very convenient!

[@jasonnelson6961]

Scott I work for a local ISP (Internet Service Provider). We are located in a rural part of Wyoming and just over built one of our local communities with fiber internet. I can't agree more with other comments about adding a conduit from the exterior of the home to the media panel. We actually provide this conduit to our customers in hopes that it will save us some headaches in the future. It also is riser rated in order to maintain the same level of code compliance.

[@kylewollman2239]

I love Ben! He taught a couple of my CS classes at OSU including one of my favorite classes (Operating Systems), which was probably my favorite because he was the teacher and made it very enjoyable. He's a dedicated teacher who really cares about his students' education. Shoutout to Ben!

[@EC2]

This made my day! We love Ben too..I'm his MIL!!

[@kylewollman2239]

@@EC2 Glad to hear. Let him know he's appreciated by his students and it would appear by the EC youtube audience as well!

[@Stonesand]

Hi Kyle!!!! Wooooo! :)

[@kylewollman2239]

@@Stonesand Hey! I hope all is well, especially given the craziness of the pandemic. But the CS department at OSU was uniquely prepared for remote learning.

[@Stonesand]

@@kylewollman2239 So far so good! Lots of growth! :)

[@frankherthem1794]

I love these house building series. I remember learning about building construction in firefighter training with regards to manufactured joists and all the holes placed into them by plumbing, electrical, HVAC, network, etc. it was hard to believe during the lectures but its easy to believe watching it.

[@sensey111]

Be sure to install some sort of ventilation in your data closet, as the routing and switching gear generates a lot of heat.

[@nooneusesthisname]

This was a great presentation on data cabling. One thing I didn't see is making yourself a riser chase with PVC or PEX. From years of talking to friends who wired their own houses, I can say that everyone who created a chase from the central area up into the attic and or down into the basement/crawlspace was super happy they did later. Likewise those that didn't eventually regretted it. Years from now you might want to run some technology that didn't exist when the house was built. If you have a conduit you'll be able at least to pull a copper or fiber trunk line to a distribution point.

[@bendunster8859]

Yeah, when we prewire a house we almost always run 1 1/2” innerduct from the LV panel go the attic and/or crawl space. It’s not huge but it definitely helps.

[@gijsdekruijf6000]

I am from the Netherlands and its Nice to see how everything is done in other countries. Thats what I really like about this channel. The network is almost done the same ohere in the netherlands only we Pull all cables trough pipe but thats because all walls are made of concrete. ( sorry for the bad english)

[@SpreadmasterNet]

I'm from the same country, when I run my ethernet I always use cat7 as we already have 1gbit, and some houses even have 10gbit. The price difference between cat6 and cat7 makes it an easy choice.

[@Stonesand]

Bedankt! Ik kan een beetje Nederlands praten, omdat ik woonde twee jaaren in je mooie land! Het was een van de beeste tijds in mijn leven.

[@Stonesand]

Je Engels is beter dan mijn Nederlands, vriend!

[@swvincent]

This is one trade I'm actually experienced in! Great to see it included as part of the house build. I personally have only run coax for the modem; everywhere else is cat6. With streaming services it just didn't seem necessary to have coax everywhere.

[@Stonesand]

Exactly. Coax to the network closet only, then network cables to everything else, including the WAPs. :)

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

Even if the homeowners want cable television, more and more modern cable systems are IP based (even legacy cable providers like Spectrum and Comcast) so their cable boxes will happily run over Cat6.

[@billberger]

I greatly appreciate that you are willing to admit you do not know anything about a specific subject and makes this one of the most informative channels on youtube. Pride in knowledge is great but knowing that you don't know everything is better.

[@tonysailer8470]

I love the advice near the end... look up from your screens once in a while and experience REAL life. Don't let those moments slip passed you without noticing. Being connected electronically with those we are separated from is important. Being connected physically to those near us is more important. KUTGW.

[@ChiefNonsense]

LOVE that you guys thought to do this. I always strongly encourage friends that are building houses, new additions, or remodels to spend a few days on low voltage cabling for both data and built-in speakers. It's quite rare that they actually do it, but of course they want help fishing all the walls after the fact, lol.

[@Heizenberg32]

This is exciting! Low voltage cabling is what I do. I got into essential craftsman largely to learn about all of the other stuff I see going on at job sites - which I knew nothing about!

[@JanetWilham]

as a retired IT tech what he said is sooo true especially when wiring a large server for a company that depends on quick connections and back up.

[@skook3640]

Love this series! I bought a 1965 house in September and one of the first things I did was fish CAT6 ethernet down the walls to each bedroom and living space. i got the same brand too, except in white. Good stuff!

[@mcd5082]

Networking cables are a must these days and are so cheap to install when building! Great idea! Huge selling point for the new build.

[@justinmanship5431]

“That’s probably more than anyone is ever going to need” Said: Networking Engineers who developed IPv4.

[@davidmatson5796]

or the supposed quote from Bill Gates: "640K ought to be enough for anybody."

[@TrueGrantsta]

That was never actually said about IPv4, why would you make up that fake claim? The creators of IPv4 always intended it to be a temporary protocol solely for the small Arpanet, and expected a more robust protocol to be developed well before the network would be opened to the public.

[@TrueGrantsta]

@@davidmatson5796 Bill Gates actually said 640k (10x the current standards of 64k) of addressable space ought to be sufficient for 10 years. He later admitted he'd underestimated, and that 640k had been enough addressable space for about 8 years.

[@sally6457]

@@TrueGrantsta so as knuckle dragging builders what should we install in the houses we build? A new games console can render an entire data system defunct. We can construct buildings to withstand the forces of nature, earthquakes, tornadoes etc. While it seems folks like you are bothered about are data and power points.

[@justinmanship5431]

@@TrueGrantsta Well, it’s a joke so...

[@alfonsow3142]

Been watching number of network cable installs, but yours is the 1st to state 'rules' for distances from power lines, ie: 1 foot if parallel, and 1 inch if perpendicular, thank you much.

[@justaguy427]

Former cabling contractor here -- good job Scott and Ben. Ben spec'd out what you needed just right. My advice to people is ALWAYS run more than you think you'll need. You'll thank yourself later!

[@bradgaeth]

Yes - and to locations you may not consider. Garage, laundry room, front door for a video doorbell, outdoor patio space. Any place where a future camera may go to keep an eye on things. You may think wireless is the future, and you are correct, but wireless coverage in large homes is only as good as where the wires go to serve it.

[@Stonesand]

@@bradgaeth Right on! Got all of those covered! Garage, laundry room, and outdoor porches. ;)

[@marsrod831]

I cry from pride. Good job sir!!!!!! Ugghh I'm so emotional.

[@bryanromero1]

Those kids are lucky to be working there with you! Ben needs his own channel too. He has a great background

[@TokyoCraftsman]

When we started construction on our building here, in Tokyo, in 1999 we had the whole building wired for ADSL, by the time the building was finished, in August of 2001, ADSL was obsolete. To future proof the building I insisted and had quite the fight with the general contractor and architect that all the ADSL be run in conduit, not just in the walls. Yes, it added cost to the build, which they thought was crazy, but by the time people were moving into the apartments, they were all getting FLETS (fiber optical internet) installed. In our own apartment, I have one conduit that goes to each room from the one central point where the FLETS terminates at the router. This way we run CAT 6 cable where ever we want it. Ben certainly did a great job at explaining it all. Scott, you must be very proud of your family. Cheers from Tokyo! Stu

[@wb5mgr]

I run a lot of cable commercially, and if you were only going to choose one cable to run all over your house… You did the right thing pulling CAT6. In today’s world you can do almost everything you would want to do using that type of cabling along with some sort of adapter or media converter. So while you might not be able to use that cable natively for every single purpose, it can do almost everything you would want to do. That being said, I learned a lesson along time ago from the house my father built back in the 70s, at that time it was a big thing to put antennas on the roof of your house to receive television and radio and he ran what was called twin lead inside his walls into every bedroom and into the living room in order that he could have television all over the house. We never ever used it 🤣 That being said the lesson I learned is, you never know where technology will take things next, so what I did when I built my house was instead of pulling wires the way most people do where are you drill lots of holes through the plate, each place I wanted to have a wire in that stud bay, I drilled a 3/4 inch hole through the top plate and went in the attic and pushed a piece of PVC conduit through All the way down to the box. PVC conduit is cheap and easy to install, and now forever more I can pull in anything I want to add and I left a string in there to do so. I may never use that flexibility but doing that only added maybe $100-$150 worth of conduit to the cost of my build if that and since I did all of the electrical installation it added no other cost and labor. I also ran all of my electrical that is in the walls in steel conduit for the same reason, what is in the attic is exposed but as soon as it goes down into a stud bay it’s in conduit… Because that way it doesn’t have to be stapled, I don’t have to worry as much about nicking it with a nail or a screw… Even though you still can do it. again the cost was very minimal and labor was not a big deal because when the walls are open it’s easy to push a piece of conduit up through a hole. So that was my solution… In my case, I did choose to pull RG6 to the locations where I knew I would have a television… But not to every location. Just to the bedrooms and the den/living room. Other rooms just received CAT6. One place people forget sometimes is that you should pull some wire also to several key locations coming out of the ceiling where you want to be able to place a wireless access point… You don’t want to have to go back and do that later if you can help it especially if you have a second floor above and it’s not that easy to get in between. Even with all the wired connections in our house, we still have three wireless access points +3 outdoor units to cover the rear and sides of the property and reach out to cameras at the end of the driveway and on the back fence so there is a lot to look at. I buried a piece of RG11 out to my shop to bring networking out there using MOCA adapters because it was too far away for CAT6 to reach. That has worked well. You may also consider running speaker wire for an AV system in the den/family room or in ceiling speakers on the back porch as a second zone for that stereo system. Both are popular options that are much easier to do now. And again not a lot of money. If you have a wiring closet, it’s logical to go ahead and run that wire as well back to that location.

[@mrbordenkircher]

I’m so glad you included Ethernet runs in the spec house. It’s such a pain to wire up a finished house with Ethernet, and typically results in making the runs completely different than you would if you had the opportunity to do it with bare walls. You hit the nail on the head by insisting on running cat6 to every possible place the owners would want them, including future security cameras, and having them all originate at a centralized area. I build all sorts of servers and computers, and this is an absolutely awesome aspect of this home. Keep up the good work bubba

[@ArthursHD]

10:06 10 Gigabit networking will be less and less expensive. If you plan to have switches further than 30 meters from an endpoint. I would suggest CAT6A or CAT7 and it also has thicker conductors for PoE (Power over Ethernet - Basically 48V DC lines for cameras and even lighting nowadays. Since more efficient LED's are rated over 200 lumens per watt.) Coax cables are yesterday's tech :) Yet still required in some applications. Fiber optics has more benefits over long distances :)

[@scythelord]

Coax is relevant tech. Cable internet providers aren't changing from it anytime soon, which is why they ran it now. Also, like he said different ratings are largely marketing in the US. I work in IT at a major US retailer. All we install is Cat 6 on brand new installs even in datacenters. No cat 7 anything, nor 6A. Just cat 6. Anything needing higher bandwidth or longer runs uses fiber. Most everyone has absolutely no need of 10 gigabit connections whatsoever, especially in the home environment as that is many times over more than they will get from their ISP, and indeed many times over what even a simple NAS (which most will absolutely never have) would realistically need to function adequately. Gigabit is enough.

[@-_James_-]

@@scythelord Coax is dead here (Norway). I had fibre installed to the house about six years ago. I get Internet through that (500/500Mbps) and could also get TV if I wanted it. As for gigabit being enough, that's becoming less true now too. Even cheap SSDs can push half a gigabit of data per second. It doesn't take many devices to flood the network, especially if you have a NAS streaming data to multiple rooms concurrently. The amount of data we use and consume these days is staggering when you think about it. The laptop I use for work has written over 13TB of data to its drive in the last 16 months (when I started this job). Finally, Cat-7 isn't backwards compatible with 6 and 5. For that you need Cat-8.

[@geologik7500]

Definitely no reason to not run Cat 6A in new builds. It's cheap, plentiful and as 10 gig networking (or even 2.5 gig) becomes more mainstream the extra headroom will be nice.

[@toddosty]

6a yes, 7 no. 7 requires different terminators and is effectively dead technology. 6a is for structural runs and good for 10GigE over long(ish) distances. 8 is for short patches in server rooms. 7 is dead.

[@jej3451]

@@-_James_- What kind of super-inefficient video codec are you using that is hogging 500 Mbps from your NAS?

[@jimserhant7741]

One of the first lessons I was taught when I got into networking back in the Novell & RG58 days was, if you can’t explain it well enough so a layman could follow & understand, you’re in the wrong business & don’t understand it yourself. Ben, you are a credit to network engineers/installers/admins around the globe. Beautiful job on installing & explaining.

[@Stonesand]

Wooo thanks! :)

[@michaeljacobs9613]

"I assume you've see a few of the previous episodes" -- Been here since day 1 ! Love the series.

[@1goblingreen404]

Love, love, love the low voltage instruction by Ben. Excellent, and he is very well spoken.

[@essentialcraftsman]

He is the worlds best son-in-law!

[@aalitros]

congratulations on 100. Watching from Aloha Oregon .

[@mr.bennett108]

For anyone curious: a kink in the data line isn't like a hose. They cause slowdowns because, as you saw, networking relies on "twisted pairs." Those twists help minimize interference between the 8 conductors inside the Cat6 and the "breaks" disrupt the twist and cause noise. If the signal is "dirty," it takes longer for the computer to understand the data on the line, and therefore slows down how fast it can accept that data.

[@jaredmcnevin7311]

Also by the time you read this the drywall might already be up but you should try to leave some spares for WAP's in the ceiling (At least one per floor). Also add conduits to the attic from the rack location if you can for the future

[@articchar-lf]

Good idea but not mandatory. There are efficient Wifi mesh systems that can be installed simply using the wall outlets.

[@Stonesand]

Done! Several cable runs are for WAPs. ;)

[@boots7859]

@@articchar-lf Not mandatory, but a hell of a lot cleaner looking installation. Also, I take it you aren't married... :)

[@jasonbutler419]

Well done. I've been a telco/low voltage/data guy for over 20 years and it's nice to see people getting it right.

[@CGPhotos]

I like the idea of running empty pipe where the tech lines would go so it's somewhat future proof and allows for speaker cable or additional lines to go later.

[@gregz7159]

So good to see Asher again. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see him working with his dad (and his hands and mind) and doing “great work”! Great start to my weekend in Northeast Ohio!

[@SkyOctopus1]

I'd add to that that with CAT6+ cable, a good rule of thumb is to consider a coke can to be the bend radius. If you imagine putting a coke can on the corner and bending the cable around it, that's a good curve for it. Any less and you're liable to degrade the signal the cables will be carrying.

[@jimmoyle855]

I've enlisted my son (15) on a couple projects that I could. Passing on expertise; I really enjoy.

[@straight_to_finish]

I use to be a low voltage cable installer and had the opportunity to wire up a few new houses with cat5e (at the time) and RG6U coaxial pretty much everywhere you could possibly want a connection. Looking back, it would have been wise to run conduit everywhere and only install cabling to the essential locations. Cable technology changes so rapidly that the cable installed today could become obsolete in the near future. Who knows, fiber could be the norm in lieu of Ethernet cabling. If that’s the case, then you’d be ready for it with conduit. I’ve been to a house built in the early 80’s that had close to 2 dozen RG59 cabling in it; it’s practically useless today since it can’t handle the frequency demands of modern data transmission.

[@Heizenberg32]

As much as I would love to find some nice conduit for every cable run I do - cable standards have a lot more longevity than other network related things. Cat5e was standardized in the year 2000. I still run it to this day. (Albeit, against my recommendations to go with at least cat6)

[@tonyvancampen-noaafederal2640]

One of the best descriptions of why kinks in data cables are bad. I've been doing this type of wiring for a long time, and my explanation is only about half as good. I prefer to say running cable, as opposed to pulling, but all of the tools, and slang are for pulling so we're stuck with it. I'm also taking away two new rules of thumb 1 foot separation for parallel cables, 1 inch for perpendicular. All told another great video. Thanks for all of the work that has gone into this series.

[@RalphSampson...]

I want to see the final installation of the IT room. I see them in commercial buildings but, what will the house have?

[@randgate]

Probably just a 48x1G unmanaged layer 2 switch + whatever modem / NTE their local ISP supplies, can't see why they'd do anything else EDIT: Actually maybe PoE on that switch, unifi controller, DVR and maybe firewall

[@gavpww]

I’d guess they will leave it at a patch panel. The new owner will have to order their ISP, decide on router, switch, wifi, cameras etc

[@KingdaToro]

Likely a wall-mount rack with all the cables terminated at a patch panel.

[@Stonesand]

I want to put in all the WAPs and modem and cameras, but I'll stop at patch panel and network switch. That way the owner can put in their desired modem and router and WAPs. Of course, if they want me to do it, I'd be happy to do it, and I'll make sure to ask. ;)

[@KingdaToro]

@@Stonesand Make sure they know how to utilize it. Your average consumer isn't going to know about WAPs, they're only going to know about "wireless routers" and stuff like extenders and powerline adapters that you only need when you don't have a proper network like this.

[@FreekHoekstra]

that is a LOT of cabling!! your future home owner will be very happy to have access to all that stuff everywhere!

[@bgezal]

This is something Matt Carriker of OffTheRanch channel should watch. His house renovation series is just at this level.

[@shartattack12]

An essentialcratfsman, abandoned mansion crossover would be epic

[@bentheguru4986]

From an IT and networking guy who does this work, good video with real-world explanation that is well done.

[@FishFind3000]

13:17 it’s called PoE /PoE+ “Power over Ethernet”

[@richardj163]

And now we have PoE++

[@FishFind3000]

@@richardj163 how much more till its not considered low voltage cabling?

[@Willard217]

@@FishFind3000 it's all still low voltage (48-57v), engineers are just getting more creative with how they shove power down the lines.

[@thebigmacd]

@@FishFind3000 as soon as it goes over 100VA it will no longer be Class 2. In Ontario, Canada that will require Cat wire to be installed by electricians.

[@Stonesand]

All the WAPs will be PoE devices, rights on! ;)

[@gregp.80]

I've watched the entire series from when you first evaluated the land and graded the lot. Its been very interesting. Thank you.

[@LordOfHoboes]

Happy 100!

[@jeremymyers5503]

Look forward to seeing the rack installed/ completed

[@humang]

If a gamer moves into that house, they're going to really thank you for putting cat6 in every room.

[@cameroncunningham204]

As an I.T. Person, this is extremely beneficial and important to do this while you can, you DO NOT want to rely solely on Wi-Fi because it not only is very limited especially when having to pass through thick materials such as walls, but can be easily intercepted with very basic tools in the wrong hands (which severely compromises your personal information). Pre-wiring a home with networking cabling will save you thousands ($) down the road and make adding equipment far easier in years to come

[@jonathans8]

man i wish my house was done that way. i had to retrofit cat 5e into it, back in the day -- and the house was built 30 years before that. i climbed around in both attics for hours figuring out how it was gonna work. you may want to run a spare cat6 line alongside the coax! we have FTTH and it's an optical conductor but only to the ONT which is placed next to your power meter, phone box, etc. from the ONT to the router inside, it's just regular ethernet. maybe some of them work with coax, but mine does not.

[@Adventure_Mike]

Im glad you guys decided to put network cable to the corners of the house. I suggested you do that a few months back. Great work guys, it looks good.

[@slowdaze]

I worked with a guy who once took a sensitive data cable and tied it to the hitch of his truck to pull it through conduit that he sized too small...It didn't end well for him.

[@GlitchForged]

One thing that I always suggest whenever I’m doing cable installs, especially if it’s two-story homes and they use a lot of Wi-Fi devices is in the downstairs hallway and the upstairs hallway have a wireless access point on the ceiling. It helps with the Wi-FI signal strength.

[@vanforsman]

On word choice, you pull cable, but you also need to *feed* it :)

[@jerryminyard7460]

Man you are one cool grandpa....kind of a this old house & mr rogers combo. I always feel good watching your videos.

[@MRSketch09]

With the glacial pace that most ISP's in this country move at, you'll probably alright with that cat6 for another 100 years. (I reads through a lot of the comments myself, some people had some pretty interesting ideas)

[@ChristianMercadoAcevedo]

good stuff. You can see Ben's passion when he speaks.

[@anotheruser9876]

*Points at blue cable "And this is where the Essential Craftsman KZbin channel comes in. Direct feed into your house."

[@skirby6502]

Underrated comment right here

[@bobkat5145]

Professionals make everything look easy. I've been schooled on that many times. Thanks for this episode as it is very interesting.

[@huntman517]

Did not know that cat 6 cables were that fragile. Thanks for the information.

[@AndreasKoepkeAU]

Mainly the solid copper cable is the problem, stranded cable isn't broken anywhere near as easy.

[@MarkRose1337]

@@AndreasKoepkeAU But I've also seen stranded Cat 5e cables abused to the point where they only do 10 Mbps.

[@articchar-lf]

@@MarkRose1337 yep, that's pretty much the point. It will not necessarily break completely but performance will be affected.

[@calvinhoang4126]

I like how you include the camera along with other network devices. PoE camera is nice to have.

[@tomball7681]

I ran all the cable In my own house. When he started talking about the bent cables and stuff I kinda just remembered how I manhandled it while running it through the house. Hey it still works I guess.

[@challengecompleted55]

Cat6 isn't as sensitive as Ben made it out to be. If you get a light kink in the cable and catch it quickly, it'll be fine. Once you tighten that kink up until it loops onto itself like a little curly q, it's toast and needs to be repulled.

[@boots7859]

@@challengecompleted55 Agreed, Ben was probably over-emphazing the danger because a 'light touch' probably varies between network folks and construction folks. The key is that the construction folks just need to be told, this isn't simply solid-core or stranded wire, its a set of 8 thin-gauge wire looped and twisted in a certain configuration that yanking on will ruin.

[@andrewv5104]

Using solid wire makes it a lot more fragile. If you were using stranded it's a LOT more durable and can withstand more kinking. He was installing and recommending solid conductors.

[@challengecompleted55]

@@andrewv5104 All I ever worked with was solid core plenum rated cable.

[@boots7859]

@@andrewv5104 Understood, however in explaining to a 300# construction gorilla who will probably pull any decent-sized wire as hard as he wants since it prob won't break, the idea was to convey that this isn't anything like that kind of wire. Never seen stranded Cat.

[@drew5334]

Just like you Scott, I'm super unfamiliar with network cable trade knowledge (also a framer by trade), so I was hanging onto Ben's every word here. Very helpful and informative, and I'm sure this info will come in handy at some point in my general contracting career.

[@nevoyu]

Mmm something I can get behind as that wacky guy with a server in his closet.

[@NickSiekierski]

Some people are even wackier with servers in their bathroom.

[@jakeschroeder1553]

A good friend of mine who does commercial IT work taught me the importance of installing a "service loop" at each terminal. Owning a 100 year old home with cables that are often 6" too short for what I need has definitely made me appreciate having a bit of extra length tucked behind the wall.

[@paulkolodner2445]

One technical comment: the reason CAT6 cables can run at high speeds is because the twisted pairs function as waveguides, not just as wires. At these frequencies, the energy propagates down the waveguide in a confined mode with low loss. This is also why they should not be kinked. A kink disrupts the mode and causes reflections. The same physics applies to RG6 cable and optical fibers.

[@andersjohansson6118]

also why it is so critical to not nick the cable when making terminations. At the frequencies in those lines, it becomes an impedence bump. I know in Ham radio, we switch to N connectors from PL259 above VHF or you pay the price in lost power to the antenna. Hence why I bought the professional tools even though I'm just a weekend homeowner type network engineer.

[@alexku8452]

Frequency is just the keyword to differentiate the cable classes as well. I think the box he had said 550 MHz. If I remember right with Cat 7 we would already be talking 1200 MHz. even though it is copper it cannot even remotely compared with your regular electrical cable. And as you stated, with the twisted pair cables, there is a lot more going on. the twisting keeps he wires in one pair at a rather equaldistance parallel to each other, which is needed for the positive signal on the one, and the negative signal onthe other, to cancel out as much of the magnetic field that is created around the wire (in opposite directions in this case). Also this twisting is not constant over the pair, but changes back and forth, to average out better, and the higher the frequencies get, the more you also have to pay attention to shielding, to keep those wire pairs from getting simple antennas which will transmit and receive whatever we do not want on the wire. for those higher frequencies the wave guiding effect is often overseen. but any hard kink or bend and the signal would try to "leave" the wire. same as with the modes in optical cables. For that reason larger antenna cables in a radio system at a former workplace of mine did not even use solid cores for the wire. the core actually looked like a spiraled or corrugated and rolled up piece of sheet metal, as the signal only travelled along the metals surface. The core looked like a corrugatesd one inch pipe actually.

[@articchar-lf]

@@andersjohansson6118 my trick to make it easier is to buy female RJ45 wallmounts so all my wall run ends up flawlessly connected with a single Bix punch tool.

[@RodRosenberg]

I'm very impressed in our 3100sq ft house I ran about 50 network runs 9 for security cameras 3 for Wireless access points 7 for HDMI over cat6 (TVs) and the remaining are general network use. I'm a tech nerd and most likely went way over so 24 runs seems about perfect!

[@AlexanderNecheff]

Ah, pulling cable. Back when I was in college I worked at an MSP, we specialized in K-12s so we tried to plan most major infrastructure projects over summer since only the admins, facilities staff, and a few teachers would be at most of our customer sites. I can't tell you how many asbestos ceiling tiles I've pushed out of the way during the muggiest time of year to get up in a filthy plenum and wrestle with the building to get a cable run.

[@RafaelGonzalez99]

This is so far the best episode to me, congrats.

[@alasdairmunro1953]

It’s also pertinent to mention that you want solid copper CAT 6, not CAT 6 CCA ( copper clad aluminium) which is inferior.

[@dirtygrease]

True, and the opposite for coax funny enough.

[@jon-with.no.h]

Very smart! Most service providers are moving away from using RG6 cable and going to fiber. Running RG6 to every room is a way of the past since most people are streaming their video. The option to plug into the Ethernet is much better then every device having to share 1 WiFi... Your son-in-law is well spoken and shows pride in his work. Nice job

[@martinsmith251]

The key to life, the universe and everything is Blue, Orange, Green, Brown, Slate.

[@articchar-lf]

@Martin Smith all separated by their white counterparts!

[@challengecompleted55]

Followed by White, Red, Black, Yellow, Violet, Rose, and Aqua!

[@challengecompleted55]

@@articchar-lf Have you ever seen large telephone cabling? The white major is only the first 4 pairs. After that, you start getting into the other major colors, then color coded bundles, on and on. I had the task of pulling and terminating a 900 pair cable one time. It was the greatest 3 weeks of my life. I got to come in, sit down, put on some music, and just go to town with no one bothering me.

[@articchar-lf]

@@challengecompleted55 If that was not irony, you are blessed and humongously patient to get to appreciate the experience! The biggest I worked on was a 50 pairs, already installed in a borderline toxic environment and nothing identified. Even the paired conductors were separated from each others in a huge ball of what look like a clown's wig... Didn't had a lot of experience with copper at the time and that's how an half hour support call turned into a 10 hours' job. Let's just say you really have to fight the bitterness against your colleagues who worked on that terminal before you...lol!

[@Stonesand]

This guy _cables_

[@edwincastellanos4313]

Keep up the good work. Thank you for the opportunity!!

[@crackwitz]

I think running ethernet everywhere and keeping the coax in the basement is perfectly sensible. even for radio and TV everyone's just using internet. the coax delivers it to the modem in the basement.

[@gofastwclass]

Great job on this one, now you're speaking my language. Ben did an excellent job explaining things so people who aren't in our trade will understand them.

[@Ostap1974]

For any builder out there, I would recommend to install the highest available networking cable at a time, as networking is probably the installation that will get outdated first.

[@KingdaToro]

There's no need to go above Cat6. It supports 10 gigabit up to 55 meters, and everything in this house is definitely under that. Speeds faster than 10 gigabit, and even 10 gigabit itself, can be handled much cheaper and easier with fiber.

[@dtemp132]

@@KingdaToro I would suggest CAT6A with properly shielded keystone jacks is the upper bound on copper cabling that you suggest. You are correct about CAT6 being good for 10Gig at all distances within a home. So why shielded 6A? There are non-ethernet uses for twisted pair wiring, like using HDMI extenders, which require shielded 6A for HDMI 2.1 use (48Gbps).

[@Ostap1974]

@@KingdaToro This is exactly what I am suggesting not to do. When I built my home Cat6 was just released ja relatively expensive. Cat5e should be enought for everything, I said and this is now what I have in walls with no practical way to replace it.

[@MeanGene1983]

Very happy to see my trade represented so well and explained perfectly. Great work.

[@jamesrobertgrimes]

So I was about to leave for work but I'll be 15 minutes behind now

[@markbarrington880]

Job well done. All important points met. Excluding keeping away from zip tie (zap straps) as they can kink the cable. Also terminations, keep the pairs twisted tight and you will not have any line not working due to near end cross talk. Great job as always. Exciting to see a full build even including the little old low voltage guy :)

[@thegundlach]

One other important clearance item: DO NOT let these touch CPVC sprinkler lines.

[@adamr1637]

Gotta ask--why not?

[@thegundlach]

@@adamr1637 the plasticizer in the cable will react and start eating through. I saw a failure 6 months ago that took 8 years, but both sprinklers and cat6 are in most house builds I see now.

[@adamr1637]

@@thegundlach Good to know, thanks. I'm an electrician and a building inspector. I see a lot of installs but I've never heard that before.

[@thegundlach]

@@adamr1637 it's in the CPVC manufacturer requirements if you need a citation

[@julio23jh]

❤ never stop learning Thanks for this awesome videos