Need Structural Wiring Advice

[htrieu]

I am looking to complete a structural wiring project in my house. To give you some background, the builder who built my house had prewired it for data/tv/phone but he left the drops unterminated. He installed a 24" On-Q/Legrand enclosure in a closet and left the bare drops hanging in the enclosure -- no patch panel or anything! In addition, he placed receptacles OUTSIDE of the enclosure.

I'm looking to remove that 24" enclosure and replace it with a 48" enclosure or dual 28" enclosures with hinged doors so I can move my network equipment inside (Actiontec MI-424WR FiOS Router/Modem, Cisco RV042 Router, HP Procurve 1410-16G Switch). I will also have the Leviton 18 Port Structured Media Panel inside as well as two 1x6 Passive CATV Splitters.

I was wondering what size enclosure I should get and if heat from these three devices will be an issue? Also, do I need amplified/premium CATV modules if I'm only going to be using FiOS TV? Thanks!

 

[pbeaulieu]

If you are going to use the wireless functionality of your Actiontec MI-242WR you do not want to put it inside of a completely inclosed metal cabinet. It is often recommended to ground the cabinets. Between the cabinet being metal and grounded the wireless signal will be significantly degraded.

 

[htrieu]

Hi PaulB,

Thanks for your reply. I'm not going to use the wireless functionality of the Actiontec. I'm using it as a bridge. I have an HP V-M200 access point that will be used for wireless connectivity.

 

[tmbrown97]

For the heat reason you mentioned, I went with the Channel Vision 50" can - it has an available curved glass front with vents top and bottom, and an available fan kit. It's pricey but it's the best looking and largest can available.

It's pretty common in structured enclosures to skip the patch panel and just throw RJ45 ends on - patch panels are honestly a waste of space in a small enclosure; though anyone with an IT background just feels wrong not using them.

Amplifiers and such depend on the number of TV's in the house and the distribution method. You may need to research that further.

The outlet thing is usually an easy fix - if you can fish romex to the outlet box, most enclosures have a knockout to add a receptacle to the bottom - and the great thing is, with a 48" hole in your wall, it's easy to reach down and add the wire! I've had to fish around studs before too - but a curved coat hanger and some patience and it works out.

And I strongly agree with the above concern about wireless; the closet is usually the worst place for it. I *always* use separate Wireless Access Points anyways and place them in a more central location to the house; for instance, in this house, it's in the kitchen above the cabinets - and a single AP covers a 4K sq ft house with ease.

 

[htrieu]

For the heat reason you mentioned, I went with the Channel Vision 50" can - it has an available curved glass front with vents top and bottom, and an available fan kit. It's pricey but it's the best looking and largest can available.

Pricey indeed.. Do you think it would fit all my gear?

It's pretty common in structured enclosures to skip the patch panel and just throw RJ45 ends on - patch panels are honestly a waste of space in a small enclosure; though anyone with an IT background just feels wrong not using them.

I have an IT background . But that aside, I want the wall jacks to work for data and voice.

Amplifiers and such depend on the number of TV's in the house and the distribution method. You may need to research that further.

Can you elaborate? I only have two FiOS set top boxes connected to two TV's in the house at the moment. No plans to add more in the near future, but I'd like to have the infrastructure ready.

And I strongly agree with the above concern about wireless; the closet is usually the worst place for it. I *always* use separate Wireless Access Points anyways and place them in a more central location to the house; for instance, in this house, it's in the kitchen above the cabinets - and a single AP covers a 4K sq ft house with ease.

Yep. I'm having a drop run from the closet to the pantry where I have an HP V-M200 access point mounted and powered by PoE.

 

[tmbrown97]

Do you work for HP? That's a lot of HP networking equipment that I never see used in the home!

I can't say for sure if it'll fit - I didn't look up specs on all your equipment... but, I have one and it has a lot of free space. It all depends on what all you add, and how much space you waste on wire management, cross connects, etc.

For your TV's - the more wire/devices you have connected, the more line loss you'll have. With only 2 receivers in a modern wired home, no amps needed - just a good quality splitter. If you go crazy down the road, add your amplifiers then.

For phone - at the last house I did the patch panels for voice - hooked to a 1x8 splitter... this house is all VOIP with not enough copper run, so I use VLAN's and sip/dect phones... Takes care of that issue, and saves me an absolute fortune on phone service (5 phone numbers with decent usage for about $7/month total). But you mentioned FIOS - so if you're using their voice converted to copper at the modem, you gotta work with legacy wiring I suppose. If you have an IT background though, I'd ditch POTS in a heartbeat.

 

[htrieu]

Do you work for HP? That's a lot of HP networking equipment that I never see used in the home!

Nope . I'm a full time student. I did a lot of IT consulting back in high school and HP was my brand of choice for the small businesses that did not want to fork out the cash for Cisco.

I can't say for sure if it'll fit - I didn't look up specs on all your equipment... but, I have one and it has a lot of free space. It all depends on what all you add, and how much space you waste on wire management, cross connects, etc.

I think it'll do. Thanks!

For your TV's - the more wire/devices you have connected, the more line loss you'll have. With only 2 receivers in a modern wired home, no amps needed - just a good quality splitter. If you go crazy down the road, add your amplifiers then.

Got it.

For phone - at the last house I did the patch panels for voice - hooked to a 1x8 splitter... this house is all VOIP with not enough copper run, so I use VLAN's and sip/dect phones... Takes care of that issue, and saves me an absolute fortune on phone service (5 phone numbers with decent usage for about $7/month total). But you mentioned FIOS - so if you're using their voice converted to copper at the modem, you gotta work with legacy wiring I suppose. If you have an IT background though, I'd ditch POTS in a heartbeat.

Nice.. That's a huge savings. I definitely will consider scrapping FiOS phone for a VOIP solution once the contract is up.

 

[htrieu]

I forgot to ask - is there a specific brand of ethernet cable you recommend? I know in enterprise environments it is best practice to use the same brand of cable, keystone jack, and patch panel.

 

[tmbrown97]

It's been my job for years to spec the jacks, cable, etc - and I know that, for the best warranty, they want you to use matched everything - but I've never cared too much, and never seen an issue arise. In business environments, I use Siemon jacks because they have a unique design with a sliding icon that locks the jack into place while also serving as a color coding indicator of the type of line - then I'd use blue for LAN, red for PBX, yellow for Analog phone, and white for unterminated. At the other end, I generally used Leviton for the patch panel.

In a residential environment I've always used Leviton - they're simple to get, install, and find any sort of faceplace configuration you could want. I actually don't believe in any color coding via the jacks as some people do because it's easy to repurpose wires and make the colors obsolete.

Belden I think is one I get often; it's really the coating that matters. In a residential, go with Riser Rated; you don't need plenum rated - but get CMR, not CMX (CMX is lower quality). Monoprice.com is a popular place among cocooners to get cable - I've never ordered bulk cable online though - always buy from the local electric supply house. If you have to go to Home Depot or Lowes, then look at the cable closely. The crappy cable will have the sheathing bumpy and basically following the twists. That stuff is really hard to score without nicking the wire and it's hard to separate. The good stuff will be perfectly round and thick - and you just lightly score it, then bend - it'll snap and separate easily. Because you're not cutting through it'll score nicely and never nick your wires. I have bought some from home depot recently enough and it worked just fine and was easy to work with - but I had to hunt for the better stuff - not the cheapo box.

Once it's terminated you should never have problems - I've pretty much never seen a wire go bad once installed and certified.

Then for the patch panels, I go monoprice cat6 all the way - they work great; have the snagless heads; and they're cheap enough that I rarely even reuse it in the patch closets - quite often just order all new cables for each big wiring project to keep things easy.