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Wiring a home networkLearn how to wire a home network that is functional and inexpensive. Most new homes have wiring for networks available as part of the modern and normal functionality and not as an extra component for making the home worth more. Home networks are a standard part of the electrical system.
A home should have data ports in every livable room in the house. Bathrooms and pantries probably don’t need data ports. A data port is where you connect your computer patch cable so you can have Internet or access to family networks.
Wireless networks are popular because they don’t require all the cable to each room, but most communications technicians like myself strongly discourage the use of wireless networks due to lack of privacy and neighbors stealing free Internet from you.
The cable we use in home networks is called Cat5 cable. It has eight wires inside of different colors. We will need to find out which room we want our main network hub to be in. I prefer to have a utility room with access to a distribution panel or junction box for cable TV, phone systems, home security, and home network systems all together.
Most home network hubs also have a router for Internet access. Without the Internet, a network hub still gives all computers in the home the option to be a part of the family network.
We will need to run Cat5 from the hub to each data port in each room and secure the wires with staples onto the framing of the walls. The data ports fit into regular electrical boxes used for outlets and light switches. The Cat5 needs to terminate into an electrical box with about ten inches of cable to spare.
Each data port will be wired according to a corresponding color with the wires in the Cat5. These data ports are called Mod jacks and they will be a punch down block that you insert the wires into and make a good connection.
This mod jack will plug into an electric box and a wall plate will fit over it so it looks like part of the wall.
The other end of the cable is where it connects to the network hub. We will need to terminate this cable with an RJ-45 connector. This is the connector that plugs into the network port on computers and data ports. We need to have a special tool that presses all the wires in place inside the connector.
We can gently scribe a ring around the Cat5 cable with a utility knife to peel the plastic coating away from the wires about a half-inch from the end. The wires will need to be in the exact order before we slide them into the connector.
With the connector tab down, the wires need to start from left to right as follows: Brown\white, White\brown, Green\white, White\blue, Blue\white, White\green, Orange\white, White\orange
In this order
Put all wall plates on and connect the hub to the Internet and to all the computers on the network.
Larry Angell Article Tags: Home Network, Data Ports, Data Port Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com
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