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#245023 14-Jan-2019 18:20
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I'd like to have some cat6 cables laid in our existing two-storey house (in east Auckland). Since I do not have the skills, knowledge or time to do this myself, I'm happy to pay someone to do it properly, and I'm hoping the knowledgeable folks here on GZ can recommend me professionals who do a good job. We are doing this with moving to UFB in mind, so advice on this is also welcome. Below are further details about my current situation.

 

We are currently on ADSL with master filter installed in the roof space of our two-storey, five-bedroom house. Our landline cordless phone is in the living room area downstairs. The ADSL jack point is located in a bedroom downstairs, which is where the modem, router and a desktop are also located. All other bedrooms have normal, working (but currently unused) phone jack points. There is a desktop in one upstairs bedroom (at the other end of the house to the router downstairs) which I'd like to connect to the network using ethernet. I tried wifi with patchy results; I'm currently using powerline adapters which work OK-ish but the connection would drop out from time to time - often OK for 1-2 weeks then one day it would drop out 3-4 times - very frustrating. In any case, since the desktop does not move, the ethernet option is by far the best, so I will not consider options such as better wifi etc.

 

But also we will move to UFB soon (note: we will be ditching the landline at that point), so I wonder whether it'd be better to have the home network cabling sorted before getting the ONT installed (or deciding whether the ONT should be located)?

 

So the minimum that I want to achieve here is a cat6 cable run (actually, I heard advice for *two* cable runs if any work is to be done) from the router downstairs up to this upstairs bedroom at the other end of the house. Since we are *not* renovating, how big a job is this likely to be? Would the roof space and phone jack points be helpful in any way? While it'd be nice to run cat6 to other parts of the house where the phone jack points are (and the TV area, which is next door to the room with the router), they are not really needed currently - the only devices that must be connected using ethernet are the two desktops, and we hardly ever use our TV these days. So if this job is complex/costly, it'd probably make more sense to only run cables to the one bedroom upstairs.

 

If this can be done, and if the ONT can be installed in the same downstairs room where our router is currently located, then it'd be easier to switch over to UFB when the time comes. The important things to us are the availability and stability of the connection at all times.

 

Any advice/comments appreciated, and I'd be grateful if anyone can recommend a good professional who can do this cabling work in east Auckland. Thanks!


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wellygary
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  #2161285 15-Jan-2019 08:56
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paging @Coffeebaron

 

@Coffeebaron please pick up the white phone......




olivernz
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  #2161289 15-Jan-2019 09:06
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One thing you should contemplate is running the Chorus internal cable. I don't know the name or rating (would need to look at home) but it's an ethernet 4pair (guessing it will be >CAT6 spec) with two fibre stands while still being reasonably flexible. I think it's a great cable but I haven't seen it sold anywhere (if anyone knows please let me know!!).

 

 

Similar to this I guess. https://www.gowifi.co.nz/bulkcable/dfp-1246.html

 

But that is even more cables and probably quite stiff.

Chorusnz
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  #2161323 15-Jan-2019 09:10
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Can’t recommend any specific tradies, so I’ll leave that up to others here, but I would like to pipe up re: ONT location and running cables.

 

We don’t run cables inside the wall space as part of our standard free installs, so unless you have an easily accessible under floor space, it would be best to have the ONT in one of the outermost rooms of the house.

 

During the install process you can discuss the best options for placement with our technician. So long as you have the Cat 6 cable installed to that location it should not be an issue where the ONT goes. Then you can have the modem in the location of your choice.

 

 

 

Of course best practice is to have a patch panel in the garage, with Cat 6 run to each room. Then we install the ONT and modem in that patch panel. Keeps it out the way and gets your signal to whichever room you need it via the Cat 6. It would also probably be the most expensive option, so up to you. ^Richard




under

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  #2161697 15-Jan-2019 17:56
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Thanks for the comments so far guys.

 

The room with the router is on one side of the house, halfway up a path from the front - I hope that's OK.

 

I do realise that the "patch panel in the garage" option is the best, but might be overkill for our current needs (don't know about the future), plus I don't know how big and disruptive the work is going to be. Perhaps whoever doing the work can quote for different options.


Dial111
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  #2161699 15-Jan-2019 18:18
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Re the patch panel in the garage, don’t think of it as overkill, think of it as centralising everything back to one point like your router and ONT, easier to determine any faults in your setup that way. Cat 6 to everywhere you want devices hardwired then add some switches for extra devices if need be and I’d probably run a mesh system or UniFi AP for wifi.

It’s really a simple system, the hardest part is data cabling the house.


under

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  #2162163 16-Jan-2019 18:06
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Thanks for your advice. What you said makes sense, but I'm already concerned about how disruptive it would be to run cables from one room to another. I have no idea about the nature of the work involved, but the family needs to be happy with it too.


RmACK
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  #2162176 16-Jan-2019 18:35
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In my single story (via roof space) I found it very easy to use the old phone wires to pull cat 6 down the walls with very little disruption.

 
 
 

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.
under

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  #2162672 17-Jan-2019 17:26
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Thanks, that's very useful information! (But two-storey with balcony might be a different matter.)


coffeebaron
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  #2162775 17-Jan-2019 21:18
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wellygary:

 

paging @Coffeebaron

 

@Coffeebaron please pick up the white phone......

 

 

Thanks, sorry took a while to get here. I'm happy to come and advise you on options and quote etc. I'm not in Auckland as much these days, but flick me a message here if you want to get in touch.

 

Fraser

 

 





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Starlink installer - one month free: https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-32845-88860-71 
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Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com


under

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  #2175066 8-Feb-2019 14:20
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Update: Got coffeebaron in to take a look. Unfortunately it looks like ethernet cabling would be too big a job given the state of the phone cables in our house, so that looks like a no-go.

 

The current plan is to install the ONT in the office at the front of the house when we order fibre. This means that, before the fibre move, we'd need to wire up the two desktops back to the office somehow. Currently leaning towards using ethernet over VDSL extenders to create 2x 100/100 Mbps links (one link to each bedroom). More expensive, but hopefully more stable than wifi or powerline.

 

If anyone has any other creative ideas, I'm all ears.


  #2175077 8-Feb-2019 14:37
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mesh networks are very stable and allow pretty good backhaul speeds, well in excess of what you have mentioned with the VDSL extenders. they also allo you to piggy back off one of the base stations to convert back to an ethernet network for devices nearby


Dingbatt
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  #2175097 8-Feb-2019 16:05
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Chorusnz:

Can’t recommend any specific tradies, so I’ll leave that up to others here, but I would like to pipe up re: ONT location and running cables.


We don’t run cables inside the wall space as part of our standard free installs, so unless you have an easily accessible under floor space, it would be best to have the ONT in one of the outermost rooms of the house.


During the install process you can discuss the best options for placement with our technician. So long as you have the Cat 6 cable installed to that location it should not be an issue where the ONT goes. Then you can have the modem in the location of your choice.


 


Of course best practice is to have a patch panel in the garage, with Cat 6 run to each room. Then we install the ONT and modem in that patch panel. Keeps it out the way and gets your signal to whichever room you need it via the Cat 6. It would also probably be the most expensive option, so up to you. ^Richard



Firstly @under I’m not trying to hijack your question, but this thread is very timely for me as our street is currently dug up to install fibre (one of the last in the area). So these questions are more directed to @Chorusnz to clarify some of his info above.

At the moment our copper phone line emerges from a conduit under the house and has been extended via Cat5 cable to my equipment cupboard in the centre of the house where my VDSL modem is connected to my Netgear wireless router. The cat5 cable was easy to run as is clipped to the floor joists and then goes up via a vertical cable run to the cupboard.The cupboard is the hub of all the equipment in my house and as such is where I would want the ONT to be positioned. It’s where all my Ethernet cabling eminates from as well as all my av equipment and allows the wifi to do the whole house. It also has multiple powerpoints.
My house is on piles and the crawl space varies from standing upright (1.8m) on the low side, to hands and knees (60cm) on the high side.
From what I understand the fibre comes in from the street to an external termination point (ETP). Is that likely to be pulled through the existing conduit from the street? I assume the other end of the conduit is by the grey pvc telecom junction tube by our letterbox. Or will the fibre cable be run completely separately? Is there a maximum distance allowed between the ETP and the ONT? The distance in my case would be about 10m of cable. And the run path is completely accessible, nothing within walls.

If any of the above is not available in the standard install, I am in the same boat as @under and need a professional installer to assist (West Auckland).




“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996


Zeon
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  #2175120 8-Feb-2019 17:17
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Even paying Chorus $200 for the ONT move, the technician refused to run cables in the wall and roof space even though the plasterboard was already off and easy access to the roof space. He gave me a box of their cat5e/fibre cable and ran myself. He came back to do the splice.

 

Originally mounted the ONT sideways and that night it fell off breaking the fibre cable. He came back and fixed it though.

 

Talking with him I am guessing it was the classic minimum paid job, he doesn't give a toss kind of situation.





Speedtest 2019-10-14


Dingbatt
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  #2175140 8-Feb-2019 17:42
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Sounds exactly like the way Sky work with their installers. I’m happy to run the cable to get things where I want them.




“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996


under

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  #2193102 7-Mar-2019 15:32
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Another update.

 

We ended up getting coffeebaron to install the VDSL extenders. He did a very nice job. We only have this setup for a day, but we are happy with the results so far. These units do run *very* hot though.

 

As I mentioned, all this is in preparation for getting UFB installed. The Chorus techs came around for the scope visit today, we told them where we want the ONT installed, but unfortunately the plans suggested by the techs are not acceptable to us, so there was no agreement and they left without doing any work. I'm not sure what happens now, or if the install will go ahead.


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