cabling in an apartment

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › cabling in an apartment

kdn

198 posts

Master Geek

# 64486 16-Jul-2010 12:49

Hi guys, I am wondering what suggestions you might have on how to get a cat5 from one bedroom to another in an aprtment, as far as i know there is no crawl space at the top or bottom of the apartment, we have another unit above and below us.

I have all the enwtrok gear in my bedroom, but there is requirement to have a wired connection to an adjacent bedroom, at the moment the cable has to run down the hallway. Obvisouly wifi or EoP could be options but would rather do it the old fashion way, i understand how to install TO's and basics of structured cabling but just not sure how to pull a cable through when there is no attic.. would there normally be crawl space at the top of an apartment?

sbiddle

28266 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

# 352318 16-Jul-2010 13:30

Depends entirely on the apartment construction - there is no simple answer.

kyhwana2

2458 posts

Uber Geek

# 352346 16-Jul-2010 15:23

You might just have to do what we did, tape it to the floor/run it along the ceiling. (Using tap/velcro etc)

webwat

1990 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 352873 18-Jul-2010 01:40

I have exactly the same problem, there is no way to do it without and accessible cable pathway. You could run survace duct along the corner of the walls, or if there is Cat5 iinstalled already then do what I did. Open up the telecom panel and you will probably find all wires punched onto a 110 punchdown block in a parallel configuration, with coloured jumper wire joining all the cables. If they are not labelled you will have to remove the green wire one at a time and use your tester to check which jack it is. Then remove the orange jumper as well and just punch some orange and green jumpers between the two cables required to reach each room. Last thing is to buy an adapter that splits RJ45 into phone/ethernet, plug ethernet into your networking gear, and you have a point-to-point ethernet socket in the other room (shared with phone on the same cable).

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^

Rubicon

29 posts

Geek

# 352908 18-Jul-2010 10:41

What's the ceiling cladding like in your apartment?

Unless the ceiling is bare concrete, it is likely that your apartment has some form of internal framing which supports the ceiling cladding. You could install the cables in this space. However, to get access for this, you may need to remove some of the ceiling and wall cladding. The ease and expense of doing this depends on whether you can remove the cladding without destroying it.

webwat

1990 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 353153 18-Jul-2010 23:21

Hey, your adjacent bedroom must be sharing a wall with yours and I presume you own the place. Why not check for a part of the wall without power cables in it, and just poke some cable through a hole in the wall. Then just put a jackpoint on each side of the wall. You could run surface duct on top of the skirting you need jacks in a more convenient spot, implying that any holes must be at the skirting height to be hidden by surface duct.

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^

graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

# 353429 19-Jul-2010 15:04

If you've got carpet you may be able to put the cable between the smoothedge and the wall (and under the carpet).

kdn

198 posts

Master Geek

# 353471 19-Jul-2010 16:10

webwat: Hey, your adjacent bedroom must be sharing a wall with yours and I presume you own the place. Why not check for a part of the wall without power cables in it, and just poke some cable through a hole in the wall. Then just put a jackpoint on each side of the wall. You could run surface duct on top of the skirting you need jacks in a more convenient spot, implying that any holes must be at the skirting height to be hidden by surface duct.

Yeah I was thinking that could be a possibility, only problem is the switch is on the opposite wall to where the shared wall is so i would need to have the cable draped along my bedroom floor, if I don't find any crawl space I think ill just resort to cable tables and attach it along the hallway

webwat

1990 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 353705 20-Jul-2010 01:32

Well you can still run the cable around the bottom of the wall and around the door frame to get to other side of the room. Dont put it under the carpet, too easy to be damaged I would say. Watch the bend radius too, you dont want any tight bends creating data errors.

Did you find any useful cabling in the comms panel that can be configured as point to point ethernet? You only need the orange and green pairs for ethernet, and you can plug a ph/data splitter into the jacks on each end. Imagine that phone and data wires go to a different virtual jackpoint, thats effectively the end result (unless you do actually install dual jackpoints).

Another idea that probably isn't feasible due to lack of power: you could put a little wall cabinet (like an alarm box) at the central comms panel. This would allow you to move your switch to the cabinet where all jackpoints can be connected directly to it. You would have to accept 100base Ethernet with only 2 pairs at any jack that shares phone wiring. Perhaps cordless phone can allow you to eliminate phones from bedroom jacks anyway.

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^

antoniosk

1945 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 353726 20-Jul-2010 06:09

kdn: Hi guys, I am wondering what suggestions you might have on how to get a cat5 from one bedroom to another in an aprtment, as far as i know there is no crawl space at the top or bottom of the apartment, we have another unit above and below us.

I have all the enwtrok gear in my bedroom, but there is requirement to have a wired connection to an adjacent bedroom, at the moment the cable has to run down the hallway. Obvisouly wifi or EoP could be options but would rather do it the old fashion way, i understand how to install TO's and basics of structured cabling but just not sure how to pull a cable through when there is no attic.. would there normally be crawl space at the top of an apartment?

You could always try some Ethernet over Powerline boxes. Not sure of performance though.

________

Antonios K

smac

267 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 353745 20-Jul-2010 08:37

How old is the building? I'd be really surprised if there's not crawl space of some sort between floors, its where the aircon and plumbing etc will be. Can you hear the people above walking directly on your ceiling? If not, prolly a space.

raytaylor

3403 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 354291 21-Jul-2010 01:13

I am trying to wire up a hotel for access points / wifi at the moment and in the same situation - absolutley no crawl space. Well in the ceilings, there is about 20-30cm of space for ducting for heat pumps / cabling and lighting but you cant get in there without damaging the ceilings.

So anyhow, i suggest looking at the patch panel idea, or ethernet over power.

Its just a shame that all these new buildings are just slapped together with no consideration for future wiring or fixture installations

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

There is no place like localhost
For my general guide to extending your wireless network Click Here