Dedicated Mains and Networking

[Ashmore]

On Saturday I will be moving house. Lucky me.

The hifi will have it's own room, sort of, which is adjacent to the hallway where the consumer unit sits on a wall with some unused slots. My electrician mate is going to do lots of work on the house to stop it from burning down (he's described it as a 'lash up' at the moment :eek:).

I don't think that I am so dedicated/addicted/mentally ill :eyebrows: that I would otherwise consider a dedicated mains spur but it looks like I might have an opportunity...

So any advice welcome. Is this a simple case of using one of the slots on the consumer unit and wiring in a dedicated ring with a few plug points in it? Do I need some special audio cable stuff or other things? How would you rate the likelihood of my wife giving me one of those gently weary looks and calling me a nob when she finds out?

Simon

PS also, if I want to network cable the house, it is just a case of running some cat 5 through the walls and sticking sockets on the end that I can plug ethernet cables into?

[northwest]

On Saturday I will be moving house. Lucky me.

The hifi will have it's own room, sort of, which is adjacent to the hallway where the consumer unit sits on a wall with some unused slots. My electrician mate is going to do lots of work on the house to stop it from burning down (he's described it as a 'lash up' at the moment :eek:).

I don't think that I am so dedicated/addicted/mentally ill :eyebrows: that I would otherwise consider a dedicated mains spur but it looks like I might have an opportunity...

So any advice welcome. Is this a simple case of using one of the slots on the consumer unit and wiring in a dedicated ring with a few plug points in it? Do I need some special audio cable stuff or other things? How would you rate the likelihood of my wife giving me one of those gently weary looks and calling me a nob when she finds out?

Simon

PS also, if I want to network cable the house, it is just a case of running some cat 5 through the walls and sticking sockets on the end that I can plug ethernet cables into?

Look, just face facts. ALL of our wives, girlfriends partners etc. think we are off our trolleys. What's new?
You could just take a single spur from one of the "fuse" slots to a dedicated outlet and plug a dedicated mains block to that or buy a couple of the silver plated connect outlets from Dave here (http://www.mains-cables-r-us.co.uk/) and run a single cable to them. Even create a small loop circuit to and from if you like. Your mate is a sparky so he will know what you want.
The cat five is as you say, run lengths to wherever and terminate in a wall recepticle but all of the cables then must lead back to a central point. This is usually a patch panel but for your installation just run all the wires back to a decent hub. If you need different circuits to do
different things, buy more hubs:)

Oh and finally moving house is not a stroke of luck. It is usually very stressful and only achieved after a great deal of effort so good luck with that.

[Thing Fish]

If your mate is ripping out and renewing stuff how would she know what is going in?

If she twigs just tell her its to help the washing machine run more efficiently...:lol:

(apologies to female members for that sexist comment...:o)

[Reid Malenfant]

I'd suggest you have a good think about how you are likely to set up the hifi in the room & where you'd be putting the mains sockets. Then get your mate to fit a pair of double sockets in wall patresses & run 6mm twin & earth from each socket back to the consumer unit.

You can have both of the 6mm cables running to the same slot & get a 32A MCB fitted. The MCB will protect the cables & there should be an RCD that protects everything against earth leakage as the main isolator.

That will give you a nice low impedance supply. If your mate suggests using the one cable to both sockets, tell him it's you paying for it & to stop argueing :eyebrows: It'll still be inside of the regulations, though he might think it's a bit OTT :D

[Ashmore]

Many thanks chaps. I'm doing a walk through with sparks on Monday so I'd cover it then. Sounds pretty straightforward (given the place needs a lot of electrical work anyway).

Think i'll come clean with the missus. Presumably she already knows I'm a nob...

[brian2957]

Many thanks chaps. I'm doing a walk through with sparks on Monday so I'd cover it then. Sounds pretty straightforward (given the place needs a lot of electrical work anyway).

Think i'll come clean with the missus. Presumably she already knows I'm a nob...

Joined that club years ago mate . Now she just looks and shakes her head .
You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to mate.:eyebrows:
Brian.

[Tony Moore]

I recently moved into a new place too; had the same issue, total rewire - whoo, what a mess. :doh:

Anyway, I also got cat5e pulled to several rooms, all taken back to under stairs cupboard where I now have a Gigabit switch/hub. One thing to look out for though, make sure you use Cat5e cable or Cat6, and get the appropriate faceplates to suit Cat5e/Cat6 so that your network can use 1000mbs if needed. Most PCs now have Gigabit LAN ports and it make a huge difference to the speed when copying large files.

Most cable you get now is Cat5e so probably won't be an issue but best to check. (Gigabit LAN uses all 4 pairs of wires in the Cat5e rather than just two pairs as in 100mbs)

If your cable runs don't exceed around 100m I believe you can get away with Cat5e, otherwise for longer runs (or electrically noisy environments) go to Cat6 for Gigabit.

By the way, I didn't go with a dedicated mains spur at the time of the rewire...I wasn't sure what room the hifi might end up in. Still not sure as I am struggling to make it sound as good as it did in a solid floored house. :steam: (All our rooms here are suspended with a 2 foot void underneath)

Good luck with your rewire! :eyebrows:

Cheers,
Tony

[ursus262]

I am actively considering having a dedicated spur for my Naim equipment, and am considering having the cable routed outside the house to minimise disruption and am considering using screened 10mm cable. I am also considering having the 15A round sockets fitted as well. What does everyone else think?

[Ashmore]

The move happened. One of the benefits of having to have all of the cellar ceilings down to rewire lights, power and a shower that are currently spurred off a plug socket using 1mm lighting cable :steam: is that I can easily get a dedicated spur into the music room.

I will also be networking with Cat 6.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

[Welder]

I am actively considering having a dedicated spur for my Naim equipment, and am considering having the cable routed outside the house to minimise disruption and am considering using screened 10mm cable. I am also considering having the 15A round sockets fitted as well. What does everyone else think?

I think running the dedicated mains outside is an excellent idea. I did this in a place I lived a few years ago. You need to use steel conduit which can get expensive but you can pick it up second hand pretty cheaply. It saves an awful lot of decorating and mess grief.
The other possible problem is the run has to be a certain height above ground to comply with exterior leccy regs (cant remeber what that distance is atm)

I've long been a fan of round pin plugs and sockets.

[AlexM]

Agree with Mark - 2x 6mm sq T&E to a spare MCBs on the consumer unit. Personally I don't think it is worth using unfused 15a round pin plugs, although it is an option on an individual radial circuit on it's own MCB. Consult your electrician. If you are really concerned that it will make a difference, use a normal 13a socket with a 13a fuse IF AND ONLY IF a) your equipment is internally fused and b) the equipment cord is thick enough to carry 13a. I think it is foo, but that puts me in a minority of one!

Do take the opportunity to drop in Cat 5e, patch panels and a smart GigE switch such as the Netgear GS724T while you are before you decorate. I don't consider that cat 6a offers a real advantage over a good quality Cat 5e cable such as the black box 350Mhz-rated Cat 5e. Both will be limited to 100m cable lengths in theory, and Cat 5e is easier to pull and is more damage resistant. I get GigE speeds on one outlet that is 115m from the switch using this cable.

The bill of materials for doing this in my house was less than £400 for 24 ports, and I take the opportunity to pat myself on the back for doing it every time I need to add a IP-enabled gadget to the house, or copy my extensive erm.. media library from machine to machine!. It also makes adding or moving telephone extensions a doddle, which can be handy.

Regards,
Alex

[Ashmore]

Thank you.

The electrician has started and network cable starts going in next week.

I have an elementary question. Why are several of you recommending a switch and not my router? What am I missing?

Simon

[AlexM]

It depends which router you are using, and how many LAN ports you need.

I am using a 24 port switch because I needed 20+ outlets around the house. My BT Homehub is connected to one of the switch ports, and provides DHCP, WINS and DNS services for the network, as well as bridging wireless clients.

IMHO using a decent GigE switch will provide a very useful boost to the network's performance compared to the same fixed network using a consumer router, especially as most consumer routers are still 100Mbs only.

Hope that makes sense!.

Alex

Edit: I saw this Netgear 16 port GigE switch (http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/390342954779?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla) for £79 on a well-known auction site, oir This 24-port GigE switch (2nd hand) for £89 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Netgear-GS724T-ProSafe-24-Port-Gigabit-Smart-Switch-24-10-100-1000-Mbps-/270958477727?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA% 252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D390342 954779%26ps%3D54) bargain!.

I like Netgear prosafe switches because they come with a lifetime warranty, and are very stable. When a fan failed on my GS724T after four years, it was swapped out FoC for a brand new one!.

[Ashmore]

I think I get it. The switch gives me speed and capacity and I can plug the router into it.Presume the broadband still goes into the router though? And my nas, which also has the Squeezeserver software - should that go into router, switch or can it go on any of the ports around the house?

[AlexM]

That's almost it.

I suggest connecting all clients and your NAS directly to the switch, and the dsl router too. That way the LAN clients and the NASl talk at the fastest speed possible (1 Gbps) and only Internet and wireless traffic go via the router. The BT homehub 3 is a pretty good wireless router - cheap(£25 s/h), stable, good wireless performance and it has one GigE port for the switch uplink, which is ideal if you connect it I suggest

Regards,
Alex

[Ashmore]

Never got round to thanking you for the explanation. I get it now and have a switch on order, thanks.

[Val33]

Following on from this thread, I too am moving to a new (very old) house and we are completely refurbishing it along with rewire etc.

If I fit a decent network switch, can I connect two wireless routers to it? Its a large sprawling house with thick walls so I am going to struggle with only a single router.

thanks

Val