structured wiring part one.

So I have been meaning to get around to starting this little networking project for some time now. Last spring I think it was I bought a 500' spool of RG6 and a thousand foot box o' Cat 5E cable (and subsequently found probably another 300' or so at a garage sale the following week which I picked up for something like five bucks). And the crimpers and everything etc. etc. But then it sat and collected dust cos, well, there were bigger fish to fry.

But with the remodel of our Jack and Jill bath looming, I need to get the - uhh, networking sh*t out of the, uhh - bathroom. So, our current networking solution -

G4 server with Apple LCD/keyboard/etc., OWC backup firewire drive, cable modem/router and switches. Oh, and our printer. Yeah, that's right - sitting in the bathtub (that's going to be gone, along with the windows and in its place a beautiful Kohler jetted tub with granite deck and paneling and ... ). And a scanner and other various things lying about in this room that I half-gutted like three years ago and then let it sit. It's slightly embarrassing. But it's going to hopefully be beautiful but that's for another post. Don't get me started.

Anywhoo, I needed to get the computer crap out of there. Which meant crawling under the house, likely a big reason why I had not been all that motivated - up until now with being forced to - to get the structured wiring underway. But after a long-ish day and most of it done, I can say it really wasn't all that bad. Thanks a ton to my little helper who saved me hours of headache cos I could sit under the house after drilling holes up through the sole plates of the walls feeding him cable after cable and he'd yank them up and label each one and then tape them to the wall -

Since my house sits pretty high it's quite spacious under there, and someone had the foresight to install a light fixture so I just sat in the dirt waiting for Julian to finish labeling each cable before feeding him another. I had to get creative with some, but nothing a handy fishtape could not solve. So after it started to get dark, I was pretty much wrapped having gotten cable from the living room and Julian's room (the two rooms needing to be cabled right away) and got the cable dropped (as in video cable for our internet connection) from my bedroom down through the basement ceiling (thanks fishtape!) over to the basement closet where I ran all the other networking cables today (where the electrical panel is) and where all that stuff now in the bathroom will live -

And then once all the cables were run from the various rooms (there's still another set of four Cat 5E runs to make in the front living room corner, a set of four from my bedroom, and some more cable and possible audio/video - speaker wire and such - runs to be made but that's for another day and now that I know it's not too terrible and I have access to everything I need it won't be bad), I got to work splicing the ports onto the ends of each cable (thanks Katie for immortalizing this moment haha) -

(and still planning on getting that Gator rack case for the audio/video equipment and moving it to a different location, then mounting the TV on the wall above where the white paneling will be ... )

I wrote out a schematic for all the runs and ports I am planning on (for now, the diagram will get more complicated as I add in the cable/audio/video stuff) and just went off that and the labels Julian and I had taped to each cable -

It was a simple matter. I ordered these Leviton decora quickport adaptors for electrical boxes where - instead of placing a single low-voltage wall box - I was adding the ports to where an outlet already existed. And I'm cutting out the old, single-gang box and replacing with a double-gang with the quickport adaptors. Easy peasy.

And yeah, I feel accomplished. Finally I can get a proper spot for our networking stuff - and I've got a big chunk of the groundwork laid for any further structured wiring I want to design (HDMI, an audio system in various rooms of the house, etc. etc.). I've overlooked voice for now, but the sweet thing about Cat 5E cable is it can do just about anything - from up to four voice lines to high-definition video - it's über-flexible and expansive. So once the cables are there, it's just a matter of figuring out what do with them. And they can be changed out on either end really easily.

OK - and yeah, like I said - this is just making way to completely gutting this bathroom that has been hideous and more or less unusable for years and start on the remodel of it which I have been planning for something like three years or so. Good times.

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Food for thought:

- existing G4 tower server storing all music/movies and backed-up with existing setup (external drive and SuperDuper! backup software)

- existing Mini connected to main home audio/video system in living room

- old G4/G5 tower or mini or whatever as sub-system for bedrooms - running iTunes of course (same iTunes library file from the G4 server used by all Macs in the house) and connected to my old Pioneer receiver (with A/B speaker configurability) plugged into an outlet with a simple programmable timer (like the kind people get to turn their lights on/off while they're on holiday) so it turns on/off when I want it - turn volume up as far as I'd want on the receiver and the Mac and leave it - that way I could control all the transport functions of the music/video in iTunes/DVD player/QT or whatever and the volume on the Mac using VNC and my laptop - I would never have to touch the receiver or worry about having an IR feed from each room back to it

- in-wall speakers (with possible in-wall sub?) in my bedroom and either Julian's bedroom or the kitchen - connected to the old Pioneer A/B speaker outs

Anyways, just thinking aloud ...