I picked up 4 Cat7 cables earlier this evening for a switch that was installed a few days ago. You're right that nobody needs this stuff right now, nor is it cost-effective, but it's the same price in real terms as the Artisoft Lantastic stuff I pushed a couple of decades ago.

I don't know: if you copy big files between computers on a regular basis, 100Mbit is nowhere near fast enough these days. I've been buying games online recently and then downloading the installers to my MythTV box which I use as my home server; installing a 2GB game from there onto my games PC over a 100Mbit ethernet is painfully slow.

Also, the price difference between 100Mb and gigabit is small these days so there's little reason to not buy the faster hardware even if you don't think you'll use it yet.

MG23,

Fair point. My stance was largely from the point of view that your average Joe is really only interested in "the internet" ..... for those sort of people, having a 1Gb connection to their broadband router is not really of much use.

But yes, if you regularly push large files around your local network, then by all means, get the fastest kit you can justifiably afford.

In France and Spain all electrical wiring is done by using flexible plastic tubing (called Gaine in France) through which the wires are pulled with a 'tire-fils'. It is very simple to add extra cables when you want.

Have a look here at the type of stuff. Really excellent.

if you want to make sure you are future proofed for bandwidth put in a fibre-optic FDDI network. :cool:

ORAC,

That might have been true 15+ years ago, but it's been obsolete for ten years.

The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) specified a 100-Mbps token-passing, dual-ring LAN architecture using fiber-optic cable. It scored well for range, reliability and throughput, but has been superseded by gigabit (and above) ethernet.

SD

It's the same here, except it's called preflex, and it ain't always so easy to pull another wire in. I should know, I work with the bloody stuff every day

Yer cant beat the old metal trunking with screw on lids. :E

Wireless is the way to go

There's a Youtube or sumsuch showing a bloke wiring his - not all that big - house. He put in ~47km of wire.


My Essex home was rather rambling for a modern-ish home. It had suspended floors downstairs as well, and I sent my nipper along the crawl-space to take the then wired T/V remote to the furthest point. Wouldn't get me in there:}

I put in a vast harness of wires that I got from a second-hand military type place. Phones all round the house - in the days that we were only supposed to have one. Everything worked...until data speeds had to be considered.

Early modem use, fine - with the connection direct to BT. Totally useless when the harness was reintroduced. Very disappointing. Hours of dropping wires down cavities and the like, all wasted.

I remember these days, LR, my dad used me as the "nipper".


But that was a LONG time ago

What is the panel's opinion of the internet con speed required for streaming HD TV?

About 20 Megs which at the moment means a cable connection :(

Hmm - 10 years definitely too early for this rurality.:)

According to BBC iPlayer diagnostics (BBC iPlayer - Diagnostics) 3.5Mbps is their minimum HD speed.

Sorry for late acknowledgment, mixture - 3.5 puts it off for a few years here!

Moving on - any comments on going into the media centre world? I gather it is possible to avoid WWoW (Wonderful world of Windows) and that Linux has a few options. My thoughts would be to put a simple media 'box' in with the tele/hi-fi with a feed from the router. I really am quite in the dark on this topic, so any simple pointers would bve nice. Where is AppleMac on this? I have a friend with some Apple plug-in thingy that apparently runs it all via an Iphone anywhere in the house he can plug the module into a wall mains socket.

Hi BOAC,

Are you asking about sending ("streaming") normal TV around the house via your computing setup ?

If so, this is something I looked into not so long ago, but never actually put into practice because it all seemed a bit fiddly. It is possible, but probably "easer said than done" for your average home computing user (probably could be done via a Mac if you don't mind the command line).

Or have I misunderstood ?

Yes, plus the whole idea (as I understand it) of having access to music etc plus general internet access everywhere for streaming all sorts of media around the house like my 'example' friend with his Iphone controlled thingy.

Without creating a riot, should I be 'going Mac'?:confused:

As regards the internet link, in the next 3 years you're likely to see VDSL and/or FTTH and/or Virgin's HFC network hit your doorstep, so i'd personally run a couple of CAT5e cables, a couple of fibre tails, and a couple of RG58 F-type terminated coax strands between the outside BT spur/cable manhole and your designated interior edge device.
:ok:

Not living in the country we're not I'm afraid. :(