Newbie home networking questions

[yakboy]

I'm building a house extension next year and have been advised to lay in as much cat 5 cable as possible. I want to network my PC's , and run a sonos system..I have seen the cat8 systems where I can also distribute my TV signal & have got the impression you guys are not too impressed by it. Can cat 5 distribute UHF signals?

Any suggestions on what I should be looking into doing would be most gratefully recieved

[toscal]

Don't want to jump on Kieth's toes, but have a look at the Abitana system. www.abitana.com and the UK distribution is by www.minitran.co.uk.
The Abitana systems basically uses a modified CAT5 cable with the cable pair 7&8 made of slightly thicker wire that has extra shielding, so it can carry UHF signals upto 900Mhz.
I have the system in my house and its excellent. Plus you can still use the KAT5 system in conjuntion with it if you want to. Also my wife thinks its good as well.

[katman]

The only real references I have seen to CAT8 are for the stuff from SinglePointNetworks where they have non standards and (IMHO) extremely ugly connectors. They advocate using different pairs in a single cable for different sevices which is totally against the structured cabling ethos

The whole point of a CAT5/6 structured cabling scheme is that you have a standard infrastructure which will deliver 4 pairs to any convienient point in the building. CAT5/6 is cheap and extremely versatile. It is reliable and easy for people to plug and play.

Whilst is is possible to "push the boundaries" and send UHF over twisted pair there tends to be much higher attenuation at the upper end of the band and depending on which frequencies you are distributing you may require equalisation to ensure that all channels are received at a suitable strength.

UHF distribution is fine for incoming broadcast signals but be aware that the RF output from Set Top Boxes is only transmitted with MONO audio.

Many people are using KAT5 (and other similar systems) to not only distribute SKY etc but also to feed the output of AV equipment to LCD/Plasma screens and projectors which dont have UHF tuners in them.

Hope that helps

[yakboy]

Thanks for the replies. I am after a system that will distrubute broadband and a uhf TV signal along the same wire so the singlepoint network system seems like overkill. I'll look into the abitana system...Cheers

[martyK]

hey,
I am very interested in what was said here.
excuse me for the disorganised ramble below but..

I am starting for a slightly different point in that I am moving into a completed house (buingalow) which has already been built.

Do installers work with completed houses ??

What I really want is a home network with a network connection as well as connections for telephones and sky TV in practically everyroom.

As I am moving into a bungalow I was thinking perhaps I could run the CAT5 outside the bungalow in the ground with cables running up the walls where I want a connection inside.

The cat5 would be in some kind of metal ducting to protect it from the elements.
Is that a realistic idea? Has anyone done something similar ?

Apart from ripping the walls apart to lay CAT5 , what other options are there?

As an alternative to CAT 5 I could use a wireless network ,
I would then need a separate set of handsfree phones connected to a single base unit ( I believe theres a bang and olapson which has 4 phones from the one base) , but that leaves me running coax cable for the sky TV system - yuk.

Can you get the sky signal into and out of a wireless network without using a PC?

(I have succeeded with a PC and an attached capture card into the Svideo on the sky box but the picture wasnt great and the PC needed to be switched on all the time)


thanks in advance for your help/recomendations here people
MartyK

[gkinghrn]

Not sure about some of that as I am newbie her emyself but I run Cat-5 cables round the outside of my house (at the back as it doesn't show) for my 100mbit Lan and get no probems whatsover..not sure about the higher frequency stuff for TV etc...

[martyK]

hey gkinghrn
so what do you run through cat 5 as well as PC stuff . TV telephones??

ta
Martyk

[yakboy]

The modified Cat 5 cable of the abitana system can run PC, phone, TV & video signals...I'm going ahead with this next year in my new extension as it seems very flexible

[martyK]

but how expensive is it....???

[toscal]

Thats a bit like saying how expensive is a car. It depends on the number of sockets per room. What distribution modules you want etc etc.
For an idea on price visit www.minitran.co.uk and also www.abitana.com and go to there webshop.