Hey, just a science teacher and not an IT person, most modern computers support a hard wired 1Gb/sec network signal and many ISPs also support this speed as well. Therefore you have to make sure that the wiring you use supports that speed. Make sure your cabling says Cat5e or Cat6 on the side. Most stuff in stores bought brand new will be this. However, if you borrowed some old stuff or had a spool laying around, it might be old Cat5 which will only support up to 100 Mb/sec. Also, make sure your basement switch supports gigabit out of all 5 ports. Most new switches bought from the store anymore will have this, but there's a lot of older stuff still floating around in used equipment that will not support the speeds you're used to.
I did this to my house during a renovation a little over 20 years ago. It was the best thing that I did. I would offer a couple of suggestions. 1) run 2 cables to each location. It takes very little extra effort or cost. 2) run cable up into the attic so that you can have wired security cameras. Run those cables out to the corners of your house and install the plate inside the house; not outside. The cameras are fairly cheap. 3) make sure that you buy a POE switch. That's Power Over Ethernet and that power is there to power your cameras. Some larger switches will have perhaps 24 ports of which maybe 6 will be POE. They are pretty cheap. 4) Go with the Cat 6 or better. When I did mine, Cat 5e had just arrive on the scene and it cost more but it was well worth it. 5) Depending on your site, run cables to your garage or shop. I did and now I have cameras mounted out there. Plus I can have a smart TV plugged into my home network for media or internet. Way better than Wifi if there is any distance to the outbuilding. My garage / shop is 22 x 24 and I put an outlet in each corner.
Great job. I am an IT adjacent guy who knows how to hardwire a house and who had to last year and let me say that even tho I know how to terminate cables, use punchers to terminate the other type of rj45 wall plugs and how to manage a switch I love that you kept it simple and unintimidating. Could you have used better hardware? Of course but this is more than enough for 95% of people out there and for most people who will dare to do it themselves. Kudos to you to make an easy to understand and complete guide. I will for sure subscribe. Keep up the great work.
Good job, do not forget that you are going to need to access the switch in the future Also, use the best ethernet cable available. Maybe external ethernet cable is not needed, but the "best" ones are just a bit more expensive and if you want to upgrade your ethernet from 100mb to 1Gb then to 2.5Gb or 10Gb you can still use the same ethernet cables
Instead of the old work electrical box, get yourself a low voltage box (they are usually orange in color). They are fully open in the back and still allow that professional look, but it's much easier to run a cable through them.
YES - GREAT suggestion! What you've described sounds like the box I used while retrofitting the finished room (toward the end of the video). It was WAY easier to use. Thank you!
That solves one problem, but if you need to later add another cable, it can be more of a pain. That being said, that is a bit on the big side, a smaller one would have worked just as well, even without adding the jack later.
