My family and I are starting to build a new house. The contracter is very stingy with prices, so I have been elected to do all of the networking and phone lines. Where we are at now a 1 story house, I just have a wireless lan setup for the 4 computers in the house. It works okay, some parts of the house has a weak signal. Now in the new house, I am not sure how to wire everything. I am pretty good with computers, but have not tackled anything of this magnitude. I was thinking about having one LAN line on each floor with a wlan repeater coming out of that line. That would allow the whole house to recieve a signal. Any advice, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. If there is an easier way of doing this let me know. For the moment being I am just kind of confused.

Personally i would steer away from wireless, its too unrealable, well at least from my experience I can only get a signla up stairs (the access point is up stairs) and as soon as 1 wall is placed in the way, i get disconnected constanly every 5 mins or so If possible, wire it up. That way you have a stable network, which runs at a stable high speed. Just make sure you do a good job of making a tiding job of the wiring Regards, Jamie McCoy

Cable is cheap. If I were you, I'd decide where to place a wired router and then run cables from there to as many rooms as possible, and coil some extra cable at both ends. The ends do not need to be terminated at this point, just get the cable in the walls and remember where they are in case you decide to access them. I would offer the same advice for telephone wire, unless you intend to use cordless phones. Nevertheless, even cordless phone bases need to be wired. You can always decide later whether to continue with a wired network or go with wireless or a wired/wireless combo. Trust me...you'll be sorry if you don't get those cables in while the studs are exposed -- I know I am.

You will not be able to run wiring in your new house unless you are low level electrical certified and you have a permit. If you attempt to do so and the building inspector catches you the inspector will halt the building project, fine you, and the contractor won't be able to proceed until you have filed for the proper permit and have contracted with a licensed contractor. With that said I would highly recommend running telephone/network cable/cable for cable to all rooms. Once the sheetrock is up the opportunity is gone. Hard wired is the way to go if new construction. PAY THE CONTRACTOR TO DO THE JOB and don't be stingy.

I have a few basic questions: 1) What kind of cabling should I use? cat? cat5? 2) Is it difficult to put the caps on the cable? 3) What kind of router should I use in the closet where everything terminates? (Money is a big issue.) Any links would be appreciated. More than likely if it isn't too dificult, I will run the wire to every room, I just may not plut it into the router.

My step-dad is an electrician (certified) he is just used to commercial jobs, not residential. We have gotten permission from the builder and everything.

Ethernet uses CAT5e wiring. If you don't know how to wire Ethernet there are numerous DYI books on the subject. Or, just pick up a Home Networking Kit from a computer store and an extra roll of CAT5E wire and some junctions. The network kit will have instructions and tools for building connectors and the extra wire will make sure you have enough to wire the whole house. Use just regular wall boxes like for switches and mount these on the studs where you think you'll be placing the computer in the room. Right next to the phone line isn't a bad idea (in fact, they make a wall plate with a phone connector and Ethernet connector built into it. You run both wires to the one box.) Wiring an Ethernet network is just like running a phone line. Put a box in the wall whereever you think you'll need a connection and run wire up the studs and along the joists to where your router will sit. This should be fairly close to where your Internet connection (phone line or cable) will come into the room and I would plan on using a 2nd-floor room for the router station. Ethernet cables should never be longer than 150' so if you plan to run a line way out to the far side of the garage, plan on putting a hub or network switch about halfway into between and bring the cable out of the wall there so you can connect it when the house is built. An 8-port router will run you about $150 and has more than enough ports for most home networks. You can get by with a 4-port if you're on a budget and pick up a 4-port network switch if you ever want to expand. Get one with a built-in print server so you can share your printer across the network easily. If you need more than one connection to a room run 2 lines or plan on using a switch in that room when you set up. It's a little easier to use a switch, I think.