You'll love it. And its a good idea to do it right away (if you have the time and $$). More of a pain later when when you're settled in. Suggestions .. Don't screw up the value of the house. - You're almost certain to sell it and upgrade eventually. This is not difficult. Just be smart about it and don't just hack 'n slash because you're eager to get a lan party going :^) - Check with your city wiring codes. There are situations (like going between floors) where certain kinds of cables or structure are required. In some cities, you can't sell a house until it passes code. - Take the time to do it decently. Don't duct tape the wire to pipes because you don't want to take 15 minutes to go to the hardware store for wire hangers. Stay with the project until all the trim is back on, the holes in the walls are patched, etc. - If you have never done wiring, make sure to connect with someone who knows what they're doing. Its not rocket science but ... Do a basic plan first - where will your servers go - where's your wiring closet(s) - where in each room should outlets go (i.e., where will the computers go) - consider including video & phone in the wiring closet. - do you have enough power where you need it - do you want a clean circuit to your pc's? Purchasing - Home Depot was good for wiring when I looked (but find out if your city requires plenum grade??) - IMHO Cat5 is good enough but I'd go with 5e or 6 if the cost difference is small. Gives you some tolerance. - Look for bulk wall jacks somewhere else. Both Home Depot & Menards seem very pricy. - patch panel. - about $50 at Micro Warehouse. - patch cables - mail order. Example: www.pccables.com - 1ft - .55, 3ft - .95, 7ft - 1.59 Use the T568A wiring pattern (vs. T568B). I'm finding some SOHO stuff that is just wire-coded for T568A. Most Important - after you have your basic plan figured out, ...get a bid. You may be able to have it done for close to what you'll pay for materials. Yaron wrote: > Hey all, > > Well I'm finally going to have a house, and I'm thinking that wiring the > place up would be a better idea than running cable over the place, and > bulk cable/crimpers/jacks are cheaper than TWO wireless NICs and can > serve a whole buttload of machines. > > So, anyone have any advice, such as good places to get bulk cable, whether > I should spend more on cat6 rather than 5e or 5, whether I should get > patch panels or just some switches, if I should consider running anything > except ethernet, etc? > > TIA, > > -Yaron > > -- > > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list