Brownstone Ethernet Network
I went through a gut reno a few years back and had the electrician install CAT5E instead of standard phone wire. I am now looking to get in finalized by adding the proper ethernet jacks (he just put in RJ-45 connectors) and connecting all the wires. My original electrician gave me a quote of $1,400…
I went through a gut reno a few years back and had the electrician install CAT5E instead of standard phone wire. I am now looking to get in finalized by adding the proper ethernet jacks (he just put in RJ-45 connectors) and connecting all the wires. My original electrician gave me a quote of $1,400 which sounds kind of high to me. Anybody else have this done? Does this sound reasonable? Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.
Thanks er um Lionballs/Lionel. I will be contacting you one way or another with the details.
hey guys, its actually uh… LionBalls not iron balls 🙂
From what i can tell through these posts it would seem your costs would absolutely be out of hand so long as the cables have already been run.
Accordinging to how many rooms (and thus how many outlets) you have… your punch doesn will match accordingly.
While you CAN get really cheap materials as mentioned above, you actually will spend more money for a home as the quality youll want is gonna be higher (though not much more).
Id figure on a cost of 5-10$ per location (bearing 2-4 jacks). And then with a backend cost of 100-300$ or so for a pacth panel, basic switching gear and your odds and ends.
I dont know whats there, hopefully youve got boxes at least so you’d just have to buy faceplates and jacks. Ive used monoprice and some others according to what was needed.
If you did the work yourself, which is tedious as hell… you cold get it all done for under 400$, and thats probably an over-estimate. You however would need some stuff, a wire tracer would be nice just in case, a network cable tester would be an extremely good idea when doing your own cabling, a crimper and a telco style punch. Combined cost of somewhere near 100$ or so.
Technicly as your wiring female ports only, you might not need the crimper at all… though its a really good idea to have one on end.
If your network is anything but a basic plain jane home network, you should do some planning on where which equipment should go before you lock your cables down (though im guessing it would change too much), ideally youd wnt to centralize your patch panel and your network gear and your internet connection in a cool dry area (basement?) and to distribute your wireless in centrally located spots.
If you wanna chat you can call me at 917 855 9500 or lionelc @@@@ lionquest.com, Im not sure what politics denton didnt like… lol… i must have ran my mouth… ah well.
“Denton-Is Ironballs available for hire?”
Yeah, I hired him. I’ll see if I can find an email and ask him to check this thread.
Thanks everybody.
Renomandru-I might have to ask your advice
Denton- I think you hit the nail on the head. These electricians really don’t understand this stuff, nor do they have the experience. I had to explain to them how it all works. I have been tempted to do it myself except for the fact that they may have screwed up the wiring on my bottom level (its a long story).
Denton-Is Ironballs available for hire?
These guys are just talking about terminating the cabling. Maybe what you are talking about is actually making the network functional, adding routers and stuff?
You may not like his politics but you’ll love his knowledge… our very own IronBalls… he set mine up after the cabling was done, had no problem opening up the exterior phone boxes. He instructed my electrician on what to do, since he had no clue.
Bid to at least 3 contractors so that you can get a real idea about price. Ask the contractors how many man-days the work will require. Ed Kopel Architects, PC
Zuffy is right, although with many manufacturers of jacks and patch panels the insulation displacement caps alone will suffice without the need for a punch-down tool.
Leviton, Amp, Hubbel, Seimon, and many other reputable manufacturers of jacks and patch panels are readily available at suppliers like Lendy’s Electric or over the Internet. The jacks and caps for cable terminations are color-coded, so that a handy person can easily do it. $5-10 materials per termination at each end would cover it.
And $1400 for simply terminating these cables is CRAZY. If they have to still cut boxes into the walls for a flush jack, then that might be another hour per location, but still, it sounds your contractor is taking you for a ride.
I used to manage large-scale cabling projects (2000+ drops), so feel free to contact me for free advice. andru3 at gmail.com
He don’t need a cramping tool, he need a punch down tool and CAT5e keystone jacks. All of these can be bought at http://www.monoprice.com for cheap.
Here is a how-to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHy8mtW9eak
It’s very easy.
the cramping tool to put RJ45 connectors cost ~$40 and box of connectors cost ~$7. You do not need permit to do anything with CAT5, you cannot set house on fire unless you connect it to the power wires and you cannot burn computer if you connect RJ45 the wrong way. So I do not see why it would stop you from doing it yourself.