The Cat5 -HDMI is such a great extension of the HDMI possibilities and for the first time I really enjoy that did install all the Cat5 wires in every room in our house. For IP i only use WiFI, so that Cat5 have got new life.

Until Wireless HDMI arrives of cause.

LAN cable umumnya dikenali dengan UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) atau biasa dipanggil TP cable.

Praktikalnya, TP cable yang biasa digunakan sekarang adalah jenis cat5, cat5e, dan cat6 kerana mengikut standard yang ditetapkan oleh TIA (Persatuan Industri Telekomunikasi) dan EIA (Perikatan Industri Elektronik).

Sambungan TP cable ditakrifkan IEEE 802.3u. (Institut Jurutera Elektrik Dan Elektronik)

Maksimum panjang TP cable yang boleh ditarik (satu pasang) adalah 100 meter (300 kaki)

What is a Balun? A balun is an impedance transformer that allows you to send a signal that requires a certain impedance value (such as 75 ohm for video) over a cable that has a different impedance (such as CAT5 that has 100 ohm impedance). You need one at each end, one to transform the original impedance to the impedance of the cable and the other to transform it back to the original impedance.

A VIDEO BALUN is the key component that allows you to transmit VGA, RGB, YPbPr. YCbCr, S-Video and Composite video or audio over Cat5. It's important to use video baluns when sending video over Cat5 since the impedance specifications of Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 are 100 ohms. Video requires 75 ohm impedance and you'll introduce artifacts to your video without a balun. Basically, if there's an impedance mismatch the signal will be reflected from the receiver back to the transmitter causing delays in the signal transmission; the delays have a ghosting effect on the picture. It's like your TV on drugs.

This link implies that multiple cameras will work on a single Cat5
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http://www.cambion.co.uk/main/cctv_balun_to_cat5_network.htm

 http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/02/14/speed-cabling-compet.html

http://www.vagabondish.com/adrenaline-rush-the-geek-sport-of-speedcabling/ 

 I am looking for about 120 metres of Cat5 or Cat5e cable to do a temporary fix in the prefab.

So, we received a phone call from Verizon yesterday asking that we make accessible all things which the Verizon FiOS technician needs to access. The ethernet wires, the coaxial into-the-house (although I have an idea of relocating that), the televisions, and the telephone wiring (which I believe I want to switch around), I suppose. I tidied up all my horrible-looking, dangling telephone and coaxial cable lines earlier this morning, as well. I figure if it looks somewhat neat, the next guy would feel a bit more obligated to do something neat as well.

Right now, as it is, I have my cable modem in the basement connected to the first splitter off the incoming coaxial cable. From there, the CAT6 travels to my D-Link router upstairs here on the first floor, and from there it goes back downstairs thru the air-conditioning duct along fifty feet of CAT5 to my main computer, and about two feet to my desk right here.

The telephone. My telephone (one of three lines), which is VOIP comes from the cable modem downstairs, across fifty feet of narrow/thin telephone wire, to this same room, where it exits thru the wall and out to the telephone box on the side of the house, which in turn goes back into the house's internal telephone wiring. It seems rather redundant for it to go from the basement, outside, to a box, and back to the basement -- but as this house was built in 1932, and there are two separate telephone lines running through the walls, Cablevision decided for the sake of it all, to do it this way. I suppose the box outside always worked, so why not do it that way, rather than run new wires to the main telephone connections inside.

The coaxial cable. At the moment, there is a very old and beat-up cable coming from outside to the first splitter in the basement. From there it splits off into the cable modem and a signal amplifier. From there (the signal amplifier) it goes to a 5-way splitter, dispersed to different televisions in the house. There are two unused coaxial cables there. One comes into this particular room, and the other goes to my garage.

What I have thought would work best... I did a lot of thinking about how this will all run. I've decided that the best way to do it, would to have their stuff installed right here in this room. It would be advantageous to do so, as it would be in a drier place, more accessible, and running on newer wires. Also, having the wireless Actiontec router that Verizon supplies on my 1st floor, rather than basement, would be a bit more beneficial in granting me more "useable" range; I want to use my laptop wirelessly on the 1st and 2nd floors, I don't care about it being used in the basement.

The total schematic running through my mind is as follows:

(Mind you, the ONT and Router are not the same things, but as both are being used to provide all the incoming services, I refer to them as one unit)

• ONT/Router --> Ethernet cables on 1st floor (den) --> 2 Computers
• ONT/Router --> Telephone jack on 1st floor (den) --> Box on outside of house --> Internal phone wires.
• ONT/Router --> Unused coaxial cable on 1st floor (den) --> First splitter off old coaxial-in --> televisions.

I am hoping that all the above can be achieved. It seems that this would be the best way to install everything, I wouldn't need two routers or a wireless hub/repeater, and it'd all be someplace I can keep an eye on it.

Some photographs, before/after my wiring cleanup.. for the hell of it:

Notice anything that I did not mention?

Less than 24 hrs for FiOS. I can't wait!

Having a RAID 5 file server on a gigabit network for all the computers in my house has been a dream of mine for a long time. In this video, I show you what I'm switching too and some of the issues that I ran into as I completed the upgrade.

The video is sadly dark and practically unwatchable. This does not prevent me from putting it on YouTube. The fact of the matter is that if you want to shoot good video (you know, with lighting) then you have to plan and prepare for that. It means work. It also helps to write what you're going to say instead of pointing a camera and just talking. I did not put any work into this and, well, it shows. Nonetheless, I suspect that computer geeks like me might enjoy it for what it is.

Finally, I learned something from this that's not in the video. Plugging in gigabit switches and routers doesn't give you gigabit transfer speeds out of the box. Windows, Linux and FreeNAS require substantial tweaking before you notice any improvements. This tweaking is not trivial and I'm still working on it.

In 2001, Cat5e (or enhanced Cat5) was designed, with stricter specifications for performance and speed. The biggest difference between Cat5 and Cat5e is that Cat5e can be used with Gigabit networks, networks like 1000BASE-T that boast transfer speeds of up to 1000Mbit/s. Cat5e also has slightly modified wiring for even greater protection from far end crosstalk.

In general, Cat5 has been almost completely replaced by Cat5e. While you can still find Cat5 cable out there, you can often find Cat5e at almost the exact same price. You may not notice a difference in performance for a home network, but virtually all business settings will benefit from exclusively using Cat5e.

UTP or STP?

The "TP" in both STP and UTP stands for "Twisted Pair." As mentioned previously, Cat5 cables include 8 total wires, each twisted with another to create four twisted pairs. This balanced pairing is crucial in avoiding crosstalk and establishing a high signal-to-noise ratio even in interference-rich environments.

STP is Shielded Twisted Pair. Each pair in the cable is covered in a metal sheath, which provides protection against EMI (Electromagnetic Interference). The drawbacks to shielding are a heavier cable without the same level of flexibility as UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair). STP is also a slightly more expensive cable and all of its jacks and terminators are shielded to be effective, which can add up over long distances.

UTP has no additional shielding around its individual twisted pairs, and thus does not require that its terminators and jacks also be shielded. Additionally, it is a light, thin, and flexible cable. This means that it is easy to wire between walls and won't take up the space that you may need for additional wiring.

Conclusion

Unless you have specific needs, UTP Cat5e cable is the best solution for most of your networking needs. Not only is it reliable, fast, and easy to work with, it's also the cheapest LAN cable on the market.

For additional shielding, go ahead and pay the extra for STP but remember that the cable will have less flexibility and needs shielded counterparts when planning your networking.