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lescline
join:2001-12-21
Sunnyvale, CA
|  Request for advise on U-verse home run
I'm considering moving to U-verse TV+Internet+Voice, from AT&T POTS+DSL (love it) and Comcast Digital Cable (aargh ... my Analog Cable worked fine for years, why the ... never mind).
What I have now:
1) Comcast Coax to 3 TV's, in my Family Room, Living Room, and Master Bedroom. I want this left alone ... I'm hoping/expecting the U-verse installer will be ok with this ... these guys *will* do what the customer wants, right?
2) AT&T POTS+DSL (one twisted pair) from NID to a punchdown block in my garage ... I would like the U-verse Voice back-driven from the RG to this punchdown. (I don't care if the U-verse installer runs the backdrive from the RG to the NID and uses my existing NID-to-punchdown cable, or if he runs the backdrive from the RG directly to the punchdown ... is there a standard procedure for this, or is it up to the installer?)
3) A nice star-topology from the punchdown block to RJ-11 phone jacks in 3 different rooms ... I want this left alone (which is why I want the RG to backdrive to the NID or the punchdown). I can't run an indoor phone cable for U-verse Voice because there's no RJ-11 jack close to where I need/want the RG to be ... I'm constrained on RG location because I only have 3-prong AC outlets in the Family Room and Kitchen of my early-1950's house ... so, the RG will sit in the Family Room, and fortunately enough, right next to an existing TV set.
4) A DSL Modem plugged to 1 of these 3 RJ-11 jacks, with a SMC 4-port 10/100 DSL Router plugged to the DSL Modem. 3 computers are plugged to 3 of the the Router's RJ-45 jacks. (POTS phones with DSL Filters are on the other RJ-11 jacks; I'll pull the DSL Filters once the U-verse Voice is running.)
5) An 8-port 10/100 Switch is plugged to the last RJ-45 jack on the DSL Router. The other ports of the 10/100 Switch are wired to RJ-45 jacks in various rooms, but currently, only one is being used ...
6) A SMC WiFi/4-port Router (that's *not* plugged to DSL; it's just functioning as a 10/100 Switch with a built-in 802.11bg WiFi Access Point) plugged to one of the RJ-45 jacks from 10/100 Switch. A Xbox 360 is plugged to one of the RJ-45 jacks on this SMC box. The WiFi Access Point in this box serves a Wii, and occasionally a visiting laptop or PDA or such.
7) If you draw a picture, it's really not that complicated ... and, it works.  Anything can talk to anything else, and everything can get to the Internet.
So ... based on about a week of research (including in this forum and in U-talk), here's what I have in mind for U-verse hookups:
A) Coax from NID to RG in Family Room ... well, maybe coax ... this needs to be a ~50-foot run on an outside wall (there's nowhere else it can go), but it can be tucked up under the roof so it's out of the weather ... is Cat5 ok for this? (And, this would only be 1 pair on a Cat5, right?) I was thinking coax for better isolation ... but, upstream of the NID, it's going however long on UTP that's strung on poles with all sorts of other stuff ... advice, please? (Is this run short enough that it doesn't matter if it's coax or Cat5?)
B) Cat5 from RG to NID or punchdown block, to backdrive the existing RJ-11 jacks for U-verse Voice ... if the NID-to-RG VDSL is on Cat5 (instead of coax), then this one can just be 2 pairs in that Cat5 cable, right?
C) A 6-foot Cat5 from RG to STB in the same room (Family Room) ... this is the easy one.
D) A ~50-foot Cat5 from RG to STB in Living Room. This would be a new wire run under the house, which I know is doable because the Cat5 from the 8-port Switch is down there ... it's very handy to have a house that's on top of a crawl space. (I *really* don't want this run to be on an exterior wall.)
E) A ~30-foot Cat5 from RG to STB in Master Bedroom. Another new wire run under the house. (I don't want this run on an exterior wall, either.)
F) A ~20-foot Cat5 from RG to the 8-port 10/100 Switch that I mentioned in #4 (to expose the Internet to the RJ-45 jacks and Routers and computers and Wii and such) ... I'm thinking this topology should keep all my local computer-to-computer traffic isolated from the RG, so the RG would only see traffic that's going to/from the Internet ... sound reasonable?
G) So, this would give me a nice star-topology for the STB's (with each STB directly connected to a RJ-45 jack on the RG), plus a single RG connection to all of the Internet traffic to/from the computers and game consoles. What I *don't* want, is bunch of diplexers and other hardware, I just want a simple LAN-type setup.
H) I'm *extremely* picky about cable runs ... should I lay the three under-house cables myself (obviously, before my installation date) (if I don't get DirecTV instead of U-verse , or can I trust an installer to do it the way I want it?
Anyway, please advise ... will this work, and is it a good idea?
-Les in Sunnyvale, CA | |
ILpt4U
Premium
join:2006-11-12
Lisle, IL
 ·AT&T Yahoo
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·magicjack.com
| FYI, if you have existing coax, but refuse to let the AT&T installer use it, you can be billed for each run of cable. Each run is $55 if no wall fish is needed, or $75 if the run invovles fishing a wall.
So if you do not want to be billed for running Cat 5, I would suggest pre-running it yourself. | |
RickM
@sbcglobal.net
|  reply to lescline
If you want it to work for years to come, the Cat5 cable has to be terminated properly. Premise cable (solid conductor) needs to hit a IDC style punchdown. Use a patch panel or a wall jack as those have IDC receptors. Then use a "patch cable" which is made of stranded conductors, not solid like premise cable, to reach your computer or RG or STB. Stranded cable works best with a RJ-45 connector which is a piercing style connector.
I stopped the installer from making this mistake on my install.
I am a network consultant and I can't tell you how many incorrectly terminated networks I have fixed. In over 10 years they have never had a problem with my wiring standards.
Good luck. | |
Attitude
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to lescline
A lot of info for a consumer oriented site, but let me try to point out a few things.
1) If you really, really, know how you want something wired then do it yourself. You will be happier in the long run.
2) Reconsider reusing the existing coax.
3) Your scheme will make your family room look like a wiring closet, and that is NOT a complement.
4) I counted 5 CAT5 connections to the RG, and there are only 4 ports available.
That said, some specific comments on your scheme:
A) Yes, CAT5 or Coax would work. It depends on the installer, but if they use a RJ11 connection it would use 1 pair for VDSL coming in, and you could use 1 pair back to the NID for voice.
B) see A
C-E) or existing Coax ...
F) Yes, perfect
G) I started off thinking like this, but came to appreciate the beauty of a coax only installation (not to mention I have more STBs than ports). Ultimately, all of my traffic is over the old coax, and when I look at the stats on the RG it is very straightforward to see HPNA stats. As a bonus all of my stats for Ethernet are data oriented, while the HPNA is all TV. | |
ozzy6900
join:2005-01-11
West Haven, CT
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to lescline
Re: Request for advise on U-verse home run
Let's see, 3 STB's, 3 PC's, 2 print servers all using CAT5. That's 9 connections and I only have 3 ports on the RG used (one for the DVR). They are called switches. A 4 port switch for all the STB's and 2 switches feeding different parts of the LAN. Home runs go from the RG to all the switches, none of which are in the RG's location.
Coax? We don't use no stinken coax! | |
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