[SOLVED] Hard wiring house.

[Dutchnick]

We are renovating a student house. We build in desks and provide a smart TV/monitor in each room (5 rooms). All the students seem to spend 23 hours a day gaming. At present we have virgin top speed connection but they are all usingWiFi. We thought to hard wire to each desk , firstly is it worth while? what sort of speed improvement could be obtained ? Which cable to use? Is there much difference, I hear cat 5 cat 6 etc, what does it mean? The cable costs little so I think worth doing. Recommendations and suggestions appreciated.
Got to be the forum to ask....what knowledge!!!!

 

[bill001g]

Pretty much only a idiot would use wifi if a ethernet is available for gaming. Then again some people that play candy crush think they are hard core gamers.

Wifi is always subject to interference which will cause lag in online games. It is not the speed on ethernet that is the key advantage it is that you have a dedicated connection to the router that is pretty much immune to outside interference.

There are really only 2 valid cable choices. You use cat5e if you are like most people and only going to run gigabit. If there is a need for 10gbit then you use cat6a. Pretty much any other type of cable just costs more money and buys you nothing. The ports on the equipment control the speed not the cable.

The main thing to be concerned about is all the fake cable being sold. The words "CAT5, CAT6" etc mean nothing really so you have unsavory people abusing it. Ethernet cable is actually certified by a couple standards boards one of them being EIA/TIA.

The main fake cable to avoid is CCA cable. Ethernet cable is required to be pure copper cable. You also need to avoid any of that flat or thin cable. The wire size must be 22-24 awg.

There are still a few variations in valid cable. The jacket can be made so it does not burn (required in commercial buildings) or can tolerate water etc. I would look for what is called riser cable it tends to be the cheapest option.

 

[svalbaard]

All the students seem to spend 23 hours a day gaming.

How times change. When I was a student in the early 90's we spent 23hrs a day drinking

 

[Dutchnick]

Thanks for that. We have a 5 bedroomed student house with all students being gamers. We are installing ethernet cable but are wondering about intenet supplier. Virgin mega speed top option looks good but do we need such a high cost system? We want the best value.

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for that. We have a 5 bedroomed student house with all students being gamers. We are installing ethernet cable but are wondering about intenet supplier. Virgin mega speed top option looks good but do we need such a high cost system? We want the best value.

The problem with getting mid-tier internet is that those gamers are also streaming YouTube or NetFlix at the same time. That eats bandwidth.