[TAG] Wiring a house with ethernet

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ramon van Alteren (ramon at vanalteren.nl):

> Agreed, go for cat6 that will allow you to upgrade your network
> equipment to >gigabit lateron.

Good point.  We're already looking ahead to the day when 10 gigabit will
need to to be supported.  That's right on the edge of where you might
have to switch to fibre optics (to be avoided if possible -- very costly
and difficult/expensive to work with).  There's a proposed (draft,
unfinished) IEEE "10GBase-T" standard for 100 metre lengths of 10
gigabit ethernet over copper, which will probably work OK over Cat6.
I'm guessing that would use all four pairs.

Cat7 exists but, from the description, sounds like a whole lot too much
trouble.

> I have no clue what a romex run is.

Romex is a type of cheap, solid-core AC cable with a hard plastic
coating.  (Technically, it's a brand name, but is edging towards
becoming generic.)  While I cannot recall this aspect of California
building codes (legal standards for construction), I vaguely recall
that using unprotected Romex for AC in new construction is forbidden.

Building codes are of course very detailed, and absolutely not my field,
so take cum grano salis.

> Watch out with that testing method though, newer nics will
> automatically adjust to a cross-cable if they detect it.

True.  These particular cabling guys tended towards less complex failure
modes, though, such as pairs that weren't punched down or were
completely scrambled.  This is actually very common:  A surprising
number of (soi-disant) professional cabling jobs have to be mostly
redone after deadline, because the monkeys doing the work have no
concept of quality control.  In those situations, being able to invoke
the penalty clause in your contract is poor consolation, when everyone
arrives for work at the new offices and half the network drops don't work.  

My remedy of following the workers around with a laptop on a cart was
designed to head that scenario off at the pass -- in accordance with my 
motto that hearing "I'm sorry" from people is the booby prize.

Reminds me of where I was heading with the Heraclitus stuff, yesterday:  
I may have been doomed to be a sysadmin from an early age, because I
picked up a rather savage attitude towards people who cause sudden loss 
to me and mine by being stupid or negligent, way back:
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/index.php?page=crybaby#apology
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/index.php?page=crybaby#goodintentions

Lately, I found myself, to my regret, having snarled at a few friends
and relations for small things, e.g., carelessly giving me a headcold,
leaving the house for the day with the door wide open and the
thermostat set to heat the outdoors, etc.  Those were annoying and worth 
preventing, but I was needlessly harsh.  Let's say that I was not in a
mindset of metaphorical "ahimsa", anyway.

Insight into self is a funny thing.  It took driving past the first
Christmas lights in my town, which I have idiosyncratic reasons for
finding dispiriting, every year, to hit me over the head with the
reason.  I was thinking:  You'd almost think I was still sore over
sudden loss from someone's negligence when I was a boy....  Oh.  Right.

http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/index.php?page=misc#xmas