Ballpark cost for joining some cat 5 wiring

Seifer

I live in an apartment and there are Ethernet sockets in all the rooms however they're not actually connected to each other. I asked the landlord about getting them connected but he said it's up to me to cover the cost.

The utility room in the middle of the apartment has a panel behind which the ends of all the cat5 cables seem to be; they have no connectors on the end of them or labels identifying which room they go to.

I want an electrcian to wire the living room socket (beside the router) to the one in my bedroom so that I can receive an internet connection with a cable (wifi is driving me mental).

Could anyone provide a figure on much this should cost me? And potentially recommend someone in the Dublin 8 area who could handle such a job?

Cheers!

bassey

You'd be mad to pay for this out of your own pocket in rented accommodation, a set of homeplugs would probably do the job.

Gate Automation

easy job for afternoon

DublinDilbert

Seifer wrote: »

I live in an apartment and there are Ethernet sockets in all the rooms however they're not actually connected to each other. I asked the landlord about getting them connected but he said it's up to me to cover the cost.

The utility room in the middle of the apartment has a panel behind which the ends of all the cat5 cables seem to be; they have no connectors on the end of them or labels identifying which room they go to.

I want an electrcian to wire the living room socket (beside the router) to the one in my bedroom so that I can receive an internet connection with a cable (wifi is driving me mental).

Could anyone provide a figure on much this should cost me? And potentially recommend someone in the Dublin 8 area who could handle such a job?

Cheers!

Get a punch tool off adverts (http://www.adverts.ie/for-sale/q_punch+tool/)
Get some CAT5 RJ45 sockets from adverts or electrical wholesalers.
Watch some youtube video's and work away.

You'd be looking at an hours work for an electrician by the time you take into account travel time etc... so shouldn't cost more than €50

thesteve

It's the case of simply finding which two cables in the utility correspond to the rooms you want to join. The thing is, you'll need to put RJ45 ends on each cable in order to connect a tester. These ends are cheap;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj45-ethernet-cable-connector-1s.html

You'll need one of these to connect them to the cable;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj11-and-rj45-crimping-tool.html

And one of these to test the cables to make sure they're crimped right, and so you can trace the cable to the rooms;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj45-network-cable-tester.html

Once you know which two to connect, use a coupler to join them;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj45-coupler-for-cat5-cable.html

Add the price of the above up, and compare to the price of homeplugs;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/600mpbs-homeplugs.html

That said, I'd take ethernet over homeplugs any day.

EDIT: I'm not affiliated with tvtrade, they're just a good ol' reasonably priced Irish website

Seifer

thesteve wrote: »

It's the case of simply finding which two cables in the utility correspond to the rooms you want to join. The thing is, you'll need to put RJ45 ends on each cable in order to connect a tester. These ends are cheap;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj45-ethernet-cable-connector-1s.html

You'll need one of these to connect them to the cable;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj11-and-rj45-crimping-tool.html

And one of these to test the cables to make sure they're crimped right, and so you can trace the cable to the rooms;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj45-network-cable-tester.html

Once you know which two to connect, use a coupler to join them;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/rj45-coupler-for-cat5-cable.html

Add the price of the above up, and compare to the price of homeplugs;
http://www.tvtrade.ie/600mpbs-homeplugs.html

That said, I'd take ethernet over homeplugs any day.

EDIT: I'm not affiliated with tvtrade, they're just a good ol' reasonably priced Irish website

Thanks for the details. I think I'm gonna give it a go myself.

A suggestion I received on reddit was to get a toning tool like this. Then I wouldn't have to spend ages crimping cables and once I've identified the two I want, to join them with a junction box like this

The main thing I want from all of this is stability in the connection so since I've no idea about the reliablity of homeplugs and this seems to be cheaper anyway I'll give it a lash.

mikeyjames9

Seifer wrote: »

Thanks for the details. I think I'm gonna give it a go myself.

A suggestion I received on reddit was to get a toning tool like this. Then I wouldn't have to spend ages crimping cables and once I've identified the two I want, to join them with a junction box like this

The main thing I want from all of this is stability in the connection so since I've no idea about the reliablity of homeplugs and this seems to be cheaper anyway I'll give it a lash.

Tone generator and probe will identify the ends quickly
You might want a network cable tester too

DublinDilbert

Seifer wrote: »

Thanks for the details. I think I'm gonna give it a go myself.

A suggestion I received on reddit was to get a toning tool like this. Then I wouldn't have to spend ages crimping cables and once I've identified the two I want, to join them with a junction box like this

The main thing I want from all of this is stability in the connection so since I've no idea about the reliablity of homeplugs and this seems to be cheaper anyway I'll give it a lash.

If you don't have the use for a tone tool i wouldn't bother investing in one. Borrow or buy a cheap multimeter, they will have a continuity test setting on them. When the two probes are touched they will beep.

Go to your bed room, strip back the CAT5. Join the Green-White White-green pair. The go to utility and check for continuity on the Green-White white-green pair on all the CAT5 cables.

Or even easier get a small blub + holder from the likes of maplin and a small battery. You can do a simple continuity test with these too.

2011

DublinDilbert wrote: »

If you don't have the use for a tone tool i wouldn't bother investing in one. Borrow or buy a cheap multimeter, they will have a continuity test setting on them. When the two probes are touched they will beep.

Go to your bed room, strip back the CAT5. Join the Green-White White-green pair. The go to utility and check for continuity on the Green-White white-green pair on all the CAT5 cables.

Or even easier get a small blub + holder from the likes of maplin and a small battery. You can do a simple continuity test with these too.

+1

Seifer

DublinDilbert wrote: »

If you don't have the use for a tone tool i wouldn't bother investing in one. Borrow or buy a cheap multimeter, they will have a continuity test setting on them. When the two probes are touched they will beep.

Go to your bed room, strip back the CAT5. Join the Green-White White-green pair. The go to utility and check for continuity on the Green-White white-green pair on all the CAT5 cables.

Or even easier get a small blub + holder from the likes of maplin and a small battery. You can do a simple continuity test with these too.

The problem with that is in the bedroom and the living room the cables are already connected to sockets so I'd have to disconnect them. With a toning tool I believe I can just plug into the socket with the signal sender.

You quoted €50 euro as the cost of an electrician so anything under that is a saving in my book and I'd prefer the method with the least cable fiddling.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

DublinDilbert

Seifer wrote: »

The problem with that is in the bedroom and the living room the cables are already connected to sockets so I'd have to disconnect them. With a toning tool I believe I can just plug into the socket with the signal sender.

You quoted €50 euro as the cost of an electrician so anything under that is a saving in my book and I'd prefer the method with the least cable fiddling.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

OK so the CAT5 cables are already terminated in the bedroom and living room, that makes life easier.

If I have this correct you want a CAT5 run from your bedroom to the living room, but all of the CAT5 runs terminate in the utility room.

So what I would do is join the cable coming from the bed room to the cable coming from the living room, you'll need to join each of the 8 individual wires. Strip them back and wind them around each other, joining colour for colour. this isn't ideal but will definitely work. Make sure to insulate them with some tape.

You just need to identify the two cables, so the tone tester will do this or a multimeter. If you want to use the multimeter get an old CAT5 patch cable, cut it in half and short one pair together. Then go into the utility with the multimeter and check for continuity on the cables.

Seifer

I identified the cables I needed with your method of splitting a crossover cable and using a multimeter. My junction box and punch down tool came today so I just joined them up; see below for the difference it made (not visible, the reliability I was looking for).

Thanks for all the advice!

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