Right tool for the right job.

Right tool for the right job.

So I'm a bit of a media head. And because I'm a media head, just a few short months after moving in it was a necessity to wire up my house with Ethernet.  If you're asking yourself what is a media head, that would be one who watches movies pretty often, and is continuously follows 1 or 2 TV series per year.  You see I have a hard time with commercials though so I much rather prefer to watch content through a media box that sits below the TV.  The media box plays anything type of media file whatsoever sitting on my computer.  In order for me to accomplish this I need to run a CAT5 cable from the hard drive on the second floor office down to the basement, and then from there over to the living room . Of course one would want it to look all cool and stuff so you have to drill holes through wood, cement, and basically string it up under the floor and behind walls. In my case I'm also going to run the line outside of the house to avoid having to tear up any drywall. There is already wires that are stapled to the red brick Towson row home's exterior, so I'm going to follow that and avoid further work. 

Techy plug, skip if math and tech companies bore you.

You would think it a whole lot easier if i just hooked up the WIFI right? Let the media stream from the PC to the TV over the air!  Well WIFI has trouble streaming media at a high bit rate. Anything at 1080p or higher can hit up to 45Mbps when streaming that delicious hi-def fidelity of  "honey booboo child" to your mush brain.   If you have any interruption in the bit stream then you get stuttering, and well no one will put up with that.  What I'm getting at is that you need CAT5 or "ethernet" cable which can deliver up to 100Mbps(Mega bits per second). This is still the fastest method to transmit data for the common man.  New WIFI standards have finally been set after years of debate so the generation "N" WIFI could get interesting, but ill believe it when I see it. It should be capable of playing HD over the air, but we still aren't quite there yet.  New interesting technologies from Intel's (thunderbolt) offer possible solution for a reduction in wires, and Bluetooth 3.0 sounds fun for short range capabilities, but an all wireless paradise is still some time away.

Back to the action

The plan is to run a CAT5 alongside a coax cable from the second floor across the house, and down into the basement. From there it will go through the cinder block wall, and head up underneath the floorboards as it snakes and follows other electrical wiring that runs across the house. Ill stop about half way under the house and feed the wire up into a living room outlet.  

To accomplish the deed I need to call in the muscle, and make sure the job gets done without any tech issues  popping up. Who better to call then ol' pops.  In less than a jiffy he's at the house with a bag a tools, and plenty of ideas.  Understand that I've worked with "computer" stuff with my dad since I was a child, by no means are we experts, but we both thoroughly enjoy messing with anything techy and um computer stuff. 

We immediately get started on the 2nd floor by drilling a hole directly parallel to one already there. Dad brings a power drill, and a masonry bit to get through the brick. I stand on a ladder outside leaning forward as I push the drill into the wall above my head.  Im about 20 feet up enjoying my home maker skillz as a put a hole in my house. The drilling isn't so much difficult at first, but its slow going through four inches of brick. We make it through the wall then take a wood drill to go through the baseboard inside. After a good 25 minutes of fiddling around its immediately discovered that the drill bit will in fact NOT be long enough to make it all the way through the exterior and interior wall. Its almost a solid foot between the outer wall and inner drywall while our poor little drill-bit is about 5 inches long. Close but not close enough.

Second floor drill hole

We go to Lowes!

With the longer drill bit its easy and satisfying as I punch through the wall from the outside. Dad sees the drill bit slide perfectly through to the inner wall. We are in business!  Now its time to play with the CAT5 cable. I mean after all we drilled one of our two holes, and we might as well run the wire though it so we can admire our drilling job.  I had a old spool of what I thought was CAT5 cable in the basement so we start with testing it out.  I'm a cheap ass so I want to avoid a unnecessary purchases at all costs. It doesn't take much effort to convince dad as i think we are both happy to play around and mess with it. Prices can range, but its about 35 bucks for a 50 foot spool.  The spool doesn't come with the Ethernet connectors on the end, of course, so you need to also have some RJ45's and a crimping tool.  RJ45's is the technical term for the thingies you plug into the computer/wall.  Long story short and an hours later worth of playing around we came to the realization that we need fresh CAT5. 

My long new drill bit!

 

We go to Lowes. 

Since we already had practice attaching the Ethernet connectors to the old wire, its short work to get the wire through the 2nd floor hole, and the RJ45 connected.  I then easily sling the wire across the house to pops who hangs out the window.  He catches it and snakes it through the already existing wire brace holding the other services connected to the house. It sits nice and secure across the house and flows down with the rest of the wires to the basement. From there other wires run through the cement wall. They are properly drilled to size and sealed with caulk to keep the moister out.  These holes are out of the question so we must drill our own.  

Anxious to cause mass destruction I take the first stab, and grab the drill as I muscle to the wall angling all my weight on to the drill.  The next 30 minutes probably looked comical if you have ever drilled through cement.  We run down the battery in both pops and my drill with only making an inch of progress. The drill just won't go through the cinder block. We give up on this task, and in an effort to at least get the network up and running we run it through the basement window and plug it into the router.  A quick test up stairs, and for the first time in my life I see a download reach 92Mbps. Yes, this speed excites me... I know I'm a nerd, but I'm fine with that.

Our lack of progress forces us to the go the window.

The job isn't finished yet! We still have to run the wire from the router in the basement along the floor above us and over to an outlet. This is actually not so hard, and in 20 minutes we have the wire properly fished through the living room outlet.  We crimp each end and then install this cool little outlet cover that has a Coax cable and a internet port on it. Now it looks cool. 

Going up through the floor to the outlet.

CAT5 running up through the outlet along with the coax cable.

Finished product!

With the network up and running its time for pops to hit the showers, and tend to his own kin. As I head out back to start cleaning up, and think what to do about the wire running through my basement window my good neighbor Dave calls across the alley! Apparently he saw the comical workout I gave the drill earlier, and wants to help.  Dave informs me that the problem is not the drill-bit it's the drill! Cement or cinder block requires a drill called a hammer drill. He happens to have one handy,  and hands it over so the cement can meet defeat at my hands.  ouch im down to the bottom the barrel here I better finish this entry.  In a matter of about 15 seconds I punch through the basement wall with out barely breaking a sweat. Heck I didn't even have time to take a breath. I promptly thank my neighbor and return the drill. Success! Two trips to Lowe's for one day is enough, but I put hammer drill on my most wanted tools list. 

The moral of this story is I did all this work for TV. A very just and noble cause I must say. When Katy wants to watch Gilmore girls or I need my fix of planet earth we can sit back on the couch and watch whatever media is stored on the PC upstairs. Al a cart, on demand, commericialess TV, ahh what a thing of beauty. 

Finished product all plugged in.

Wire running properly through the wall and not the window.

This is a shot of the crimping tool, and me holding the cat5 cable in the proper sequence ready to receive the RJ45 connector.