Wiring For Your House - Make It Cat5 Cable

By Tim Carter
©1993-2010 Tim Carter

Summary: Both old and new homes should incorporate cat5 cable. This new house wiring standard is low voltage cable that provides options for networking appliances, telephone lines and computers all in one. Cat5 provides for future additions of these electronic devices -- and others we may not even have heard about yet!

Author's Note: Fiber optic cable is fast becoming the new standard in wiring. Ask the Builder is researching fiber optic cables and a new column will be written soon. Sign up for email notification so you know when this new fiber optic column is published. Click here to sign up.

Cat5 Cable - Wiring Information and Tips

I don't care whether you have a 100 year old home or a new one that is being built. All homes today need Cat5 cable. What is this? It is a new standard of wiring that can network computers and appliances and take care of telephone needs all in one.

Category 5 wiring is low voltage cable. It has 4 pairs of wires within one cable. The coloring of the wires is standardized. You will find a solid blue, green, orange, and brown wire. Twisted around each of these is a white wire that has a same color tracer on the wire. So you will have a solid blue twisted with a white wire that has blue dashes or streaks on it.

Cat5 cable allows you to network different electronic devices.

What is really cool about this wiring is that you can network a computer to another one and have two different phone lines all in the same space as you would normally have a regular duplex outlet! Not only that, there is actually space within the box and special outlets for three other connections.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. This is a photo of a special outlet system made by the Wiremold company. In this particular outlet, I have four different phone connections for the four different lines in my office. Notice the blank filler piece in between the phone plugs. I can easily remove the blank and insert a single outlet that would allow me to network my computer to another one. Cat5 wire should be extended to every location in a house where you think you might have a computer or an appliance. In the future, many things may be networked together. Use the right wire and make sure it says Cat 5 and has a UL stamp on it!

Comments:

MH
04 Feb 2008, 09:55

CAT5e is now the minimum standard

MH
04 Feb 2008, 09:58

In fact CAT6 is becoming the norm, CAT6A is in the process of being ratified as are CAT7 and CAT 7A however these latter cables are so thick that buildings need to be designed around the cabling infrastructure as the installation radius are so great. For houses etc. CAT5a is sufficient.

John Luther
20 Feb 2008, 09:25

My electrician says he can run one Cat 5 cable that will service both the single phone line and the home network.

I was surprised and thought that (even though they are at the same box) the network and telephone would each require thier own Cat5 run.

AsktheBuilder
27 Feb 2008, 08:15

John,
Cat 5 wire is fast becoming the old standard. If you are in a major market, fiber optic is the latest and greatest. Look into installing fiber optic. As for the land-line phone, I would use the cable I describe -- the one that has the four twisted pairs of wire.

James
28 Feb 2008, 21:30

I don't think John's question was answered. He asked can one use one line of Cat5 cable to satisfy both phone and internet/newtorking.

It seems you can, but everything I've read elsewhere says to run two separate lines.

I'm in this position. I'm thinking of Cat5e for phone and Cat6a for network.
The other issue noone talked about was sheilded and unsheilded.

As for fiber optic cable, I agree, but there are so many types of fiber cables as I was given advise by a friend in the fiber optics business to run the cable with Cat6, with cable for down the road.

amdrew
02 Apr 2008, 01:15

you can run one cat5 and use blue and brown pairs for telecom side, using the orange and green pair for the data side. but if the guy is running the wire then i would avoid doing this! dont half A55 a job. however, if it is already in place and to avoid cutting drywall then its ok. i have 15 years of structure cable backround and own my own business. i run 2 cat5 and 2 coax to all locations since the future will come fast... so be prepared!

andrew
02 Apr 2008, 01:32

to comment about the fiber issue. don't bother. cat5e in homes transfer data fine. fiber is a waste unless you have a million dollar system set up. run conduit to the attic and to other locations since it is much cheaper plus you can add whatever in the future. i have been in thousands of home and business settings and running fiber is like putting jet fuel in a geo metro. but if you have money growing from the tree in the front yard then run the fiber, run 24k gold wire instead of copper to spare the copper reserve for us less fortunate people

Shawn
03 Apr 2008, 19:04

Andrew i read your comment about cat5 i am remodeling a home and have cat5 to install, i dont know much about phone or cable. is there a right or wrong way to install the cat5 for phone and internet

steven hearn
18 Apr 2008, 07:54

Can cat5 be used for component video conections or is that some other wire

What is the coax for?

thanks

Dave
06 Jun 2008, 14:20

If I understand CAT5 wiring correctly, I can use the blue/blue-white pair for a telephone and the green/green-white & orange/orange-white pair for data commumication, i.e. a home network. Is that correct?

Thanks