[SGVLUG] Buying a spool of ethernet wire - cat5e or cat6? Copper or aluminum? Where? How much?

[matti]

Nice old house. We ( myself and some of your classmates )
wired up a few nice old homes. Old homes are really nice as
they have crawl spaces which beat the heck out of slab
construction.

--
Happily, I already have wall boxes installed.  The previous owner
of the house wired every room for cable TV and telephone.
All I need to do is swap out the old coax + phone wallplates
for 3 or 4 port keystone wall plates, populated with the right keystone bits.
And then magically thread the wiring alongside the old wiring.
Good thing I have a crawlspace and overalls...
--

Great! Old walls are great, but do require you to have a cutting
tool to get thru the latte ( wood behind the plaster ) Since this
work is already done we are already ahead of schedule.

I would get the 4 port plates, you can buy blanks to
cover up the extra hole(s) you wont be using.

but then maybe you will be using 4th port for old school phone line 
( great for emergency ), or for coax.

> Dan, I have about 4000' of Cat6 left over from my house so you're using Cat6.  ;)
Thanks!

6 locations total. 3 drops each -> 18 drops total 

hmmm.. I would get a 24 port cat6 patch panel.
Or 2x 12 port patch panels if you want a network "closet"
in the attic and one in the basement.

note - we would have to pull electrical in the attic to were you
would want to place the hub.

Have you id'ed the run from the basement to the attic yet?
Sometimes that will limit how many wires you can run between the floors.

normally I prefer to run all the lines in a house to one location
so I get no network bottle necks within the house.
( I mean YOU DO WANT TO bond the lines right... ;)

so, here is what I would pick up:
( for all lines terminating in the basement or attic.. )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
6x 4 port wall plates
maybe some blanks to plug the extra holes.
18x cat6 keystones - tooled ones probably better than tool-less.. so I have been told
( you do have a punch down tool right ;)
maybe coax keystones 
maybe new coax cable ( or keep old one if ok )
1x 24 port cat6 patch panel
some wood/plywood to build NOC wall/shelf..
short cat6 patch cables to go from patch panel to switch ( ? 10"  12"?)
zip ties which have a screw hole at one end so we can use to secure wires to beams.
dry wall screws ( hint OSH has these in bulk bins for a good deal 1lb for $2.50 or so.. )

if you need to run electrical to your switch/switches:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
armored flex wire ( 2 conductors, 14g for 15AMP.. )
metal electrical box ( 2 gang, thus can put in 4 sockets )
2x  dual 15AMP sockets ( i like the heavy duty ones. but thats extra $ )

Now, if you are like me you want to actually put in a separate 20AMP
circuit to feed your 20AMP UPS which can keep your network up for..
oh 24hrs without power... hmmm.. I think Tom may have had 30AMPs for
the mini he had... but i digress..

possible extra circuit breaker if you want to run your NOC on a separate 
circuit ( my preference, as it sucks to have your network shutdown when
someone uses the microwave or drys their hair ;)

should be a fun party!
matti