atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information what demarcation type used in new homes?

Personally I like parts of the 570 spec - BUT I still use Cat 3 for voice. On the very few occasions when I've done residential I try to run a Cat 3, a Cat 5E and a coax to each of the rooms (except the bathroom - I refuse to put a computer jack in the head.)

I think this business of running Cat 5 for everything is an utter waste of money. Maybe you've got it in stock so it's easier - but go buy a reel of Cat 3 and now it's in stock too.

I've also had contractors try to send me Plenum cable for a job that didn't need it. Their reasoning - that's all we stock so we don't make a mistake. SHMUCKS - go out and look at the job! I can see on a three station candy store it might not matter, but I've run into this on a 3,000 line job!

I've got 41 years in the business and I have never seen a phone that needed more than CAT3. Except VOIP and those aren't phones - they're computers.

Use the right tool for the right job and use the right cable for the right job.

Sam

Maybe I'm lazy, but I have a cordless phone system in the house, and yes, I have a cordless netgear cable router. It's where the desk-top 'puter and printer are. If you want to use my hi-speed, come by and I'll provide you with the password! John C. (Not Garand)

Ozzy:

Here's a picture of a typical NID that's installed by the telephone company. Notice on this one, the left side (upper side in the picture) is a private compartment for the their protection and/or electronics. The right (lower side in the picture) is where the subscriber makes their terminations. This is usually installed in the vicinity of your electric service, and almost always outside:



It's hard to tell in the picture, but the wires that feed the test jacks have absolutely NO twist at all, so feeding these into CAT5e serves absolutely no purpose. It's like using a 1/2" water line to feed a 4" one. You can't improve the signal quality by using tightly-twisted wires.

I didn't realize that you hadn't already run the cables, so you really should take the advice given by others and terminate your cable runs INDOORS on industry-standard blocks.

I saw a residential termination box in a catalog (I think it was Leviton). It had space to terminate voice cables in one area, data in an another and coax in a third. The whole thing fit together in a closed cover package.

Has anyone ever used one of these things? Either by Leviton or by someone else? If so, how were they?

It seemed like a nice, little, all-in-one, professional looking unit.

I'm coming up on retirement, and if my health holds out, I might think about doing a little residential work. I think I'd rather install a consolidated panel then a bunch of separate components on a backboard in a basement. More professional, I would think.

Of course I'm speaking strictly of a POTS job - no KSUs.


Sam

You really helped me understand why it doesn't make sense to use cat 5e. I never considered what telco wiring in NID will contribute to a system. Thank you.

The leventon systems work great I installed 1 in a lawyers House in Louisiana and it was nice it lasted about as long as 2 service calles by the Dish sateleite company in the area. They went out and installed there equipment in the enclosure and tore up all the mods that had the data terminations and phone termination. Levinton put it out. I would contue to do residential install if I could install these in ever house I did not not everyone wants to spend that kind of money.

I'm not a fan of the structured wiring modules. Too much of a pain squeezed into such a small space. Give me a backboard and some blocks any day

I'm with Moss, those boxs limit your space and if you have to install a system, good f'n luck.

After a couple of years they're overflowing with all types of low voltage wires.

Even some people who accept that you don't need CAT5 or even CAT3 for POTS seem to have difficulty accepting that it serves no useful purpose for DSL either, and I wish I had a dollar (or pound) for everytime I've had somebody insist that DSL extension wiring "absolutely must be CAT5."

I think they have the idea that because it's computer data it needs to go to full Ethernet specifications. They don't seem to grasp that DSL is running over several miles of that "CAT NOTHING" cable back to the C.O. anyway.

The only advantage ,That I see for Cat5 being used entirely ,is the publics misconception,If they know one thing about cable it is CAT5, It has been promoted by every Sparkie,and most builders as the Cats meow,and therefore the consumer standard,not even considering the quality of the installation,90% of all the Cat5 Installations I have seen by other trades, have no idea how to properly handle and/or install cat5.