Wiring My House

It turns out that I was missing a single adapter for my KVM switch for my Media Server PC, so I couldn't install the server last night. Instead, I decided to work on the wiring.

Specifically, I needed to pull Ethernet cable from my office to each of the three TVs in my house. (One is actually a projector, but you get the idea).

Now, in theory, I could have gone with some sort of wireless system. I have chosen to go the wired route for several reasons. First, I have heard that HDTV over wireless is slow and unreliable. Second, I also found that my chosen Media Extender, the SageTV HD200, uses Ethernet. Finally, my house is already wired for cable, so I merely had to wire Ethernet alongside the existing cables. This is not hard, but it is somewhat time consuming.

Once alternative would have been to use phoneline networking, or HomePNA. I once deployed phoneline networking in a 12 story residential complex for internet sharing. It was much cheaper to share a single internet connection rather than each one of sign up for one.

Phoneline networking uses existing telephone lines in your house as your network cables. I used to use this product.

You would also have the option of powerline networking. That is using your homes electrical wiring to send data. While both of these solutions would be far less labor intensive, they would be more expensive. Ethernet cable is really cheap on EBay, like $15 for 100 feet of cable.

As usual, time will be my biggest constraint.