How to Add a Network Jack to a Wall
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- In this Budget Nerd video, we go over how to install a network jack on wall running your cables through a crawlspace. Check out my other videos for more networking goodness.
2:22 - skip straight to the wall jack install
MUSIC:
0:06 Toe Jam - Diamond Orbitz
1:09 How About Nah - roljui
3:30 Trapped - Quincas Moreira
6:14 Triumph - Young Logos
8:29 - How About Nah - roljui
As an IT Worker - this was a really great layperson explanation of the whole process without getting bogged down in the gritty details of the process to give a really good basic overview of what you need for a good and functional installation!
Really good job!
I’ve never seen the word layperson used until now
@@waynem6789💀 mf thinks it's not pc to say "layman," even though "man" is still inclusive to "woman."
I just graduated computer eng, we're not taught to do this.
@@youseff500 That’s exactly what I thought lol.
@@youseff500You guys must have brain plaque to even think or notice this. It’s just a word people use. It’s been around for decades
And a crawl space. You'll need one of those too.
There's always an attic
Cameron Nason not in Artantica
A full basement works too.
Can't you run it above the ceiling than drop the cable down to where you want to the plug to be?
You can, but much easier if you have an attic.
I don't normally comment on these types of videos but I just wanted to say how I really appreciated how straight forward you were in explaining and showing everything.
No prob!
A cheap way to run ethernet through your whole house (assuming you are like me and don't use cable TV anymore) is to utilize the existing coax outlets across the house. Pull the cover off, tape the ethernet run(s) to the existing coax, and pull it up through the ceiling or floor. Then switch the coax plate with a couple keystones.
sure would be nice had they not stapled the shit when building the house
As mentioned: as standard practice most electricians are going to be stapling cables everywhere so using an existing cable to pull a new cable through....just isn't possible anymore.
If you don't have a cookie cutter house and built your own or your house is old: then yeah that might be possible.
If you really want to be friendly to your future self: run some 1 inch conduit and put the cables through there. A one inch conduit could easily fit at least 8 Ethernet cables , 4 HDMI cables, or quite a bunch of speaker cable.
If you have an older house that already has coax running through it, as long as your router supports it, and coax can reach the router you can use Moca to repurpose coax as an ethernet.
@@mrpotatotv yes but does it support multi-gig speeds? I'm getting 2g fiber internet soon and I'm not sure if moca would support that.
Thanks for posting this video. Going through the attic was not really a good option for me. But after seeing your video, I was able to successfully make 8 runs in my house earlier this Spring to wire the masterbedroom, two kids' bedrooms, living room, and dining area after re-watching and studying your video. While it was a bear to crawl underneath the house, I am glad I did it especially now that my kids' schools will be from home due to the pandemic.
the attention to detail here is likely underrated. Great video. Good editing. Thanks
The animation of being able to see into the wall was an excellent idea! Good work man!
The little nylon string is used for stripping the jacket, as using the cable-stripper alone can damage the underlying copper wires. You expose the nylon string, then pull down on the string to "tear" through the jacket, rather than cutting the jacket with a blade.
I'm remodelling at the moment, I think I'm going to add network jacks to all my rooms after watching this. So much better than wifi!
same here! for years I've used only WiFi for everything, but man... once I connected an ethernet cable just to see what would happen I was in shock at how much faster everything was loading. So now I'm looking to see how much it would cost to just run ethernet ports to the rooms myself. Much cheaper than paying AT&T to do it after they've already done an install.
Great demo. The crawl space is not that common in a lot of places in the U.S., but most of the principles you showed still apply. Those fishing rods are very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Plan on doing this in the early spring, but I kept thinking, "it can't be that easy." Thank you for proving me wrong. :) Although for my peace of mind I think I'll secure the boxes to studs as well, I don't like the idea of floating the plates in just drywall.
That orange drywall box I used and showed in the video works great and holds well. I've never had issues with it, as long as it's not supporting tons of weight.
This is exactly what I need to do for my new internet network. Clearly and explained in great detail. Thank you for sharing. It makes my attempt a bit less daunting. Hope I can do it with less equipment.
Pro tip. The LV box you have has four very small holes at the corners of the interior. You hold the box against the wall backwards, punch the holes with a poker or nail, and you have the exact size you need to cut out. Just connect the dots.
I was going to add this. Makes the hole the EXACT size you need. My only advice is to hold a small level under it so you don't make an angled hole (easy to do at such close proximity).
Good tip, that's good for getting the cutout the right size, I still like to measure the outlet next to it still, so I know they will line up.
One word of advice. If you are going to do this, make sure you spend a little extra money and get a good quality cable such as a cat 6 or better cable if there is something. Even if something doesn't exist now that the wire supports, it may in the future. And by putting in the best quality now can save you headaches later on by not having to go through this again. Especially if you had to go through the hassle of fishing wires because you didn't have easy access to where you ran your wires. When doing a permanent installation such as this. It's better to plan ahead for future possibilities than to be left behind. Also make sure the wires are suitable for in-wall use. I should say so on the package or stamped on the wire itself.
Personally I used double shielded Cat-7, should be good up to 40gbps.
This is actually high-quality, professional work and also high-quality professionally done video. Bravo.
Thanks. I used to be in construction/painting before IT.
I found this very helpful. Subscribed.
On the mud ring or the low voltage box, there are 4 tiny holes located at every corner. Use these holes as a template to mark the hole you are about to cut.
Thanks for this! Most videos I've watched have said to drill a hole into the floor in front of where I want to add the wall plate. You're the only one so far to point out that electrical outlet wiring can be used as a reference too. Hoping to avoid drilling holes that won't be used.
Oh you lucky people who have dry wall and not horse hair plaster walls. This always looks so easy, especially when you are installing it on the first floor. You never see youtube videos of anyone running network cable from the basement to the attic in finished construction. Now that would make for a great video.
Best to work with gravity. Start from the attic and go to the basement.
@@norge696 Poimt taken, but it doesnt change the degree of difficulty of dealing with the plaster or lath.
4:45 I would recommend using a “spotter rod” , snip the straight long portion from a wire coat hanger and using a drill with the spotter rod in the chuck, bore through the floor as close to the footboard. Go back down to the crawl space/basement measure an 1 1/2” to 2” (4-5 cm) into the wall cavity and drill your hole out for your wiring. I do this all the time for running new thermostat wiring.
Or use a very small drill bit, same size as the hanger then put the hanger through the hole.
I use the same thing
When your house is 100ish years old this becomes insanely more complicated! haha good video.
Same for my house, my room is a finished attic so we had to do some very weird things to get a wired connection
Mine is 200...
Super easy if you have a crawl space, but this is so very rare. :( Often they're under only a very small limited portion of the house, if they exist at all.
Quite a lot of newer houses have crawl spaces between floors, but you are correct. More often than not there aren't any.
True
If you dont have a crawl, go into the attic. If your home is two stories, it'll be a real chore to bring the wire from the attic to the first floor interior wall, but it isn't impossible
@@nilpo Not a single house with crawl spaces here in Germany. Would like to build a smal network, but brick walls... 🙈
@@Akantor5 Yeah this tutorial is only good for the US where the houses are hollow and made of paper.
I’ve watched this 5 separate times and i still haven’t tried yet 😂.
I like how you ran two cables to your new location so that you have an extra port for an additional device and for redundancy. I hate when some people run only one cable to a new location and realize they need another ethernet port.
I mean u can just add a cable splitter no biggie
@@younggoob2396 You mean a switch? Well it makes more sense to run multiple cables per drop and have a large central switch instead of buying a switches for each drop. Saves time and money. No need to crawl into the attic or crawlspace to replace a cable or add one for a single cable drop. Plus, it's sometimes easier to run two or more cables instead of one. You don't have to terminate both cables in each drop. You can terminate one of them and later on terminate the other cable when you need it. Much easier than fishing another cable.
Budget Nerd: "crawlspace"
Foundation Slab : "I pity da fool"
Just run it in the attic. Try to get to it as early as possible so you don't combust.
Thanks for sharing this with us. It helps give me confidence that I can do it myself too.
I gave this video a thumbs up because of the intro music alone... brilliant.
Thanks. This is almost exactly what my project looks like. Now I have a plan!
Step 1: Own a house
😭
@@bumnoma lol
American house, the rest of the world build with bricks
@@marcovanderbank7361 like any real house should be
Yay I passed step 1
This was incredibly helpful. Especially the optional utility blade in place of a jab saw. Thanks!
Yeah, when I first started cutting holes in my walls to install ethernet jacks, I used a utility knife since I didn't have a jab saw. It does take a bit longer than a jab saw, but it gets the job done when I don't have that saw
I find all of your how to videos very easy to watch and understand. Your sense of humor and quick wit make watching the entire video . . . acceptable. I don't have to fast forward to get you to the point cause you are always making a point that I need to hear. Thanks
Thanks! Glad to help!
What an excellent video. Congratulations.
Some good comments already, but I'd like to add that I really liked the color/line illustrations that you added! (Maybe someone else has commented on that, but not in the 20 or so that I have looked at). I "liked" it!
you're the first. That was a last min add actually. I'm glad I did it. It's my favorite part of the video!
Typically inadvisable to put low voltage in the same stud space as high voltage. Even shielded cable can be affected by it. This will be fine for gig but may experience problems with multigig connections
they just have to be 8inches apart right?
@@Layarion they need to be separated by a suitable barrier. He could’ve gone to the next cavity over & he would’ve been alright.
@No Body yes
That little string you cut off is called dental floss and it is used to strip down the cable beyond where you stripped it to make sure the wires were not nicked when stripping off the outside protective covering/sheathing.
Yes, I know.
Good information for getting the wires connected to the ports. I’m surprised by the closing comments about an attic being more difficult than crawl space. My parents house had an attic, and all the houses we’ve had have had crawl spaces. I found the attic 100 times easier to do anything because you could actually stand up and see what you’re doing.
depends how big your attic is, you can't really stand in mine and you have to be careful to only step on the beams or else you'll fall through the ceiling
@@arsenalfanatic09 ah that makes sense. Only stepping on the beams is pretty normal, but I can see not being able to stand being a problem. That was sort of the case in our first house. It think it was technically an attic, but I always called it a crawl space because the height rendered it useless.
Nice Video, but my Walls are made of Stone.. and underneath me is another persons home.. so...
Still nice
@Genna Tuelz what is that
Step 1: own a house
Masonry bit
"Cries in concrete"
attic
@@notsure7874 can rats chew through the cables
All you guys with your attic accesses and crawl spaces...must be nice. I need a ceiling fan in a room with neither.
Nearly every youtubers video on home networking has a 24 port switch with 8 cables in it. Money well spent
Give it time.. mine is getting there.
So true, mine is now 1/3 full. My network is growing!
actually surprising the 8 or 16 port are just as expensive on new egg n they dont sell them as rack mount so technically cheaper to get 24 port
I don't need network jacks in my house. But damn I watched this anyway
Perfect tutorial for his house that is made from paper. Anyone else, keep looking.
Excellent video, concise and well-produced! One of the best I have seen on TH-cam.
Clear, concise, correct, complete
Wish I had a crawlspace. My house has useless telephone and coax jacks that I would love to replace, but I see no way of getting to them.
You can turn those coax jacks into ethernet by using moca adapters.
Same thing goes for the telephone jacks. If your house was built in the late 90s, early 2000s or newer, there's a good chance the builders of your house used CAT5 or CAT5E for the telephone jacks. So you can convert them into ethernet jacks.
Thank you for the video!! Made my life WAY easier (than the way) i was going to try
Sometimes to locate the area of the wall to drill up from I will use a piece of coat hanger (about a foot) put it in my drill pull the carpet back slightly and drill down by the base board, Go under the house find the coat hanger aproximatly inch and half over drill up with half inch paddle bit.
Dude, I'm a fan of ur vids for LIFE!!! AWESOME VIDS!
wtf is a crawl space....
It’s a space underneath floors or under your house that gives you access to pluming , electrical wires etc
@@Piminther i dont think my house has that
wawawho18 you can always run it through the attic
@@xanth_1499 yes im aware....just never heard or seen a crawl space
@@wawawho18 Then you should be aware that crawl spaces have been on most houses for the past 100 years. You act like they don't exist lol. The world is much larger than your house.
“So first you’ll need a crawl space”
**cries in Louisiana**
great video! you're lucky to have a crawl space
Thanks you helped me learn how to find studs very easily, better than the stud finder I have. Thanks!
a basic list of requirements in the description would be nice. A link to where you can get them would be even nicer. Just sayin'
HUH UH. I'll game on wifi til I die of old age before I go toe to toe with the spiders in my crawl space.
Funniest comment ever!
router
Budget Nerd how does the wall get the network from the modem or the router?
The Ethernet cable goes from the wall plate, through your house, to a port on the patch panel. The port on the patch panel is then patched (connected) to the switch, which is connected to the router, giving you your internet.
@@BudgetNerd Is there an under $20 punch down took kit
REALLY helps to label the wires before you punch them
Lots of youtubers put in patch panels, but for those who want to keep it simple, another low voltage box in the switch/router room with a six position keystone plate can be a lower profile and lower cost alternative.
6 position keystone plate is exactly what I did
Step 1: Own this very specific house in the US
But I'm living in Germany =(
underscore_youtube u can do it instead of the patch panel use switch
Man...American houses are so easy to do DIY on.
I'm in Portugal, have to run an ethernet cable from the main house to the annex, both made with concrete walls, lol. No Crawlspace, no drywall. No easy access to the patch panel.
Our country is absolutely massive and building codes vary state to state. Please stop generalizing America as if we are a homogenous country. Your home is no more difficult to wire than the nursing home I did last week.
Straight and to the point. Thanks for sharing.
budget nerd, i relate hardcore to that channel name haha. Wire fishing poles are a must. You can get 54' for like $30 on amazon
Just a couple of things I'd like to mention. You identified where your wall studs were, but then did exactly opposite of what you should have done. Network cables should never be run in the same stud bay as a electrical work and should be at least 12 inches away. You should have gone to the right of the next stud over. Second, you don't use a razor knife for removing a wall plate screw. That's a good way to get a nice cut when it slips off the screw. It's also a good way to get a piece of metal in your eye when the point of the blade breaks off. Third, you do mention a drywall saw, but you aren't using one. You shouldn't use a razor knife for cutting finished drywall. It's extremely difficult to maintain safe control while cutting as you demonstrate while holding your bare hand in the path of the cut as you tried not to slip. Finally, you shouldn't use a drill to lock down a plaster ring. It's a great way to overtighten and break existing drywall.
Robert Dunham okay bob the builder
Robert Dunham too long didnt read
sturamic super You're lazy. So what? The comment wasn't for you anyway.
nilpo19 not lazy just don't want to waste my time with another person on the internet that thinks they're a rocket scientist
sturamic super Wasting your time. You mean like replying to a comment you never read?
Tip from a pro:
In situations where using fish sticks is required to fish the wall, locate the lv-1 hole on the other side of the stud from the power, and dead next to it. This way you can ride the stud down and find your fish stick easily.
There are wall plates available fitted with double ended RJ45 sockets. If you have the room to run cable with the plugs on it makes the job a whole lot faster.
When I wired my house I purchased different colored keystones rather than using a numbering system. Each room keystone was a specific color. That was eight years ago, I wonder if one can still purchase colored keystones? I was able to run my cabling through the attic easily enough. Fun project.
All of this equipment adds up to the exact opposite of budget.
Exactly! I hadn't thought of it that way. All I could think of is how often would I use these extra tools.
Except when you factor in the cost of installation by a pro. Most of these items you can borrow from the IT staff from your office. Cost is in cable and injectors really.
Dirt cheap on ebay/amazon. Installers will charge couple hundred bucks per drop.
For the most part getting a spool of cat 6a will cost you around $214, connectors will cost you around $12, wall plate $14, the tools for stripping and pushing will cost you probably around $15 to $25 or more if you want high quality equipment for day to day use. The drill and knife, most people have especially if you’re handy and thus have the guts to do this yourself. The cost for doing it yourself will cost you around $265-$300 depending on the quality of materials you’re using. The average cost in my area in the Bay Area in California is to run cable by a pro is $1,000 to $1,500 for 4 rooms with cat 6 cable (and this is only at a length of 250’). The electrician will charge anywhere from $65 to $85 per hour, and then you have to pay for the cost of materials. The price of one run by a pro for one room costs about the same as you getting the tools to do it yourself, plus you’ll have an endless supply of cable for redoing the rest of your network. The cost in your area may vary, so check here for the cost in your area: www.fixr.com/costs/hardwired-computer-network
@@josephyang3260 You're way off? Where are you shopping? Wallplate is 90c, connectors are $8 each, the spool needs only be 50ft, unless you have a 2000+ sqft house which would probably put you above. You're looking at more like 30-40 bucks for good quality 6a cable. 60 for 150ft. Basically your 265-300 bucks is what I would call the "don't shop around" cost. If you shop around that's an easy 80-100 bucks. So it's even cheaper than you thought. No one should use an electrician to do low-voltage running of wire, that's overkill. For me, this project cost me 30 bucks because I don't even care about 6a or needing those speeds.
13-12 *cringe*, damn I would've switched the wires in the wall jack lol
5:14 When drilling holes between floors you'll probably want to seal up the hole the cables will be going through with some-sort of fire stopper, such as fire resistant foam(this isn't supposed to stop a hypothetical fire, but is meant to slow it enough that you have more time to get out in the event of a fire). Also use Riser rated cables between floors (riser rated cable have insulation made with slowing fire in mind)and plenum rated cables across a single floor run(when it burns it won't be toxic.). In doubt stick to plenum if you have to make more complicated Ethernet runs with going up a floor and a large distance horizontal across that floor.
I wired my home back in 1998 with cat5. I used two twisted pair of the cat5 for one connection and the other two twisted pair for a second connection. That way I had two connections to my hub with one cable. Worked fine back in the day, but everybody grew up and moved out. Now I use some of the connections but WiFi most everything.
We don’t have a ‘crawl space’ in the uk 🇬🇧 lol
Lukas M'erica
My house certainly does but its not as big
it is rare in us too.
Do you have any crawl fish?
@Jupp Schlabutt Same here in Denmark. We build houses from bricks so they last! No wonder their houses gets blown to pieces when there's a little windy over there...
I'm not sure how to do this in my apartment. 😓
If it's an apartment, I'd HIGHLY recommend NOT trying this. You'll likely get evicted for it. Contact the apartment manager first before attempting ANY alterations.
I do this professionally in commercial spaces all the time (there's usually a plenum so I drill down into each stud space from the top instead of the bottom), but I've been wondering how it could be done in residential as there's typically no plenum. Guess it's gotta be attic or crawlspace. Unfortunately my current place has neither lol
Also, would definitely recommend the drywall saw over the utility knife
Wire tracks are very common in this case as the customer usually doesnt want you taking off the entire drywall which is what you would have to do.
I will need a network outlet for my ethernet to work from home. Luckily I'll be able to add during the construction process. Thanks!
The walls of my house are made of solid concrete... I'm fucked.
You can still run wires, it's just that you're likely stuck with having them running through conduits that are attached to the outside of the walls. It is uglier, but the upside is that it's a lot easier to run wires like that and if you ever need to replace or repair them, you're not having to deal with things being hidden behind walls.
Masonry drill bits.
You can do it, champ.
Correction: unfinished basements are easier than crawlspaces.
3:37 excellent visual overlay! Overall, great instructional video here
Um, in case it hasn't been mentioned yet, it's a good idea to lay your Ethernet cable away from power wiring, flourescent tubes and major appliances. I try to keep a foot or two at least. May not make a huge difference but it's just good practice.
At 1:25 did you guys think your video frozed
BrettPlaysGames yes
Yes
Use a flex bit and drill from the top. Lot easier than what you're doing.
Love it. Didn't have one.
I don't have a crawl space... I have an attic... VERY informative video, can use most of this, but that attic though...
Omg 😆 I just bought Linksys Velop notes and I have 6 big routers that covers all the house, outside with WiFi and 6 with 5 cat connection. That’s the easy way to get it done.
Well, for those who, first own a house, second own a concrete walled house... I can feel your frustration...
Ozan i tough dont having a ethernet conection was already bad ohhh brother
I'm not going to hit the dislike button, but this was too easy. Show us how to go from the 2nd story ceiling to 1st story on houses that don't have crawl spaces, just concrete slab.
That is much harder, you are correct, nothing wrong with starting easy. Going upstairs will be different for everyone. It's hard to make a video to cover the many different options, building designs, structures etc and keep the video short or interesting. If I add a jack in my upstairs, I can do a video on it.
Sweet. I'll stay posted.
If a cable run involves penetration concrete or masonry, you should probably be calling a professional.
Robert Dunham not concrete walls, concrete slab. No cutting that up especially if it's post-tension
I understand what you meant. The concrete should have been poured with conduits to allow for future expansion. If that was not done, the only option is to wrap the building or find some other way around the concrete. An outdoor wireless AP is also an option if the building has a lot of glass. A professional would be able to help determine what options are available and build a solution for the specific use-case. My point in my original comment was that it is clearly not DIY at that point.
I wish I had a crawl space like that. Instead, I have to go up into the attic and send the cables down, cutting holes in the cross beams... a major PITA.
You may want to consider running the wire outside of the house, particularly if you can camouflage them. You can use wire that is rated for outdoor use, or conventional wire that is not going to be exposed to direct sunlight or any other direct weathering elements.
That little string "you don't need" is for stripping the wire
My wall is from brick and cement
Then you're fucked aren't you
It's possible but you would need a masonry bit and a brushless drill.
I live in a concrete apartment. If I do any kind of drilling, I would be staring straight into my neighbour's house.
Fun to see comments about these “rare crawlspaces”.. i guess nobody is from California living in houses built before slab foundations took over. And a typical crawlspace is the same footprint as the original house.
I don't have a crawl space but I can move the tiles of my roof and that exposes all the wiring so is that where I have to wire it?
boy 😂 my house is concrete and Rock's
Step:1 get my parents permission.
Step2: get the money to get this
Step3: hire a someone to do this if my granddad won’t do it.
I dont have walls from cartoon
Lol me too
That's not always how it looks
Cartoon? 😂
I am considering doing this. I was wondering if you can use an outllet port works both ways so I can use it to plug a cable from my router into a outlet from which a cable goes through my ceiling into an outlet into my room. Pretty much will a wall outlet work as an inlet?
Yes, goes both ways.
@@BudgetNerd thanks
That nylon I think is Kevlar. Very instructional.
Where did you get that punchdown puck, this is the first I have seen of this. That thing is awesome.
I'm sure you can get them on the interwebs, but that one came in a 50 count box of keystones.
You can get them anywhere that sells network cabling. I've picked them up online at Amazon, etc. and also at traditional retailers like Home Depot or Lowe's. Honestly, they don't really work all that well. Most keystones don't quite fit right and they tend to get in the way of the cables as you try to punch down. But for a couple bucks or less, it's worth having one in the tool bag for the occasions when they are useful.
Leviton distributors use to provide “free” to volume buyers.
I had at least 7, at one time. I have given them away to new installers - through the years.
... that is unless like me you have solid brick walls.
I imagine following this HOWTO in my European concrete wall 😂
Dude please please please more videos like this or any DIY project 😍😍👌🏻
I do have a few fun DIY projects coming..
Ide rather just call someone to come and do this for me because wireless internet sucks
Try a powerline adapter. Much cheaper, easier & uses outlets
Step 1: Make sure you have a house like that and doesnt have concrete walls
or red hardened WW2 bricks with cables concreted between.
Just a heads up that per the ANSI/TIA-570-C standards, voice and data cabling can not be located within the same stud cavity as electrical outlets. While this is not an absolute requirement for residential homes, adhering to the standard will reduce interference between the two.
Nice work nerd.