Originally I ran 1 LAN point to each bedroom and 2 (on different walls) into my home office, and a single run buried in conduit out to my telescope house. I did all the low voltage wiring (LAN, surround and outdoor speakers)while the house was just a bare timber frame. Purchased it in 500ft. spools. Also picked up crimping tools, wall jacks and plug ends. Keep in mind that CAT5e plug ends may not work on CAT6 despite some claims that the conductor diameters are the same. I believe the true CAT6 is 23AWG gauge wire whereas the CAT5e is 24AWG. Of course the RJ-45 end is the same. I also have added a POE switch, additional CAT6, and cameras to various locations outdoors for color/IR night cameras. Really nice not to have power outlets for cameras as it allows easier installation and the ability to put camera so that it has best vantage point.
I'm thinking of doing the same thing... basically routing all the wires during the renovation process, including for the cameras. I reckon I may need something like 10 LAN points all going to my home office, where the 10 LAN cables would terminate in a 10/12-port switch. I don't think it would look nice to put 10 LAN connectors in the wall of my home office, so I will probably leave the cables running into a cabinet to hide all the mess. I should really get the plans posted soon!
Indeed I have them run into a small closet to minimize the "rat nest". I originally had planned to use standard dual outlet boxes with gang plates, but the max is 12 ports. Not sure what you have available bet here is an example: Dual-Gang Wallplates w/ID Windows > QuickPort® Wallplates > Wallplates & Housings > Network Solutions > Products from Leviton Electrical and Electronic Products At one of my jobs, I used a wall mounted network cable enclosure that's about 5cm deep where all cables running to the LAN point are terminated. I am sure they even make them recessed into the wall. Looks great until you plug in all the patch cables to switches, router, etc...
Wow... 10 LAN points? If some of the devices sits in the same table/cabinet, perhaps you can consolidate those points into a switch? And perhaps have non-essential devices like network printers to be connected via WiFi instead.
Basically - 2 LAN points per room x 4 rooms + 2 more for the digital media player and maybe future media server???
For the rooms, I will definitely prefer to get a dual-port wall plate like the examples you linked. It's the "command center" that will be the problem, because that's where all 10 LAN cables will terminate. I'm not sure if they have like 8-port or 12-port wall plates like those. If I can get 4-port wall plates, then I can use three of them. Otherwise, I will just leave the cables (plus any excess lengths) in a cabinet. At least they will be out of sight!
Haha finally checking out this thread. Ya go for cat6 or 6e if necessary. Don't worry about the Thompson router. Just get a gigabit switch and you will have gigabit speed. Contrary to what I said earlier, I guess you should get 16 port switch instead of 2x8 port switches. Although more expensive, but you don't need electricity to power 2 devices but just one, also you will have 15 available ports instead of 14 available ports if you get 2 switches as one port will be used to connect to the other switch. I guess getting cat6 is already overkill and not sure if cat 6e will be much more expensive. If you decide to get such high quality network, make sure you get original jacks, keystones, etc. Get proper crimping tools as well haha. Pointless if the quality of the network is degraded by the quality of crimping or keystones or the jacks I also agree, avoid wifi! I'm already having congestion in 802.11g network! Wifi will drop now and then and impossible to run on dual channel. Sometimes I can't even achieve 10mbps on maxis ftth because of crappy wifi - and the router
Okay! My project now has its own page! Let's move the discussion over to http://forums.techarp.com/adrian-wong/27087-my-house-networking-project.html Thanks, guys!