Replies

1. 
   SamT | Dec 19, 2003 09:22pm | #1

   These sites have some good info:

   Consumer Electronics Association TechHome Guide to Home Networks: http://www.ce.org/publications/books_references/techhome/home/default.asp

   Home Networking: http://www.xilinx.com/esp/home_networking/index.htm

   Home Toys Home Automation - Standards: http://www.hometoys.com/standards.htm

   IEC Home Networking: http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/home_net/

   SMARTHOME - X10, Remote Security, Video Controls, Wireless Systems: http://www.smarthome.com/howto13.html

   Wiring Americas' Homes: http://www.connectedhome.org/index.html

    http://www.homenetnews.com/links.html

   SamT

   "You will do me the justice to remember that I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his opinion, however different that opinion may be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it."   Thomas Paine

2. 
   4Lorn2 | Dec 20, 2003 05:25am | #2

   Increasingly, due to the dependance on these systems and the ever changing standards, I find myself running conduit for this stuff. PVC works well and easy to work with. The flexibility makes threading it through studs a lot easier than EMT.

   I use as big a conduit as I can while staying within reason. The conduit is cheap so the difference between a 2" run and a half inch run are negligible in the overall cost of a home. No need to go to each wall jack separately. I run to a box in the center of a communications cluster, typically a telephone, LAN, cable and internet in one stud bay, and let the cables drape to the wall jacks.

   Under a house or in an attic, where there is no need to drill joists or studs, a 2" conduit run makes pulling in or replacing individual cable easy. From there I step down in size as it seems reasonable.

   The big advantage of accessible conduit runs is that you can add, subtract or modify the systems relatively easily. A big dividend down the road when everything we now use becomes obsolete. A friend contends that wireless will make all this cabling an anachronism in a few years but I contend that there will always, due to security concerns, interference, standards and a few other issues, be a need for hardwired systems.