Adding 10 Gigabit Ethernet to my 129-Year-Old House!

Learn how to retrofit modern networking into an existing house! We talk the basics, create ethernet cable drops, and install WiFi access points.

Gear shown in this video:

In this episode, we talk about how I decided to retrofit my 129-year-old house with modern networking. I walk you through the difference between a modem, router, and wi-fi access point, why mesh networks like Google WiFi and Eero don't always yield the best results, the benefits to having wired, RJ45 ethernet in your house wherever you possibly can, and I put it throughout my house! I show how to add new cable drops to your home, how to plan cable runs, how to run a centralized server/network center, gear that you may want to consider using, where to put your wifi access points and more! I show you how to terminate an ethernet cable with an RJ45 connector, tips for stripping cable and using a crimper, how to use a punch-down tool to utilize keystone jacks, and how to verify your wiring is correct using a cable tester. Come join the fun!

[frankov_]

I've been working with ethernet for at least 15 years, and this is the best explained video I've seen. Congratulations 👏🏻👏🏻

[medivalone]

It's actually pretty important to use Keystones instead of just continuing the cable out of the wall. For one, most in-wall rated cables are solid core, which means each wire is made out of solid copper. These have better distance performance and longer life, but are stiffer and can work harden and break if bent around a lot. Patch cables typically use stranded core, kind of like speaker wire, made up of a lot of small strands of copper per wire. Also, if you break a wire coming out of a wall, you could end up needing to replace it if say it needs to reach 4ft into the room and you broke it at 2 ft. Whereas with a keystone you can just replace the patch cable and all your wires in the wall are safe.

[reubinwhatton]

This is probably one of the most original, genuinely entertaining/informational, and well produced YouTube videos that I’ve watched for some time. Thank you!

[Valaran]

As someone who used to do all this for a living, I still enjoyed the heck out of this video and was engaged the whole time. I have made thousands of Cat-5e patches by hand and literally never knew the trick of using the stripped jacket to untwist them. I'm glad there's someone out there making this stuff easy for homeowners to understand and DIY.

[Solar-Winds]

As someone who works in IT involving all this cabling, you did a great job explaining everything in really approachable ways to those with even zero experience. I also appreciate covering the options you chose not to go with, but could be relevant for others. Kudos to that.

[MrCapsMan]

I can't imagine the amount of planning, work, and editing that went into this video. Respect.

[dil]

11:09 - Dude that face in the darkness really caught me off guard.

[ivanb]

Great video. I have been using unifi for a few years now and love the product. My house isn’t as old, but I too had crawl under my crawl space to run wire in my house. Love the creepy green eyes that appear in background (11:11) as you say the crawlspace isn’t haunted by Pennywise!

[SHADOWSTRIKE]

You certainly SHOULD terminate in a specific order rather than “as long as both colors are the same at either end”. The twisted pairs are paired that way that they are inverted polarity to protect against interference.

Source: I work as a Network Engineer

[faissalabsml]

11:09 I thought I would find a lot of people mentioning it in the comment but apparently not

[Mimelive]

I work in IT now but I worked as a infrastructure installer for several years, it brings a smile to my face seeing you do what was my job for 4 years

[collettelevin]

Great video...However, at the 14:50 mark, Do NOT cut the drywall out until you know where the electric wire is coming from in the plug next to it. Turn off the power and take off the plate to the plugs and try and determine where the power cables are coming from so you do not cut into them and either visit your maker or at the very least visit a hospital...

[notcat]

11:17 lmao at the editor's choice to put pennywise or something in the shot after that comment

[yoyoyodavo]

Alternative title: adding 10 gigabit speed internet into my 129 year old home but it only works every time someone presses the door bell

[patrickprafke]

When he's first in the crawlspace, watching the eyes on the upper left slowly fade out was hilarious.

[simduino]

A few comments on this to explain some things better:

pin 1 is green/white
pin 2 is green
pin 3 is orange/white
pin 4 is blue
pin 5 is blue/white
pin 6 is orange
pin 7 is brown/white
pin 8 is brown

This is the T568A or as you said type A config.
The T568B or type B has the following layout

pin 1 is orange/white
pin 2 is orange
pin 3 is green/white
pin 4 is blue
pin 5 is blue/white
pin 6 is green
pin 7 is brown/white
pin 8 is brown

The difference is pin 1 and 2 are switched to pin 3 and 6. This is because it was used to make a cross cable, type A on one end, type B on the other end.
Why? Because this is how the pins are used:
pin 1 is TX+
pin 2 is TX-
pin 3 is RX+
pin 6 is RX-

Today most ethernet equipment is MDIX which means it automatically senses these pairs for transmission or reception, so it doesn't matter whether you use type A or B. On older equipment is does make the difference to connect or not.

So what about pin 4 and 5? These are used for telephone lines. No need to wire your house with extra telephone lines, you could just use this pair for that. In fact you can actually click a RJ11 telephone plug into the RJ45 socket and make it work.
Pin 7 and 8 for POE, power over ethernet, today mainly used for IP cameras. It eleminates the use of extra power cables.

Since these two pairs (4, 5 and 7, 8) are generally not used, in some rare case they could be used to have a second ethernet connection over the same cable. Not advisable but it is possible. I've use this when I needed to connect my doorbell and ip cam located at the gate away from my house. The tube that lead to the gate only permitted one cable, so this was the solution.

[ardentvibe]

Who knew Quinn had good taste in interior design. That home is flawless. Practically my dream house.

[GadgetAddict]

I've never seen those passthru connectors before. Very useful!

[yuppymike]

“Uh oh, I’m a stud” pmsl. That’s a great Dad joke right there. Will defo be using that one.

[ctclark]

A year late, but a note about the rip-string inside the cable (19:00) - You actually WANT to use this to rip the jacket down below where you did the initial stripping to, because even with the fancy stripping tool you showed it is still very easy to nick a single wire to the point where you break the wire or at least weaken it so it breaks at some point in the future. They don't just include this rip-string because they can, the include it because it's practically necessary.