Short story...
Building a house. Ran Cat6 cable to every room (2 strands - redundant). Was told to do this by just about everyone. Got the cable cheap.
Here's the question...
What can I do with it? Most of our computers operate on wireless interwebz anyway.
If you want to run big loads of data, wired is better. Wire up any computers that don't move. Remember, every computer on the wireless has to share bandwidth. Fine for web surfing but push some big files over it and everyone suffers.
Also good move to put Cat6 in the house, everyone should do this. It'll still be good when 10gig Ethernet is affordable in 10 years or so.
Can I terminate it into video plugs such as HDMI?
Wiring the computers, blueray, wii, etc will give higher perfomance when transferring files. HDMI cables for video can also be run over the cat6 (and cat5e).
edit: HDMI over Cat6 wall plates here
Throw a couple of Turtle Beach's Audiotrons in different rooms where you want MP3s piped into. Attach some sort of amp (ie. stereo) and some speakers and you can search through all of the MP3s shared on the network and then it streams them to play them. I believe it can do streaming radio stations too.
I haven't had mine turned on in a while, but you can also login into the player (like how you login into a router) and can change whats playing and settings and so forth.
Hell for $15 maybe I'll pick up another one.
I recall most houses built around the early to mid 2k's had the stuff built in... was before wifi was truly affordable...
anyway bandwidth is the name of the game... with home interwebs wifi is just fine... but when you start moving big stuff you really notice it..
even a 10/100 hard wire is going to flow more then a wireless N when it comes to real world (in perfect theoretical the wireless N is faster... but it never is) change over to a gigabit lan and... if I transfer a few movies from my laptop to the desktop or vice versa via wifi it takes FOREVER... sometimes over an hr... plug in the laptop to the network and it's done in 5 min or so... (note that i'm using an old b/g network and haven't gotten around to the N like I should lol)...
GRtech... that HDMI thing is awesome... had no idea you could do that
I really like wired network connections. Even my telephone uses wires!
Cool, lots of great info so far. GRtech, that's awesome stuff! I'm wiring every room with CAT6 and running speaker wire also and terminating it into single gang boxes in the ceiling. Once the house is complete, I can run box speakers, or I can put them in the ceiling/walls if I want. I'm just getting all this crap wired up now so I won't have to worry about it later. Oh, I'm also running RCA wires too. Just in case I needs them. LOL
Conquest - What ever you do - USE CONDUIT!!! don't just snake the cables through the walls.
Grtechguy wrote:Conquest - What ever you do - USE CONDUIT!!! don't just snake the cables through the walls.
OOPS!
Already snaked them all through. I was told by about 15,000 people NOT to use conduit. I didn't know why, I thought it would be a smart idea, but was told by damn near everyone not to. Oh well... Too late now.
Conduit allows for upgrades once the drywall is up....that's all.
Grtechguy wrote:Conduit allows for upgrades once the drywall is up....that's all.
What he said. My father is a home builder and we NEVER use conduit with home entertainment wiring. The easier option is to design wherever you plan on having the entertainment area to be near a wall going into, say, a mechanical room that won't be drywalled. Then it's real easy to upgrade.
Of course, you're building a new house, it IS the upgrade 
HiTempguy wrote:Of course, you're building a new house, it IS the upgrade
WERD SON!!! LOL Huuuuge upgrade!!
