Questions from a lurker

["Graham Howe" <graham@xxxxxxx>]

I have been following recent postings with a great deal of interest, though
I must admit that many of the contributors are at a far more advanced level
than I am. First if I may, I'd like to explain my current set up.

In June I moved into a fairly big 400 year old house where walls are 3 foot
thick, there are no straight lines, part single storey, part two storey and
part three storey. Needless to say this can make wiring a tad difficult, it
also can cause problems with some RF transmission through the walls.

So far I have used about 300m of CAT5 to provide double sockets in most of
the 'important' rooms. I have a patch panel in a cupboard downstairs that
links half of the ports to a hub (providing a simple network) and the other
half to the phone system. The phone system comprises an ISDN line passing
into a TA with three MSNs, giving me business line, home line and fax/data
line. Half the 'phone' ports are linked to the business line, half to the
home line, but using the patch panel I can easily make any port a network
port, business line or phone line.

In addition I have a large amount of high quality AV cabling in the lounge
for home cinema, with additional speakers in the dining room and sitting
room. I have a separate HiFi system in the master bedroom and will have
another in the office once I have managed to get some furniture and
additional power sockets in it. I also have a 'cheap and cheerful' pair of
RF controlled sockets so that I can turn the HiFi rack and sub-woofer on
remotely.

I have managed to hide all of the wiring so far thanks to some boxing
already in place around all of the plumbing (I simply prised off the lid
and
laid all of my wires with minimal drilling and almost no trunking
required).
I though that I would probably have to give up at this point as any changes
to sockets or lighting would require chasing out walls (it would not be
acceptable to mix modern trunking with exposed beams and stone work) and
this would cause an unacceptable mess. However we have recently had a full
electrical survey (currently we have lots of bakelite and a distinct lack
of
fuses) and the results have identified the need to replace most of the
lighting wiring. So finally here are the questions (if you got this far
thank you for your interest and patience!).

1.    The majority of lighting on the ground floor is wall lighting and
therefore to re-wire will certainly require chasing out, what 'optional
extras' would you recommend be added to the lighting cabling.

2.    I will certainly have to add outlets to the office and quite possibly
other rooms as well, again are there any options I should consider.

3.    I have a computer in the 'communications' cupboard that is linked to
the TA and provides answer phone and fax facilities, it has a monitor that
displays CLI information. I would like a second monitor showing the same
information in the office (two floors above), even better I would like a
second mouse and keyboard for that computer. What is the best way to
achieve
this, is it possible over my existing network or do I need additional
hardware/wiring.

4.    Given that I already have quite a bit of CAT 5 cabling, I am
certainly
interested in the AV over CAT 5 thread.

5.    I have heard (and read at Mark's site) quite a bit about the
Homevision equipment, would this work with ISDN and a TA or is it only
compatible with POTS.

6.    Are there any other things I should consider given this 'one off'
opportunity to create a mess and get at the wiring.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Graham


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