Re: Structured Wiring Questions.

[Matias Silva <matt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

wkearney99 wrote:
>>Two separate lines for phone, one line will be a phone line so that I
>
> could still
>
>>dial 911 in case the power goes out.  The other will be dedicated for
>
> voip.  The
>
>>voip line will plug into a Linksys VoIP adapter.  Granted for the voip
>
> line, I only
>
>>need 2 of the 8 conductors, but you never know ...
>
>
> Hmmm, bear in mind that VoIP is just IP.  Once you 'convert' from one to the
> other you're freed up from the wiring that might be needed.  As in, convert
> from IP to POTS using a VoIP ATA (like the linksys) and then you can use
> plain old telephones anywhere in the house.  Many VoIP adapters support
> clever methods of 'falling back' to POTS should power go out or 911 dialing
> is needed.  You can basically leave the house wired for POTS and simply use
> VoIP devices at the central wiring location.  Bear in mind that you can use
> VoIP in the same way as a shared POTS line or you could use each handset on
> it's own VoIP extension.  The latter gets a little complicated and usually
> involves a PC running something like the Asterisk free PBX software.
>
> Wire's cheap and running it 'all at once' is usually a good idea.  But
> running more than you need, or to 'too many' locations is just a waste.
> Sometimes it's better to plan to make it 'easy' to add more wire into places
> that "probably won't need it" any time soon.
>
>
>>The one foot diameter hole is for an access hole so that I could drill a
>
> 1"-2" hole
>
>>between the walls to the next floor.  For example I would cut out a 1ft
>
> diameter
>
>>hole out of the drywall at the base of the wall.  Then I could use a spade
>
> bit
>
>>to make the 1" - 2" hole to run the pvc piping to run the cables ...
>
>
> Ohhhhh, yeah that makes sense.  I was envisioning some 1' holes through the
> floor...  You're talking about just making some holes in the drywall to
> facilitate drilling the through-floor holes.  That's normal.  Drywall can be
> patched pretty easily.
>
> And once you embark on the 'break holes in the wall' process it really isn't
> that much harder to fix one hole or a half-dozen...
>
>
>>There are drops that I want to put on the exterior walls that reach to the
>
> bottom
>
>>floor, and these are the walls I am most concerned about ...
>
>
> As in, run them to the outside and then down to avoid going through the
> house?  It's do-able but there aren't that many situations where it's really
> necessary.  Any time you start whacking holes through the exterior walls you
> introduce any number of complications (like bugs, rodents, water, cold,
> etc).  That and the conduit needed to meet code it pretty pricey compared to
> running it inside.  But every house varies and yours might need it.
>
>
>>I'll need to find where are the joices in my house and avoid getting near
>
> them.  I guess
>
>>my next step is to find the building plans for my house.
>
>
> Having the plans or talking to another neighbor that has the same floorplan
> is *always* a good idea.
>

As I am still new to VoIP, but wasn't aware that some adapters were capable of
'falling back'.  I will have to do more research to find out which ones have that
feature.

I like the idea of VoIP extensions, so that I could have a phone number for my
office and a seperate one for the house...  I have heard of asterisk, but I don't like
the idea of running a full blown computer and waste money on energy costs just to
answer calls... a system with a 300W power supply could cost around $30/mo. to operate,
thus increasing the total phone costs.  Maybe for s#$%s and grins I might try it
out.

What I mean by exterior walls, is the drywall side of the exterior walls.  I didn't mean
to imply that I was going to drill through the stucco and run the cabling outside and then
back in. I guess the way I'm using the term 'walls' includes both sides. I feel that that
the exterior walls are hardest to run cabling through becuase of all the fire breaks and.

Thanks,
Matt