cablingdata-wiring
I've recently moved and the new home has cable outlets in several of the rooms. Cable service was recently installed and works for one line entering the home, but not for any of the home's existing cable outlets. I'd like to connect the cable in such a way that each of the home's cable outlets (living room, bedroom, etc) will have service.
How are homes typically wired for cable service distribution and what can I do so that each of my home's outlets works?
The current solution being installed in new homes is a "structured media enclosure" that you can install between the studs in a closet wall. Since it's between the studs, you need to make sure nothing is currently running in that space today (although an outlet that's wired from below servicing the other side of the wall would be very convenient). You want this on an interior wall so that you're not dealing with insulation. The outlet is installed as part of the enclosure and the enclosure is covered to reduce the risk of clothing blocking vents and starting a fire.
Here's a sample enclosure:
See this question for photos and a discussion about typical wiring in one of these enclosures. Your patch panel for networking, phone splitter, cable splitter, router/modem are all installed inside the panel. Typically, electrical is wired from below and all the data wiring goes through access holes in the top. When closed, no wires come out the front of the panel, everything stays inside the wall and panel.
I'd also recommend installing an access panel in the ceiling of your closet to make it easier to fish new wiring, unless there is access from above. If you're going to open up a lot of walls/ceilings to fish the wiring, then you may also want to install some conduit to each of your drops in case you want to change this network in the future without opening everything up again.
If you are running telephone and ethernet on the same cable then it is most likely interference from the telephone pair. POTS (Plain Old Telephone Sockets) have a constant voltage of 50V and ring at 75V with an engaged voltage of 35V.
It will not be the electrical 110V causing interference because your switch cancels the noise out because it if grounded(negative) to your home installation(on which your switch runs and knows about this frequency so it can eliminate is successfully).
Why will it pick up noise from the telephone voltage? Because the power is coming from outside your house on a separate ground loop that has a unique frequency resonance which is not the same as your houses' frequency(not talking about 50hz/60hz - But electromagnetic radiation). This will cause the switch to suffer packet loss because it cannot successfully XOR noise that is generated from the phone lines voltage frequency.
To solve this problem in order of cheapest to most expensive:
Please Note:
Some distribution boxes have a lightning protector or surge protector installed that link in the actual earth(also called ground) but earth is used in UK, Some parts of EU and ZA(not sure about USA) to detect appliance fault and gives lightning a short path to the earth. Usually the earth bar is connected to a rod that goes into the ground outside the house or bound to the incoming phase shield which is earthed at the main power box. When I talk about ground I mean the actual negative(-) wire of an appliance or analog / digital circuit.
NEVER TRY TO GROUND(NEGATIVE) THE TELEPHONE TO YOUR HOME GROUND OR A GROUND LOOP ISOLATOR
As it seems the OP grounded his telephone but it is most likely earthing the cable not actual negative.
Doing this can cause damage to the telephone network costing you thousands dollars and/or cause death or serious bodily injury from electrical shock. Remember that the ground of your home has a different impedance than ground from the telephone network and can result in 110V electrical shock! That is why it is illegal to rewire telephone sockets in many countries. For your own safety.
Best Answer
Cable service is generally provided to the house using RG-6 or RG-7 coaxial cable, and is distributed around the house using the same type cable. Some older installations used RG-58 or 59 (not as good, but may still work). This is the cable that should be leading to each of the cable outlets in your house.
The service from the initial cable coming into the house is divided by splitters.
Note that there is an in and out side to the splitters.
There are multiple tap splitters of you nee more than two lines. However, signal begins to drop as you split more lines, either through a multitap splitter or multiple splitters. At some point, the signal may drop to an unacceptable level (picture breakup or total loss). If you are going to need multple lines, you may need an amplifier/signal booster.
It is likely that the cables are still in the walls from the cable outlets in your house. You need to find out where they go (probably either basement or attic) and see where they are disconnected. The splitters and the connecting cable runs may have been removed.
You can run new lines using cables from home centers or electronic stores. They come with and without connectors. If you need to cut a line or use a line without connectors, there are a number of ways to attach the connectors using either crimp connectors and a crimping tool (good connection, inexpensive and not hard to master)
or screw on connectors (less reliable).
You can try to reconnect the existing lines using as few splitters as you can get away with and see if the signals are acceptable. If not, get an amplifier/signal booster and place near the inlet line. It does require A/C power but it uses a simple plug in transformer.
NOTE: In some locales, the cable company assumes responsibility for all wiring and may be willing to reconnect the outlets for no charge or a limited amount. Additionally, they sometimes assume responsibilty for signal strength and they will provide a signal booster if needed. In other jurisdicitons (or other companies), all interior wiring is the responsibility of the home owner.
Also, all of the above assumes that you have a copper feed, not a fiberoptic feed. If you have the latter, this is a much different system, and wiring is generally only handled by professional installers from the cable provider.