New Network, New Home - networks add functionality and future value to new homes - Industry Trend or Event

LUCKY YOU: PLANNING A CUSTOM-BUILT home complete with a brand-new home office. Soon you'll be scooting your chair across static-resistant, scratch-proof laminate floors to grab books from built-in shelves. You'll have so many convenient wall outlets that you'll give away all your power strips to plug-hungry friends on moving day.

But as you're dreaming up all the bells and whistles your budget can hold, make sure to include a home network. By now the hype surrounding off-the-shelf home networking kits is burned into your brain--sharing Internet access, files, and peripherals, among other things. But adding a network to new home construction is even more compelling. While the walls are open, network contractors can lay a customized, structured wiring system throughout your home for about a third of the cost of a similar setup in an existing house.

Wire your home with the future in mind, and you'll have all the bandwidth and connection options you could want for years if not decades to come. Here's everything you need to know about building a wired home from the ground up.

WIRING 101

Because networks add functionality and future value to new homes, Home Automation EMagazine (www.hometoys. com) editor Bob Hetherington predicts that home networks will become as commonplace as plumbing in new construction: "The question is no longer, `Is cabling necessary?', but `What's the minimum cabling requirement?'"

Although proposed data-savvy revisions to the Residential and Light Commercial Telecommunications Wiring Standard have yet to be ratified by the Telecommunications Industry Association, most network equipment vendors and installers agree that a good basic setup--one that affords plenty of room to grow--includes two coaxial video cables (RG-6 cables) and two Category 5 network cables, run to every room of the house.

Category 5 cabling is preferred over less-expensive Category 3 wiring, because it can carry data and voice signals at speeds up to 100Mbps, making it ideal for Ethernet networking and high-speed Internet technologies like DSL. Dual coax cables let you run cable TV and video anywhere in the house, and are also useful for delivering cable modem service and future technologies such as HDTV.

While traditional telephone installations are daisy-chained in a linear configuration, the ideal layout for network cabling is a star pattern, with the wires from each room running directly back (or home-run) to a centrally located control panel or wiring box. The box is typically located in a closet or basement near the point of entry for phone and cable service, which makes tying these into the network more convenient.

There are several advantages to wiring your house this way. For one, your phones will never again be subjected to the spaghetti-style installation of new extensions. Because each Category 5 cable can support up to four voice or data lines simultaneously, it's easy to activate phone extensions throughout the house or in specific rooms with just a few tweaks at the wiring closet.

The jacks are modular, so you can add phones, PCs, televisions, and other devices to your network anywhere at any time. And from a maintenance standpoint, home-run cables are more reliable than a daisy-chained network setup, and make it easy to change your network configuration or address problems from a central location.

A JOB DONE RIGHT

If you're sold on the idea of adding a structured wiring network system, Hetherington says you should be willing to spend extra time and dollars on design: "Alteration by eraser is a whole lot cheaper than by sledgehammer."

Be sure to consult with a system integrator or network consultant, especially if you have plans to incorporate other future-looking elements, such as speaker wire, a security system, home automation features, or conduits in the walls for future cable installations.

Master-planned communities that advertise networked homes have their own specific wiring requirements. For instance, if you're building a home in Sienna Plantation, a master-planned community in Missouri City, Tex., you must have at least one Category 5 cable and one RG-6 coax cable star-wired to a minimum of four room outlets in the home, as well as cabling for Sienna fire and alarm systems. Make sure the contractor you hire is aware of any such rules. Whenever possible, work with someone who has experience installing networks in the community.

If you're on your own--building outside a planned community, or working with a general contractor who has little experience with home networks--visit the Web sites of vendors such as Lucent, IBM, or OnQ Technologies to get referrals to local certified installers. Once you have a list, sit down with two or three different contractors and design a system that suits your budget and future networking needs.

Final costs for a complete home networking system vary with the complexity of the wiring, number of outlets, and labor costs in your location. In the Boston area, for example, running coaxial video cable and Category 5 cabling for telephone and data throughout a new home costs between $150 and $200 per outlet, or roughly $1,200 for an average-size home.