Skip to main content

Modernizing old house network wiring - Part 1 - Goals and Overview

I have an old house, well over 100 years old.  It's been hacked up over the decades, and now I'm trying to change it so it's appropriate for our modern Internet age.

In-the-home Telecommunications have changed a lot over the years.  100 year old telephone wiring is not uncommon, along with 40 year old Cable TV wires.   But these days, in the home telecom has shifted to Internet standards and all the handy services they provide:
  • WiFi is in.
  • Security Cameras are in.
  • Video doorbells are in.
  • Ethernet cabling is in.
  • Power over Ethernet is in.
But...
  • Old-school alarm systems and doorbells are out.
  • Analog Telephone is definitely out.
  • Cable TV wiring is fading fast.

This series will cover my adventure of transitioning my 100+ year old house full of old-school telecom wiring into a full modern data-capable home for today and the foreseeable future.

My General Plan

Generally I want to have all the modern conveniences in my old house, but I don't want to spend a lot of money doing it.  I want to be prepared for the future.  I don't want to remove useful capabilities, but I also don't want a huge nest of wires everywhere.

Therefore, I've developed this short list of goals.
  • Keep everything as simple as possible.
  • Expect that Internet services will be delivered via Cable TV-based ISP *or* via a Wireless ISP.
  • Plan for a UPS to power key network equipment (modem, routers, switches, WiFi, cameras, etc).
  • Use Power over Ethernet for Cameras and other Network equipment
  • Add IP cameras to cover the doors and other areas of the property.
  • Have a minimum number of WiFi access points to covers the entire property (hopefully, one)
  • Have TVs use an IP-based DTV adapter with an in-attic Antenna.  TVs expected not to use COAX.
  • Rip out any ugly, broken, or insanely obsolete wiring.
Well that doesn't actually seem so easy and cheap!  But I'm going to do all the work myself, and I'm going to cheap out when necessary.

My first step is to understand what I have.

Pre-Existing Wiring

My house has a ton of telecom wiring of different vintages - some of it as new as 20 years old, but some of it as old as 70 years old (and likely even older).  Here's what I think I've got.

Cable TV Coax cabling

Cable TV usually runs over round coaxial cables, and my house has a ton of it.  I have nine cable TV wiring runs - more runs there there are rooms!   I guess the prior owners really loved their TV.

All of the coax cables seem to lead to a large coax distribution amplifier bolted to a wall in the basement. The coax cable is 20 to 30 years old and looks to be in excellent condition.  About half the cables run properly within the walls, but the other half is strung up on the outside of the building.  Ugly!

I'm a modern guy and do not plan to use the cable TV wiring, but I have no plan to rip it out the good cables.  Coax cable is still useful for cable TV, satellite TV, or even an over-the-air TV antenna system.  Even more important, coax cabling can be used with "Ethernet over coax adapters", better known as MOCA adapters, which could be useful if I need Ethernet where there is only a cable TV outlet.

I will definitely keep the healthy coax cable that runs properly within the walls of my house.  I plan to remove all the coax cables that have been sloppily run on the outside of the building.

Analog telephone cabling:

Old-school analog telephone wiring ("POTS") almost always consists of four-conductor cables, and my house has plenty of it.  Most of it looks to be from 50 to 70 years old.   It all leads from the basement telecom panel where some of it seems to terminate at the main telephone terminal block.  It looks like a ball of spaghetti.  In the US, this cable is usually in a gray or putty colored jacket with four solid copper conductors: red, green, black, and yellow.

The POTS cabling in my house is stapled along baseboards and poked through walls and ceilings, terminating at ancient 4-pin surface mount jacks in the bedrooms. Given its ugliness and considering that I can't imagine how it could be used in the future, I will be removing it and its associated jacks.

Modern CAT5 Cabling?  Kind of...

Happily, my house wiring isn't all obsolete.  There is a bundle of CAT5 cables that the prior owner added about 20 years ago.  But that CAT5 isn't wired for Ethernet.

I guess 20 years ago people still liked analog phones - so all of the CAT5 is configured for a single-line analog telephone system, with RJ11 telephone jacks placed around the building. 

All of the CAT5 seems to lead to the basement telecom panel, where the all of the blue wires are joined together, and where all the white/blue wires are joined together. From there, they are connected to the telephone company's telephone terminal block.

There must be some "splitting" along the way, because there seem to be eight RJ11 jacks and only six CAT5 cables. Hm.

I hope to repurpose all of the CAT5 for Ethernet, and convert all the RJ11 jacks to "RJ45" Ethernet.

4-Conductor Alarm Cabling

A house alarm was added in the late 1990s, and consists of numerous wired sensors and Ademco control panels.  The cables are POTS-style 4-conductor solid core with red/green/yellow/black conductors.  I have no plans to use these cables, but since they look good and have been neatly installed, I will leave them inside the walls for potential future use.

Doorbell Wiring

There is a simple 2-wire doorbell system, maybe from the 1970s.  I would like to change this to a modern IP-camera type of doorbell.  I need to figure out what my options are.

Next Time....

Next  I plan to assess the CAT5 cables, now used for a single analog phone line, to see if they are suitable for conversion to Ethernet.  Stay tuned.

Popular posts from this blog

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, part 1: Disassembly Guide

I've had my SodaStream Jet for years, and once in a while something has gone wrong. Disassembly is the first step to repair.  Start with this article to see how to disassemble the SodaStream, and then once you have that down, scroll through my other articles to see how I repaired specfic SodaStream problems. SodaStream Jet Disassembly Guide Tools Required Flat head screwdriver Phillips head screwdriver 1. Remove the Carbonator.  Duh. 2. Remove the black panel lever The front big black tilt lever needs to be removed first. Removing this panel is tricky, but it isn't impossible. Looking up at the bottom of the black panel, there are two tabs, one on the left and one on the right. These tabs fully secure the panel in place. The trick is to use a flat-head screwdriver under the plastic to gently lever the tabs out of the way.  Note in the pictures how I approach these tabs with my screwdriver.  I usually release the left side first, and then I release ...

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, Repair #2 - Broken Fill Button

My Soda Stream Jet's fill button broke, which means I can not longer carbonate water by pressing the pushbutton. This caused all sorts of grief in my household. Here is how I managed to repair my Jet to give it another 10 years of life (hopefully). First, a look at the button The fill button on the top of the SodaStream is actually a simple lever. Pressing down on the button moves a pin that does the actual work of pressing open the Carbonator's valve. Unfortunately, the axis point is fairly thin and can see a lot of stress. That's where my Soda Stream button cracked. [ I think the usage tip here is "don't over-press the button like a gorilla, it doesn't do anything but put high stress on the button."] Cracked levering point of the button The Pesky Lever Retaining Pin The Fix It was pretty easy for me to replace the button: Take off the back of the Soda Stream and remove the carbonator. Push out the the button lever's steel retaining pin. This takes qu...

Fixing my Wahl 9918 Groomsman Beard and Mustache Trimmer

Not everyone would bother repairing a $25 beard trimmer, but why not fix something for under $5 instead of spending another $25? My  Wahl 9918 Groomsman Beard and Mustache Trimmer  has admirably performed its beauty duty for many years, but the time came when the battery just wasn't holding a charge any more.  Most people would just put the trimmer in the trash and buy a new one, but I figured I could repair my otherwise excellent Wahl and save some money. In fact, even high priced trimmer and rotary shaver brands, like Norelco and Remington, can be easily repaired using a process similar to the one I used to fix my Wahl.  Read on to find out how. I opened up the Wahl by popping off the black plastic faceplate with a tiny flathead screwdriver, which revealed two screws.  By removing the two screws I was able to easily open up the unit, revealing the guts of the device. Backplate off, Revealing the screws The internals are rather simple: a motor, a...

Macintosh: Upgrading an eMac

It's been a long time since I wrote this article, but the fact remains: The good old eMac can still be useful if you take the simple steps to keep it as good as it can be.  All can run Tiger, and most can run Leopard - great operating systems for their day with a bit of useful life.  This article describes the procedure I used to upgrade my old eMac, including: Replacing the internal hard disk with a large capacity drive. Increasing the memory for performance Upgrading the operating system Here I'm upgrading a 700 MHz eMac, but the procedure and tasks for upgrading other eMac models should be almost identical. Upgrading versus Replacing My sister's eMac is of the 700 mhz variety, with 256 MB of memory. The machine seemed to be getting "slower", and the original 40 GB disk was becoming jammed packed with photos and iTunes, and within a few months she'd be out of disk space. There were two options to address the problems: upgrade the eMac, or go o...

Using a Garmin eTrex with a Macintosh or Linux

The Garmin eTrex series consists of decent, full featured handheld GPS units. The cheaper monochrome eTrex models have a basic RS-232 serial interface, and the color eTrex models sport USB connectivity. In this article I'll talk about my experience with connecting both USB and serial port versions of the eTrex series to my Mac and to my Linux-based PC. I personally use the Garmin Vista HCx GPS now, but the other Garmins in the eTrex series, including the inexpensive but well specified Garmin eTrex Venture should work the same way. Dealing with the eTrex Series with USB Most of the eTrex units with a color screen have a USB port on the back. Happily, this USB port uses a common USB connector, so it is easy to physically connect a USB eTrex to a Mac or a PC running Linux. The USB Port on an eTrex I have found two pieces of software perfect for use with a USB eTrex, without the need for special drivers: GPSBabel+ and Google Earth . The Mac version of the freeware program ...

Fix a Lightning Cable with Heat Shrink Tubing

We've all seen a Lightning cable that has started to fall apart.  They get used every day, and after enough tugs and yanks on your iPhone, they start to fray. I've seen a lot of these frayed cables, so I've started to fix them before they break with heat shrink tube.  I get my heat shrink on Amazon, like this handy and inexpensive pack.   I prefer the heat shrink tubes without internal glue - it has higher flexibility and a smaller outside diameter once shrunk. Heat Shrink Tubing on an Old, Frayed Lightning Cable In the photo here, you'll see that I slid on a 1.25 inch length of heat shrink over the lighting connector, and then shrunk it into place.  I chose a diameter that just barely fits over the lightning connector.  In all, it took about 60 seconds to perform this repair. Warning: the white plastic of the lightning cable has a pretty low melting point.  It seems to start to melt at about 125°C (or about 250°F), which is the same temperatur...

Other Posts

Show more