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Modernizing old house network wiring - Part 10 - Rethinking some plans

I've decided to power ahead in some areas, but to limit my spending.

My main goal now is wiring, and not buying equipment that I won't need within the next six months... or that I might never need.

Here are the details:

Television

At first I was going to buy an HDTV Streaming box with a large OTA TV antenna mounted in the attic.   I was getting excited and putting all sorts of stuff into my Amazon and eBay carts.  But I'm not nearly ready to start watching more TV in my house, and so I've decided to delay any TV-related purchasing decisions for now.

Instead of buying new equipment, I'm just going to plan for possibilities.  That means prepping the
building with appropriate cabling.  

I learned that all of my major local TV stations are nearby (within 8 miles), and all the "weak and missing" TV stations are pointless IRN stations ("infomercial/religious/nut-job").  Furthermore, all the "weak" stations will be in the fringe even if I use a large, tall, and expensive outdoor antenna.  Many thanks to http://tvfool.com/ and http://antennaweb.org/ for helping me understand my specific TV reception situation.

I don't feel like spending any money to receive IRN television channels that I will never want to watch, so my new strategy is to keep it simple and improve it over time.  My cheap antenna that I have - a  $12 "indoor" antenna - pulls in all of my important channels 98% of the time, even in my very solid brick and metal house.  Placing my little indoor antenna in the attic and routing the signal to my TV by re-configuring the existing coaxial cable might give me 100% of what I want.  Will this work well enough?  I don't know, but I don't see the harm in trying.

My overall savings of this strategy is about $150, as I no longer need to immediately buy an HD Streaming box or a fancy antenna.  The new strategy is a zero dollar expense.

Network

My wiring plan will support Gigabit ethernet and PoE, but my initial equipment will be non-PoE and a mere 100 Mbit.  Once I have a need for PoE and Gigabit, I'll upgrade my network.

By skipping out on the tech purchases today, I can waiting six months (... or 48 months ...).  In that amount of time, network equipment will be cheaper and more modern. It pays to wait.

So for now, instead of buying my favored router, a new PoE switch for $250+, I'll use my existing GL.iNet router and my existing 8-port switch.  Again, my initial investment for equipment will be nothing, but I can always upgrade.

Continuing

I am mostly planning for now because I have an injury.  Next time I'll cover my connector strategy.


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