Wired House for Ethernet - Cat5e Cabling

Wired House for Ethernet

*Note: I found this post in my drafts since 2016. Completed and Posted! 

I always wanted to wire in our xbox and TV with Ethernet ( Cat5) cable. I finally got that chance. Here's how I did it: 

First I decided what I needed to buy. I needed: 

- 100 Foot of Cat 5e Cable
- RJ45 Wall Plate with Keystone Jack
- RJ45 Connectors
- Crimpers for RJ45 Cable. These were expensive, but a one time investment. 
- 4 port switch. 
- Cable Ties and Clips ( to fasten to walls ) 

Things I needed but already had:

- Drywall Knife ( any sharp knife will work ) 
- Drill with Various Drill bits. 
- Permission for the project from my Wife. ( Note this process starts many months before the project begins. I will outline the process in a future blog post, but as a hint, it ends with her saying "If I approve this project, you promise I never have to hear about it again?" hahaha )  

Second thing I did was - make a plan on where the cable would go. I decided to go down the wall in the office to the basement then through the basement to the furnace room and use the existing hole in the floor to bring the cable up to the living room. I could do another run up and make a wall plate behind the TV but that's not necessary but it would be much cleaner. For now we will use the hole in the floor.  

I found a spot in the basement just below office where the modem is that I could put the cable. Lucky for me we has an old oil input pipe coming in from the outside that I could use to measure from to the edge of the window of the room with the modem . Then inside the room I measured the same distance from the window and drilled a small hole down in the floor as close to the wall as I could. Back in the basement I measured the distance to the wall from the hole I made. In my case the drill bit broke off in the floor so it was still in the floor. So there goes that drill bit, it's part of the house now. 

I was then confident to drill the main hole I cut out a piece of the drywall using a small sharp knife and using this drill bit tried to drill down. It didn't work because my bit was not long enough to get to the floor - so I went down to the basement and drilled up. Then I tested if the wire could make it up though and into the hole. 

 RJ45 Wall Plate

Wire Up Through Floor

*UPDATE* November 1 2020

Over The Air TV in Nanaimo, BC

A few years ago I cancelled my cable and just watched Netflix and other streaming services. 

I missed watching the news and watching whatever was on. I wanted some TV. We used to use the "bunny ears" back in the day and I heard something about making an antenna to pick up the digital hdtv signals. So I did some Internet searching and found this guy's website

https://johnbollwitt.com/2009/01/20/getting-over-the-air-ota-digital-television-dtv-in-vancouver/

I went to the hardware store and bought package metal coat hangers, a dozen metal washers, and a converter thing like we used to use to hook up cable to a TV. I found an old piece of wood in my shed and I created the masterpiece you can see in my post. That website I linked to has a video that explains how to make one.

Then I bought this https://www.amazon.ca/Mediasonic-HW-150PVR-HomeWorx-Converter-Recording/dp/B00I2ZBD1U

And hooked it up! I was amazed that It worked! Perfect quality HDTV! 

I live in nanaimo bc. I get

CBC (2)
Chek (6)
Global  (8)
City (10)
CTV Two (17)
CTV (32)

Plus some old tv show channel and an old movie channel.

I use this website to find the schedule

https://mtvl.zap2it.com/tvl?md=chooseProviders&aid=tvschedule

Also there is an app called Peel smart remote that has an ok schedule.

And finally I used this website to find the best way to point the antenna. https://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

For now the antenna just sits in my living room.Eventually I'd like to put an antenna on my roof.

Hope someone finds this info helpful

Garden in Nanaimo 2015

Garden 2015

Here's some photos of some of the garden this year. First year of garden. It turned out pretty good except the peppers didn't really grow. Going to try them in a different location next year. One of our best crops was our pumpkins. We carved 3 of them at Halloween. Next best was the potatoes. There was lots of tomatoes as well.
I think next year i will grow less tomatoes. This year I had to many tomatoes. The morning glory and the English ivy are a constant battle! There is some blackberries invading as well. I'm hoping out compost works out. I have a couple photos.

Jalapeños 

Potatoes - Onions at Harvest time.

Tomatillos

Tomatoes

Pepper Garden!

Peas, Tomatoes and Hot Pokers!

Kale!

Pumpkin

Seasons Greetings!

Seasons Greetings Everyone! I found this animated gif on a website about how to create snowfall animations using Mathematica. Thanks for the gif - it's fantastic work.

Happy Birthday

Birthday.

For my birthday this year, work gave me a totally awesome animated gif! Keeping with the goal of this website I've posted it here for all to enjoy. It was a great birthday. Thank you to everyone - especially Melissa.

 

Why do I have this blog?

It's the thick of summer here in BC - It's like 30 Degrees Celsius. Too hot for us BC people. Today I was thinking that I should let people know why I have this blog as recently I was asked this question you see. So here it is in a nice list thing:

1. Fun. It's for fun.
2. Because I wanted to have a domain name that is my name. Cause it's cool / geeky thing to do.
3. I had no where to re-post animated GIFS on the internet - I like ones that spin ( See Above )
4. That's it, nothing really else. So have try to have fun ok!?

I love you 5000

I can't believe I haven't told you about www.iloveyou5000.com !! It's a website that features one of the greatest animated gifs of all time. Forever and always, I love you 5000.