It seems like everything wants to connect to the Internet theses days. My TV wants to connect to the Internet, and uses Yahoo! widgets to deliver news, weather reports, and flickr. My Blu-Ray player can stream movies from Netflix, play YouTube clips, and update its firmware when it is connected to the Internet. My apple TV can purchase music and videos, and rent movies from iTunes. What do all these things have in common? They all are sitting on top of my dresser. The only problem is, only my apple TV has wi-fi; the rest need to be connected to the Internet by a cord.
That was no problem for the first few months I lived in my house. The only cable outlet that had a connector on it was in the bedroom right behind the TV, so that's where the cable modem sat, just a few inches from all my gadgets that want to hook to the internet.
But, when I had an alarm system installed a couple months ago I needed a telephone line to be installed. I had the cable company supply the phone line, and that involved a new modem that needed to be close to a phone jack. I decided my desk was the best place, and so now all my gadgets were far away from the internet. I've been stringing an ethernet cord from my desk, down the hall and into my bedroom. It was a quick and dirty solution to getting the internets back into my bedroom. I added an ethernet switch to my dresser's electronic collection, to give everything wired access to my network, and things were working again, albeit in an ugly fashion.
My desk, mess of wires, and the antenna cable coming out of the ceiling!
Also, I have a TV antenna in the attic, with its cable coming out of the access panel right above my bedroom door. This was mostly just to see if I could get a good HD signal, but it never seemed to go away. I can't tell you how many times I entangled myself in it at 4 AM as I walked out into a dark hallway.
So, with all that said, it has been on my mind to clear all those cables, and come up with a more permanent solution. I knew from all my time stocking shelves at the Home Depot that there were outlet boxes that could be purchased to make network cables, Cable TV cables, RCA cables, and all sorts of other cables easily plug into the wall. You can get plates with as many as 6 different connectors.
Then, I would use my fish tape to reach down in the wall, and pull my cables up into the attic. I figured the hardest part would be measuring where to drill the holes down from the attic. If I wasn't careful I would drill in between the wrong wall studs.
This sounded like a wonderful plan, but I really didn't think it all the way through.
First, a fish tape is a long skinny steel band that is wrapped around a handle like a big fishing reel. Somehow I was going to stick it down a hole in a 2x4 and then also stick it into a 1/2 inch hole on top of an electrical box, without being able to see where the end of the fish was? It sounded like wishful thinking, and it was. I tried going from the attic down, and going from the wall up to the attic. I tried many times, and I even had Jamie come help for a while.
It just wasn't going to work.
So I thought about it, and decided that since the tape is steel, a magnet would be able to stick to it. If I had one of those telescoping tools with a magnet on the end (in case you drop a screw or some other really small part inside of an engine compartment you can grab it without having to flip the car upside down) I could stick that in the hole, wiggle it around until the fish tape stuck to it, and then guide the fish to the hole in the attic.
Brilliant right?
I went and bought one, stuck it inside the hole, while my new helper Rudy, stuck the tape up the wall.
"Uh-oh," he says. "I think the magnet just fell off!"
So much for my brilliant plan!
After talking things over With Rudy, we decided the only way this was going to work was to remove the existing electrical box, send the cords down from the attic, reach into the wall and pull them out, and then install retrofit electrical boxes.
It was really hot in the attic -- see
So now we had our new plan. but how do you remove the old boxes? They are nailed top and bottom to the wall studs, and the nails are outside of the electrical box.
Rudy was pulling the box apart tiny piece by tiny piece with a pair of pliers. I tried cutting the box apart with a utility knife. After 20 minutes both of us had accomplished next to nothing!
By this time Rudy was about to be late for dinner, so he had to go home.
I started trying to figure out how on earth I was going to get this done!
I went back to the store and bought a Dremel tool. I already have one, but right now I think it is buried in my parents' garage. A Dremel is basically a high speed motor that you can attach little drill bits, or cutting wheels, or polishing pads onto. I stuck a cutting bit into the chuck, and started cutting out the boxes piece by piece. Then, I inserted a cut-off wheel, and cut off the nails that were sticking out from the studs. It made a huge mess of little plastic debris all over the floor, but they were out!
From there I followed the rest of my plan. It was easy to get the cables pulled down, and wire them to the connectors!
What I had hoped would take an hour, maybe two at most actually took closer to 12! I did have to make several trips to the store, and I drove Rudy to get his haircut in the middle of this big debacle, but still, yowzers!
^ under the desk ^
^ Behind the TV ^
Here a few little details you might be interested in:
Ethernet cable has 4 pairs of twisted wires, for 8 wires in all. These little connectors are great, you just put the correctly colored wire into the right spot and shove it down into a V shaped piece of metal with something called a "punch down tool." The V shaped metal cuts through the insulation on the wire and holds the wire in place, and also is the electrical connection; pretty clever I think!
Also there are two wiring standards that exist for Ethernet cabling, and both seem to be in current use. I had to look through several articles on the Internet before I figured out that for the most part it doesn't make any difference, as long as the same standard is used in the entire installation.
***
I'm a photo geek. I grabbed a flash, and was using Nikon's CLS system to take photos of me and Jamie drilling holes in my attic; I'm that geeky!
While drilling the hole under the A/C ducting I bent over to take a look at my work. I didn't notice that I had set the hot drill bit into the crook of my arm.
That was no problem for the first few months I lived in my house. The only cable outlet that had a connector on it was in the bedroom right behind the TV, so that's where the cable modem sat, just a few inches from all my gadgets that want to hook to the internet.
But, when I had an alarm system installed a couple months ago I needed a telephone line to be installed. I had the cable company supply the phone line, and that involved a new modem that needed to be close to a phone jack. I decided my desk was the best place, and so now all my gadgets were far away from the internet. I've been stringing an ethernet cord from my desk, down the hall and into my bedroom. It was a quick and dirty solution to getting the internets back into my bedroom. I added an ethernet switch to my dresser's electronic collection, to give everything wired access to my network, and things were working again, albeit in an ugly fashion.
My desk, mess of wires, and the antenna cable coming out of the ceiling!
Also, I have a TV antenna in the attic, with its cable coming out of the access panel right above my bedroom door. This was mostly just to see if I could get a good HD signal, but it never seemed to go away. I can't tell you how many times I entangled myself in it at 4 AM as I walked out into a dark hallway.
So, with all that said, it has been on my mind to clear all those cables, and come up with a more permanent solution. I knew from all my time stocking shelves at the Home Depot that there were outlet boxes that could be purchased to make network cables, Cable TV cables, RCA cables, and all sorts of other cables easily plug into the wall. You can get plates with as many as 6 different connectors.
Saturday morning my first stop was a trip to Home Depot to buy the box covers and the appropriate connectors to put in the covers. I already had a fish tape, and I figured it might take an hour for me to crawl up into the attic, and drill some holes down into the wall. 
Low ceiling!
Trying very hard not to slip and fall between the rafters, and then through the ceiling onto my computer below
Low ceiling!
Trying very hard not to slip and fall between the rafters, and then through the ceiling onto my computer belowThen, I would use my fish tape to reach down in the wall, and pull my cables up into the attic. I figured the hardest part would be measuring where to drill the holes down from the attic. If I wasn't careful I would drill in between the wrong wall studs.
This sounded like a wonderful plan, but I really didn't think it all the way through.
First, a fish tape is a long skinny steel band that is wrapped around a handle like a big fishing reel. Somehow I was going to stick it down a hole in a 2x4 and then also stick it into a 1/2 inch hole on top of an electrical box, without being able to see where the end of the fish was? It sounded like wishful thinking, and it was. I tried going from the attic down, and going from the wall up to the attic. I tried many times, and I even had Jamie come help for a while.
It just wasn't going to work.
So I thought about it, and decided that since the tape is steel, a magnet would be able to stick to it. If I had one of those telescoping tools with a magnet on the end (in case you drop a screw or some other really small part inside of an engine compartment you can grab it without having to flip the car upside down) I could stick that in the hole, wiggle it around until the fish tape stuck to it, and then guide the fish to the hole in the attic.
Brilliant right?
I went and bought one, stuck it inside the hole, while my new helper Rudy, stuck the tape up the wall.
"Uh-oh," he says. "I think the magnet just fell off!"
So much for my brilliant plan!
After talking things over With Rudy, we decided the only way this was going to work was to remove the existing electrical box, send the cords down from the attic, reach into the wall and pull them out, and then install retrofit electrical boxes.
It was really hot in the attic -- see So now we had our new plan. but how do you remove the old boxes? They are nailed top and bottom to the wall studs, and the nails are outside of the electrical box.
Rudy was pulling the box apart tiny piece by tiny piece with a pair of pliers. I tried cutting the box apart with a utility knife. After 20 minutes both of us had accomplished next to nothing!
By this time Rudy was about to be late for dinner, so he had to go home.
I started trying to figure out how on earth I was going to get this done!
I went back to the store and bought a Dremel tool. I already have one, but right now I think it is buried in my parents' garage. A Dremel is basically a high speed motor that you can attach little drill bits, or cutting wheels, or polishing pads onto. I stuck a cutting bit into the chuck, and started cutting out the boxes piece by piece. Then, I inserted a cut-off wheel, and cut off the nails that were sticking out from the studs. It made a huge mess of little plastic debris all over the floor, but they were out!
From there I followed the rest of my plan. It was easy to get the cables pulled down, and wire them to the connectors!
What I had hoped would take an hour, maybe two at most actually took closer to 12! I did have to make several trips to the store, and I drove Rudy to get his haircut in the middle of this big debacle, but still, yowzers!
^ under the desk ^
^ Behind the TV ^Here a few little details you might be interested in:
Ethernet cable has 4 pairs of twisted wires, for 8 wires in all. These little connectors are great, you just put the correctly colored wire into the right spot and shove it down into a V shaped piece of metal with something called a "punch down tool." The V shaped metal cuts through the insulation on the wire and holds the wire in place, and also is the electrical connection; pretty clever I think!
Also there are two wiring standards that exist for Ethernet cabling, and both seem to be in current use. I had to look through several articles on the Internet before I figured out that for the most part it doesn't make any difference, as long as the same standard is used in the entire installation.***
I'm a photo geek. I grabbed a flash, and was using Nikon's CLS system to take photos of me and Jamie drilling holes in my attic; I'm that geeky!
While drilling the hole under the A/C ducting I bent over to take a look at my work. I didn't notice that I had set the hot drill bit into the crook of my arm.
Yeah i burned myself pretty good, and the edge of my sleeve always wants to rest right on top of the burn, so I get a constant,painful, reminder of my stupidity!
2 comments:
Monday's project is going to be to hide all the modems, and routers and cords under the desk! I've already got the screws and wire ties to make it all hang upside down!
hey bj I didn't know you were such a handy-man. You're right, this is definitely an internet age. You can't escape it! Aaaaahhhhh!
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