I connected my home network once and these are 5 mistakes I wouldn’t make again

When we built our ranch in northern Indiana, I wired the basement myself and ran Cat6 to every point I could reach. I even spun my own cables off a 1000 foot reel to avoid the expense of pre-made cables. The network is working. Every port is gigabit capable, access points cover the entire house, and I’ll be tackling this project again tomorrow. But wiring a house will teach you things that you will only learn once you experience the results. Several choices made that week still bother me, and some of them take real time to fix after the drywall is closed. These are five things I would do differently, starting over.

Error 1. I laid one cable instead of two.

One drop per location left me no room to grow

While the walls are open, the second cable to each point is practically free. The only cost is a little more reel time and a few extra minutes to run. I connected individual points to most locations, figuring that one gigabit link was enough for everyone’s needs. Then life happened. The access point wanted to have its own dedicated line.

The device I added later required a wired port next to the first one. The run didn’t stand up to the test and I wished I had a spare already in the wall. Behind the TV in the great room I have double seating, with three jacks powering the wall, and those are the places I never think about anymore. Wherever I ran one cable, I needed a backup from then on. Now I need to use an Ethernet switch. Next time I will write at least two lines for each drop, even if one will stand in the dark for years.

Mistake 2: I defaulted to Cat6 instead of Cat6A everywhere where it mattered.

Cat6 was right then, but a few runs deserved more power reserves.

Cat6 was the right choice when I did my basement wiring, and I still advise most people to choose it over Cat5e without a second thought. I have already cited this case before. Regret here is more narrow. For the few routes that carry the most weight, my office, uplink and TV wall, I would move to Cat6A today.

Cat6 supports 10Gbps speeds only over shorter distances, while Cat6A maintains this speed over the entire transmission length. Multi-gigabit service is reaching more and more areas, and PoE equipment is consuming more power every year. The cable is one part of the system that cannot be updated without opening the wall. So the trails I’d least like to touch again are the ones I underestimated.

Mistake 3: I came with tongs and a spool and improvised everything else

Insufficient equipment turned every step into a detour

My entire kit consisted of pliers, a spool, and an inexpensive continuity tester. This is where the work began and nothing more. Any task that required the appropriate tool became a hack. I removed the jackets with side cutters, felt for the pins and knocked out the keystones with a screwdriver because I didn’t have a hammer drill. The kit I would like to buy first would pay for itself in half a day. A die cutter, cable stripper, bag of spare RJ45 lugs, and fishing tape cost next to nothing compared to the hours you spend working without them. Buy tools before cutting a single cable.

Mistake 4: I trusted a cheap tester and skipped testing every time I run it

One bad cable can hide for months

Photo: Jonathon Jachura/MUO

The continuity tester tells you that the wires are connected. It won’t tell you that they’re connecting in the correct order, and it won’t tell you anything about whether the run is maintaining rated speed. I learned this the slow way when part of my network was being scanned and I spent weeks chasing the wrong suspects before I found a single cable limiting all downstream networks. This tester checks all eight wires and confirms that each one is connected to the correct pin. What’s more, bad news comes while you can still fix it, before the wall is zipped up. Check each run as you pull it off. Retesting after installing drywall means cutting it again.

Error 5: I forgot to mark some runs

A few unlabeled cables cost me a day at the counter.

I marked most of the drops as I pulled them out. I skipped some, telling myself I would remember which was which. I didn’t do it. A few months later, while adding equipment to the rack, I stared at a bunch of identical blue cables, having no idea which one was powering the office and which was reaching the back bedroom. To figure this out would have required tinting each line one at a time, a day I would have saved with a $10 roll of labels and 30 seconds on cable. Mark both ends of each run, write a room on each end, and do this before the walls close. The cheapest tool on this entire list is the one I was too lazy to use.

Brand

InstallerParts

Cable type

CAT5e – CAT8

The next push will be easy

None of these are difficult, which is why they are worth writing down. Two cables instead of one. Step up to Cat6A on important tracks. The right tools in the bag before I begin. Tester on every line. Label on both ends. Do these five and you’ll wire the house once. Skip them and you’ll find yourself back inside the walls, which is the one place a finished home never wants to see you. My next project has a Smurf tube waiting in the attic. This time I will provide a complete checklist.