what cable to run?

I'm going to be adding 2 phone lines in the "office" of a new home I just bought.

I thought that I should run cable for high speed internet while I'm going to do the phone lines. I am not even sure if DSL or cable internet is avalable in my area yet. And I honestly I dont really even know the difference between the two.

How can I cover my bases?

Clueless here? does cable internet come through the same cable as cable tv???

I was just going to run (whatever cable) I need and just leave extra in the attic at an accessable location.

When I do decide to hook up, do they just run a cable from the road to the house? Could I have them put it into the house at any location??

Thanks for any help.

 

First, let's start with the differences between the 2:

DSL uses your phone line to bring high-speed internet (broadband) into your house. Usually the wires already in the house can be used (Cat5 is highly recommended for DSL) and it typically gives you up to about 1Mb transfers (distance from the CO is the biggest speed-determining factor.)

Cable uses your Cable TV lines to brind broadband in to the house. There are some considerations to be made for the actual line being used (for example: you don't want to split the cable more than once before it comes to the modem, etc.), but for the most part, any cable jack in the house can be used. Typical speeds are from about 300K plus (a lot of factors to consider - number of modems on your "loop", time of day, etc, etc, etc.)

For the most part they are essentially the same (some will disagree.)

So, you really shouldn't need to run any "extra" cables or wires, just make sure you have the proper jacks installed and where you want them. The cable company is not going to run a line from the road (unless you don't have cable), and neither will the phone company - they'll just hook up at the boxes outside the home. Even in that case, if you have the cables/wires run already, they'll just change around the configuration outside to accomodate the new technology.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the reply...Very informative.

 

your cable and phone are going to be at a particular location, your computer another or even have multiple computers in different locations in the house.

You can run CAT6 cable which will allow for maximum longevity. You put your cable/dsl router in a master location or closet, and then run CAT6 cable to the rooms and put them into junction boxes just like your telelphone cable.

this is my first time explaining something like this on a board, if you have any questions I'll try to answer them as best as I can.

 

This may be informative along the whole spectrum of preparing for the future.

http://www.ac5r.org/cat5.html

HTH