How to set up a wired network at home

Why wire a home at all?

WiFi is convenient. A cable is steady. A device on a data cable gets the full speed of the connection, does not compete with the neighbours’ networks and does not drop out when someone closes a door.

You do not need to wire everything. The useful approach is to cable the things that stay put, such as the TV, the console and the work computer, and to cable the WiFi points themselves, so the WiFi that is left has less to do and does it better. That is what data cabling for a home is for: a cable where the house needs it.

Access is the real job

Connecting a cable to a socket takes minutes. Getting the cable from the hub to the room, hidden, is what takes the time and decides what the job involves.

So the first question is not which cable or which switch. It is: what is your home made of, and where can a cable travel?

What is possible in your type of home

How cable gets from the hub to a room, by type of home

Type of home	Where cable can run	What to expect
Unit or flat, concrete floors and ceilings	Surface ducting along skirting, or existing conduits	Hard to hide. Often one or two cables and good WiFi is the practical answer
Single storey, roof space and timber floor	Through the roof space and down wall cavities, or under the floor and up	The easiest home to wire. Most rooms can have a hidden cable
Single storey on a slab	Through the roof space and down the walls	Good for outside walls. Some inside walls need a different spot for the socket
Two storey	Roof space for upstairs; a riser between floors for downstairs	Upstairs is easy. Downstairs depends on finding or making a path between the floors

From the hub to each room

Where a cable can travel in three kinds of home.

What kind of home is it?

Unit Single storey Two storey

123412341234

1. Concrete slab
2. Hub in a cupboard
3. Ducting along the skirting
4. Wall plate

1. Roof space
2. Hub in a cupboard
3. Down the wall cavity
4. Wall plate

1. Roof space
2. Riser between the floors
3. Hub in a cupboard
4. Wall plate

Units and flats. Concrete above and below leaves nowhere to hide a cable. The access is surface ducting along the skirting, or a conduit that is already there.

Read: Units and flats

Single storey. The access is the roof space. A cable runs across it and drops down inside the wall to a plate almost anywhere on an outside wall.

Read: Single-storey homes

Two storey. Upstairs is reached from the roof space. Downstairs needs a path between the floors: a riser such as a linen press or a service duct, or a conduit outside.

Read: Two-storey homes

Units and flats

Concrete above and below and brick walls leave nowhere to hide a cable. The choices are surface ducting along the skirting boards, which works and is visible, or chasing a channel into the wall, which belongs in a renovation. In a strata building you may need approval for either.

In most units the sensible plan is to add one Ethernet port, where the TV or the desk is, and a well-placed router or mesh system for the rest. See do WiFi range extenders really work for what to use.

Single-storey homes

With a roof space above and a cavity in the outside walls, adding an Ethernet port is easiest here: a cable is dropped down inside the wall to a socket almost anywhere on an outside wall.

Inside walls are harder. They have studs and noggins, the horizontal timbers between studs, which block a cable dropped from above. The ways around that are to come up from under the floor if the house has one, to fit the socket at skirting height, or to choose a spot on the wall where the path is clear.

Two-storey homes

Upstairs rooms are reached from the roof space. Downstairs rooms need a path between the floors, and that is the part to plan.

• A riser inside. A cupboard, a linen press or a service duct that lines up on both floors.
• A conduit outside. Rigid conduit down an outside wall, placed beside a downpipe or a window frame where it is hard to notice, and up into the eaves.

In this video, a two-storey house had its router stuck upstairs and blocked wall cavities, so the cables went down the outside in conduit to the living room and the office.

Watch: From Old to New | Optus Cable and Socket Relocation

Plan the central hub

Every cable runs back to one place. That hub is usually where the internet arrives: the NBN box, the router (see how a modem and a router differ), and a network switch if there are more cables than the router has ports.

• Pick it for access, not just for where the NBN box happens to be. If the box is in the garage, the hub can still be there, with the router or a WiFi point cabled to the middle of the house. If the box itself is in the wrong place, the NBN box can be moved before the cabling starts.
• Give it power, air and room. A shelf or a small cabinet, not a sealed cupboard.
• Label everything. Each cable marked at the hub with the room it goes to.
• Use a patch panel once there are more than a handful of cables. The fixed cables end on the panel, and short leads connect it to the switch.

From plan to working network

To see roughly what it would cost before anyone visits, get a price range for your house in about two minutes.

1. 1

   List what needs a cable

   Room by room: the devices that stay put, and where the WiFi points will go.

2. 2

   Walk the routes

   For each socket, work out the path back to the hub and what is in the way. Take photos of the roof space access, the underfloor access and the walls.

3. 3

   Get it quoted

   A registered cabler prices it from your list and photos, or from a look at the house. Ask for Cat6, a socket at each end, and every cable tested.

4. 4

   Cables in, sockets on

   The cables are run, kept clear of mains wiring, and terminated on wall sockets in the rooms and at the hub.

5. 5

   Test every cable

   Each run is tested end to end before anything is plugged in. A cable that passes a tester is one you will never have to think about again.

6. 6

   Connect it up

   Router to switch, switch to the panel or sockets, devices to the wall. This part is yours, with ordinary patch leads.

The legal and safety side

A registered cabler works to the wiring rules for this kind of cable. The one that matters most in a home is separation: data cable is kept apart from electrical cable, with a set minimum gap or a barrier between them, so mains voltage can never reach a data socket.

Other things to know before any cabling starts:

• Asbestos. Homes built before the 1990s can have it in eaves, wall sheeting and old pits. Nobody should drill until that is known.
• The structure. Studs, joists and bearers are not notched or cut for a cable.
• Strata. In a unit or townhouse, cabling through common property needs the owners corporation’s approval.
• Renting. The landlord has to agree to anything fixed.

What you can do yourself, and what you cannot

Yours to do:

• Plan where the sockets and the hub go.
• Choose and set up the router, the switch and the WiFi points. If you would rather not, home tech support sets them up.
• Connect devices with ready-made patch leads.
• On a new build or renovation, tell the builder where you want conduit before the walls are closed. Empty conduit with a draw wire is cheap then and makes every later cable easy.

A registered cabler’s job:

• Running cable through walls, the roof space or under the floor.
• Fitting and terminating wall sockets and patch panels.
• Any cable between buildings, to a granny flat or a shed. See sharing the house’s NBN with a granny flat.

Try the data cabling cost estimator for a price range on the cabler’s part.

A wired network and your WiFi

The best home networks use both. Cable carries the connection to each part of the house, and a WiFi point on the end of each cable covers that area. Every WiFi point gets the full speed, and no unit has to relay for another. It is the same fix for mesh WiFi that keeps disconnecting, and the strongest way to boost a mesh WiFi signal.

If your WiFi is the reason you are reading this, a cable to one or two well-placed WiFi points often does more than rewiring every room. A WiFi technician can say where those points belong.