By
August 26, 2019
When renovating or building, you’re likely to put a lot of thought into the best place for your electrical sockets and light fittings. But it’s important that you don’t forget about the wiring responsible for ensuring you can access some of the best broadband in the world and enjoy a good online experience.
Poor or old wiring is one of the leading causes of broadband issues. Unless you’ve recently replaced it, it’s likely the wiring and phone jack points in your property were installed to deliver a good telephone service rather than high speed broadband and you need an update.
Here’s three things you should consider when you’re looking at future-proofing your home wiring to get the best out of your connection:
Get a health check
Like any wiring it pays to consult an expert. Data cabling specialists and some electricians can assess your home and provide a quote for updating your telecommunications wiring fairly quickly and easily. Installing an Ethernet port in a room is as easy as installing a new power point.
Prepare for your future needs not for your present ones
A few years ago who would have thought fridges would be connected to the Internet? Or washing machines? In the future you’ll likely want a connection in rooms you wouldn’t think of now. While WiFi is largely doing the trick these days, as appliances get more data hungry the desire to have more appliances and devices plugged straight into your connection using fixed wiring is likely to grow. A fixed network will give you greater reliability and the fastest speeds. Wireless signals also diminish when too many things are connected to them, and a wired network will free up your WiFi for devices that need to move around such as your smartphone, laptop or tablet.
If you’re rewiring we recommend you get Ethernet cabling and jack points in every room with more jack points in rooms like lounges, home offices and family rooms so you can plug heavy usage devices like TVs, computers, and gaming consoles straight into your broadband. Modern power points often combine power, USB and Ethernet outlets so they’re a good bet.
Get the best you can afford
As with any home wiring you want it to last as long as possible. The best available is a star wiring configuration using Cat6 cabling. It delivers the broadband signal to different rooms in the house from a central point. Already available in most modern builds, it is suitable for copper and fibre technologies. It costs a bit more but it will ensure your home is ready for the future. Ask your electrician or data cabling specialist to quote a star wiring configuration using Cat6 wiring and Ethernet jack points. Take a look here for more information on wiring your home for the future.
Better broadband connections are becoming integral to how our homes operate. Tech research firm Gartner reports there were 6.3 billion connected things globally at the end of 2016. It predicts that the number of connected fridges, lightbulbs, security, televisions, smart home systems and so on will grow to 8.4 billion by the end of this year, and 20.8 billion by 2020. So while you’re choosing your new kitchen or designing your home additions, make sure your home is ready for the future with the best home wiring possible, particularly while the Gib is off.
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