Removing old and unneeded internet and TV cabling

[person]

@phb

This might determine the maximum number of LAN access points in the house.

That’s not entirely true. A greater number of LAN access points is still flexibility for moving equipment around over the years. However I don’t think too many customers who would spend money on getting a proper data cable install would limit themselves to a crappy 4 port switch embedded in their router.

@KeithT

I could just rip it out myself, but I’m not cluey enough to distinguish what cable is no longer needed from the cable that is still required.

Yeah, LOL. When we moved in to our current house, it had a number of undocumented interconnected outlets. We chose just to leave them there and add what we wanted. The qualified data cabler who installed our additions did also, at our direction, replace some of the unused outlets with blanking plates so that there can be no confusion between legacy unused outlets and usable ones.

If ripping it out yourself, make sure to recycle appropriately all the cabling.

@pandrew3

But all these devices are not going to perform unless your NBN rubbish internet feed is faster than 80Mbps.

Assuming that the content that is of interest to you is on the internet, rather than available locally on your house network.

@phb

The other issue if one hangs every device of the local WIFI network, overcrowding can occurs as they all compete with each other to connect to the same router.

Same router and/or same frequencies - even without competing with neighbours. 5 GHz is better than 2.4 GHz regarding overlapping frequencies, for devices with 5 GHz band support.

My advice would be: use WiFi judiciously. Think about your network design. I think that is basically what you are saying too.

[KeithT]

I guessed there are “guys who do that sort of thing”, but I can’t find any. What is their technical category? What term(s) do I use to search for them?

[beings_nobody]

I used this guy. I got him from Hipages (tradies advertise there). He was good and did a neat job. My NBN service is Fibre To The Curb, where just the wire from the fibre cable in the pit in the street to the house is the original copper phone line. Tomasz replaced the original crappy plastic box at the junction point where the old phone line entered the house with a new Telstra-branded box, then he ran new Cat 6 Ethernet cable from there, up the wall cavity, across the roof cavity and down the wall in my study where he terminated it on a neat wall plate. Cost: $200. He disconnected the old phone lines but he did not remove them. No need really.
My job was done in 2018. Good luck

Tomasz Supel
GMT Communications Pty Ltd,
0386577634

[mark_m]

@KeithT

What term(s) do I use to search for them?

Search the internet for your area and look for:
Home data cabling installer, home network installer, or similar.

Or try the links

Find a registered cabler for domestic or commercial work | ACMA

Many local electrical contractors have cabling licenses. Some TV antennae installation services also offer to do data cabling work as well as those who do alarm/camera security systems.

On our smaller regional area I’d go to one of the two electrical contractors we’ve been happy with previously.

[grahroll]

There is a site for all registered cablers in Australia which is searchable to find one for your needs

https://registeredcablers.com.au/find-cablers/

[meltam]

@KeithT

I want to remove about 250 metres of cabling that is no longer needed.
I could just rip it out myself, but I’m not cluey enough to distinguish what cable is no longer needed from the cable that is still required.

To find cabling that is no longer required, first you have to ascertain what is. Starting with the obvious - the cable coming into your home from outside is essential. It will be the one that the modem is connected to. Then have a look at the router, whether it is part of the modem or a separate unit. Where do the cable from there (if there are any) connect to? Track back all wired connections and check the connected devices to confirm they are working with the LAN (Local Area Network).

If a wire goes from the router to a wall plate with a RJ45 female connection (like in the back of the router), you will need to work out where the cable behind the plate goes to (in the wall and on). Are there other wall plates in the house? If there are test each outlet and see if you have an active connection to the LAN. You can do this by plugging in a laptop with Wi-Fi turned off for example. If you have an internet connection without Wi-Fi, then it is live and good; leave it alone.

Do this for all your connections.

If you find wall plates where all the connections are not working, and you don’t need them, then these are the ones where the wires can be pulled out. Equally, if you have wall plates where you don’t need that can also be pulled out. More on this below.

If you want to upgrade to a faster ethernet cable, as discussed in earlier posts, the cabler can use the existing cables to pull new cables through and hopefully speed up the installation considerably.

The new cables may be a different colour, or will have the Category with a lot of other text printed all along the length of the cable, eg Cat 5e, Cat 6, Cat 6a, etc.

When the new cabling is done and you start to look at what can come out, if it isn’t new cable it can be pulled out. Start with the termination point such as the wall plates, Undo or cut the cable connected to the back of all connections you don’t want any more. (See the pic below)

When all the unwanted connections are undone, you can start to pull the old cable out from where ever you can easily get at it. Sometimes the cable will pull back readily from the wall outlet, sometimes it won’t. If it doesn’t you will need to get into the roof cavity, under the house, and possibly outside. I will assume that you can see the cabling outside or it is in lidded conduit so you can see the cable.

Pull all the unwanted cable out until you have the two ends of each cable. If there is unneeded conduit that can be removed as well.

If you want more information, have a search via your browser, using wording like this for example.

[KeithT]

Brilliant! Thank you for taking the time and effort to set this out so clearly.

[person]

@meltam

If you want to upgrade to a faster ethernet cable, as discussed in earlier posts, the cabler can use the existing cables to pull new cables through

Exactly. One of the reasons why we left the unknown legacy cables in place. Sure, we didn’t need an outlet at that exact spot at that time but if we ever do need an outlet at that spot it will be faster and easier for the cabler (cheaper for me) to be able to use the unknown legacy cables for the above purpose. Unless there is a safety issue, I wouldn’t be pushing to remove legacy cabling.