yeah - it will a lot easier than having them snake the wires through later

When we had our walls open we wired for everything we could think of. Cable TV, sound, CAT 5, etc.
Our thinking was wires are cheap.
While we may never use some of these systems, it just seemed like a better idea to add the wiring before the walls went up than after.

For networking, FIOS uses a wireless router. If you don't want to go wireless for everything (and I think it is problematic), then wire CAT6 to each room. Have the other ends at a central location like where the FIOS router would be located.

As for video, wire each room with RG6 and put the other end at a central location. The tech will wire a splitter in that spot.

putting it in now is cheaper than later, as stated.

I would wire Cat6 copper cable to each room, to support 1Gb Ethernet (or 10Gb Ethernet if you like). The wires should connect at a single entry point where you'd put a switch that would connect into your FIOS router.

I wouldn't run fiber directly in the walls -- there may come a day when that would be useful, but there's a 99.99% chance that 10GB+ Ethernet over copper (Cat6) will be all you need for data, and cheaper.

The video would still go over a coax connection, to your set top box. But over time more video will go over the Ethernet data connection to boxes like AppleTV, Smart TV, etc.

You could also run video over wireless - 802.11ac will provide more than enough bandwidth. But having wired Ethernet to your main video devices will give you better overall quality of data transfer.

calumin, sorry I'm not sure what you are even talking about but is this something I can give my contractor and he will know what to do? or does the phone company do the work? also, how would you determine the single entry point location?

bump -does anyone know the answer to this?

Yes just don't talk about FIOS (which is fiber) running throughout your house - that might confuse him.

Tell your contractor you want high speed Ethernet in each room in your house. You will connect it to your cable equipment (which will be FIOS, but could actually be anything). You will need to know:

1) what kind of cable. Say Cat 6 (the other option he may suggest is Cat 5e). The connector plug is RJ45, but he probably knows that.
2) where to put the outlets. That's your call, but I'd suggest one outlet in each room at the same place where you put your cable outlet for cable TV
3) where your cable guy will install the FIOS equipment. Again that's your call but it should be somewhere inconspicuous. I put mine in the garage. All the Ethernet cables you install in each room will run back to that location.

It's pretty common for electricians to run all the low voltage lines (cable, phone, Ethernet) together into each room into a single outlet. Just make sure he places the outlets somewhere convenient for you.

This post was edited by calumin on Sat, Sep 14, 13 at 10:27

An electrician needs to do interior wiring. In most homes, the cable company only delivers to a central location (sometimes in the basement if there is one). At least that's how ours works. Then the TVs in various rooms need to have wiring to connect. At least now.

It's a little complicated, though, because TV, internet and phone are on some systems. Others just have TV and internet. But not every computer in the house needs to work off a wired connection because the companies provide a wireless router to send the signal through the house. The success of that often varies with the house -- in our former apartment built in 1928 the signal would not work at all. Too much in the walls.

Then there are satellite providers like Dish -- no idea what that requires in terms of wiring.

Cordless phones and other bluetooth devices work wirelessly and the frequencies sometimes need to be adjusted so everything works together.

The confusion results from the various providers and modes. F.ex. we formerly had 2 landlines in the house -- conventional wisdom being that those work best and in any emergency. But earlier this year we converted one of the landlines to Verizon wireless using a router. That service is 100% better, no buzzing or interference, it can survive a power outage by being connected to a backup generator outlet and no wiring is required at all plus it's half the price. Our cable provider OTOH was touting phone service as well but couldn't port our number.

If there are alarm systems in the house there may be a landline requirement -- we need to keep one for that and to monitor our backup propane tank.

It's confusing and a lot depends on where you live and what the various providers provide and what you need.

Ive heard of people installing conduit (1" PEX?) to facilitate future wiring.

rococogurl - you don't have to use the wireless connection that cable company gives you. You can add a wireless access point by plugging it into any wired connection in your house -- that could give better performance. Also, you need either a 802.11n or 802.11ac wireless device to let you connect through walls at high performance.

To make things simpler for the OP, it's important to remember that wiring a house for high-speed Internet is completely separate & independent from whatever provider or technology used for the actual Internet connection. Inside the house you run Ethernet -- what you connect to for access to the outside world can be FIOS, Dish, DSL, cable, etc. It's not worth going down the path of thinking that the choice of DSL vs. cable vs FIOS should impact your in-home wiring configuration -- it should not.