Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 21, 2019 4:36 pm Need some help please......planning a KDNR in Melbourne and I'm still unsure what is a data point? In my current house, we only have 1 NBN point with a router, and that's it. Wi-fi signal is only strong when we are close to the router which is annoying but understandable. My question is - what is a data point ? Why do you need so many data points? Do you only need 1NBN point and multiple data points? Why do you need TV point ? (thought with SMART TVs you only need internet access even for Netflix subscription etc)? Basically, when I do KDNR , I would like to know what points are required and how many.............. TIA! Re: What is data point?? 2Apr 21, 2019 6:38 pm Data point is a network cable connection from your NBN point directly to a Cat6 point near your TV or desktop computer.
If you set up a high speed Wi-Fi mesh network in your home with a good coverage, you might not need too many data points, may be only 2-3 points for your Wi-Fi routers, for your desktop PC (if you are serious into video gaming, for the network latency, it is always better to use wired connections instead of wireless), your gaming consoles and TVs, especially, where you are planning to stream high quality video content. Re: What is data point?? 3Apr 21, 2019 6:38 pm A data point is basically a network cable (CAT6) running from one location to another. So lets say you have your NBN 'NTD' (small grey box that terminates the NBN into your house) in the garage and you are happy to locate the modem/wireless router there also then you arguably don't need any data points. But lets say you want to locate the internet modem/router further away central in your house.....then you would probably install at least one data point to that central location from the NBN box in the garage. This way your wireless router is nice and central, but still connects properly via CAT6 cable to the NBN box in the garage. Then you could do what we are doing and running several 'data points' (cables) from the NBN cabinet in the garage to various rooms around the house, so that devices like gaming consoles, TVs and computers can all be connected to the router via a network cable rather than relying on wireless. Several advantages including speed and less potential for drop-outs....reduces the amount of wireless devices all fighting for bandwidth from the wireless router. So our setup will likely work like this: NBN Pit on street > cable run to external of house NBN 'PCD' > cable run from 'PCD' to inside garage to NBN 'NTD' (inside cabinet) > CAT6 cable from NTD to Router > Router connected to network switch (probably a 16 port version) > CAT6 cables run from switch to wall plate in rooms > Another short CAT6 from wall plate to device (eg. TV or gaming console). We will also have another CAT6 going from the router to a wireless access point (WAP) located centrally in the house. So it sounds a bit messy but once setup will mean fast and reliable connections to all devices....hopefully! But @$100 per network 'data point' plus all the switches, patch panels etc it won't be cheap! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Re: What is data point?? 4Apr 22, 2019 3:20 pm darb74 A data point is basically a network cable (CAT6) running from one location to another. So lets say you have your NBN 'NTD' (small grey box that terminates the NBN into your house) in the garage and you are happy to locate the modem/wireless router there also then you arguably don't need any data points. But lets say you want to locate the internet modem/router further away central in your house.....then you would probably install at least one data point to that central location from the NBN box in the garage. This way your wireless router is nice and central, but still connects properly via CAT6 cable to the NBN box in the garage. Then you could do what we are doing and running several 'data points' (cables) from the NBN cabinet in the garage to various rooms around the house, so that devices like gaming consoles, TVs and computers can all be connected to the router via a network cable rather than relying on wireless. Several advantages including speed and less potential for drop-outs....reduces the amount of wireless devices all fighting for bandwidth from the wireless router. So our setup will likely work like this: NBN Pit on street > cable run to external of house NBN 'PCD' > cable run from 'PCD' to inside garage to NBN 'NTD' (inside cabinet) > CAT6 cable from NTD to Router > Router connected to network switch (probably a 16 port version) > CAT6 cables run from switch to wall plate in rooms > Another short CAT6 from wall plate to device (eg. TV or gaming console). We will also have another CAT6 going from the router to a wireless access point (WAP) located centrally in the house. So it sounds a bit messy but once setup will mean fast and reliable connections to all devices....hopefully! But @$100 per network 'data point' plus all the switches, patch panels etc it won't be cheap! Thank you so much darb74 for the detailed explanation. May I know - do you need to connect laptops etc directly into the data points or does the data point works as a wireless point to ensure wireless signal is still available even if it's far from NBN box ? We are not heavy internet users. Re: What is data point?? 5Apr 22, 2019 3:45 pm Don't waste your money, Yos. Bung in one connection to the NBN for your router. 5G and the incoming wi-fi 6 are going to rock the distribution of signals through our homes in the next 18 months ors so. Folk will look at all that Cat6 cable and stuff hanging around their homes and weep for what it cost them to install. But what do I know? Re: What is data point?? 6Apr 22, 2019 5:14 pm Yoshi and Peach darb74 A data point is basically a network cable (CAT6) running from one location to another. So lets say you have your NBN 'NTD' (small grey box that terminates the NBN into your house) in the garage and you are happy to locate the modem/wireless router there also then you arguably don't need any data points. But lets say you want to locate the internet modem/router further away central in your house.....then you would probably install at least one data point to that central location from the NBN box in the garage. This way your wireless router is nice and central, but still connects properly via CAT6 cable to the NBN box in the garage. Then you could do what we are doing and running several 'data points' (cables) from the NBN cabinet in the garage to various rooms around the house, so that devices like gaming consoles, TVs and computers can all be connected to the router via a network cable rather than relying on wireless. Several advantages including speed and less potential for drop-outs....reduces the amount of wireless devices all fighting for bandwidth from the wireless router. So our setup will likely work like this: NBN Pit on street > cable run to external of house NBN 'PCD' > cable run from 'PCD' to inside garage to NBN 'NTD' (inside cabinet) > CAT6 cable from NTD to Router > Router connected to network switch (probably a 16 port version) > CAT6 cables run from switch to wall plate in rooms > Another short CAT6 from wall plate to device (eg. TV or gaming console). We will also have another CAT6 going from the router to a wireless access point (WAP) located centrally in the house. So it sounds a bit messy but once setup will mean fast and reliable connections to all devices....hopefully! But @$100 per network 'data point' plus all the switches, patch panels etc it won't be cheap! Thank you so much darb74 for the detailed explanation. May I know - do you need to connect laptops etc directly into the data points or does the data point works as a wireless point to ensure wireless signal is still available even if it's far from NBN box ? We are not heavy internet users. A data point Is NOT a wifi connection. It provides direct access to the internet via a Ethernet cable. This connection type is typically more stable and Should provide the fastest speeds applicable. You still need to plug in a wifi modem/router to obtain a wifi network. Re: What is data point?? 7Apr 22, 2019 6:40 pm So data point is really a data port which I can connect via a normal USB cable to my laptop is that right ? If we are using mainly ipad and iphone in the room, then we don't really need data port because there's no connection port on these devices anyway? Is there another alternative, such as getting a booster / repeater (not sure how expensive?) to amplify the wi-fi signal in the house, rather than spending the money on data point? Re: What is data point?? 8Apr 22, 2019 7:25 pm No this is USB, which is used for things like external hard drives, mouse etc. Network 'data points' are basically network cables inside your wall/roof cavities that 'terminate' into neat wall plates. But in simple terms you could essentially just have long network cables running from your NBN box to your computer, that look like this at each end: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ If you look on the side of your laptop or computer you will see an RJ45 port that looks like this: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ So the data point you refer to is the same as at most work places when you plug those blue cables into those network ports, and this is how your computer communicates with the rest of the servers/computers on the same network. The network obviously includes the internet when you have a modem/router that is also included as part of the system. Hope this helps? Like others say, you can avoid running this type of 'wired' network if you are happy to rely on 'wireless' communication between all your devices and the internet at your house. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Re: What is data point?? 9Apr 22, 2019 7:46 pm Yoshi, look into Wi-Fi mesh solutions, such as: https://www.linksys.com/us/p/P-WHW0103/ It consists of multiple Wi-Fi repeaters (e.g. 3) talking to each other and providing uninterrupted Wi-Fi coverage for your full house. Only one node in Mesh need to be connected to your NBN or DSL. Re: What is data point?? 10Apr 22, 2019 7:47 pm Yoshi and Peach So data point is really a data port which I can connect via a normal USB cable to my laptop is that right ? If we are using mainly ipad and iphone in the room, then we don't really need data port because there's no connection port on these devices anyway? Is there another alternative, such as getting a booster / repeater (not sure how expensive?) to amplify the wi-fi signal in the house, rather than spending the money on data point? As said no it’s not. Basically it’s where you plug your wifi modem/router into to allow you to have a wifi network for your iPads etc. have a look at mesh networks. https://www.netgear.com.au/orbi/default.aspx Should explain some things for you. There are a million things to get you going such as wifi extenders and power line adapters etc. Ultimately you need a wifi router and depending on which nbn you have eg fibre to the node or fibre to the premises will decide what else you need or don’t need. Re: What is data point?? 11Apr 23, 2019 9:39 am I would not rely on wifi only and wifi mesh to provide good wifi performance to the whole house. This may be OK in an ideal scenario, but the real world is far from ideal. Wifi space can get congested and there are plenty of other things that can interfere with wifi signals, depending on where you are . Some consumer devices also do not perform well over wifi Ideal scenario is to run ethernet to a few points and have distributed wired wifi access points In addition if I want to reliably stream 4K video to my main TV I would be far more comfortable putting in a data point than having to reply on wifi for this A data point cost $100 when building a house, but a lot more later Re: What is data point?? 12Apr 23, 2019 2:01 pm Thank you for all the helpful tips and advice! Much appreciated Re: What is data point?? 13Apr 26, 2019 7:40 pm Talking about data points I think we had already got the sparkie to run about 13 Cat6 (network) cables from the data cabinet in the garage to various spots around the house. But I couldn’t help myself and because we are paying $100 per ‘data point’, I bought myself 300m of Cat6 from ‘4Cabling’ this week ($180 delivered), and in addition to an extra cable from garage to hallway shelf (to allow the router to sit here and is more central) we ran about 15 more cables out from this shelf area. So we now have 2 points in each bedroom, 4 in the rumpus, 3 in living, 3 in main study, 3 in study nook, 2 in ceiling for potential wireless access points, entry door/living for possible video doorbell and a few other random spots. I will get these lines all just terminated in the shelving and a second switch as a cash job for the sparkies son. With the number of connected devices only increasing for us I would prefer to get as much of the heavier bandwidth devices at least on a proper data point (cable) connection and then leaves just phones and tablets etc for wireless. Means less stress on the wireless router as well as faster/more stable connections for everything else on the data points. It is expensive though overall I agree, so we all have to make the call based our own preferences and priorities when it’s come to allocating our building budget. I’ll be interested to report back once we’re up and going. Here is our extra ‘purple’ cables sitting above the bulkhead for the shelving unit: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This pic is the NBN cabinet in the garage with mostly the sparkies cable runs we were already paying for. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Re: What is data point?? 14May 01, 2019 12:27 pm darb74, you are very lucky that your builder allowed you to do that. I would have loved to do it all myself as a friend of mine did, but sadly for me that was not an option. Re: What is data point?? 15May 01, 2019 1:51 pm Yoshi and Peach Thank you for all the helpful tips and advice! Much appreciated You should minimum opt for : a) 1 pair of data point - near NBN box inside your garage and somewhere central inside your house (lets say in Study) b) 1 pair of data point - from Study to behind the TV nice to have.. c) 1 pair of data point - from study to first floor (say in Master bed) With (a) you can position your Router (and wifi) centrally inside the house rather than in garage With (b) you are assured of a better connection (than wifi) for TV streaming With (c) you are assured of a point on first floor where you can install a wifi access point to ensure better coverage on that floor Re: What is data point?? 16May 01, 2019 3:12 pm brokenstick darb74, you are very lucky that your builder allowed you to do that. I would have loved to do it all myself as a friend of mine did, but sadly for me that was not an option. Hi brokenstick, yes we are definitely lucky but we partly chose this builder because we were aware that they offered this type of access during the build to their clients. Mind you this builder is certainly not the cheapest out there, but they have a good reputation and as long as we communicate with our site supervisor on what we're doing ourselves they are ok with it. Having said that I'm not sure the sparkie is going to be overly excited when he sees how many extra cables I ran! They don't like terminating anything not run by their own crew which is fair enough....but I am going to obviously take responsibility for any issues. To cover myself I ran another backup cable from the garage (NBN) to our main network shelf in the house....just in case one of the other two Cat6's has an issue. I had so much cable left still on the roll I was looking for places to put it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Scientists have used random matrix theory to demonstrate theoretically that the neutrino mass hierarchy can be explained mathematically. When a substance is fragmented… 21 20675 If you're referring to Eufy homebase, then just put a switch between a datapoint and put the homebase elsewhere near another device in your home unless you want teh… 9 13864 Building Standards; Getting It Right! Hi All, We have a fall from road to garage front. But we cannot put a drain/grate because no discharge point put by the builder. Now they complain not enough space for… 0 9245 |