A Look at Structured Internet Wiring

It's not uncommon for today's home office to have dedicated wiring for telephone, audio, data and video. It's always a good idea to hire a licensed electrician to complete any wiring you need in your home office. It's also a good idea to get a general and basic understanding of what you want and what your electrician will be doing to get you what you want.

What is Structured Wiring?

Structured wiring is a generalized term used to describe different types of wiring available in homes that distributes data signals throughout your entire home including your home office. Signals include the standard most people are familiar with like cable television and telephone. It allows you to listen to a stereo in any part of your home, place video cameras in your home and watch the pictures on your television. From a home business perspective, structured wiring allows you to send files between all computers in your home, share printers and fax machines, have several different phone lines and hook many computers to a single internet connection.

Structured wiring in the home office also makes voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) -- the technology that allows users to make phone call over an Internet connection -- easily accessible. It allows you to maximize high speed Internet access.

Basics of How It Works

Structured wiring has three parts

1. the location where the outside service enters the home usually in the form of a panel or module

2. the wires and cables inside the house

3. the connecting hardware

The system tends to come pre-packaged but you want to make sure you don't position outlets where you don't need them or miss one where you need one. Create a home office power plan where you want to place your computers with Internet connections, printers, phones and any other media you need to run your home-based business.

Make sure you choose a wire that is capable to transmit in the frequency you need to meet all your home office electrical and Internet needs.

The Control Center

The control center of the structured wiring for your home and home office distributes Internet access where needed including wireless access points and adaptors. This is also the location where you should have a security firewall that protects your Internet from being accessed by outside hackers while still allowing you and other members of the home to access it as needed. All the wires for the rest of the home come from this box. Keep in mind that Internet signal quality will be poorer the further away you are from the control box, so make sure your office is located close enough to the control box for the most consistent Internet connections.