1. The purpose of home low-voltage wiring is to share resources such as network, telephone, and cable TV. Ideally, all three types of interfaces should be available in the main rooms.
For home internet, telephone, and cable TV, splitter equipment typically has one input and four outputs (more are available, but more expensive). In a two-bedroom apartment, you can usually install internet, telephone, and TV interfaces in the living room, master bedroom, and second bedroom; a TV interface in the dining room; and a telephone interface in the bathroom. If you have more rooms, you can choose to pre-install the interfaces or run all the cables out in the low-voltage distribution box, and then replace the plugs leading to each room as needed. Audio and video are different. Although they can also be split and shared, in a home, they can generally only provide a signal to one device at a time, so I don't think it's necessary to install interfaces in every room.
2. To achieve the requirements of sharing and interconnection in low-voltage wiring, frequency division or switching equipment must be used.
The switching equipment for both internal and external networks is a router (for LAN) or a modem (for ADSL), also known as a "cat," which costs around 300 yuan. Internal network switching equipment is a switch or hub; a switch is better and costs less than 200 yuan, while hubs can be bought for 80-90 yuan now. Routers with built-in switches and modems with built-in routers and switches are available on the market, priced at 300-500 yuan, and are recommended. Telephone switching and splitting equipment is a switch or a splitter box; switches are better and cost 100-200 yuan. Splitters are very cheap, but they don't allow communication between rooms and can't support more than three telephones. Television switching equipment is a splitter (or brancher), which everyone should be familiar with.
3. Low-voltage wiring should use a star topology, radiating from the switching and frequency division equipment to each port.
For ease of wiring and maintenance, it's best to keep all equipment in one place. Most new houses nowadays have a low-voltage distribution box at the entrance, with pre-installed connectors for various lines. Sometimes, the wiring simply loops through the box before leading to a room. This is fine; you can cut the wires in the box, connect one end to the IN port of a switching/splitter, and the other end to the OUT port for continued use. We can modify the low-voltage distribution box ourselves, installing switching and splitter equipment. Note that most devices require power, so a power outlet should be provided inside the distribution box. Most low-voltage distribution boxes sold on the market today lack basic functionality, especially in network settings. While they may have one inlet and four outlet ports, they are merely patch panels, unable to enable internal communication or multiple computers accessing the internet simultaneously. They are also relatively expensive, so it's better to DIY one. For houses without a low-voltage distribution box, wiring becomes more complicated. You either need to place each device near the entrance, or bring the incoming lines together.
4. There are several ways to access the Internet: direct dial-up; ISDN (also known as ISDN or ISDN DSL); ADSL (also known as ADSL DSL); LAN (using a network cable); and also using cable TV lines and power lines.
The first two are outdated and should not be considered. The latter two are not yet widespread and are only available in a few places. ADSL and LAN are currently the mainstream. The theoretical transmission speed of ADSL is 8M/s for download, while LAN can reach 100M/s. However, telecom companies generally only open bandwidth of 512K-2M. In actual use, it is also limited by line conditions, number of users, and the bandwidth of the telecom company's outbound network, and it generally cannot reach the maximum value. It is not certain whether ADSL or LAN is faster in actual use. However, wired internet access should be the future direction and should be given priority if possible.
5. If you want different rooms to access the internet simultaneously, you have two options: one is to install a router or modem with a built-in switch, and the other is to install emulation software on one of the computers and use that computer as a proxy server. The trade-off is that the proxy server must be running if other computers are accessing the internet.
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