I'm upgrading my home network by pulling new Cat6 cables from my fiber modem in the garage to a router inside the house. I want to pass these cables straight through the wall between the garage and the living area, which is a wood frame wall (2X4 or 2X6) with drywall on both sides and insulation in the middle. The modem is in a media cabinet on one exterior wall, but that's not the same wall where I need the cables to come through. Since there's an attic above the garage, but the main house is two stories, I can't access the top of the wall to run cables up there.
I'm considering using ENT conduit to route these cables from the media cabinet to the garage side of the shared wall. I live in Florida, so keeping out pests like small lizards and minimizing AC leakage is essential. What would be the most efficient way to penetrate the wall for 4-8 cables? Would using keystone jacks on the house side and a junction box in the garage be the best approach?
2 Answers
Using double-sided keystone jacks seems like a viable solution. Just be sure to seal things up with some pest-block spray foam. Ideally, you only need one wire from the cable modem to your router indoors, given that you still have the option to add connections when needed.
It seems like you might be going a bit overboard with 4-8 cables. Typically, you'd only need one main cable from the modem to the router unless your fiber connection is really fast and needs some extra bandwidth. For running the cables, using ENT is a solid choice, especially with some sort of end cap to keep pests out. You could even run the cables directly to where you need them instead of terminating at a keystone; going with a small patch panel might be more efficient for future needs. How about considering a 12 or 16-port panel instead for more flexibility?