Who knew it could be such a task to get it? When Amber said she wanted to move her computer upstairs so she could be more productive with less distractions, it didn’t sound like that big of a deal. Drill a few holes, pull some wire, run it around the obstacles, done. Haha, not so fast.

First of all, you need the right tools. That includes a drill, which no one had. That includes a tape measure longer than 12 feet, which I had but would have to drive 15 minutes to get.

Second, you need to know for sure how you want to get it done. And you don’t need someone to try and sell you a wireless router right in the middle of your planning. That leads to approximately an hour of wondering if that might be the best solution. Then as you think about it you realize that a wireless router is expensive (even at a discount) and you still have to buy a wireless card on top of that. So you’re back to square one. Where do you drill and run this CAT5 cable?

Well the office in Amber’s apartment has an air intake vent. It runs to the ceiling. Let’s use that. HA. You only thought you were smooth; the intake only goes to the ceiling of the main level, not to the floor of the upper level. You have no way to drill a hole inside the wall. (At this point we still had no way to drill a whole period).

Ok, so we decide we’re going to just try and find a spot that would be convenient to go through and end up in a corner between two doors in the hallway upstairs. But how much cable do we need? Some quick measuring and estimates say about 85 feet of CAT5. So let’s do some research: walmart.com, radioshack.com, staples.com, newegg.com…CAT5 is damn expensive unless you want to wait for it. Any local retailer it would cost at least 50 bucks to buy 100 feet of cable. Ok, let’s regroup. Home Depot sells CAT5 by the foot. How much does it cost? $.15 a foot = $12.75 for 85 feet. Sweet! But wait…you also have to put the ends on the cable which requires buying RJ45 connectors and a crimping tool. Ok, no problem. Except that the tool costs 20 bucks and you can’t buy less than 25 RJ45 connectors. Well, it wouldn’t be so bad to have my own crimper tool…

So we’ve got our cable and we’re ready to try and get through the ceiling/floor. So Amber goes door to door to come up with a drill. Three apartments and five minutes later, she’s got one. So we pick a spot upstairs, pull the carpet out of the corner and drill a hole. We straighten out a hanger and I drop it in…clink clink. Guess what? You just hit an air duct. Not the intake kind that would have room temperature air flowing through it. Ok, time to try again. Where the hell are we gonna put this hole?

The upstairs hall closet sits right above the pantry in the kitchen! There’s no light in the pantry and they back up to the stairwell, so there shouldn’t be any ducts or wiring in the floor there. Alright, try again. Pull the carpet back, drill the hole, drop the hanger…it sinks a foot! Ok, now we’re getting somewhere. Time to try and measure to get an idea of where to drill the matching hole from below. Not as easy as I’d hoped. Realize the walls don’t quite match so I’m just gonna have to try it. Drill a second hole. Make a sheetrock dust mess.

Back upstairs to drop the hanger through. Yeah right. Not that easy. Fish around, find nothing. Enlarge both holes, find nothing. Stick a pencil through the bottom hole trying to get an idea of where it is…nothing. Finally: have Amber hold a flashlight to the bottom hole while you run upstairs and try to see where the light comes from. Fish around aimlessly and with a little luck hit the spot. Wow, that only took forever.

So now it’s just a matter of routing the wire out of the way, wiring the RJ45 connectors, plugging everything in, and praying it works the first time. At this point Amber had to leave to babysit but I wasn’t about to leave without this thing getting done so I stayed and finished up. This is actually where things got a lot easier. I wired the plugs in about 10 minutes and everything worked right off the bat. Whew. It’s only 6pm so you’ve got time to sit back and revel in a job well done. Wait. What I meant to say is it’s time to catch a ride home from Amber’s roommate and begin frantically working on diagrams and screen shots for your design document for which you are meeting with your group at 9pm.

Here’s the important thing: Amber can now sit in her room with her computer and internet access, away from other tempting distractions like roommates (well, that’s the idea anyway). I can also play with her computer more often because I don’t have to go downstairs to get to it 😉 It only took a week and a half to get it done. Now I don’t want to give off the wrong impression. While this little project was a pain at times, I was happy to do it.

Currently Playing: Creed – Stand Here With Me

You always reached out to me and helped me believe
All those memories we share, I will cherish every one of them
The truth of it is there’s a right way to live and you showed me
So now you live on in the words of a song: you’re a melody

Just when fear blinded me you taught me to dream
I’ll give you everything I am and still fall short of what you’ve done for me
In this life that I live I hope I can give love unselfishly…
I’ve learned the world is bigger than me: you’re my daily dose of reality