Getting Connected
Paramount to any new house is getting basic connectivity up and running through out the house. This typically involves a few calls to the utility companies and a wireless router hook up and you are good to go. This takes care of phone, cable and Internet. The three staples of happy family living. I decided to take a slightly different route for the three basic services. More advanced connectivity like surround sound and ceiling speakers are clearly another article and another solution altogether (AKA I have yet to figure out what I am going to do).
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For the Big 3, as I call them, I decided to use the cable company for all three services. Bresnan communications here in Billings, MT offers 8 Mbs Internet, digital cable + HD, and digital phone (USA and Canada) for $110 a month. The cable guy showed up a few days after we moved in (on time as well) and had every phone and cable jack in the house hooked up and double checked after a few hours. It took awhile but it was a new install and the service was top notch. The wires were a bit of a mess in my utility room, so I took it upon myself to tidy things up abit. See a few pics below:).
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Although the house was not wired with Ethernet in mind, they did wire it with CAT5E. I exlcuded a few of the phone jacks from the phone hookup to create a small Gig-E network that will connect two HTPCs and my main PC. My first attempt with crimpers and a male RJ-45 plug was met with craptacular results. Female jacks are where it's people :). After correcting that mistake we were good to go. To round out the networking, all I have to do is bridge my test machine to my PC to be part of my home network.