Cat 5 in the home

Peter_peadar

I have Cat 5 sockets (Ethernet jacks) in most rooms of house. The house is a Large two storey with concrete floors concrete walls. The sockets are not wired to anything. They all just terminate in attic. I have internet coming into house to the router downstairs.

I struggle to get strong WiFi in all areas even with use of power line adaptors. What’s the best way of getting full WiFi throughout the home? My thinking is I need to wire the incoming internet cable to a powered switch and then connect in all the cables in the attic to this switch and this makes the wall mounted cat 5 sockets active. Is this correct?

I assume if I plug in hard wired cable into the cat 5 socket and hardwire to the device I would get strong internet . But this is all hardwired solution and I’m simply looking for better WiFi by taking advantage of the Ethernet points. Is there any benefit of having these Ethernet points if it’s WiFi I’m looking to improve upon?

Is there anything neater that I can plug into the Ethernet point that boosts strong WiFi in that area so that my devices are picking up stronger WIFi in that area.

For example if I plug the hardwired cat5 cable into a plugged in power line adaptor in the socket beside it . Is this making the powerline adaptor a stronger WiFi emitter than say if I didn’t plug in the cable and let it work over the power line.

I appreciate there’s a lots of q’s there but would appreciate if someone has done similar Or if someone could offer some guidance or info on this.
Many thanks

dam099

First off is it Cat5 or Cat5e? Former may only do 100Mb vs 1Gb for the latter (may not matter depending on your broadband and devices).

Are any of the Cat 5 sockets near the router? If so use that one to carry network to the attic. Plug in a switch on the other end and wire it to any other sockets well located for WiFi coverage and attach a WiFi access point to them. Depending on your attic finish you could possibly run Ethernet from the switch to a point in the upstairs ceiling and put a ceiling mounted AP there. Depending on how many sockets/access points you want live a small 5 or 8 port switch wouldn't cost that much.

Switch (Basic)

Access Point

Switch that can power an AP like above

bk

I struggle to get strong WiFi in all areas even with use of power line adaptors. What’s the best way of getting full WiFi throughout the home? My thinking is I need to wire the incoming internet cable to a powered switch and then connect in all the cables in the attic to this switch and this makes the wall mounted cat 5 sockets active. Is this correct?

Yes. I've a setup like this. It should look something like:

Internet cable -> ISP modem/wifi router -> ethernet to switch -> all other cables terminated at switch.

Now to get improved wifi throughout your home, you want to get Wireless Access Points in a few rooms around the house. Each WAP will have an ethernet port that you plug the cat5 into and thus uses the cat5 for backhaul back to the ISP modem.

Google Wifi is a popular name brand version of this sort of setup. But there are lots of other options, Ubiquiti is a very popular business/prosumer brand, but might it isn't an easy to setup option. Other options from the likes of TP-Link, Netgear, etc.

BTW this is all how good quality wifi works in the likes of big IT offices, hotels, etc. You might notice a white box on the ceiling or high on a wall, that is the WAP like connected by ethernet.

bjpower

BK has the right plan. but get yourself the "bt whole home" mesh access points. much cheaper than the alternatives and they work great.

AnthonyOD1987

Folks, similar post to the OP above and hoping someone can help (amateur at this game!!)

Similar to the OP, Cat5e sockets in each of the 3 bedrooms and kitchen. in the sitting room behind a blank cover plate there is a cat5e cable. All the cat5e cables seem to terminate in the attic. Internet comes in via phone line to the modem in the sitting room. Is the quickest way to get network to the attic, to remove the blank cover plate and put a cat5e socket on instead?. Then connect a ethernet cable from the modem to the cat5 socket and let that cable carry internet to the attic?

my end aim is to put cctv camera's up around the outside and I plan to run POE cables to each of the camera on the 4 corners and run these cables through the attic connecting to the switch up there. so getting network there would be a first step

final thing - also have noticed in the hallway, another blank cover plate with 5 ethernet cables terminating here also. Any ideas what these could be? 2 of the cables have the blue wires wrapped together and the other 3 just seem to be serving no purpose!

Spocker

AnthonyOD1987 wrote: »

Similar to the OP, Cat5e sockets in each of the 3 bedrooms and kitchen. in the sitting room behind a blank cover plate there is a cat5e cable. All the cat5e cables seem to terminate in the attic. Internet comes in via phone line to the modem in the sitting room. Is the quickest way to get network to the attic, to remove the blank cover plate and put a cat5e socket on instead?. Then connect a ethernet cable from the modem to the cat5 socket and let that cable carry internet to the attic?

Yep, this should work. Note you'll need to terminate the cables in the attic on some kind of a patch panel, to make the usable.

AnthonyOD1987 wrote: »

my end aim is to put cctv camera's up around the outside and I plan to run POE cables to each of the camera on the 4 corners and run these cables through the attic connecting to the switch up there. so getting network there would be a first step

If you want to run POE, just make sure you buy a PoE switch with enough wattage.

AnthonyOD1987 wrote: »

final thing - also have noticed in the hallway, another blank cover plate with 5 ethernet cables terminating here also. Any ideas what these could be? 2 of the cables have the blue wires wrapped together and the other 3 just seem to be serving no purpose!

Maybe it's being used as a phone line? A picture would help

bk

Spocker wrote: »

Yep, this should work. Note you'll need to terminate the cables in the attic on some kind of a patch panel, to make the usable.

While it is neater, you can also just terminate the cables with RJ45 connectors, mostly that is fine for a simple home setup.