wiring a house for internet

murfilein

not sure this is the right subforum, but here we go...


so, currently the house uses wifi throughout.

the modem is next to the main entrance of the house. my computer is on the 2nd floor. its a 1 gbit connection, i do get around 700-800 mbit on my phone when i'm next to the modem. but upstairs in my bedroom where the computer is, i usually get around 200-300 with wifi in the computer.

its enough for anything i do, but still, i was wondering how complicated it would be to get a wired connection? i'm paying for 1 gbit so i wanna use as much as possible of it.

the wall the modem is at is the same wall in my bedroom. its just the other side of the wall. upstairs, i even have a tv point which is useless, which i guess could be used for the ethernet termination box?

the way i think it could work is that there could be a ethernet plug on the ground floor where the modem is, where i put in a ethernet cable from modem to plug, and then plug in the computer into the other plug in the bedroom.

now - i have never done something like this. is this complicated? should i hire a professional?

my worries are - when i remove the tv point and drop a cable down from the bedroom... how do i make sure it end up at the appropriate hole in the wall downstairs? i dont know if there is anything where it could get stuck.

i've seen videos on youtube where people use some manetic tool they attach to the cable, and then use another magnet to find the cable behind the wall to "lead" it where it needs to go. but, i dont wanna spend money on equipment like that i'll only use once.

first time home owner, i'm trying to do as much as possible myself... its a steep learning curve, but i guess i'll only be beneficial on the long run. i dont want to call out someone for mundane things and pay 5 times more than i have to.

degsie

Depending on the house construction, there may be several hidden obstructions to complicate dropping a wire inside a wall. Mostly you will encounter fire breaks which are horizontal wooden struts laid horizontally between wall studs, you would have to drill a hole through those.

You could get a cheap endoscope and see what's inside the wall on your proposed route.

murfilein

sugarman wrote: »

Homeplugs throughout would be your best solution.

had to google that - totally forgot that this was a thing?! remember reading about this years ago, but back then it wasnt relevant for me.

will have to research this, but looks promising! if it supports up to 1gbit, i will definitely to that

thanks!

degsie wrote: »

Depending on the house construction, there may be several hidden obstructions to complicate dropping a wire inside a wall. Mostly you will encounter fire breaks which are horizontal wooden struts laid horizontally between wall studs, you would have to drill a hole through those.

You could get a cheap endoscope and see what's inside the wall on your proposed route.

oh man... looks like more work i'm willing to attempt/am capable of doing

alan4cult

Homeplugs won't get you gigabit. Have had limited success with homeplugs. I went with the camera solution and ran some cable.

The key is to find a point in your house where you can bring everything e.g. attic or middle of house. Then put a switch there and you have gigabit point to point. Then put the router into this switch and you are good. if you really want to get fancy, look into LACP or Etherchannel and you can double up the cable to give more throughput.

Homeplugs are ok for rooms that are a little awkward but I've had homeplugs fail and syncing issues, depends on wiring.

emaherx

alan4cult wrote: »

Homeplugs won't get you gigabit. Have had limited success with homeplugs. I went with the camera solution and ran some cable.

The key is to find a point in your house where you can bring everything e.g. attic or middle of house. Then put a switch there and you have gigabit point to point. Then put the router into this switch and you are good. if you really want to get fancy, look into LACP or Etherchannel and you can double up the cable to give more throughput.

Homeplugs are ok for rooms that are a little awkward but I've had homeplugs fail and syncing issues, depends on wiring.

I agree the only way to get reliable gigabit will be to run cables. A decent WiFi mesh system will out perform home plugs in most situations.


OP If you have enough speed at the PC already is it really worth the hassle? You may already be getting the most out of your gigabit connection as it is, if you have multiple devices running in the house, unless you have a specific need to download large files quickly?

For me I'm usually happy enough if 3 or 4 PC's in the house can get 200mb each while simultaneously being able to watch streaming services on multiple TV's without buffering. This scenario is still making the most of a gigabit connection also in reality an unlikely scenario that multiple PC's will actually demand that sort of performance simultaneously too often anyway.

costacorta

emaherx wrote: »

I agree the only way to get reliable gigabit will be to run cables. A decent WiFi mesh system will out perform home plugs in most situations.


OP If you have enough speed at the PC already is it really worth the hassle? You may already be getting the most out of your gigabit connection as it is, if you have multiple devices running in the house, unless you have a specific need to download large files quickly?

For me I'm usually happy enough if 3 or 4 PC's in the house can get 200mb each while simultaneously being able to watch streaming services on multiple TV's without buffering. This scenario is still making the most of a gigabit connection also in reality an unlikely scenario that multiple PC's will actually demand that sort of performance simultaneously too often anyway.

I have about 12 mb in my house according to a WiFi test I did but unlike you my downloading of match’s are very bad buffering. We don’t have many other devices bar a few phones ..

emaherx

costacorta wrote: »

I have about 12 mb in my house according to a WiFi test I did but unlike you my downloading of match’s are very bad buffering. We don’t have many other devices bar a few phones ..

That's pretty much what I had until fiber was laid last year. 12mb should in theory be fine for a single device streaming. But it's not the full story either, 12mb measured for example on a 3G/4G connection may dip below that speed regularly, number of users on the mast and the weather can have a big impact.

Speed tests on fiber are a world apart compared to other technologies with very little variation between tests. Although a drop of 12mb would be unnoticed anyway where you'd obviously be at 0. Hopefully the coverage of high speed services increases quickly, I know it's frustrating sometimes reading about people not getting the full 1000mb from their connection when you'd probably be happy with 50mb.

murfilein

emaherx wrote: »

OP If you have enough speed at the PC already is it really worth the hassle?

oh i wont do anything if it means hassle.

i get downloads speeds of 30-40 mb/s already, which is plenty. i was just thinking, if there is an easy way to squeeze more out of the connection i'm paying for, then why not?

but it seems there isnt really anything i could easily do, other than moving closer to the modem, but thats not possible. so i'll just leave it be i guess.

emaherx

murfilein wrote: »

oh i wont do anything if it means hassle.

i get downloads speeds of 30-40 mb/s already, which is plenty. i was just thinking, if there is an easy way to squeeze more out of the connection i'm paying for, then why not?

but it seems there isnt really anything i could easily do, other than moving closer to the modem, but thats not possible. so i'll just leave it be i guess.

Didn't you say your phone was getting over 200 mbs at that location. Its possible the wifi dongle/card you are using in your PC is not capable of high speed WiFi upgrading it might be the simplest way to increase your speed.

A decent WiFi mesh system could also support higher speeds compared to relying on one wifi router in the corner of your house, but this would still require a WiFi dongle or card capable of these speeds. Many older cards may only support 50 mbs at their max.

murfilein

emaherx wrote: »

Didn't you say your phone was getting over 200 mbs at that location. Its possible the wifi dongle/card you are using in your PC is not capable of high speed WiFi upgrading it might be the simplest way to increase your speed.

A decent WiFi mesh system could also support higher speeds compared to relying on one wifi router in the corner of your house, but this would still require a WiFi dongle or card capable of these speeds. Many older cards may only support 50 mbs at their max.

on my phone (android) it currently shows 200, on my computer (mac) its currently showing 280. but that varies.

i did try the tp link ac1200 wifi extender, but it was actually much slower than using the wifi modem itself. which i didnt quite understand... might have to try again.

emaherx

murfilein wrote: »

on my phone (android) it currently shows 200, on my computer (mac) its currently showing 280. but that varies.

i did try the tp link ac1200 wifi extender, but it was actually much slower than using the wifi modem itself. which i didnt quite understand... might have to try again.

A range extender and a mesh system are leagues apart. I'd expect extenders to reduce performance as they connect to your router as a client and then repeat traffic on the same frequencys so by their very nature will cut available bandwidth in half or worse. Mesh systems can use different frequencies for backhaul and connecting client devices. Tri band mesh systems have a radio dedicated to backhaul and 2 for connecting client devices. Many can also use ethernet for backhaul which will increase performance, but running the cable may be an issue for you anyway.

murfilein

emaherx wrote: »

but running the cable may be an issue for you anyway.

yes, thats the main issue... due to the location of the mode and how the cables come into the house, i cant really lay cables to upstairs. i could manage to somehow place a base mesh station next to the modem, but any other stations would have to be wireless.

and unless the bandwidth gain is substantial, its really not gonna be worth it.

then i'd rather pay someone to lay a cable literally straight up from my modem to the bedroom so at least get my 2 computers wired up.

or, well, just leave it as it is because its fast enough anyway... why dont houses have ethernet jacks everywhere anyway? should've been standard 10 years ago. but thats, like, my opinion, man.

emaherx

murfilein wrote: »

yes, thats the main issue... due to the location of the mode and how the cables come into the house, i cant really lay cables to upstairs. i could manage to somehow place a base mesh station next to the modem, but any other stations would have to be wireless.

and unless the bandwidth gain is substantial, its really not gonna be worth it.

then i'd rather pay someone to lay a cable literally straight up from my modem to the bedroom so at least get my 2 computers wired up.

or, well, just leave it as it is because its fast enough anyway... why dont houses have ethernet jacks everywhere anyway? should've been standard 10 years ago. but thats, like, my opinion, man.

Mesh would be substantially better than a range extender, but you are not going to notice much difference considering you already have 280mbs at the computer unless you have the specific need of downloading very large files quickly / regularly.

Running a cable will always give you the best performance, there is no doubt about that. Home plugs are likely to be worse than your current WiFi.

I agree with you, every house built in the last 10 years should have had plenty of ethernet points installed, but even today I think plenty are built without.

Cyrus

If it’s a new build are you sure there aren’t cat 6 points dotted around ?

Your best bet is another access point in the house but as another poster said on WiFi ~300mbs is pretty good and the reality is apart from a speed test you won’t notice any practical difference

rom

I used to work testing wifi for Apple years ago. In similar situation. Home plugs have a tendency to drop out even if they are the best ones. I went with a mesh tp link deco. I have a rack in my attic and everything is terminated there. I have Cat 6 also but the 3 mesh and using cat6 between two the main and one of that stations and putting the other station on it's own without cat6 works best for me. I have full coverage now and get about 400Mbit+ everywhere. I went for TP-Link Deco E4 as I wasn't prepared to pay for the Wifi6 ones.

You can probably buy a set from amazon and send them back if they don't work. The E4 are ugly but they do the job.