Home Networking Help

[AquaThug]

Hello, this would be my first forum post on these forums, so I apologize if there is a better place suited for posting this.

 

I recently just moved into a new apartment that is much bigger than our previous one and I now have a bedroom upstairs instead of everything being on the same floor. At the same time, the house is very old and consequently does not have a very strong wifi signal.

 

I do a lot of gaming on my system and I strongly prefer a wired ethernet connection as a must. While I do have various storage drives in my PC, I still find myself installing/uninstalling games constantly either when a new game comes out, or when I need to make room on my SSD for said game. This used to not be a problem at all. Previously in the old apartment, it was much easier for me to run my ethernet cable to the router in the living room to be able to hook up, which allowed me to reach speeds decently over 100 mbps over a test I ran using Ookla. In the new place, I simply cannot run an ethernet cable to the router in the living room. It is not an option whatsoever.

 

I have looked into other solutions such as getting some sort of wifi extender, and I've spent $150 on a Netgear extender that plugs into an outlet as I've had terrible experience with other standalone wifi extenders at lower prices. While I am getting satisfactory stability and am not experiencing any dropping connection, the download speed is atrociously slow at just 1.5-2 mbps and it seems like I can no longer stream games over Twitch/Youtube at the same quality that I used to be able to.

 

Does anyone know any more ideal solutions, maybe something that would make the situation much more comfortable for someone who uses their PC mainly for gaming?

[Donut417]

46 minutes ago, AquaThug said:

Does anyone know any more ideal solutions, maybe something that would make the situation much more comfortable for someone who uses their PC mainly for gaming?

Power line adapters, but if the Apartment is older, then the wiring might not be up to snuff. OR Moca adapters, but you will need to have Coax ran to each location. 

[AquaThug]

18 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Power line adapters, but if the Apartment is older, then the wiring might not be up to snuff. OR Moca adapters, but you will need to have Coax ran to each location. 

The router in the living room actually has a coax already plugged into it, and the room where my PC setup is upstairs also has a coax within reach. Is that what you mean by having a coax ran to each location?

[Donut417]

6 minutes ago, AquaThug said:

The router in the living room actually has a coax already plugged into it, and the room where my PC setup is upstairs also has a coax within reach. Is that what you mean by having a coax ran to each location?

Yes. But you also need to ensure a Moca adapter goes on to the main line comming in to the apartment. Im not sure how things are ran in Apartment buildings. Basically Moca uses 1 Ghz to 1.5 Ghz on the coax, Cable Co's tend to use 5 Mhz to 950 Mhz. So you can use Moca on the same lines that your cable co uses. BUT you need to make sure your Moca network doesnt get on to the cable providers network. Plus the Moca Filter will bounce the Moca singal back in to your coax making the signal stronger. At least from what I have read. But Moca is rated for about 800 Mbps or so, though like WiFi its half duplex, meaning it can only communicat  one direction at a time. But its a better solution than powerline.  

[AquaThug]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Yes. But you also need to ensure a Moca adapter goes on to the main line comming in to the apartment. Im not sure how things are ran in Apartment buildings. Basically Moca uses 1 Ghz to 1.5 Ghz on the coax, Cable Co's tend to use 5 Mhz to 950 Mhz. So you can use Moca on the same lines that your cable co uses. BUT you need to make sure your Moca network doesnt get on to the cable providers network. Plus the Moca Filter will bounce the Moca singal back in to your coax making the signal stronger. At least from what I have read. But Moca is rated for about 800 Mbps or so, though like WiFi its half duplex, meaning it can only communicat  one direction at a time. But its a better solution than powerline.  

I know basically nothing when it comes to coax cables, so I'm not sure what you're getting at. We have Comcast/Xfinity and our cable and internet is in the same package, so would that be a problem?

 

I'm also looking at these Moca adapters right now and I'm noticing that a lot of prices for these range anywhere from $50-$200 despite not noticing any outstanding differences. Do you have any idea of what an ideal model would be, or what kind of budget I should have for one of these adapters?

[Donut417]

Just now, AquaThug said:

know basically nothing when it comes to coax cables, so I'm not sure what you're getting at. We have Comcast/Xfinity and our cable and internet is in the same package, so would that be a problem?

The problem would be the Moca signal leaving your Apartment and traveling across the Xfinity network. It wont get far (300 feet is the range), but it could happen. I dont and have never lived in a Apartment building. So I cant say how shit is ran. For me at my house the place we connect in to the Xfinity network is the air right behind my house. Litterally the wire comes down from the pole and connects on the backside of the house, thats where its grounded and such. Id imagine in an apartment they might have a utility room or telecom room where all the cabling terminates. But I cant really help there. In some cases Xfinity may have put a filter on your line already. The only other issues I can see is if you have Whole home DVR. As to my understanding that acutally is done with Moca and the two moca networks might conflict with eachother. Though if you dont have whole home DVR then that wont be an issue. BUT that also means you might not have a Moca filter on the line leading to your apartment. In some cases if you catch an Xfinity tech at your building you can ask to see if they can just put a Moca filter on the line. They generally have them because Cable Companies are the largest users of Moca. 

 

3 minutes ago, AquaThug said:

despite not noticing any outstanding differences.

Unbonded vs Bonded. Bonded adapters tend to be the ones that can do 800 Mbps+, Unboned tend to be able to do many 400 Mbps. All I can say is most of the Moca 2.0 stuff, the current stuff is made by Actiontec. But about $200 seems about right. At least for the higher end stuff.

 

Its just Moca is your best bet, if your dealing with old ass wiring. Because if your electrical is not relativly new and the wiring is not done to code then Power line adapters wont work well. Besides that you can look in to a Mesh WiFi setup. Thought being in a Apartment means your kinda FUCKED when it comes to WiFi as every apartment probably has WiFi meaning that the WiFi bands are probably clogged as fuck. 

[AquaThug]

47 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Id imagine in an apartment they might have a utility room or telecom room where all the cabling terminates.

Oh, sorry for the confusion, I don't live in an apartment complex. It's a townhouse apartment, so it's basically a house split into two units. We're upstairs, so we have the 2nd floor and then the 3rd floor which is a converted attic and has a couple of bedrooms, one that I have my setup in. There is one other family downstairs on the first floor and that's about it.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look at some more adapters and probably get one that I know I would be able to return should it not work out.

Edited November 19, 2019 by AquaThug