Runnings ethernet unground vs powerline vs other

[aviatorscott]

Attached to this post is a diagram reflecting the situation, where the blue spot marks the location of the modem in the house and the green box representing a bungalow about 30m or 98ft in the backyard. Currently the only way to get internet in the green box (bungalow) is by using EoP (Powerline) or connecting to the modems WiFi, both only achieving half the speeds I would get if I connected directly into the modem. My ISP gives me 50Mbps and my current powerline is a Netgear AV500 with a maximum Ethernet speed of 500Mbps (This gizmo).

 

Half of the red house has old wiring but the rest is new, and there is power supplied to the green house by existing wiring which would be a little over a decade old.

I'm considering running an Ethernet cable underground but don't know if this would be worth it. Would investing into something else like a mesh system, WiFi Range extender or some other form of networking produce better results? Cheers.

[Lurick]

The AV500 has 10/100Mbps ports only, I despise how they claim they can do more than that when they are limited by the ethernet port speed of 100Mbps.

I would either get a dedicated outdoor AP and point it towards the outside structure from the home or run some burial grade ethernet cable.

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, BlueScope819 said:

Best way to do this would to probably bury an Ethernet cable in your lawn. Don't just do a regular Ethernet cable though because it's gonna get damaged real fast. Run the Ethernet cable through something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0723HDBC1

and then bury the entire thing. In order to future proof so you don't have to run another cable in the future make sure that the cable is Cat6a

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HEM653S/

 

Then just stick 5 port switch on the end with a wireless access point so you have physical Ethernet and wifi for mobile devices

I would say make sure the cable is burial rated rated just to be safe.

[BrinkGG]

4 minutes ago, BlueScope819 said:

Best way to do this would to probably bury an Ethernet cable in your lawn. Don't just do a regular Ethernet cable though because it's gonna get damaged real fast. Run the Ethernet cable through something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0723HDBC1

and then bury the entire thing. In order to future proof so you don't have to run another cable in the future make sure that the cable is Cat6a

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HEM653S/

 

Then just stick 5 port switch on the end with a wireless access point so you have physical Ethernet and wifi for mobile devices

Honestly, I'd recommend either going for 1" conduit + Junction boxes and standard cable, or doing Shielded Direct Burial cable and just digging a wedge for it and flagging it. 

 

[Parideboy]

I'm a powerline user myself, hope my experience can help you decide. I live in Europe, so I might get wrong some electrical terms due to translation and differences in the electrical systems, I'll try to do my best.

 

Right off the bat, forget the speeds you'll get with a raw ethernet cable, that's just not gonna happen.

 

Usually, powerlines operate at 50/70% of what they're actually rated. A gigabit powerline should provide a connection speed of about 500Mbps minimum, the connection between the powerlines, that is. Not actually the internet speed you'll get on the other end. That's affected mostly by electrical noise produced by other appliances (old refrigerators for example). Speeds can go from 800Mbps to less than 100. It depends.

 

The performance of a powerline depends on the vast majority on the quality of your wiring. Usually, they can work up to 300m of electrical wiring, but this could vary from model to model. You should avoid going through extension cords, electrical cabinets (if your house has more of one), and low gauge wires (don't know how US electrical system works, but in Europe we have 10 and 16 Amps wiring).

 

In my case, I go through an electrical cabinet (the house is on multiple floors, making holes in a concrete wall is a no go atm) and the powerline speed is about 400Mbps with an actual speed on 100/120Mbps. I actually have found 2 appliances that were causing a lot of noise and was able to get speeds of about 280/300Mbps. This is with a gigabit connection and powerline. So yeah, in my case I'm using a third of my connection in that room. It sucks.

 

I would get a gigabit AV1000 powerline from Amazon and test it. If the speeds are somewhat in the ballpark of what you expect, you can stick with it. They're stable and reliable from what I can tell, the 'only' downside is the speed.

If it sucks, just return it and bury the cable. There's no other choice

[Blu3tack]

If you're going to go through the effort of digging a trench run 2 or 3 cables.  It's a lot easier to install a couple of extras now and terminate them then it will be in the future if one of the cables went bad.