Ethernet Upgrading

[Birphon]

Hey guys,

 

Just want to have some help with my planning of Ethernet upgrading - my room has no ethernet connection, the wifi is horrible and im currently using an EOP (Ethernet Over Power) which I assume has started to die / broke somewhere as of the past 2 days been having serious internet issues (used to watch Twitch in Source now I can only get 480p sometimes). The family PC  which is in the living room beside the router has no issues. Games have also became very packet lossy and my ping is sky rocketing (i.e. american server used to be 130ms now its 240 and climbing)

 

So the plan is to route an ethernet cable from the router to my room via the walls. I know I want to go Cat6 cables and I know I need a 30m spool (technically I believe I could be fine with a 25m spool but I wanna be safe) the issue comes to I'm not sure what else I need, I have tried hunting down some youtube video's on how to do it but always get "short" runs where they are only going through the likes of a room (Living and Office are right beside each other). Another issue comes to the Router side as what the router is connected via is a Ethernet out (like from Street to House) and TV output section so I don't exactly want to be touching that so I guess I just want a singular Ethernet connection there.

 

I don't know if you can tell by how I am writing this, I don't exactly know what I am doing and I don't want to call someone out to do it (its fairly pricy) - I don't think region should matter for this since Cat6 is Cat6 right but I am in NZ

[Needfuldoer]

Do you have access to the underside of the floor (unfinished basement) or top of the ceiling (unfinished attic)? That will make the run 100x easier. Then all you have to do is drill through the or top or sill plate of each wall (plus any fire block in between), then fish the cable across the space and through the holes at both ends. Use a stud finder or a neodymium magnet to find the studs inside the walls. (The magnet will help you feel the screws holding the drywall up.)

 

This older video gives you the gist of it, except you'll be working blind behind drywall or plaster.

 

 

The right way to do this (at least in North America) is to terminate both ends of the run to a keystone jack, and attach it to the wall with a low-voltage wall plate. You can get keystones that can just connect two cables together (a "barrel") so you'd have an RJ45 / 8P8C in the wall, or you can get keystones that have a 110 block style punchdown on the back (which needs a punchdown tool to terminate). 

 

You can just poke the cable out of the wall and plug it right into your PC as well, but that doesn't look as professional (and if you damage the cable you might have to re-terminate it.)

 

You also don't want Ethernet running in parallel with power for noise reasons. (in fact I believe running Ethernet and power through the same holes is a code violation in North America, and it might be the same where you are.)

 

Leave a good bit of extra slack in the wall at both ends. Future you will be thankful if they ever have to fix the run later on.

[Birphon]

38 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Do you have access to the underside of the floor (unfinished basement) or top of the ceiling (unfinished attic)?

ah right I forgot to mention, since I am in New Zealand we generally don't have basements or attics but we do have "attic" access, like we have access between the Roof and Ceiling space where the trusses and insulation are

 

Quote

Leave a good bit of extra slack in the wall at both ends. Future you will be thankful if they ever have to fix the run later on.

yeah hence why im going for the 30m roll not the closer, 25m roll. gives me a good 10m slack which (should) be enough

[Needfuldoer]

8 minutes ago, Birphon said:

ah right I forgot to mention, since I am in New Zealand we generally don't have basements or attics but we do have "attic" access, like we have access between the Roof and Ceiling space where the trusses and insulation are

That's fine! That's what I was thinking of as an unfinished "attic" space.

 

As long as you can physically get up there to do the work, you should be able to run your cables across the top of the ceiling joists and down into the walls at each end.

 

 

[Birphon]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

That's fine! That's what I was thinking of as an unfinished "attic" space.

 

As long as you can physically get up there to do the work, you should be able to run your cables across the top of the ceiling joists and down into the walls at each end.

 

 

The next question becomes:
Other than the Cat6 cable

• what else am I needing to go from Router to Wall to Wall to PC?
• what would be the best way to tackle the Router side?
  • Would it be best to just go up like 20cm from where the TV/"Router Input" and have it run from Router to Wall via a Single input - I assume this is the best way

[Needfuldoer]

(I'm just linking to Amazon USA out of convenience, you should be able to find all these supplies from a company in your area.)

 

The quick and dirty thing to do is just punch a hole in the drywall and snake the cable out of it. Looks like crap, but it's cheap and effective.

 

Here's the way I would do it:

 

Install a low voltage, old work bracket in the wall at each place you want your cables to terminate. Then get single gang keystone wall plates for each position, and keystones to go in them. There are two types of keystones: ones you punch the wires down to, and ones that basically just connect two cables together. If you're only doing a couple runs, you're just running pre-terminated cables, and you don't have experience with a punchdown tool, it's just easier to get the connector kind and have RJ45/8P8C connectors in the wall. That way you know all the cable ends are good.

 

The keystones snap into the wall plates, then those screw into the brackets. Your PC and router then connect to the wall with regular short patch cables.

 

A real pro would run all the network ports to a central location like a utility room, then put a network switch there. Then the router can be located at any of the ports around the house, because they're all tied together at a central point. (That also gives you a nice place to put a home server or NAS should you ever get one.) If you're sure the router won't ever move though, you can just do a home run between it and each of your other ports (so the router has 4 keystones behind it, that each lead to 1 in another room.)

 

Just double-check that your patch cables work before running them in the walls, and make sure you label your wires and ports! Future you will be grateful.

[dogwitch]

or do out side over hang. wiring (rated for it). then a windows or a small hole inside house.