How can I get more ethernet ports in my house working?

[dylanjp]

We are in a new build and currently we have one ethernet cable running to our living room from the modem in the basement. That is where we have our router plugged in. However, that is the only place in the house we can have wired ethernet. Now in the basement where the modem is we have other ethernet cables that run to other possible ports in the house. However they are not wired up to the modem and just dangle above the modem.

Now this hasn't really been an issue till we got a new tenant for our basement apartment. He is a professional twitch streamer and he would like to be wired into an ethernet port for (understandably) stability purposes. There is an ethernet port in the basement but, it is not hooked up. I called up my current ISP provider and they weren't super helpful and really the only thing I learned is that they won't turn on the other ports on the modem cause they "don't do that".

 

I'm a bit of a networking noob (I work with software as a software engineer). So I figured I would come on here and ask what the best solution would be. I'd love to get more of the ethernet ports in my house working. I'd also like to do it in the safest most secure way possible. Currently, I was able to help my tenant out by having him use a ethernet powerline adaptor (which I learned about by watching the LTT video!). That has actually been really working well for him. That being said I still think it would be nice to just have my houses ethernet wiring working. Thanks in advance for the help! Please explain it to me like I'm 5 .

[jaslion]

Just get a cheap network switch with 8 ports. Hook the one port on it up to it and connect all other cables to the switch.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Splitter-Optimization-Unmanaged-TL-SG108/dp/B00A121WN6/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=tp+link+switch&qid=1651005552&sr=8-4

[dylanjp]

Oh nice! Do I need to worry about speeds at all?

 

Also is it safe for my tenant to plug his computer directly into the ethernet port once it is setup? Or should he have is own router or something? Would that affect our performance  upstairs?

[LWM723]

It will definitely affect your performance if he is streaming.

[Alex Atkin UK]

15 minutes ago, LWM723 said:

It will definitely affect your performance if he is streaming.

Although if its noticeable depends on how fast their broadband is to begin with.

[dylanjp]

Well I mean would it affect it more than it is currently? I don't feel like it would.

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, dylanjp said:

Well I mean would it affect it more than it is currently? I don't feel like it would.

I like your optimism.

 

Streaming consumes a lot of upload speed which, if saturated, can slow down download as well.

 

The other concern is security. You're now on a LAN with a tennant where all devices can see each other. I hope they're trustworthy.

 

BTW: You never told us the speeds you're paying for and what is the make/model of ISP device you have.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

I like your optimism.

 

Streaming consumes a lot of upload speed which, if saturated, can slow down download as well.

 

The other concern is security. You're now on a LAN with a tennant where all devices can see each other. I hope they're trustworthy.

 

BTW: You never told us the speeds you're paying for and what is the make/model of ISP device you have.

Very true.  This is where more advanced routers can come in where you can have two different LANs and apply Quality of Service on them to cap the upload on the room mates LAN so it cannot use all the bandwidth.

[dylanjp]

3 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

I like your optimism.

 

Streaming consumes a lot of upload speed which, if saturated, can slow down download as well.

 

The other concern is security. You're now on a LAN with a tennant where all devices can see each other. I hope they're trustworthy.

 

BTW: You never told us the speeds you're paying for and what is the make/model of ISP device you have.

Oh ya you are totally right. Here is my current setup. Security is kind of a concern. I want to make sure me and my tenant are safe.

Current setup: We pay for 90Mbps. I constantly hit that when I'm in the same room as my router on the second floor. My office is on the 3rd floor and I average 45-65Mbps on the wifi. My router is a Netgear AX1800 Wifi Router. The isp device is a DASAN Zhone Solutions – 4226 – Zhone’s Gigabit Active Ethernet ONT (link:https://www.multicominc.com/product/dasan-zhone-solutions-4226-zhones-gigabit-active-ethernet-ont/). 

So modem is in the basement furnace room. My Router is on the second floor plugged into my house's only working Ethernet Wall port. I have my tenant using a Ethernet Powerline adapter that hooks into my router on the second floor.

[LWM723]

With only 90mbps streaming will use all your bandwidth. You have to limit his bandwidth or he has to get his own connection.

[dylanjp]

1 hour ago, LWM723 said:

With only 90mbps streaming will use all your bandwidth. You have to limit his bandwidth or he has to get his own connection.

He has been living here for several months and streaming everyday... I also work remotely and my wife does too and we each have a lot of video meetings. It honestly has not been an issue at all. If anything I've only noticed some lagging sometimes when I'm gaming online. Even that has been pretty minimal.

So I think my bandwidth is okay.

However, I'd love if someone could answer my original question. How do I go about getting the rest of the wiring in my house set up?

[Alex Atkin UK]

8 hours ago, LWM723 said:

With only 90mbps streaming will use all your bandwidth. You have to limit his bandwidth or he has to get his own connection.

Not if its symmetrical they wont.  What is the upload speed?

[Blue4130]

6 hours ago, dylanjp said:

He has been living here for several months and streaming everyday... I also work remotely and my wife does too and we each have a lot of video meetings. It honestly has not been an issue at all. If anything I've only noticed some lagging sometimes when I'm gaming online. Even that has been pretty minimal.

So I think my bandwidth is okay.

However, I'd love if someone could answer my original question. How do I go about getting the rest of the wiring in my house set up?

Do you have access to the attic/crawl space? Add a switch just after the router and drop lines down the walls. That's pretty much it. There's no magic, just lots of messy, cramped work. 

[dylanjp]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Not if its symmetrical they wont.  What is the upload speed?

It varies more I feel like. (perhaps due to my new tenant) I'd say I normally average 50mpbs but sometimes its in the 80s and sometimes its in the 30s.

[Alex Atkin UK]

7 minutes ago, dylanjp said:

It varies more I feel like. (perhaps due to my new tenant) I'd say I normally average 50mpbs but sometimes its in the 80s and sometimes its in the 30s.

So its "supposed" to be a 90/90 service, right?  That should be fine.  Streaming last I checked is limited to around 7Mbit max on all services.  Obviously during peak hours you might hit contention at the ISP, its impossible to really account for that if the ISP are doing poor job of managing their bandwidth.

[dylanjp]

1 hour ago, Blue4130 said:

Do you have access to the attic/crawl space? Add a switch just after the router and drop lines down the walls. That's pretty much it. There's no magic, just lots of messy, cramped work. 

I guess my questions is does the switch go after the router? Currently the wires are wired in the house already but, the the ends are just dangling above the modem in the basement. The issue is that I need the wifi on the second floor so that I have a strong signal on the 3rd floor where our home offices are.

Does my problem/confusion make sense? I can't just put the router in the basement due to having poor performance for my home offices on the 3rd floor. Otherwise I would just plug those ethernet cables into the router. I think I need a switch for the basement but, I'm not sure it is safe to not have a router in-between the switch and the modem.

I'm not super familiar with switches so maybe it is okay... However, I just don't know. I've never used/needed one in the past.

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 minutes ago, dylanjp said:

I guess my questions is does the switch go after the router? Currently the wires are wired in the house already but, the the ends are just dangling above the modem in the basement. The issue is that I need the wifi on the second floor so that I have a strong signal on the 3rd floor where our home offices are.

Does my problem/confusion make sense? I can't just put the router in the basement due to having poor performance for my home offices on the 3rd floor. Otherwise I would just plug those ethernet cables into the router. I think I need a switch for the basement but, I'm not sure it is safe to not have a router in-between the switch and the modem.

I'm not super familiar with switches so maybe it is okay... However, I just don't know. I've never used/needed one in the past.

Yes the switch goes after the router.  The only limitation is everything plugged into that switch has a single Gigabit link back to the router, but its unlikely to be a bottleneck unless you are moving files across the LAN at the same time over that single link.

Compared to WiFi or powerline its vastly more reliable and faster.

[dylanjp]

19 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Yes the switch goes after the router.  The only limitation is everything plugged into that switch has a single Gigabit link back to the router, but its unlikely to be a bottleneck unless you are moving files across the LAN at the same time over that single link.

Compared to WiFi or powerline its vastly more reliable and faster.

So if the switch goes after the router.... do I have to move my router to the basement? If I have to do that how have I make sure I still have good wifi signals on the 3rd floor?

[Alex Atkin UK]

35 minutes ago, dylanjp said:

So if the switch goes after the router.... do I have to move my router to the basement? If I have to do that how have I make sure I still have good wifi signals on the 3rd floor?

Without even more hardware, sadly yes.  This is one reason why having a combined router and WiFi Access Point is a PITA.  The ideal place for the router in a house pre-wired like that is not the ideal place for WiFi.  Its why some people when wiring a house will have two ethernet ports per room, then you can put the router anywhere.

The ideal situation with your setup IMO would be to have an access point on the end of one of the new ethernet ports you wired up to the switch which would provide the WiFi to the third floor.

 

There are ways around this with two managed switches and VLANs, but its adding unnecessary complexity and its not a bad thing to have a dedicated WiFi Access Point, especially as you then could have WiFi broadcast from both the lowest and highest point in the house which I'd expect to improve your WiFi speeds around the house.

[dylanjp]

25 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Without even more hardware, sadly yes.  This is one reason why having a combined router and WiFi Access Point is a PITA.  The ideal place for the router in a house pre-wired like that is not the ideal place for WiFi.  Its why some people when wiring a house will have two ethernet ports per room, then you can put the router anywhere.

The ideal situation with your setup IMO would be to have an access point on the end of one of the new ethernet ports you wired up to the switch which would provide the WiFi to the third floor.

 

There are ways around this with two managed switches and VLANs, but its adding unnecessary complexity and its not a bad thing to have a dedicated WiFi Access Point, especially as you then could have WiFi broadcast from both the lowest and highest point in the house which I'd expect to improve your WiFi speeds around the house.

Thank you so much Alex! Super appreciate it!

[dylanjp]

39 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Without even more hardware, sadly yes.  This is one reason why having a combined router and WiFi Access Point is a PITA.  The ideal place for the router in a house pre-wired like that is not the ideal place for WiFi.  Its why some people when wiring a house will have two ethernet ports per room, then you can put the router anywhere.

The ideal situation with your setup IMO would be to have an access point on the end of one of the new ethernet ports you wired up to the switch which would provide the WiFi to the third floor.

 

There are ways around this with two managed switches and VLANs, but its adding unnecessary complexity and its not a bad thing to have a dedicated WiFi Access Point, especially as you then could have WiFi broadcast from both the lowest and highest point in the house which I'd expect to improve your WiFi speeds around the house.

Any recommendations for wireless access points that would work will with my router?

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 minutes ago, dylanjp said:

Any recommendations for wireless access points that would work will with my router?

At a base level, they don't HAVE to work "with your router", any will do the job.  However, if the router supports some form of mesh/roaming, then moving between WiFi signals will be more seamless if you find one that is compatible with that.

Personally I never bothered about that, but then my house is small so I've never needed more than one WiFi signal except to have a second one across the road at a relatives house where the main WiFi doesn't reach anyway so it cuts off and reconnects without issue.

[LWM723]

@dylanjp Why can't the switch go in the basement after the modem and plug the rj45's into the switch? That's the purpose of a switch, to distribute one source to multiple outputs. Much simpler, just plug and play, and your existing setup needs no changes.

[Blue4130]

4 hours ago, dylanjp said:

So if the switch goes after the router.... do I have to move my router to the basement? If I have to do that how have I make sure I still have good wifi signals on the 3rd floor?

You could also just get a cheap second router and turn off dhcp / put it in bridge mode. They are sometimes cheaper than a dedicated access point. Put that on the 3rd floor, move the router to the basement. That's what I've done at my place. I had old routers from previous isp upgrades. Rather than collect dust, I use them to beef up wifi where the signal is weak. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, LWM723 said:

@dylanjp Why can't the switch go in the basement after the modem and plug the rj45's into the switch? That's the purpose of a switch, to distribute one source to multiple outputs. Much simpler, just plug and play, and your existing setup needs no changes.

Because its a modem (technically I'm guessing its an ONT given the symmetrical speed) not a router, it will give out ONE IP address to the first device it sees.  Its the routers job to share that one IP using NAT amongst a LAN, thus the switch has to be on the LAN side.