Home networking done right.

[sadjst]

Hello! First post on the forum but I have followed Linus for the past 4-5 years.

 

I have troubles getting internet signal in the whole house.

So, here's the story: 

• green dot: where the isp cables come in the house
• red dots: where powerlines are installed
• teal dots: where I need to have wifi
• yellow dot: where I need to have cabled connection
• orange dot: where I already have cabled connection

 

I wanted to run a cable from the green dot to the yellow one, on the rooftop, for the last two years and now is kinda the time to do it, nothing complicated here, but I need to have wifi where the teal dots are.

My father fell in love with the ease of use of powerlines, which are great, if your electrical system isn't 60 years old, also they have a tendency to die on us on a regular basis, which is a pain in the ass and a regular expense.

How can I cover the teal-dotted areas with good wifi signal (or the whole house)? 

I thought of running cables and installing access points throughout the whole house, but is there a less expensive/better overall solution?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

ps: yeah, raping a cad-generated planimetry with my MS Paint skills makes me cringe too.

 

edit: the house is about 300 square meters (end to end, including the terraces) if this can help.

[mcraftax]

Run cables in all the places possible (+ instead of powerline). This will increase speed and save you a lot of hassle.

For APs take a look at the Ubiquiti Unifi AC AP.

 

For a cheap solution you make compromises and kit will not last.

To do it properly, try wire as much as possible and get good equipment.

 

I don't think i have answered all your question yet. Look at the Unifi stuff and I can answer any other questions.

[catzambia]

If you've got coax run throughout the house you could try ethernet over coax, or rip some drywall out and put cat6 in everywhere. It would be a pain in the ass, whether you do it yourself or pay somebody else to. But you are "futureproofed" because 10g will be PLENTY fast for a while. It really isn't THAT hard to put cable in though, just cutting some drywall out, fishing wires, installing jacks, and patching it back up. It can be much cheaper if you do it yourself.

[dalekphalm]

I agree with others. Running Ethernet in the walls to the places you need is by far the best solution. It's not necessarily the easiest (Powerline Ethernet is the easiest), but it's definitely the best.

 

You're gonna want to run Ethernet to all of the places you want to install WIFI. You can use PoE (Power over Ethernet) if you want, to avoid having to install the WIFI Access Point's near any wall outlets. To do this, you can either use a PoE Injector (Basically it's a small brick that plugs into a wall outlet, and has ethernet on either side. You put the PoE injector beside your router/switch, plug one end of the brick into the switch, and the other end into the cable that goes into the wall and later gets fed to your Access Point.

 

The other way to use PoE, is to buy a switch that has PoE ports. They cost a bit more, but it allows you to connect PoE devices without using an awkward external power brick, like the injector.

 

If you have an attic or ceiling crawl space, you might find it easiest to send the wires from the Modem/Router/Switch straight into the nearest wall, straight up into the ceiling space. From there, you can crawl around to every part of the house and drop the ethernet cables down through the walls. You might have to drill through occasional cross beams though, and that will of course require cutting a hole in drywall - you just need to patch the hole afterwards. Plenty of guides on YT for that, or speak to the staff at your local hardware store.

 

If you have a basement, the same principle can apply, but it's generally easier to drop down from the ceiling compared to pulling up from the basement.

 

If you have neither, then wiring is definitely gonna be more difficult, and you're gonna have to put more holes in walls, but is still 100% doable.

 

You can also run Ethernet Cable along the bottom of the wall, where it meets the floor, and hide it behind the floor/wall trim, as well, especially if you reach areas where it's not practical to start putting holes in the wall.

[sadjst]

On 21/7/2016 at 10:48 AM, mcraftax said:

Run cables in all the places possible (+ instead of powerline). This will increase speed and save you a lot of hassle.

For APs take a look at the Ubiquiti Unifi AC AP.

 

For a cheap solution you make compromises and kit will not last.

To do it properly, try wire as much as possible and get good equipment.

 

I don't think i have answered all your question yet. Look at the Unifi stuff and I can answer any other questions.

Sorry for the late reply, I got busy with work.

Yeah, I want to run cables as much as possible and that's okay, I don't know how to "cover" the whole house with the wifi signal.

[sadjst]

On 21/7/2016 at 11:22 AM, catzambia said:

If you've got coax run throughout the house you could try ethernet over coax, or rip some drywall out and put cat6 in everywhere. It would be a pain in the ass, whether you do it yourself or pay somebody else to. But you are "futureproofed" because 10g will be PLENTY fast for a while. It really isn't THAT hard to put cable in though, just cutting some drywall out, fishing wires, installing jacks, and patching it back up. It can be much cheaper if you do it yourself.

What do you mean by coax? I was talking about ethernet, maybe I could have been more clear about that. And I'm from Italy, we don't use drywall as much as you guys overseas so, sadly I can't rip my walls open.

[sadjst]

On 21/7/2016 at 8:23 PM, dalekphalm said:

You're gonna want to run Ethernet to all of the places you want to install WIFI. You can use PoE (Power over Ethernet) if you want, to avoid having to install the WIFI Access Point's near any wall outlets. To do this, you can either use a PoE Injector (Basically it's a small brick that plugs into a wall outlet, and has ethernet on either side. You put the PoE injector beside your router/switch, plug one end of the brick into the switch, and the other end into the cable that goes into the wall and later gets fed to your Access Point.

 

The other way to use PoE, is to buy a switch that has PoE ports. They cost a bit more, but it allows you to connect PoE devices without using an awkward external power brick, like the injector.

 

If you have an attic or ceiling crawl space, you might find it easiest to send the wires from the Modem/Router/Switch straight into the nearest wall, straight up into the ceiling space. From there, you can crawl around to every part of the house and drop the ethernet cables down through the walls. You might have to drill through occasional cross beams though, and that will of course require cutting a hole in drywall - you just need to patch the hole afterwards. Plenty of guides on YT for that, or speak to the staff at your local hardware store.

 

If you have a basement, the same principle can apply, but it's generally easier to drop down from the ceiling compared to pulling up from the basement.

 

If you have neither, then wiring is definitely gonna be more difficult, and you're gonna have to put more holes in walls, but is still 100% doable.

 

You can also run Ethernet Cable along the bottom of the wall, where it meets the floor, and hide it behind the floor/wall trim, as well, especially if you reach areas where it's not practical to start putting holes in the wall.

 

I don't know what Power over Ethernet is, I'll google that, but from what you're saying it sounds a lot like a powerline.

I don't have a crawl space, but we alread ran a cable from the green dot to the orange one, pinning it on the rooftop, and that's what I wanna do for the rest of the house (as far as cable connection is concerned... wifi is the real problem), no basement either.

I live in a (I think you guys call it this way) a condo/apartment building, on the last floor.

[catzambia]

8 hours ago, sadjst said:

What do you mean by coax? I was talking about ethernet, maybe I could have been more clear about that. And I'm from Italy, we don't use drywall as much as you guys overseas so, sadly I can't rip my walls open.

This stuff, coaxial cable. Ethernet over coax use the coax wiring in your home as ethernet cable, similar to powerline adapters. There are two types of ethernet over coax adapters, MoCA and DECA, MoCA is way more expensive $130 USD and DeCA is like 10 bucks for a couple of DirectTV adapters. But you have to make sure that they operate on different frequencies than your TV service, if you have it, otherwise you're good to go.
The MoCA adapters

The DECA adapters

^^^^(amazon US)

 

[Donut417]

17 minutes ago, catzambia said:

This stuff, coaxial cable. Ethernet over coax use the coax wiring in your home as ethernet cable, similar to powerline adapters. There are two types of ethernet over coax adapters, MoCA and DECA, MoCA is way more expensive $130 USD and DeCA is like 10 bucks for a couple of DirectTV adapters. But you have to make sure that they operate on different frequencies than your TV service, if you have it, otherwise you're good to go.
The MoCA adapters

The DECA adapters

^^^^(amazon US)

 

DECA exists because Satellite TV services uses the same frequencies MOCA uses. According to Amazon the DECA adaters are 200Mbps devices. Keep in mind MOCA is half duplex so you really get about 100Mbps. Standard MOCA 2.0 Adapters are rated for 800Mbps. Which means you get about 400 Mpbs. Not to bad. Im fairly sure those direct TV adapters uses the lower frequencies that Cable and Internet Service would use. So, they probably wont work if you are getting internet from a cable company. 

 

Although @catzambia I think thats cool you can buy those DECA adapters fairly cheap. As a 200 Mbps half duplex connection is pretty nice.  

[harry4742]

Italy probably means brickwalls + 60 year old wiring is probably the worst situation you can have

I added two violet dots on your floorplan for recommended AP-Positions

Another tip get try to avoid Powerlan, it's unreliable and gets slow even over shor distances

If your house is 60 years old it might have enough space under the roof to lay some Cat 6

but Cat cables are the best way to do it and if you do, it do it right, saves you some headdaches

[sadjst]

4 hours ago, harry4742 said:

Italy probably means brickwalls + 60 year old wiring is probably the worst situation you can have

I added two violet dots on your floorplan for recommended AP-Positions

Another tip get try to avoid Powerlan, it's unreliable and gets slow even over shor distances

If your house is 60 years old it might have enough space under the roof to lay some Cat 6

but Cat cables are the best way to do it and if you do, it do it right, saves you some headdaches

yeah, tell me about that..

I forgot to mention, where you put the lower violet dot I also need 2 cables, one for the smart tv and another one for the I guess they are called tabletops.

So, long story short I'm getting cables everywhere and access points, from what I gathered it's the way to go.

Kinda knew that, but I wanted to hear it from someone else, I won't buy another powerline or similar products, I got too many die on me.

 

edit: also, we don't use at all the double ceiling thing you fellas use, so I will run them across the the top of the building, I live on the last floor, so it's not a big deal, we already did that one time (orange dot)