Home Networks Shenanigans

[PhysicalVocalist]

Hey all, I have an issue. 

For some reason the coax that plugs into my modem is in the basement of my house.  Don't ask why, it was like that when we bought the house.  Conveniently, the previous owners had run some CAT 5 up to the family room to plug in a wireless router, but the house has no other networking cables in the walls.  I need to run a wired connection to the office, same side of the house but opposite end, but I don't know what networking hardware will do the trick.  I have a network switch that I originally planned to just plug in after my modem for the extra ports, but I'd forgotten that I need a router before the switch to for it to work properly.  

What would my best solution be?

Would I be able to just get another router, not make it broadcast wifi, then plug them in Modem-->router-->switch and then have the two separate cables run up through the walls to the office and family room as normal?  Or would that somehow mess with the wifi from the router I want to use?

Ideally I'd like to cut into the wall in the office and just add an ethernet outlet, run the cable through the wall, but I'm just not sure what I need before that to make it work properly.

 

Feel free to grill me for any other info you need, I want to do this right and the method I had planned just didn't work so I'm back to square 1.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Can you not run a switch directly off your main router? (noob to networking, trying my best here).

 

If nothing else works, a really long ethernet cable would likely do the trick.

[PhysicalVocalist]

I could do that yes, but there's a couple issues that make it not a good solution, the main one being that the router and office are a good 20 meters apart.  I don't have the handy skills to bust into that much wall just for one ethernet cable, and I'm not gonna be happy with just one long cable snaking across the house.  Ideally I'd like to figure out something in the basement for a solution so that I can just leave the cable to the router as is and then send a second cable up through the floor directly into the office.  I just don't know how best to do that with the hardware I have without putting the router into the basement and making the wifi everywhere upstairs unreliable.

[factorialandha]

You are correct,

 

my method would be what you suggested, 

 

Modem -> Router -> Switch, if you are running cables, you can then run as many cables as your switch can handle up the walls, if you wanted more than 1 in the office, you could also run 1 extra and put another switch up there too.

I plan on doing something similar in the next couple of weeks (im going to be fishing around 8 cables through various walls into the basement where i will have a switch / patch panel)

 

You can purchase something like a ubiquiti edgerouter for the basement have that connected to your switch and then your wifi access point and office connection to the switch.

[Guest]

PowerLine? Wireless Bridge?

[PhysicalVocalist]

2 minutes ago, factorialandha said:

You can purchase something like a ubiquiti edgerouter for the basement have that connected to your switch and then your wifi access point and office connection to the switch

That looks like it will do the trick!  Thank you!  
If I have an older router with extra ethernet jacks in it, could I use that in place of this ubiquiti router?  Same basic principle, yes?

[PhysicalVocalist]

Just now, Windspeed36 said:

PowerLine? Wireless Bridge?

I've tried using a Powerline Adaptor, but it tanks my bandwidth.  I pay for 75MB down and the powerline adaptor, what I'm using right now, hovers around 20-30.

[factorialandha]

yeah, aslong as it has the throughput you want (eg if you have 400mbit internet and the older router only has 100mbit ports then you will want something better)

 

effectively you want to put A router in the basement, and then turn the router / wifi point in your family room into a wifi access point 

 

Just saw your post about 75Mbit so an older router wont have a problem.

[PhysicalVocalist]

Just now, factorialandha said:

yeah, aslong as it has the throughput you want (eg if you have 400mbit internet and the older router only has 100mbit ports then you will want something better)

 

effectively you want to put A router in the basement, and then turn the router / wifi point in your family room into a wifi access point 

If the router upstairs is just acting as an access point, will the one in the basement act as the bottleneck for the data stream?

[factorialandha]

your bottleneck would be the slowest link in the chain. 

 

So if you connect your family room wifi point -> GB switch then you will be fine for all connectivity within the local network.

 

100 mbit router should be fine to sit between a gb switch and a 75mbit internet connection, as you will saturate your internet link before you saturate the link on the old router.

 

(however i would recommend going gbit everywhere if possible.

[PhysicalVocalist]

Just now, factorialandha said:

your bottleneck would be the slowest link in the chain. 

 

So if you connect your family room wifi point -> GB switch then you will be fine for all connectivity within the local network.

 

100 mbit router should be fine to sit between a gb switch and a 75mbit internet connection, as you will saturate your internet link before you saturate the link on the old router.

 

(however i would recommend going gbit everywhere if possible.

Ok, that helps me out a lot.  Thank you!  And I appreciate you recommending the Ubiquiti router, I was having issues finding routers that weren't also wifi access points.

[factorialandha]

ubiquiti is good, however they do require the use of the management server / software, im not 100% sure if the edgerouter requires this to be always on, or only for configuration. 

 

you can buy a little ubiquiti management key which is a small device that you can use instead of a full on windows machine with the management software, but its something to consider (depending on your budget, i think you can get the key + edgerouter x for around $130).

 

or you can grab any normal router (like you planned) and just disable wifi.

[Donut417]

Here is my two cents. Id get the edge router and use the Ethernet in your family room for an AP. You might consider buying Ethernet in bulk so you can wire more places in the future. I know for a fact that wiring up from a basement is pretty easy. While for one wire it would be over kill, but if you do decide to wire up your house, Id put in a patch panel. For that new Ethernet cable, I would do it nice by using keystone jack, this way it looks kinda professional. 

[intertan]

consider yourself lucky

seeing more and more homes in my area were the home owner rips out all the wiring except for the tel/cable that enters the house.

leaving the isp to install the equipment in 1 place.

Then they bitch and complain that they can't get good wifi coverage or there speed they are paying for. Everything should magically work on wifi you know.

 

[PhysicalVocalist]

11 hours ago, intertan said:

Everything should magically work on wifi you know.

Shit man, If only.