Question 1990s German ISDN cable as network cable

[Gatriel]

Hey all,

So my wife and I moved into a house recently and I elected to go with a Mesh Network using the home's electrical wiring as network cables with a series of TP-Link boxes that do this hardwired to our various mesh nodes/routers. This works fantastic until the washing machine turns on and this creates all kinds of hellish interference that basically kills off the entire home network. We have kids, the washing machine is constantly running.

I would ideally prefer to hardwire all the mesh nodes to one another via a switch in the house's technical room -- but herein lies my question -- wiring. The house we live in was built in 1995 and is in Germany. Germans don't build houses like we Americans (2x4s and sheet rock), they're out of solid 12" thick concrete interior walls. I can have one mesh node 3 meters (12 feet) away two rooms over and the signal strength is listed as "exceptionally poor" so using a completely wireless mesh system really isn't possible absent brute force. "Pulling new cables" isn't really possible in my situation without tearing massive holes where I want to run cables. The house's previous owner and builder was very advanced for being in the 90s and ran "6-pair" (three groups of four) ISDN cabling throughout the entire house as it was under construction. I would ideally love to attached the proper ends to these existing cables and call it a day --- *BUT* the cables aren't twisted pair, per se, but they are grouped together in strands of four and the twists are perhaps one twist per inch (at the most).

The entire house has under-floor heating using circulated hot water and again, is made of concrete being around 24" thick from top to bottom. The biggest issue is getting a stable wireless signal between floors.

Thoughts on whether this "re-use"/"ghetto-rigging" of pre-existing cables would work? We have a 500Mb line into the house and stream 1080p/4k. I like going fast.

Other thoughts I have on this problem:

1) Buy 12-18 of these Mesh nodes and put them in literally every single room and simply use "brute force" via WLAN to get a stable internet connection in the house (not sure if this is healthy though);

2) Buy a new washing machine (which may or may not solve my problem);

3) Stick something between the washing machine and the wall reducing the in-line interference;

4) I *MIGHT* be able to pull a Cat6 cable between the ground floor and the second and third floors (second floor almost definitely, third floor -- would be difficult.) Perhaps pulling Cat6 to each of the floors and then combine it with #1 above would give me the best results.

Anyways, your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mxnerd]

Why not try cheaper WiFi extenders instead powerline adapters?

Put these WiFi extenders close to the door of each room.

Wired ethernet between AP on each floor probably is still needed.

It will be ugly but you can use cable raceway to make it looks better.

Amazon.com : tplink wifi extender

Amazon.com : cable raceway

Don't think ISDN line converting to ethernet will work.

 

[Gatriel]

Yeah, I've toyed with the idea - but the Mesh network utility that came with the system (TP-Link P7) is fantastic and I like the control I have over the system with it (when it works). While I want to be frugal, if I had to choose between wi-fi extenders and additional TP-Link P7 nodes, I'd get more nodes for a little more cash. I am just going nuts at the moment and am about to push the washing machine down the street.

 

[Gatriel]

So I rage purchased an additional three of the nodes and am going to beat this problem with brute force. Thanks all for the suggestions.

 

[mxnerd]

Additional nodes will not solve the nide problem created by your washing machine since the system still rely on the powerlines.

If you have coaxial cable wiring on each floor then you should use MOCA adapters.

 

[Gatriel]

Hey,

So I am not going to be using the Ethernet over power lines function but rather all wirelessly connected. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'll start investing in MOCA adapters (which look fantastic, I had no idea such things existed).

 

[SamirD]

So having to deal with less than idea wiring for Internet access (had to use 30 year old water logged non-twisted non-cat anything wire once), you have a lot of great options.

If the ISDN ends are already terminated with rj45 and are home run, I would simply plug in some devices and see if you get a gigabit link. If you don't, try to for a 100Mbps link. It won't be ideal, but 100Mbps should be more than possible with those wires. (There are ways to even get more running over this type of wire, but I won't go into it since you have a better alternative.) The potential big problem is if the wires are not home run, then you have a slim chance of making it work without 'breaking' each home run at each jack into 2 different jacks.

But you may not want to even try that if you have coax cables in your walls as moca technology blows powerline out of the water in terms of performance and the ease of installation can be as easy as powerline. Again, you will need to see if you have home runs or you will need to check splitters that may be in hidden places to make sure they can pass moca signals. But aside from that, moca will be an excellent backbone as it can run as high as 2.5Gbps in bandwidth.

I commend the Germans for building their buildings so well. Our 'stick frame' construction is akin to the 'straw house' in the 3 little pigs story. Even our 'brick' houses are just a brick veneer on a tyvek paper wrapped bunch of matchsticks. It's why our houses are such a pita to maintain.