Network Wiring - New House...

[Meractik]

So I just moved into a new house, I plan to forgo cable television and only have the coaxial hookup in the living room utilize a wifi (802.11n) router and 4 wired connections...

I am posting here because I want a home office in another room, but I want to get maximum packet retention and as good of speeds as possible since the desktop PC in the office will be utilized to do most of the downloading etc... the living room will just utilize the connection mostly as a HTPC to stream hulu, netflix and some streaming 1080p video across the LAN... All things considered would my best route to facilitate getting a 'wired' connection into the home office be to utilize one of those converter boxes which will send the data through a wall outlet between the two rooms? I can't run ethernet or install my own ethernet wall boxes b/c i am renting.... The room does have plenty of wall outlets though and I was thinking of utilizing some mechanism to go from Living room Router (ethernet) = into a converter box (that plugs into wall outlet) = another converter box plugged into other wall outlet (that outputs to ethernet) *which in turn is plugged into my desktop PC gigabit NIC* Thoughts?

P.S. before anyone asks the office room does not have a coaxial hookup so I cannot simply move the modem into the office and utilize wifi in the living room....

 

[postmortemIA]

does office have phone hookup? company that did wiring in my house used same Ethernet wiring for both. Ideally you would just swap RJ41 to RJ45 connectors in the wall outlet.

 

[radtechtips]

does office have phone hookup? company that did wiring in my house used same Ethernet wiring for both. Ideally you would just swap RJ41 to RJ45 connectors in the wall outlet.

That is how ny house is wired, but only becuase my dad did it like that. I would check that first

 

[Meractik]

does office have phone hookup? company that did wiring in my house used same Ethernet wiring for both. Ideally you would just swap RJ41 to RJ45 connectors in the wall outlet.

That is how ny house is wired, but only becuase my dad did it like that. I would check that first

I spoke to the cox communications guy when he came to activate the outside line, he said the same thing... unfortunately the room does not have a telephone outlet 🙁 so that is not an option..... I believe my only option at this point is to utilize the 120V wall power outlet to ethernet senario.... just never did it before and am curious if it will provide better performance than 802.11n encrypted wifi..... if anyone has experience in using the wall outlet senario and could recommend some devices I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[radtechtips]

I spoke to the cox communications guy when he came to activate the outside line, he said the same thing... unfortunately the room does not have a telephone outlet 🙁 so that is not an option..... I believe my only option at this point is to utilize the 120V wall power outlet to ethernet senario.... just never did it before and am curious if it will provide better performance than 802.11n encrypted wifi..... if anyone has experience in using the wall outlet senario and could recommend some devices I would greatly appreciate it!

Ive never used one but I remember reading it was either decent or awful, depending on your conditions(distance, interference, etc) How far would it be from the router?

 

[Meractik]

Ive never used one but I remember reading it was either decent or awful, depending on your conditions(distance, interference, etc) How far would it be from the router?

Less than 30 ft, (through 1 wall) but I have no idea how the wiring is done with the wall outlets, the cable could go all around the house for all I know before reaching its destination, lol...

 

[radtechtips]

Sounds like a wireless router would work better. Our Netgear WAP works well even around 40 ft.

 

[Meractik]

Does it enable you to stream video without any packet loss (aka skipping/etc..) ? I would want to do full 1080P *.MKV files over the network with a raspberry pi... (which I'd have to buy a wireless adapter for...)

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Run the wires across the floor. I run two cables to link my living room with my server run. Careful running and a rug piece if it crosses a walking space and you're good to go.

Not really a big deal, cheap to implement, and will give you far far better connectivity then powerline or wifi.

 

[Cabletek]

Or he can just punch a small hole in the drywall on both sides and put whatever he wants though it. he could even have an electrician install a box like this on each side.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_43116-223-S...s=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=Wall

And mount Ethernet plates to it to make it look less amateur if he wanted.

its should be just drywall on both sides if its an interior wall.

 

[Meractik]

Run the wires across the floor. I run two cables to link my living room with my server run. Careful running and a rug piece if it crosses a walking space and you're good to go.

Not really a big deal, cheap to implement, and will give you far far better connectivity then powerline or wifi.

I personally wouldn't care utilizing that method, my G/F on the other hand... she'd have a fit, no matter how tidy I kept the wires running across the baseboards along the floor etc... we have wall-2-wall carpeting so a small rug trying to hide a wire to her would seem "ghetto" lol...

 

[Meractik]

Or he can just punch a small hole in the drywall on both sides and put whatever he wants though it. he could even have an electrician install a box like this on each side.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_43116-223-S...s=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=Wall

And mount Ethernet plates to it to make it look less amateur if he wanted.

its should be just drywall on both sides if its an interior wall.

im fairly confident I could manage that on my own, maybe rent a hand saw and use my drill to make a little ethernet wall mount, just route it up through the attic directly above me than back down through the dry-wall near the entertainment center. to connect directly to the router via wired connection.

 

[radtechtips]

im fairly confident I could manage that on my own, maybe rent a hand saw and use my drill to make a little ethernet wall mount, just route it up through the attic directly above me than back down through the dry-wall near the entertainment center. to connect directly to the router via wired connection.

That would be my preferred method of choice, but you will need termination tools if you don't already have them. I was assuming you couldn't do that because you are renting?

 

[Eug]

If you have carpet, you can often stuff Ethernet cable under the baseboard since the carpet has some give. Doesn't work with hardwood for obvious reasons.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Honestly, if you do a halfway decent job of installing wall plates and are careful about where you are drilling the landlord will never notice you did anything. I highly doubt he has counted the number of wall plates in his rental unit.

 

[s44]

Heh. I was going to suggest MOCA if there's a coax outlet in the office, but if you want to run some ethernet go ahead...

 

[Cabletek]

im fairly confident I could manage that on my own, maybe rent a hand saw and use my drill to make a little Ethernet wall mount, just route it up through the attic directly above me than back down through the dry-wall near the entertainment center. to connect directly to the router via wired connection.

Long as you have a glow rod and flex bit or a direct acess to drill the hole in the 2x4's in the attic, its a fairly simple concept, not a fairly simple practice though, so measure twice, drill once. 🙂

That's called wall fishing BTW, but I was talkign about just putting a tube through the wall, setting the modem near one side, the computer or device near the other side and going straight through not an attic route, however if you can do that, then you have a valid solution both physically, and aesthetically [for the GF].

Spackle [like $2 for a tub and $1 for a putty knife] fixes mistakes with my original idea, money is required for yours, just a FYI.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I've installed a couple of those low voltage outlets. A couple for coax, and a couple ethernet. I lined up the outlets to be the same height as the power outlets, traced the low voltage outlet, and cut it out. I used a dry wall saw, basically a little jagged knife to cut the holes. I made the cut just a hair inside the trace lines so the low voltage outlet fit nice and snug. worked out great.

Running ethernet through the wall? I have no advice other than patience. And like someone else said, measure 2x..cut 1x

 

[Eug]

Honestly, if you do a halfway decent job of installing wall plates and are careful about where you are drilling the landlord will never notice you did anything. I highly doubt he has counted the number of wall plates in his rental unit.

Or, he may immediately notice. It's not as if it's hard to notice Ethernet jacks that weren't there before, esp. if it's a landlord with only a few properties.

 

[radtechtips]

I've installed a couple of those low voltage outlets. A couple for coax, and a couple ethernet. I lined up the outlets to be the same height as the power outlets, traced the low voltage outlet, and cut it out. I used a dry wall saw, basically a little jagged knife to cut the holes. I made the cut just a hair inside the trace lines so the low voltage outlet fit nice and snug. worked out great.

Running ethernet through the wall? I have no advice other than patience. And like someone else said, measure 2x..cut 1x

I would recommend this if you cab get away with it

 

[C2bcool]

Even if you do cut a hole in the wall for the outlet plate..you can always patch it up later with a wall patch, some putty, sand with sanding block, and a little paint. I did this in my old place for wiring and hiding TV wires in the wall. They come in a bunch of different sizes and work real well.

Th is the patch I used: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wal-Boar...air-Self-Adhesive-Wall-Patch-54-006/100036128

But, you should just discuss it with your landlord as you are actually going to be improving the wiring and make networking easier for the next person. So they maybe cool with it, assumming he/she is not a dumbass.