Bringing Ethernet Downstairs

[Andrewst1021]

Due to the layout of my house I can't drop cables and I don't want electrical interference from powerline adapters as well as their slower speeds. This will be a HTPC and I will be having movies and programs on the NAS so I don't want to saturate my wifi bandwidth. I was hoping to find a box I can put Ethernet into and have an output on my wall, just not in the wall. I can seem to find any products that can accomplish this simple task

 

[firefoxx04]

I am not understand what you are asking.

 

[joex444]

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, you have a modem and a router and from the router you want to connect an Ethernet cable into some box, let's call it Box A. Box A will then be able to transmit to another box, let's call it Box B. Box B then has an Ethernet port coming out of it that would then connect to the HTPC that is on a different floor than Box A?

Is this correct?

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

You're kind of making an impossible request. You want a wired connection, but you don't want to use an existing connection, and you don't want to add any new connection, from what I understand. That's just not possible.

If you don't mind adding a new connection through the walls, you can just get an Ethernet port for your wall and run Ethernet through the wall. Something like this.

 

[firefoxx04]

It does sound like he wants to Bridge a connection from an existing computer to a new computer. This is easily doable if the existing computer has a second ethernet port.

In my office, I have one ethernet cable coming in from a switch in another room. When I am working on customer builds, instead of running a new cable from the switch to my office, I just connect an ethernet cable to the extra ethernet port on my workstation.

This is possible because my workstation has two ethernet ports (they are not the same chipset either) and windows is setup to bridge the connection. Bridging is very easy to setup and only requires a quick google search.


In the past we would have to use a crossover cable in order to connect a switch to a switch or a computer to a computer, however, most modern network cards have a way around this. I forget the word but they let you use a regular Ethernet cable for any connection (PC to PC, PC to Switch).

 

[Andrewst1021]

My router is upstairs in a loft type area that is open in order to view the two story window wall, I have a living room downstairs directly in front of the loft. I want to run ethernet downstairs into a junction box that doesn't have to go into the wall. I know I can also put a repeater in but I would like a nice little box that I can plug the cables into the front.

 

[joex444]

I would suggest looking into powerline again. Junction boxes by their very definition imply wires behind it, in the wall. It really does sound like you want a wired connection without using existing power lines and without dropping new cable behind the wall. The only thing that leaves is inelegantly dropping cable in front of the wall, that would be through the floor and I really doubt you want to do that since you have a two story window wall. It's possible that with the layout of the house you could run the cable into a wall and send a drop of Ethernet cable downstairs along a different wall so that there's nothing affecting the large window area, but this is getting into aspects and particulars about your house's architecture that we just don't have information about.

Modern powerline has the ability to connect at 1.0Gbps, and can offer over 300Mbps of real throughput. That puts it well ahead of actual real-world WiFi and quite frankly, for an HTPC interfacing to a NAS, there is simply no media that can use anywhere near 300Mbps anyways. Even a direct copy of a BluRay rarely uses more than 40Mbps. I agree with you that using WiFi for this would be a bad choice, but then again I pretty much hate WiFi for anything except browsing. Maybe 802.11ac would be OK, particularly if you can setup a separate WiFi network on its own channel just for this. But realistically, powerline would be cheaper, more reliable, and more likely to get better throughput. All you have to ensure is that the outlets upstairs and downstairs connect in some way -- if your house has only one breaker box, then this is guaranteed.

(I would strongly discourage the use of crossover cables and second ethernet ports on other PCs though, as it forces the first machine to be on in order for the other to have any Internet access.)

 

[Andrewst1021]

I was hoping to install games and my file server and the loading would easily saturate gigabit connection speeds. I physically cannot access the insides of the walls, trust me. I already had to drill through my floor in order to set up my server area.

 

[jsmithepa]

On your first post you said something to plug into the wall, then on your second post you said no in-wall, so once again we are guessing what you are trying to say. Post a picture dude, otherwise we'd be here all day.

 

[dalaran]

So just use a Surface Mount Box?

Something like this?
https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=105&cp_id=10517&cs_id=1051705&p_id=7093&seq=1&format=2

That most likely mean you'll see the cable running along the wall until it reaches the box since you cant go in the wall, unless I'm not understanding what you're trying to achieve

 

[Andrewst1021]

Perfect, I was looking for that. I know I'll see the cables, I had to run cables from my modem downstairs to my loft upstairs for my router and nas. The modem is in the laundry room, I was at work when the guy installed and my wife didn't know what to tell him, so I already have wires running in sight.

 

[jsmithepa]

LOL. So this was more of a THIS OLD HOUSE question.

 

[Andrewst1021]

This entire network setup is a pain due to the layout. Once I buy my own house, the server will have its own room and I will have access to the attic crawl space or its a deal breaker. The woes of networking.

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

Well, I didn't quite expect to see that solution I'm glad your issue was resolved!