Cable Internet service + ethernet wired home

[Sigshane]

I have cable internet, which then connects to a wifi router, then to all of my devices via wifi. The signal generally sucks everywhere on the second floor of my house.

My house is prewired ethernet to most rooms, up and downstairs, and those ethernet cables all come into a box on the outside of my house, where they are bundled up and connected to nothing - I don't have landline service.

I would like assistance on how to use those idle ethernet cables to extend my internet service to more rooms in my house. And yes, I have tried numerous wifi extenders, and I believe that they suck also.

Of note: the inside jack where my cable modem is connected to the coax is just on the other side of the external wall of my house to the box I mentioned where the ethernet cables are bundled. (Hope that makes sense.)

Thanks in advance,

Shane

 

[bill001g]

Outside the house makes is much more difficult.

The fairly standard solution is to put in a small switch and connect all the ethernet cables to that. You would then connect a cable between the switch and a lan port on your router. If it was inside this is trivial. Outside you have issues of how you get a device that need electricity to get the power and stay dry at the same time. Maybe you could find a way to reroute the cables inside.

In any case if you need wireless on the second floor you then plug a router/AP into one of the wall jacks.

 

[kanewolf]

Since the cables go outside, it seems like they were intended for phone use. So first verify that they really are ethernet cable rather than phone cable. There should be 8 wires in each run. Next check what kind (if any) certification is on the wire Cat5e, TIA, etc. What kind of jacks do you have in the rooms? Eight wire RJ45? Take one off the wall and check the wiring. Did they follow the TIA color code?

Assuming your wiring passes all the above tests, then you have the problem, as @bill001g pointed out that your wires are outside but outside switches are almost non-existent. Your best bet is to bring the etherent cables back into the house to make the connections. If the existing cables are not long enough, you could put a small patch panel in the outside box and run new cable into the house. There you conect them to the router or an additional ethernet switch.

 

[Sigshane]

Yeah, that is the ugly end of whatever I come up with, isn't it?

If I bring the cables into the house, I really have nowhere for them to go - that's my daughter's bedroom wall. Why on earth did they put them there in the first place I wonder...and I know they are 4 twisted pairs, i have looked at them before. Maybe I put the switch inside a weatherproof panel box, mounted beside the other one...I can run 120vac out there for power too. I know that sounds like a lot of doing, but I think that, because of the location of that original box and nowhere to bring it inside, it will be easier than trying to move the cables inside.

Thanks for the help!

Shane

 

[kanewolf]

Yeah, that is the ugly end of whatever I come up with, isn't it?

If I bring the cables into the house, I really have nowhere for them to go - that's my daughter's bedroom wall. Why on earth did they put them there in the first place I wonder...and I know they are 4 twisted pairs, i have looked at them before. Maybe I put the switch inside a weatherproof panel box, mounted beside the other one...I can run 120vac out there for power too. I know that sounds like a lot of doing, but I think that, because of the location of that original box and nowhere to bring it inside, it will be easier than trying to move the cables inside.

Thanks for the help!

Shane

I have used these industrial switches in weatherproof boxes. They survived months in TX sun and rain. They are just 6 ports of 100Mbit, but they are intended for extreme environments.

L-Com is where we got our weatherproof boxes.