Ethernet (cat5) to the opposite side of the house from the router

[NiveusT]

Who would I call to do this? Our internet service provider doesn't do networking apparently, so they won't run an Ethernet (Cat5) from the living room to the room on the opposite side of the house.


What're the details of such an operation? (Is it expensive to have them route a cat5 to the other side of the house underneath it?)

Powerline and wireless are not an option. Gotta be a physical connection to the other side of the house.

 

[13thmonkey]

why won't powerline work?

it's just a matter of running running the cable, the cable isn't that expensive, you can buy kits on ebay with termination tools.

 

[USAFRet]

Right. Most ISPs won't run cable through the house. One and only one connection. Everything after that is on you.
Actually, they might, but for a large extra charge.

How 'expensive' is completely dependent on your house, and how neat you want it to look.
Drilling and sealing holes in floor and drywall, fishing the wire through wherever, proper termination, etc, etc.

What distance are you talking about?

 

[NiveusT]

About 50 ft of distance? Give or take? It's literally from one corner of the house to the complete opposite corner of the house.

What do you mean by "proper termination" or "termination tools"? I might have to run/route this all myself and I'm a complete newbie to how this all works, I've never done anything like this in my entire life.

I'm going to check out Powerlines, but considering how the electricity in this house is... There are multiple breakers in this house (hooray for houses built 90 years ago+ and never being re-wired) so it might not work as they may be on separate closed circuits. I may have to return it if the powerline doesn't work.

 

[USAFRet]

About 50 ft of distance? Give or take? It's literally from one corner of the house to the complete opposite corner of the house.

What do you mean by "proper termination" or "termination tools"? I might have to run/route this all myself and I'm a complete newbie to how this all works, I've never done anything like this in my entire life.

I'm going to check out Powerlines, but considering how the electricity in this house is... There are multiple breakers in this house (hooray for houses built 90 years ago+ and never being re-wired) so it might not work as they may be on separate closed circuits. I may have to return it if the powerline doesn't work.

For a 90 year old house, I would not count on a powerline solution.

Proper termination = you buy a roll of bare cable, and RJ-45 ends. And a cable splicer. And a cable tester.
It is a little bit of a PITA if you've never done it. Takes several tries before you get it right on both ends.

For a 50' distance, I'd just get a 100' already built cable, to allow for turns and bends, etc.
Also, if you're running this outside the house (crawlspace), you need outdoor rated cable.
This, for instance: http://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Waterproof-Ethernet-Direct-Burial/dp/B001B6DM52
100', $50.

 

[USAFRet]

Now....you get to go under the house with the spiders, etc.

That's why those guys charge so much....

 

[13thmonkey]

That's what I was referring to, a prebuilt cable, although the one i'm using had one end free to mount into a wall box. And indeed outdoor rated would be useful. The termination is not too bad, at least you'll be clean and indoors whilst you are doing it. The fiddliness of getting the cable from point A to point B is the tricky bit.

 

[NiveusT]

I think getting a pre-built cable would be a better bet for me then? (since I have no experience with this sort of thing, and the termination might even take me several hours to do since I'm a newb and have no idea what I'm doing, the cost might offset itself anyway.)


My guess is that this would be the cheapest solution:

Just get a 75'-100' prebuilt outdoor cable cat5, drill a hole in the floor in both of the rooms after bringing up the carpet a bit and putting it back down after the wire is in (don't care about aesthetics at the moment), drag the cable under the house all the way from the router's end to the new room, pop up the wire, and bam, plug it in like that?

Sound about right to you guys?

 

[13thmonkey]

Yep, that'll work. And perhaps have a little 4 port gigabit switch at the other end so that you can connect multiple devices.

The reason for routing the unterminated cable is that the hole then only needs be as big as the cable, if you are passing a terminated cable it's a lot bigger and will be sloppy afterwards, but providing you recognise that then you won't have a problem.

 

[NiveusT]

Awesome, thanks a lot for the help guys, I appreciate it. I'm gunna try the powerline first, if that fails to work, then I will definitely do the cat5 solution that you guys said... I think I'll just have a friend of mine go under the house though HAHAHAHA. :>>

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes. That will work. And if it is "about 50 foot distance", go for a 100' cable. The extra bends and whatnot take up extra length.
Better to be 20 feet too long, rather than 6 inches too short.