hard wire access point

[spatin51]

Hi Forum. I have a multilevel house and my wifi connections on the wireless router/modem are intermittent and sometimes the signal is lost in some areas of the house. Even when I have signal, the download speed is usually only about a third of the 40 mbps I am paying for. I read about using ethernet wire, cat5 cable I think, to run a hard wire from the wireless router/modem downstairs to the upstairs and to connect the other end of the wire to an "access point" which would be much closer to my computers/laptops/printers. Problem is, I have no idea how to do that. What sort of technician or professional installer should I look for to help me with this and where? I can't find anything that might help in the yellow pages and the local computer shops I have called don't seem to understand what I want to do. Thanks for your responses. - Sidney

 

[bill001g]

I assume you mean how to run the ethernet wire?

The simple way say the cable company does this is drill through the outside wall of the house and run it on the outside. That method you likely could easily do yourself. Running it though the walls and ceiling can be costly if your house is not laid out well. If you are lucky you have something like closets you can run it in. It is much cheaper to paint a couple walls in a closet than to have to paint your whole living room to match when they have to cut holes.

You might want to consider using powerline units to run between the upstairs and downstairs. The newer av2-1200 models work pretty well in most houses. They should be able to get the 40m you pay for.

If you want to go the ethernet route most electricians can run it. It is consider low voltage cabling. Problem will be most electricians don't want to deal with repairing the walls so you may have to pay a painter.

 

[spatin51]

Hi. Thanks for your response. I'm talking about running the cable and also hooking up and setting up the access points to both ends of the wire, making them work with the equipment, etc.

I assume you mean how to run the ethernet wire?

The simple way say the cable company does this is drill through the outside wall of the house and run it on the outside. That method you likely could easily do yourself. Running it though the walls and ceiling can be costly if your house is not laid out well. If you are lucky you have something like closets you can run it in. It is much cheaper to paint a couple walls in a closet than to have to paint your whole living room to match when they have to cut holes.

You might want to consider using powerline units to run between the upstairs and downstairs. The newer av2-1200 models work pretty well in most houses. They should be able to get the 40m you pay for.

If you want to go the ethernet route most electricians can run it. It is consider low voltage cabling. Problem will be most electricians don't want to deal with repairing the walls so you may have to pay a painter.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi. Thanks for your response. I'm talking about running the cable and also hooking up and setting up the access points to both ends of the wire, making them work with the equipment, etc.

Given an ethernet cable to upstairs, you may not need "WiFi" up there. Hardwire your devices to that Cat5e cable.
Also, some of the powerline devices also propagate a WiFi signal at the remote end.

 

[spatin51]

Yes, that is what I had in mind - running a cable upstairs and the installing some kind of device that would give me a wifi signal at the remote end. My laptop, tablets, phones and printers are all wifi and would work with a wifi signal.

Hi. Thanks for your response. I'm talking about running the cable and also hooking up and setting up the access points to both ends of the wire, making them work with the equipment, etc.

Given an ethernet cable to upstairs, you may not need "WiFi" up there. Hardwire your devices to that Cat5e cable.
Also, some of the powerline devices also propagate a WiFi signal at the remote end.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, that is what I had in mind - running a cable upstairs and the installing some kind of device that would give me a wifi signal at the remote end. My laptop, tablets, phones and printers are all wifi and would work with a wifi signal.

If you run a Cat5e cable to upstairs, you can have both. Wired AND WiFi. Which is the preferred setup.

Leave the WiFi spectrum for those devices that require WiFi. Tablets, mobile laptops, etc.
Desktops and printers...wired. They don't move around.

 

[spatin51]

Nice. Thanks for the info.

[ quotemsg=20504667,0,1282023]

Yes, that is what I had in mind - running a cable upstairs and the installing some kind of device that would give me a wifi signal at the remote end. My laptop, tablets, phones and printers are all wifi and would work with a wifi signal.

If you run a Cat5e cable to upstairs, you can have both. Wired AND WiFi. Which is the preferred setup.

Leave the WiFi spectrum for those devices that require WiFi. Tablets, mobile laptops, etc.
Desktops and printers...wired. They don't move around.[/quotemsg]

 

[spatin51]

Again, thank you for your information. Let me throw in another question. I am thinking about probably 50-60 feet of CAT5e cable, one end plugged into my CenturyLink router/modem, then up through the attic and down through a wall upstairs to plug into a ______________________ (fill in the blank to suggest good choice for an access point so it will feed wifit signal to my equipment upstairs). I am also thinking about hardwire connections to my laptop, desktop, and two printers, everything else is wifi only.

Hi. Thanks for your response. I'm talking about running the cable and also hooking up and setting up the access points to both ends of the wire, making them work with the equipment, etc.

Given an ethernet cable to upstairs, you may not need "WiFi" up there. Hardwire your devices to that Cat5e cable.
Also, some of the powerline devices also propagate a WiFi signal at the remote end.

 

[USAFRet]

The _________________ = a 10/100/1000 switch (desktop/printer/laptop), and an access point also plugged into that switch, for your WiFi devices in that area.

For the switch, one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/D-Link-Gigabit-Unmanaged-Desktop-DGS-108/dp/B000BCC0LO

I'll let others give recommendations on access points.