Question Moved PC to basement, poor wifi signal.

[zmihlrad]

So I moved my PC/desk setup to the basement to begin renovations on our second floor.

I have a tri-band router from verizon which is whatever their newest and strongest router is with 1000mbps speeds.

Upstairs I was on ethernet, I did not have the foresight to run that to the basement when I renovated it.

I do have 3 bars for wifi and can use youtube and stuff fine but gaming and just downloading large files is a nightmare.

Is a powerline adapter a good move here? Its a 1400 sqft house excluding the basment, I don't think I need to go to the extreme of a full mesh network?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Have you tried just moving the router to basement? Since you have no problem with you tube it may work for you in that setup for the rest of the house.

 

[zmihlrad]

There is no coax cable coming into the basement. It goes directly into my wife's closet where the router is from outside the house.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I did not have the foresight to run that to the basement when I renovated it.

Then do that now. You're doing renovations anyway.

 

[bill001g]

Powerline networks will work but it may not be faster. It will be far more consistent latency which will help online games but it may or may not help with downloads. Although some houses get 300mbps on the powerline units with 1000-2000 numbers many people get in the 150mbps range.

Note if you are willing to do it the way the ISP runs their cables you could just run a outdoor ethernet cable on the side of the house.

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

Since you are renovating anyways, why not just drill some holes in the floors and run the ethernet to the basement, or if the walls upstairs will be getting torn out or redone, do it the moar/better/permanent way of routing the cables inside them...

That way if you should ever need to setup a pc in the basement again in the future, you'll be ready to go with no fuss no muss....

and FYI, running ethernet on the outside of your house is a bad idea, unless it is run inside conduit, which is probably not cost effective for a temporary move...

 

[PEnns]

If you run it outside, just buy a bunch of 6 ft PVC pipes and a couple of PVC corners and run the coax through them.
There is PVC glue (same aisle in the store most likely - blue in color) specifically for connecting PVC pipes.

This might be the easiest and least intrusive option.

 

[bill001g]

If you use outdoor rated cable you do not need conduit. I guess if you are worried about physical damage. The ISP when they put the fiber into a neighbors house ran the fiber up the wall to the second floor and just attached that thin fiber wire to brick. That I would have though they would want to protect. One time when I asked a ISP about this type of stuff they said it was cheaper to just replace a damaged cable rather than try to protect is.

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

If you use outdoor rated cable you do not need conduit. I guess if you are worried about physical damage. The ISP when they put the fiber into a neighbors house ran the fiber up the wall to the second floor and just attached that thin fiber wire to brick. That I would have though they would want to protect. One time when I asked a ISP about this type of stuff they said it was cheaper to just replace a damaged cable rather than try to protect is.

1) As for the conduit, the local building codes may or may not require it, most will though. This is to reduce the chances of both physical damage, as well as damage from static/lightning discharges, which could not only render your service kaput, but also run into your house, fry your modem, router, and the pc's connected to them, and most likely, start a fire that would be tough to contain once started.

If it is required and your ISP chooses not to install it, they would be liable for any damage caused and could face extremely huge fines & penalties from the local/county/state authorities.... I actually witnessed a cable company lose it's business license a few years ago for this exact violation, in addition to the legal expenses & cash settlement from the lawsuit that the homeowner had filed against them....

2) There are major differences between the way Fiber, coax and ethernet cables are constructed internally... Fiber & coax are much better suited to exterior conditions, ethernet is not, regardless of it's so-called "rating"...

And the person at the ISP who said it would be cheaper to replace the Fiber cable was ill-informed or just plain stupid. Replacing it is way more involved than just twisting a couple of copper wires together with wire nuts and taping/sealing the connection. Coax can't be fixed this way either, but splicing it is fairly straight forward with the right tools. Fiber requires a bonding machine & specialized materials, & someone who is specifically trained to splice in the new part to the old one... not a "cheap" process by any means...

 

[Ralston18]

There is no coax cable coming into the basement. It goes directly into my wife's closet where the router is from outside the house.

How well is that closet ventilated and cooled?

May not be a suitable location (for any number of reasons) and if you are going to be doing a lot of work, etc. then plan in a router move as well.

 

[zmihlrad]

So I switched from a basic PCIE AC1200 wifi card from TPLINK to a TPLINK TX55E Wifi 6 card and am getting 200mbps wifi instead of 20.


Will the powerline adapter still help with consistency? The signal strength is still a little light even if the actual speed is faster.