Need help getting a solid connection in my room

[Reverencium]

Hey all,
I'm trying to figure out a way to get a solid, reliable connection in my bedroom, which is far enough away from the router that my connection is strained and frequently drops. My roomates are all adamant on leaving the router where it is, and my apartment isn't wired with CAT5 so ethernet isn't an option. I've also tried powerline adapters, but so far they've been even more prone to drops and issues than my horrible wifi connection.

The is a coaxial phone/cable jack right net to my desk though. Is there any way I can utilize that to get a good wired connection?

 

[ImTheRealVortex]

Hi, i would personally say move your router. But as you roomates are not keen on the idea i'd say your best shot is the powerline ethernet or get a really long ethernet cable.

 

[reedo_43]

More than likely no. Not sure why you had trouble with the power line adapters. I have had good luck with wireless range extenders. Belkin make a good one as well as Netgear. Put in between the router and your room.

 

[Rogue Leader]

More than likely no. Not sure why you had trouble with the power line adapters. I have had good luck with wireless range extenders. Belkin make a good one as well as Netgear. Put in between the router and your room.

I agree with this, and no a phone jack is of no use to you.

 

[Reverencium]

More than likely no. Not sure why you had trouble with the power line adapters. I have had good luck with wireless range extenders. Belkin make a good one as well as Netgear. Put in between the router and your room.

I'm not sure what the issue was either. They were just unreliable, they'd randomly work for a random half hour a day and for the rest they'd just say "unidentified network, no intenet connection." I swear I googled and tried every solution I could online, but nothing seemed to work for me.

 

[reedo_43]

Just name the ssd of the range extender to something that you know you are connecting to it and not you router and you should be good to go.

 

[boosted1g]

More than likely no. Not sure why you had trouble with the power line adapters. I have had good luck with wireless range extenders. Belkin make a good one as well as Netgear. Put in between the router and your room.

I agree with this, and no a phone jack is of no use to you.

Not necessarily true.
Most modern buildings use cat5 instead of phone wire because it is cheaper. Now getting the landlord to be ok with disconnecting the cable from the phone patch point would be difficult.

 

[boosted1g]

If the powerline adapter was an older model, they have made large strides since then and are much more reliable.

Now if you used newer adapters and they did not work well (and you had them plugged direct to a wall outlet and not through any sort of surge protector or power strip/splitter) then you must just have too many motors and ac/dc converters between the line and it caused too much interference.

Instead of using a repeater that has to split the bandwidth in half get a uqbiquti nanostation in your room, and set it up to access the wifi. You can then plug it via Ethernet into your PC to receive internet. This will have farther range then a normal router and will have much better performance over a range extender. http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NanoStation-locoM2-2-4GHz-Outdoor/dp/B004EGI3CI/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437762593&sr=1-1&keywords=ubiquiti+nanostation

 

[bill001g]

If you have coax you can look at using MoCA adapters. You will need one near the router also, if you have a cable modem you need to follow the instructions for inserting both the moca and the cable modem into the coax

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

yep you wouldn't technically even need to remove the cable from the patch. phone lines use 4 wires for 2 lines. Ethernet only requires 4. cat 5 has 8 wires total. you should just need to bridge the 4 unused pairs to another set. But of course getting access to the patch panel is the hard part.

If you tried really hard is there no way to just run an Ethernet cord from the router to your room? You said you lived in a apartment which usually have 1 level. It usually isn't hard to drill small holes through dry wall and repair them later.

 

[Rogue Leader]

More than likely no. Not sure why you had trouble with the power line adapters. I have had good luck with wireless range extenders. Belkin make a good one as well as Netgear. Put in between the router and your room.

I agree with this, and no a phone jack is of no use to you.

Not necessarily true.
Most modern buildings use cat5 instead of phone wire because it is cheaper. Now getting the landlord to be ok with disconnecting the cable from the phone patch point would be difficult.

Except that it sounds like he lives in an apartment in a house, and probably not a brand new house, so the chances of it being cat 5 are extremely doubtful.

 

[Solandri]

yep you wouldn't technically even need to remove the cable from the patch. phone lines use 4 wires for 2 lines. Ethernet only requires 4. cat 5 has 8 wires total. you should just need to bridge the 4 unused pairs to another set. But of course getting access to the patch panel is the hard part.

If the phone line is Cat 3, it's not going to work (I've tried it before). If it's Cat 5, he still needs to do some re-wiring. RJ11 is set up with the middle two leads as one pair, and the outer two as another pair (that's why Ethernet has the same configuration for the middle 4 leads - so in a pinch you can plug an RJ11 into it and use it for phone service). To get ethernet working with two pairs, you need to hook the wires up to 1, 2, and 3, 6.

If his room and the router room have phone outlets with the same phone number, there is a solution. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive so a wifi repeater, powerline, MOCA, or running an ethernet cable are all preferable. But if none of those work and you're willing to pay about $250, you can get a pair of VDSL2 modems.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833114137

Hotels and apartments use these to add ethernet to their rooms over the existing phone line. It basically runs a type of DSL over Cat 3 phone line. One unit acts like your regular DSL modem the phone company gives you, the other acts like the DSLAM in the phone company's office. Except instead of running DSL from the phone company to your house, you run it from one room to another within your house. It's done at frequencies outside the normal voice phone range, so you will need the DSL filters on all other phone outlets sharing the same line.

 

[Reverencium]

yep you wouldn't technically even need to remove the cable from the patch. phone lines use 4 wires for 2 lines. Ethernet only requires 4. cat 5 has 8 wires total. you should just need to bridge the 4 unused pairs to another set. But of course getting access to the patch panel is the hard part.

If you tried really hard is there no way to just run an Ethernet cord from the router to your room? You said you lived in a apartment which usually have 1 level. It usually isn't hard to drill small holes through dry wall and repair them later.

It's more of a 3 story townhome... I'd need to run it through the living room, up the stairs, through a short hall, and into my bedroom. I don't think the roomates would be pleased with that either.

 

[Reverencium]

yep you wouldn't technically even need to remove the cable from the patch. phone lines use 4 wires for 2 lines. Ethernet only requires 4. cat 5 has 8 wires total. you should just need to bridge the 4 unused pairs to another set. But of course getting access to the patch panel is the hard part.

If the phone line is Cat 3, it's not going to work (I've tried it before). If it's Cat 5, he still needs to do some re-wiring. RJ11 is set up with the middle two leads as one pair, and the outer two as another pair (that's why Ethernet has the same configuration for the middle 4 leads - so in a pinch you can plug an RJ11 into it and use it for phone service). To get ethernet working with two pairs, you need to hook the wires up to 1, 2, and 3, 6.

If his room and the router room have phone outlets with the same phone number, there is a solution. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive so a wifi repeater, powerline, MOCA, or running an ethernet cable are all preferable. But if none of those work and you're willing to pay about $250, you can get a pair of VDSL2 modems.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833114137

Hotels and apartments use these to add ethernet to their rooms over the existing phone line. It basically runs a type of DSL over Cat 3 phone line. One unit acts like your regular DSL modem the phone company gives you, the other acts like the DSLAM in the phone company's office. Except instead of running DSL from the phone company to your house, you run it from one room to another within your house. It's done at frequencies outside the normal voice phone range, so you will need the DSL filters on all other phone outlets sharing the same line.

Yeesh, a bit out of my price range. It does seem like the best solution though, so I'll pick it even if I can't utilize it. Thanks!

 

[reedo_43]

I am going to have to agree with boosted1g on this one. The nano station would be better than a range extender which I suggested. They are newer tech period. I have not used one but have seen them on youtube. (Linus Tech tips). They are cheaper than I thought.

 

[Urumiko]

Your room mates dont sound very nice =(, I think id get a 2nd phone line...
I think id perservere with powerline ensureing you are not running through a surge protector. If you cant get ti to work try a socket in the hall.. if this works you can run a cable the remaining distance, or use a powerline wifi range extender.