Need help with using ethernet outlet in home

[Chibified]

Hi,

I recently purchased a new router (NETGEAR Nighthawk) and modem (ARRIS Surfboard), upgrading from my previous xfinity wireless gateway (modem with router capabilities). I have decided to place my router and modem in the living room in my house, so the Wi-Fi is accessible on all levels - including the second floor and basement. I want to hook up my desktop, located in the office on the first floor, to my router (also on the first floor - it's about 30-40 feet away from the office) via Ethernet.

I have already successfully setup the coaxial outlets for both my office and living room. The cable box (with all the coaxial cables and ethernet cables) is in the basement though, so I'm not sure on how to approach this.

I have a really old NETGEAR router, and I attempted to hook up my desktop - this is the procedure, but I don't think it's working because I'm only getting 50mbps compared to the 150+ I should be getting (I think it's the old router):

1. Connect ethernet cable to new router and wall outlet in living room (same wall outlet the modem is connected to via coax)

2. Connect living room ethernet cable found in cable box to the old router's ethernet/internet port (it's yellow)

3. Connect office ethernet cable found in cable box to old router's ethernet port (not yellow)

I need some guidance on how to do this - I'm pretty sure I did this completely wrong. My router and modem were originally both in my office hooked up to my desktop but the Wi-Fi was really terrible in the basement.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Nafryti]

are you talking old as in 802.11g old? cuz 50Mbps is pretty good, seeing as how you can only get 54Mbps off of Wireless G.

if you're wired into it and only getting 50Mbps, THEN you're allowed to panic. That would clearly show an issue with something somewhere... and well... i wrote a ton about this already in another post, so i'll try to summarize...
-Cables (coax) that are older cannot carry the signal well enough, have ISP check the lines from the pole to your house, and from the house junction box to the modem, ask them to minimize the amount of "Barrels" and splitters, and to only use "Attenuators" if absolutely necessary. Old cable is very bad, and you should only be using RG8 or higher grade cable for higher end internet speeds.
-Modems: Motorola, once a great company now bought out by Arris a notoriously fail happy hardware company, has become the new standard, and i highly recommend you stick with the ISP standalone modem, NOT the modem/router converged deal... those are absolute junk. Use a decent Modem that is Provided by the ISP as since if there is anything wrong with it, as in, it begins to fail, they can just replace it. Whether or not you bought it, it will fail at an unpredictable time, it could fail tomorrow, it could fail in 10 years, you never know.
-Routers: These come in MANY shapes, sizes, and qualities. pretty much right off the bat you should spit at the idea of Belkin routers, as they are no better than trying to get a paper weight to cook pancakes with a lawn mower powered by pepto bismol... back on topic... the hierarchy i have noticed with routers, especially since Cisco took over Linksys, is as such: coming in as "user friendly" is and has been Netgear, then you have the more advanced user's Linksys, and the top dog ASUS routers... however, personal mileage depends on your usage vs router type chosen... if you get a low end cheap Netgear and expect to host game servers WHILE streaming gameplay and watching netflix at the same time, you're going to fry that router... if you buy an overkill router ($200+) and you only use it for Email and the occasional sip of tea on Facebook... well that's just a waste of power.
-Ethernet Cables: CAT5e is the cheapy cable... its given out everywhere and its effective speed is 100Mbps. CAT6 is quickly becoming the norm for home networks, granting a native 1Gbps capability over a long distance and 10Gbps over i think 12feet, pretty epic honestly!

With WiFi, well... i'll just refer to the post i made about that earlier...
"Revisions aside, one must also consider, geographical interference, WiFi signals are more prone to reflect off of surfaces than they are to penetrate them, this is more common using the 5Ghz band than with 2.4Ghz but still a susceptibility. WiFi is almost outright killed if it has to go through any kind of masonry, and forget it on metal.
Another factor to look into is what you have going on in the house, what is commonly overlooked with WiFi setups are the EFI and EMI signal pollution. A microwave can act like a signal jammer when in use, a fridge compressor can hinder signal quality, electric stove tops can reduce signal purity, as well as CCFL kitchen lights (the long tube style lights) those can disrupt WiFi signals as well as their transformers...
One factor that is rarely ever thought of is the neighborhood signal pollution, if you live in an apartment complex that offers free WiFi that will be a signal to contend with when trying to get your signal, if you have cellular devices in regular usage around you, another signal pollution..."

 

[nigelivey]

"CAT5e is the cheapy cable... its given out everywhere and its effective speed is 100Mbps"

Well thats just wrong, Cat5e is rated at 1Gbps over distances up to 100m.

 

[Nafryti]

CAT6: When used for 10/100/1000BASE-T, the maximum allowed length of a Cat 6 cable is up to 100 meters
CAT5e: The maximum length for a cable segment is 100 meters, the use of active hardware such as a repeater or switch is necessary

I dislike these revisions that mean nothing... especially when it says they can go the same length... however, though true it can do 1Gbps, my statement is still true, its effective rate is 100mbps, it is highly susceptible to crosstalk, and external interference. capable speeds mean nothing across them all, effective speeds is what i pointed out.

I do appreciate the point you are making, though it doesn't really fall in with what i said.

 

[nigelivey]

We'll agree to disagree I think. I have enough experience in the field to know that up to 100m isn't an issue for Gig speeds on Cat5e and I would also say it's not "highly susceptible to crosstalk, and external interference". Like I said we can agree to disagree.

 

[bill001g]

Too many people are lead astray by marketing people. Cat6 cable was invented when they were arguing about if they should use 2 pair or 4 pair of wire. Cat6 cable supports 1g over 2 pair but only a tiny handful of cisco devices even supported it. The rest of the industry went with the 4 pair solution and cat5e cable.

After that the cable manufactures of cat6 cable started the overload of random fact campaign to sell a dead product. They love to quote number that make no difference. People that do not have a strong engineering background thing bigger is better so it must be better cable because look at all these bigger numbers.

It really doesn't matter if the crosstalk or mhz is better this is all controlled by the ports. It is like saying you put a bigger engine in your car and it can now run at 100 miles per hour but the speed limit is still 20 miles per hour. As long as the cable meet the EIA/TIA ratings for 1g ports it will run 1g. It does not run any different just because it exceeds the ratings.

Anyone who has installed cable knows this is true. They have seen the reports generated by the fluke meters and see that cross talk and external interference are a myth propagated by the marketing guys.

Now if you can get cat6 cable cheaper than cat5e then that is more a reason to buy it than anything else.

 

[Chibified]

are you talking old as in 802.11g old? cuz 50Mbps is pretty good, seeing as how you can only get 54Mbps off of Wireless G.

if you're wired into it and only getting 50Mbps, THEN you're allowed to panic. That would clearly show an issue with something somewhere... and well... i wrote a ton about this already in another post, so i'll try to summarize...
-Cables (coax) that are older cannot carry the signal well enough, have ISP check the lines from the pole to your house, and from the house junction box to the modem, ask them to minimize the amount of "Barrels" and splitters, and to only use "Attenuators" if absolutely necessary. Old cable is very bad, and you should only be using RG8 or higher grade cable for higher end internet speeds.
-Modems: Motorola, once a great company now bought out by Arris a notoriously fail happy hardware company, has become the new standard, and i highly recommend you stick with the ISP standalone modem, NOT the modem/router converged deal... those are absolute junk. Use a decent Modem that is Provided by the ISP as since if there is anything wrong with it, as in, it begins to fail, they can just replace it. Whether or not you bought it, it will fail at an unpredictable time, it could fail tomorrow, it could fail in 10 years, you never know.
-Routers: These come in MANY shapes, sizes, and qualities. pretty much right off the bat you should spit at the idea of Belkin routers, as they are no better than trying to get a paper weight to cook pancakes with a lawn mower powered by pepto bismol... back on topic... the hierarchy i have noticed with routers, especially since Cisco took over Linksys, is as such: coming in as "user friendly" is and has been Netgear, then you have the more advanced user's Linksys, and the top dog ASUS routers... however, personal mileage depends on your usage vs router type chosen... if you get a low end cheap Netgear and expect to host game servers WHILE streaming gameplay and watching netflix at the same time, you're going to fry that router... if you buy an overkill router ($200+) and you only use it for Email and the occasional sip of tea on Facebook... well that's just a waste of power.
-Ethernet Cables: CAT5e is the cheapy cable... its given out everywhere and its effective speed is 100Mbps. CAT6 is quickly becoming the norm for home networks, granting a native 1Gbps capability over a long distance and 10Gbps over i think 12feet, pretty epic honestly!

With WiFi, well... i'll just refer to the post i made about that earlier...
"Revisions aside, one must also consider, geographical interference, WiFi signals are more prone to reflect off of surfaces than they are to penetrate them, this is more common using the 5Ghz band than with 2.4Ghz but still a susceptibility. WiFi is almost outright killed if it has to go through any kind of masonry, and forget it on metal.
Another factor to look into is what you have going on in the house, what is commonly overlooked with WiFi setups are the EFI and EMI signal pollution. A microwave can act like a signal jammer when in use, a fridge compressor can hinder signal quality, electric stove tops can reduce signal purity, as well as CCFL kitchen lights (the long tube style lights) those can disrupt WiFi signals as well as their transformers...
One factor that is rarely ever thought of is the neighborhood signal pollution, if you live in an apartment complex that offers free WiFi that will be a signal to contend with when trying to get your signal, if you have cellular devices in regular usage around you, another signal pollution..."

Sorry, but this honestly doesn't really help with my current problem. I'm just trying to find out how I can connect my desktop to my new router using the Ethernet outlets in my walls.

 

[bill001g]

I see this thread got side tracked but your cabling description is unclear. I am going to assume you have ethernet cable in the wall connecting the rooms or maybe they all go to the basement room.

In any case my attempt at how it should be connected.

coax from ISP---modem/router in basement-----in house ethernet cables---- AP in living room----other devices cabled to the AP.

You want to run your second router as a AP. It might have a AP function but you can just hook to the LAN ports ignoring the wan ports. You must also disable the DHCP and set the LAN IP to not conflict.


Mostly this is going to depend on how the ethernet cables run in your house.

Now worst case you can use the coax cables to connect between your devices. This is called MoCA but it tends to be kinda expensive and I would not recommend it until you try your ethernet options.

 

[Nafryti]

I see this thread got side tracked but your cabling description is unclear. I am going to assume you have ethernet cable in the wall connecting the rooms or maybe they all go to the basement room.

In any case my attempt at how it should be connected.

coax from ISP---modem/router in basement-----in house ethernet cables---- AP in living room----other devices cabled to the AP.

You want to run your second router as a AP. It might have a AP function but you can just hook to the LAN ports ignoring the wan ports. You must also disable the DHCP and set the LAN IP to not conflict.


Mostly this is going to depend on how the ethernet cables run in your house.

Now worst case you can use the coax cables to connect between your devices. This is called MoCA but it tends to be kinda expensive and I would not recommend it until you try your ethernet options.

This is a good way to extend your network WiFi and ports without spending a lot of money, also, don't forget to disable the DNS Relay in the converted Router, that can cause a major headache. What you're doing is configuring one router as the primary server for all things requested when you disable these features on the secondary routers.

Looking like this in settings... additional features like firewall etc can be turned off as well, but aren't as critical as these two features.

 

[Nafryti]

Sorry, but this honestly doesn't really help with my current problem. I'm just trying to find out how I can connect my desktop to my new router using the Ethernet outlets in my walls.

Apologies...
It shouldn't be anything more than "Modem to WAN" then "connect LAN 1 to WALL PORT 1a" then "from WALL PORT 1b to computer"

I know that is a picture of a switch, but it is a clearer pic of the lan ports out of the rest of the pics that google showed. Entertainingly enough it showed that as a switch, i don't know who in their right mind would expect a switch to do all the work of a router, but okie dokie lol...

I hope this helps, this is how it should be to work right, i've setup wired walls before and they are fairly simple, you just gotta find the right port for the wall port. I even used it to patch from one side of a house to the other by just connecting a patch cable between the two ports at the "port room" to basically make a dedicated connection from one room to the other.