Questions re: home network improvement- Ethernet over RJ11 phoneline?

[stubmle]

Hello all, I have a few issues I would appreciate your input on. First, some background: I recently moved into a new apartment. Because the building is quite old, it is not wired for network use- there is a single coax cable in the NW corner. My computer is, by necessity, located in the SE corner, about 100 feet away and behind several doors and walls. My connection speed and quality over WLAN is decidedly less than optimal. It sucks, actually. I have done what I can already- the router is high up, I have fiddled with channels & frequencies to avoid interference, etc. It hasn't done much to help. How can I improve my connection without breaking the bank? I would like to go to a wired connection, but I do not have access to the plenum space, and I doubt my landlord would go for it. I can't run cable along walls, ceilings, or floors- the girlfriend won't allow it. Wifi extenders would probably not help- the issue seems to be signal strength & quality, not range, & I want to avoid increasing latency.

I have come up with a few ideas on my own:
1: Buy a better router and/or modem. Probably the easiest route, but it could get expensive & might not do much to help.
2: Powerline bridges, either wireless or Ethernet. Easy, and possibly cheaper than a new router, but I have serious doubts about the quality & safety of the electrical wiring in this place- it's old and poorly designed. We trip a circuit breaker multiple times a day already.
3: Phoneline Ethernet bridge. Not easy, but possibly cheapest & most reliable. The whole place is wired for phone- there's a port in every room- but I am not sure what I am getting into here, and this particular practice seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years. Most of the hardware I can find on line is 10+ years old, and I'm not sure drivers designed for Win2000 will play nice with Win10.

What is your advice to me in this situation?

TL;DR: Can you help me improve my crummy home network?

 

[bill001g]

powerline is likely you best option, the newest version av600/1200, tolerate much poorer quality wire.

There are some strange ethenet extenders that are a form of private dsl that can run on phone lines but they are kinda expensive for the speeds you get. There is not a lot of information and they are kinda hard to find.

It is unlikely you get the phone wires to work directly as ethernet. First you must have the proper wire. That old red/green/black/yellow has no chance. Next even if you had some form of data cable..ie cable that has pairs you would likely have to disconnect all the jacks in the house and try to build a 2 pair of wires that go between the rooms. It tends to be hard because telephones were daisy changed from jack to jack and sometimes multiple jacks run from splices in other jacks. You might get lucky and get something to work.

I suspect the most viable route is to find a way to convince the girl friend you can do a good job of hiding the wire. Many times you can get it under base boards or pry off trim and run the wire in the space behind it.