Revamping my network?

[EnragedThunder]

I am looking to make my home network better. I want to try hard wiring one or two of the rooms in my house. Can I do it? How much would it cost? What would I need?

Right now I have a regular setup. Router and Modem from Zyxel provide wireless internet throughout my home. I have a desktop and game console upstairs, two laptops downstairs and a tv in my family room. A 50FT CAT5E ethernet cable runs around the base of the walls up into my room with the PC.

The TV cable comes from outside, into my basement, up through the floor, and on cable goes to the modem and the other goes to my TV in the family room. Could I wire my upstairs bedroom with ethernet and tv?

I can provide any other info necessary.

 

[cowboydude99]

Hi,
I'm not really sure what you're asking.

Sounds like you want to run Ethernet wire from some devices to your modem. What is stopping you?

I recently wired my living room. This involved me cutting drywall, drilling through beams, and running Cat6 cabling. I ran some others as well- speaker, hdmi, and coax.

Are you looking to run cables in your walls, or just through your floors? Can you provide some more detail?

 

[Warukyure]

First off, is your family room in the basement with the laptops or is it on the ground floor and the Desktop+Game Console on an upper floor? Also in the family room do you have a Smart TV or anything else that may need internet or is it mostly wireless devices in that room?

The way I would go about it would be put the router in the basement with the modem then run a wire through the floors in the walls to the upper floor and then plug that into a switch so you can wire both the console and the desktop in. (Even though most consoles now have built-in Wireless, wired connections are always better.) I would say you're looking at roughly maybe a 100 ft Ethernet cable and a switch. Probably gonna cost you $20 for the cable, $20 for the switch ($40 if you want a gigabit switch), and a Saturday.

 

[cowboydude99]

I'm not sure if you're in the US or not, but here we have a lot of wiring ratings for in wall use.

I know in my county we must use specific cables otherwise insurance company may not pay out fire damages... Just a thought.

 

[EnragedThunder]

Hi,
I'm not really sure what you're asking.

Sounds like you want to run Ethernet wire from some devices to your modem. What is stopping you?

I recently wired my living room. This involved me cutting drywall, drilling through beams, and running Cat6 cabling. I ran some others as well- speaker, hdmi, and coax.

Are you looking to run cables in your walls, or just through your floors? Can you provide some more detail?

I am not sure how to go about doing it. What I need how do I do it? I want to get ethernet upstairs and in the basement.

 

[EnragedThunder]

First off, is your family room in the basement with the laptops or is it on the ground floor and the Desktop+Game Console on an upper floor? Also in the family room do you have a Smart TV or anything else that may need internet or is it mostly wireless devices in that room?

The way I would go about it would be put the router in the basement with the modem then run a wire through the floors in the walls to the upper floor and then plug that into a switch so you can wire both the console and the desktop in. (Even though most consoles now have built-in Wireless, wired connections are always better.) I would say you're looking at roughly maybe a 100 ft Ethernet cable and a switch. Probably gonna cost you $20 for the cable, $20 for the switch ($40 if you want a gigabit switch), and a Saturday.

I have three floors. Basement (Not 100% finished), main floor (has standard TV and two laptops, and top floor (desktop and game console). I think your idea is reasonable, but how would I run the cable through the wall without making it look bad.

 

[EnragedThunder]

I'm not sure if you're in the US or not, but here we have a lot of wiring ratings for in wall use.

I know in my county we must use specific cables otherwise insurance company may not pay out fire damages... Just a thought.

I am in the US. No cable restrictions as far as I know

 

[cowboydude99]

I see.

There are two ways you can do that. Run pre-made (store bought) Ethernet cable that already have the RJ45 connectors attached (heads) or you can run Ethernet cable and then use a crimper to attach to a wall jack.

I used RJ-45 Keystones (look on Amazon). Keystones fit into a keystone wall plate.
Then from the wall plate you could run another network cable to a switch. From the switch plug in your devices.

You don't NEED keystones. You can simply buy 100' or whatever size cable you need from Radio Shack/Best Buy or whatever store is near you.


Cable Line into home: Connects to Modem.
From the modem there is an Ethernet cord. Plug this cord into a Network Switch. From this switch get more network/Ethernet cable and run from this switch to each device. One to your TV, one to your other devices.

You can also use Coax splitters to split the signal to your upstairs TV. Each TV will need a set top box though.

I hope that helps.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi,
I'm not really sure what you're asking.

Sounds like you want to run Ethernet wire from some devices to your modem. What is stopping you?

I recently wired my living room. This involved me cutting drywall, drilling through beams, and running Cat6 cabling. I ran some others as well- speaker, hdmi, and coax.

Are you looking to run cables in your walls, or just through your floors? Can you provide some more detail?

I am not sure how to go about doing it. What I need how do I do it? I want to get ethernet upstairs and in the basement.

You have a couple of options.

1. Run ethernet from wherever the router is to whatever rooms you want it in. This involves drywall repair, paint, fish tape, possibly Cat5e cable termination, lots and lots of testing.
And LOTS of prep and investigation first.
or
2. Powerline solutions. This depends a lot on the condition of the house wiring.

What is your ISP plan, and what type of service is it? Cable, FiOS, etc...

 

[Warukyure]

What you'll have to do is you're gonna need to cut a square/rectangle in your drywall, roughly 6 inches wide and depending on you maybe about a foot high. You'll need to be able to drill through the floor which unless you want a hole on your floor, is better to do it in the walls. Now the reason you make the hole so tall is because it allows you to use an Ethernet Wall Jack plate (Looks like a power outlet but with Ethernet) and it looks better once its all done. Now go down to your main floor and do this again. To make it look better, have two different cables, one from upstairs and another for the family room, have them run cable to the basement and easily hook up to the router/modem. Make sure you use longer cables then necessary because once you develop that basement, the cables will be in the ceiling of the basement in case you need to move them around. Also while you're doing this you can also try to run extra cable tv cable through those same holes.

Whatever you do, don't use duct tape to fix things. and lastly in Canada we have a patron saint to handymen and he says

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."