What's the best home network setup for two floors?

[blacklabel8829]

I am a couple months away from buying all the parts for my first PC build and have been thinking about what is going to be best when it comes to my home network setup. I live in a 2/2 townhouse.

My current setup is as follows:

Downstairs - Modem and Cisco/Linksys Wireless Router located in entertainment center, PS3 and 360 both direct connected to router.

Upstairs - Where my office and new PC build will be going. Currently get about 1/2-3/4 wireless signal on laptops/phones/tablets when upstairs

Any thoughts when it comes to the connectivity of my new build? I am worried about the half-assed signal being an issue. Should I move my modem upstairs and run my gaming consoles off wireless, or throw a wireless card in my build?

I know there is also the new Powerline option, but with this townhouse being built in the 60s/70s I wonder if it is worth the trouble of even trying it.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[RealBeast]

Powerline is often quite slow. The best solution would be to run one CAT5e or CAT6 cable up to the upstairs and buy a cheap router and configure it as a wireless AP. If you just cannot run a cable and you have coaxial cable in the walls you can consider MOCA.

 

[blacklabel8829]

Sorry, I sholuld have mentioned before that I am renting.

If I owned the place I would definitely just run cables myself, drilling as needed.
I am also not sure MoCA would work either as my modem is hooked to the cable downstairs.

I've also thought about a range extender or repeater. But, having only laptops for the longest time I am not sure how having my desktop on wireless would effect speeds (especially if/when gaming).

 

[RealBeast]

It doesn't matter if your cable modem attachment is downstairs. All that matters is that you have cable in both the rooms where you want to begin and end the connection, and all of your splitters are high frequency (2GHz, rather than the low 900MHz). If your cable works for your TVs, it can do double duty. It works well with most cable companies and some device (like the newer TIVO units) have built in MOCA. All signal amplifiers in the Internet signal path need to be MOCA compliant so the signal can go back to the router.

A wireless extender/repeater is probably not as good as even powerline, as it relies on the signal you have and reduces the bandwidth. With wireless, any gaming off wireless on a different floor will be problematic.

 

[blacklabel8829]

Best answer selected by blacklabel8829.

 

[vince2611]

Wheres the +1 or the like button when you need one... "like" Realbeast answer

 

[RealBeast]

Thanks Vince.

There is one other option that I didn't mention because of the cost (about $380). A pair of ASUS RT-AC66U (one in AP mode at your current router and one in media bridge mode) at the destination using the 80MHz channel would give excellent results but is still very expensive and you would have to use them separate from your existing wireless network since they would not support legacy devices in the 80MHz channel mode.