[sampson]

You haven't considered drilling through the floor just to be done with it once and for all?

I dunno...


1) Original hardwoods from 1950 that I'd prefer not to put a hole in.

2) It wouldn't even get me into the right room in the basement. I'd have to either run it around the ceiling (which includes around doors or around the basement carpet (again around doors).

[noggin]

If you are in the US - have you looked at MoCa? Assuming you have a coax feed to your TV you could use that to carry network connectivity.

[nooryani84]

Hmn, I see. Worth looking into, maybe you could get some free advice from a professional? Whether you get a new PC or not, hard wired network connection will dramatically improve your setup.

[deaded]

Sampson,
Have you thought about moving?

[bigjess007]

Personal opinion here, but I am growing more and more against wireless over wired and I think as we need more and more bandwith, wireless can't / won't keep up. Even with the newer technologies, if you're in a very dense area, you're going to have problems cause ultimately all the bandwith is shared. Yes they are coming up with newer methods of frequency sharing and having routers "talk" to each other to negotiate sharing the spectrum locally, but we aren't there yet. So the guy with the 'loudest' radio wins. Even with 5ghz having more room but less penetration people are using custom firmware to jump up the power output on that frequency which screws up everyone around them. Forget good wireless in an apartment building with everyone having a consumer device. Colleges are a key example, tons of users in a small setting, and they are investing serious bucks to serve wireless to all those folks. And even then it ain't that fast. That's why all new dorms went back to having in room ethernet jacks. So unless you want to spend serious money at home for even "prosumer" stuff, ethernet really is the way.

Technology here has also been a game changer in this field. With borescopes and long flexible cameras so cheap now, you'd be amazed at how skilled operators can fish wires. I've done alot of my own fishing over the years and it's amazing how fast you can go when you can snake a camera. It can be done, and honestly, you can do it yourself. There's always a path. Yes it may require a little work, pulling a baseboard or doing some spackling, but if you're hard wired your problems instantly resolve. And you only have to do it once versus intermittently chasing poor wireless connectivity that by the sounds of it already has you frustrated.

You should be able to get away with it with a long drill flexible 5' drill bit with a pull tip, a flexible usb camera and some planning. Basement ceilings have to have joists above to get in to. Run along them to a wall. You may have to go up over down around to get where you're going but it can always be done with alot of patience. If you're good with the drill bit you can do it with small holes that you can spackle shut.

Also check out these guys. They make some slick stuff. http://www.lsdinc.com/

[deaded]

... of course if you can't or don't want to drill holes in your house (or you are renting and it's not YOUR house) then that's just not an option. It's off the table. And so we move forward...

[nooryani84]

Personal opinion here, but I am growing more and more against wireless over wired and I think as we need more and more bandwith, wireless can't / won't keep up. Even with the newer technologies, if you're in a very dense area, you're going to have problems cause ultimately all the bandwith is shared. Yes they are coming up with newer methods of frequency sharing and having routers "talk" to each other to negotiate sharing the spectrum locally, but we aren't there yet. So the guy with the 'loudest' radio wins. Even with 5ghz having more room but less penetration people are using custom firmware to jump up the power output on that frequency which screws up everyone around them. Forget good wireless in an apartment building with everyone having a consumer device.

This is a valid point and for the most part I agree; wireless is a "best-effort" technology that's becoming increasingly crowded, depending on your environment and where you live. I've read about paint that blocks wireless signals, though I suspect this isn't cheap. Perhaps this or something similar will become available and affordable within the next 5-10 years, though for the time being I will run a wired connection for all my stationary PCs and wireless for mobile devices. It's interesting and you can read up on it here http://www.tomsguide.com/us/WiFi-Securit...-3363.html

Another alternative may be to run the wire along the same path as old phone wiring or other coax paths. If that isn't an option I would talk to an electrician about your options, because a wired connection will save you a lot of headaches for years down the road.

Edit: If you have to use wireless, then I would recommend setting up an external antenna or an access point that can broadcast the signal. Like this http://www.tp-link.us/products/details/c...2408C.html or one of these http://www.tp-link.us/products/list-10.html

I know there are better brands/products, I'm just using TP-LINK as an example.

[sampson]

So I've opened up a bit and been doing some reading about hiding wires and I think I've opted for a solution that's doable.

I don't like the idea of cutting holes in my original 60 yr old wood floors, so I'm going with a plan where I'll cut about a 1 foot tall hole in the corner of my office wall that'll be large enough to insert a drill, then drill down through the joists, and ultimately (and hopefully) drop Cat6a down to the basement. I'll be taking the baseboards off and behind it, cutting into the wood wall (again, old house with wood walls, not drywall). I'll make holes in each stud about 1/3" in size and run horizontally allllll the way around to the TV/media area where it will go up about a foot. At that point I'll be putting in a jack. I'll also be wiring up/putting in 2 jacks while I'm at it, so just in case I ever need another it's already there. So long story short, I will have 2 Cat6 wall jacks in the office, Cat6a riser cable inside the wall down to the basement where it will end at 2 other Cat6 wall jacks. I'll then use standard Cat6 stranded cable for everything else.

[nooryani84]

Sounds fantastic! It would be great if you can post pictures of the process with before and after. You may not need to buy any new hardware after this

[bigjess007]

So I've opened up a bit and been doing some reading about hiding wires and I think I've opted for a solution that's doable.

I don't like the idea of cutting holes in my original 60 yr old wood floors, so I'm going with a plan where I'll cut about a 1 foot tall hole in the corner of my office wall that'll be large enough to insert a drill, then drill down through the joists, and ultimately (and hopefully) drop Cat6a down to the basement. I'll be taking the baseboards off and behind it, cutting into the wood wall (again, old house with wood walls, not drywall). I'll make holes in each stud about 1/3" in size and run horizontally allllll the way around to the TV/media area where it will go up about a foot. At that point I'll be putting in a jack. I'll also be wiring up/putting in 2 jacks while I'm at it, so just in case I ever need another it's already there. So long story short, I will have 2 Cat6 wall jacks in the office, Cat6a riser cable inside the wall down to the basement where it will end at 2 other Cat6 wall jacks. I'll then use standard Cat6 stranded cable for everything else.

You don't need to cut that big of a hole in the office wall to get the whole drill in. Get this. Then cut out a old work box type hole, which will be big enough to get your bit in to get down through the floor plate, and then you can finish it with a wall plate and ethernet jack and no one's the wiser. Get one of these so you can see where your drilling or a mirror too but these cheap boroscopes are unbelievably helpful anymore. And a flexible push/pull rod set will help get the camera in to where you need to see so you can also help get the bit in the right place and then ofcourse fish your wiring through.

Flex bit and camera will help you not have to drill so many holes in the wood wall (paneling I'm guessing). To go horizontal, pull the baseboard, and again, flexbit. Drill the first hole, through the paneling, and then angle it and keep boring through the studs for as long as you bit goes. Snake the camera in as you go through each stud to see what's in the next stud bay so you don't bore blindly through plumbing, etc. If you do have to cut the paneling where you will see it, cut a square (try sharp utility blades and alot of patience) in the grooves between the planks at the very bottom, save that piece, and with some wood putty, paint, glue, and patience you can put it back and no one will know you're there. Stay away from cutting at any knots.

Hardwiring will make all your problems vanish. Ya, you've got some work cut out for you, but you can do it. And it'll be worth it to loose the wireless headaches that can absolutely drive you nutz.

[sampson]

Sounds fantastic! It would be great if you can post pictures of the process with before and after. You may not need to buy any new hardware after this

Done.

(Sorry for the long post)

If you recall, my initial plan was to remove the baseboards and wall behind them and run the wiring inside the wall, boring through the studs. Then the obvious occurred to me: I have a doorway in the way. I needed a new plan. I went back to the drawing board and settled on a plan that worked out perfectly.

I already had most of the supplies I needed, but I purchased 250ft of Cat6a cable on Monoprice for $35. It was cheaper to order it that way than to order the individual pieces I needed. plus, this would give me some versatility if I changed my mind or ran into any problems. I bought the Cat6 connectors and wall plates at Lowes for around $30. The plastic molding/conduit type stuff was the most expensive thing at around $10 per 5 ft section.

Before I even got started I ran into a problem. The walls weren't aligned right on top of each other in the upstairs office and the downstairs basement. After doing quite a bit of measuring, calculations and sketching, I was able to drill a 1/8" test hole in the office floor (out of sight, under the printer stand) and hit inside the basement wall perfectly. I then opened that hole up with a 3/8" bit.








My initial thought was to just run one cable to wire up the PC. This quickly turned to, "well if I'm going to run one I might as well run two". It ultimately ended up as "If I'm going to run two I might as well run three." I did some more measuring and cut three 60' lengths of cable that I would run. I put a 3/8" hole in the very bottom of the basement wall and used my fish tape and some fine wire to pull it through. I started running the cable inside the plastic molding and sticking it to the wall. This went very quickly once I got the hang of it. My doors go right to the ceiling so I needed to remove the top molding and cut it with a table saw to re-fit.














Once I had it all the way behind the TV area, I cut another 3/8" hole and put the cables into the wall, up 1 ft, and out to the box. Then came terminating all three cables to Cat6 jacks on both ends. Then testing to ensure everything worked and label each one.








Looks pretty simple but it was a full weekend job. PC that was getting 1-2 Mbps over wifi is now getting full speed 120 Mbps.

Thanks guys!

[nooryani84]

Don't thank us, you put in the work! Looks great How well is your old HTPC performing now that it has a wired connection?

[sampson]

Don't thank us, you put in the work! Looks great How well is your old HTPC performing now that it has a wired connection?

About 120 Mbps. Same as my desktop in the office. Everything is a "go" for the gigabit network in the coming weeks or months.

[jmh2002]

That result should make all the work worthwhile

[nooryani84]

Once you go gigabit... you'll never be able to look at fast ethernet/100mbit the same again. I was thinking more along the lines of how well your HTPC plays back movies in Kodi tho?