Best solution for networking in new house?

arleitiss

Hey, so just moved to new address, UPC transferred connection very fast very happy.

Have two UPC boxes, one seems to be the new one with UPC logo and one just plain white.
UPC logo'd box works the other one doesn't. I am in room which doesn't, I have PC so I only have wired connection available and don't want Wi-Fi so I won't install WiFi card.

Anyways my family is sitting in living room where the box works but funny thing is they use WiFi so they are near router in same room while I am all loner far away in my bedroom with no internet.

I see two solutions:

1) Buy RG-6/Coax cable about 50m and wire it to my room and have router in my room close to PC.
However: I assume this will make WiFi for others very slow.

2) Buy 50M CAT5E cable and just wire it straight to my room.
However: I assume this will make my connection slow, while I need it to be fast at optimal speed for college and work, I need maximum fast up speed.


So which do you think is optimal solution so that everyone is happy?

drunkmonkey

Wire it. There won't be any slow down compared to wifi. Be carefull if your drilling for other wires.
You could also bridge 2 routers or use a wifi extender.

arleitiss

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Wire it. There won't be any slow down compared to wifi. Be carefull if your drilling for other wires.
You could also bridge 2 routers or use a wifi extender.

Just looking here at CAT6 cableo on ebay, I can get 50M of CAT6 for 14 euro, could I use that? I never seen or used CAT6, I assume it works same way?

yomamasflavour

Best solution is to run network cable, and get a cheap wireless router.
It wont affect your connection. You would have a direct cable connection to your pc as well as extending your wireless network throughout your house.

Skatedude

powerline adapters might be a better solution in this case.

ED E

If you're wiring, go with Cat6. And make sure its actually cat6 (ebay isnt known for quality control).

The likes of Radionics here will sell you a 100M reel.


Powerlines wouldnt be a terrible idea though.

arleitiss

ED E wrote: »

If you're wiring, go with Cat6. And make sure its actually cat6 (ebay isnt known for quality control).

The likes of Radionics here will sell you a 100M reel.


Powerlines wouldnt be a terrible idea though.

I heard about powerlines a bit, are those the things that make electric sockets internet port?

Fiddlex

arleitiss wrote: »

I heard about powerlines a bit, are those the things that make electric sockets internet port?

Yes they use your home electrical system as a network. They work fairly well but how well depends on how your electrical system is set up. If you do get them I would recommend the AV500 ones as they work better than the cheaper 200 meg ones. again there is no guarantee these will work for you but could be an option.

arleitiss

Fiddlex wrote: »

Yes they use your home electrical system as a network. They work fairly well but how well depends on how your electrical system is set up. If you do get them I would recommend the AV500 ones as they work better than the cheaper 200 meg ones. again there is no guarantee these will work for you but could be an option.

Just a note: my house is pre-pay electricity if that changes anything.

Fiddlex

arleitiss wrote: »

Just a note: my house is pre-pay electricity if that changes anything.

Im not sure how it will affect your pre pay electricity as I dont have it.

ED E

arleitiss wrote: »

Just a note: my house is pre-pay electricity if that changes anything.

That should be on the mains feed before your RCD so it shouldnt effect Powerline Adapters/Homeplugs. As long as you only have one "fusebox" then normally the work fine. Just dont put them into extension leads. Sometimes other devices interfere, but the only way to know is to test em.

AlanS181824

arleitiss wrote: »

Just a note: my house is pre-pay electricity if that changes anything.

That won't make any difference. Electricity is electricity. Wiring it with Ethernet cable would be best but mightn't be feasible in which case Power line would work as well too.

Praetorian

I put cat 6 all over my house. From my attic to my computer room to the router in the hall and to the tv area in the sitting room. You can't really beat wired. I setup powerline connections in two houses recently (big houses) and got consistently 100m/bit in one house, and only about 30 m/bit in the other. So it's a little hit and miss.

arleitiss

I ordered 50 meters of CAT5E cable.
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/50M-50-METER-CAT5E-ETHERNET-NETWORK-LAN-RJ45-PATCH-LEAD-CABLE-BLACK-ROLL-COLOUR-/171301655428?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item27e25fd384
That one, it looks decent enough compared to others I've seen on ebay.

Thanks for suggestions.

AlanS181824

arleitiss wrote: »

I ordered 50 meters of CAT5E cable.
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/50M-50-METER-CAT5E-ETHERNET-NETWORK-LAN-RJ45-PATCH-LEAD-CABLE-BLACK-ROLL-COLOUR-/171301655428?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item27e25fd384
That one, it looks decent enough compared to others I've seen on ebay.

Thanks for suggestions.

Very good price, might pick some up myself.

cormac_byrne

arleitiss wrote: »

I ordered 50 meters of CAT5E cable.
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/50M-50-METER-CAT5E-ETHERNET-NETWORK-LAN-RJ45-PATCH-LEAD-CABLE-BLACK-ROLL-COLOUR-/171301655428?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item27e25fd384
That one, it looks decent enough compared to others I've seen on ebay.

Thanks for suggestions.

That's not proper CAT5e cable, it should be 'Copper' not 'Copper Clad Aluminum'

It might be ok for short runs,
but really you're only asking for trouble trying to use such crappy cable.

Note that the seller calls it 'Patch Lead Cable' (i.e. for short runs) instead of something like Premises or in-wall Cable

This cable is probably more suited to analog CCTV over CAT5

It doesn't meet the CAT5 spec

http://www.twistedpair.co/caution-using-cooper-clad-aluminium-cat5-cable/

ED E

cormac_byrne wrote: »

That's not proper CAT5e cable, it should be 'Copper' not 'Copper Clad Aluminum'

It might be ok for short runs,
but really you're only asking for trouble trying to use such crappy cable.

Note that the seller calls it 'Patch Lead Cable' (i.e. for short runs) instead of something like Premises or in-wall Cable

This cable is probably more suited to analog CCTV over CAT5

It doesn't meet the CAT5 spec

http://www.twistedpair.co/caution-using-cooper-clad-aluminium-cat5-cable/

I did warn him...

ED E wrote: »

If you're wiring, go with Cat6. And make sure its actually cat6 (ebay isnt known for quality control).

arleitiss

Got it today, didn't try it yet, so you are saying it wont work?

ED E

It should work, but might drop to 100Mb mode or not reach proper gig(1000Mb) speeds.

arleitiss

ED E wrote: »

It should work, but might drop to 100Mb mode or not reach proper gig(1000Mb) speeds.

Well currently the way I use internet at home is during night when no one uses laptop, I place laptop in my room so it catches wifi, then connect laptop to my PC via ethernet cable and bridge connections on laptop. I only get 2 mb/s at most.

With cable I was getting 8 mb/s before.

So would you say I will get at least 4 mb/s with this?

ED E

Are you talking 2Mb or 2MB? They're very different. (Megabit vs Megabyte, downloads will show as MB or kB but speedtests will show Mb or kb)

That should manage 80Mb no problem.

arleitiss

ED E wrote: »

Are you talking 2Mb or 2MB? They're very different. (Megabit vs Megabyte, downloads will show as MB or kB but speedtests will show Mb or kb)

That should manage 80Mb no problem.

As in 2 mb/s, megabytes per second.

fat-tony

arleitiss wrote: »

As in 2 mb/s, megabytes per second.

No - that's two megabits (small b) - actually should be written 2Mb/s.
2 MB/s is two megabytes.

arleitiss

I am quite pleased for that price.

fat-tony

Now that's 84 Mb/s - megabits

0ms ping is impossible, though - defies the laws of physics

arleitiss

Second run:



Now ping is realistic, that's what I had when I lived in city center.
But when I was in city center I was getting only up to 70-75 it seems that further away from dublin it's faster?

By the way - before I used same quality cable but only 1 meter of it.

Never understood the units, so 8 Megabits is 1 Megabyte?

fat-tony

yes 8 bits = 1 byte

On the cabling front, all of the cheap rolls of CAT5e are made of aluminium cores "sprayed" with copper, but it's ok in shorter lengths and will support gigabit. It's easier to work and crimp connectors on than CAT6, but if you were building a full gigabit network you should opt for CAT6. Full copper cable is very expensive, though.

edit - those OOKLA speedtests are just indicative. I use the same Vodafone server all the time to check consistency. A proper test would be to download a full Ubuntu ISO image from heanet for example. They have pretty much unlimited bandwidth and will give you an indication of sustained download speed

arleitiss

fat-tony wrote: »

yes 8 bits = 1 byte

On the cabling front, all of the cheap rolls of CAT5e are made of aluminium cores "sprayed" with copper, but it's ok in shorter lengths and will support gigabit. It's easier to work and crimp connectors on than CAT6, but if you were building a full gigabit network you should opt for CAT6. Full copper cable is very expensive, though.

edit - those OOKLA speedtests are just indicative. I use the same Vodafone server all the time to check consistency. A proper test would be to download a full Ubuntu ISO image from heanet for example. They have pretty much unlimited bandwidth and will give you an indication of sustained download speed

I had a proper thick CAT5E from maplins, 10 meters for like 30 euro or so.
Crimping connectors to it was a total hell to do, the wires were copper I think because they could be bend and they would stay that way, the cheap ass ones were always easy.