Home/domestic wired network

Asdfgh2020

I have Virgin media broadband with decent speed and quite happy with it apart from a few rooms in the house where the WiFi is a bit weak....I’m thinking of running cat 5e/cat 6 to a few rooms in the house but not sure on how to do it......from some basic google research it looks like I will need to run cat5e/cat 6 to each room and then back to a central ‘box’ maybe located in the attic.....it’s from here I get a bit confused/not clear what to do.....so I have the following questions.......

1. Firstly, which cable should I use....cat 5e or cat 6
2. If I run the cables from each room to the box in the attic is it just a matter of running a further cat5e/6 from the attic box to the virgin box/router and then the cables to each room are supplied/receive signals form the virgin box..?
3. Would it be easier to just use those WiFi boosters that you plug into the electrical sockets...?

At the moment we have two smart tv’s and probably another 4 mobile devices using the WiFi and sometimes I find as working from home the WiFi strength can be weak......

Any advice would be appreciated.

ED E

1. Really it wont matter, you could over spec the cable now to be 10G capable in a few years time. If you're in the house long term it may be worth it.

2. Put a switch in the attic, if you think you need 6 ports say buy an 8 port as youll always find you need another run at some point. Yes, once the virgin has a link to the switch so will everything else on that switch.

3. Easier yes, but its a bodge solution instead a proper one that cabling is.

Asdfgh2020

Many thanks for the quick Reply. I wasn’t too far off the mark ......I’ll be in this house long term so probably best to put in the cat 6 and I think I’ll get a ten port switch..:) always good to have a few spares....just one last question do you think I’m mad to do this as a DIY project...?

ED E

Not at all if you're any way handy. Youll need a crimping tool but thats not expensive. Lots of material online to help you do it.

Note: If you see mention of T568A/B and crossover vs patch - it doesnt really matter nowadays. It used to be a concern but devices have gotten smarter.

degsie

A decent wifi mesh system may negate the need for wires at all.

Asdfgh2020

degsie wrote: »

A decent wifi mesh system may negate the need for wires at all.

Could you elaborate a bit about a ‘WiFi mesh’

degsie

Asdfgh2020 wrote: »

Could you elaborate a bit about a ‘WiFi mesh’

Huge thread here---> https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058072654

Asdfgh2020

ED E wrote: »

1. Really it wont matter, you could over spec the cable now to be 10G capable in a few years time. If you're in the house long term it may be worth it.

2. Put a switch in the attic, if you think you need 6 ports say buy an 8 port as youll always find you need another run at some point. Yes, once the virgin has a link to the switch so will everything else on that switch.

3. Easier yes, but its a bodge solution instead a proper one that cabling is.

I assume the 8/10 ‘switch/box’ needs a power supply....?

Also I Had a quick read through the ‘mesh option’ suggested below and although it sounds attractive and will obviously have less physical work as there is no routing of cables through walls and attics or crimping etc I got the impression there could be lots of Playing around with software and other ‘tecky’ stuff that I wouldn’t be comfortable with.....hard wiring to 4/5 rooms and to virgin box to me is easier and will give a better result....each to their own though

Finally re cat 5e/6 cables there appears to be different types/qualities of each when you do a search on line for example there is a 100m reel of cat 5e ranging in price from €21 up to over €100....similar for cat 6....is it all to do with the outer protection core..refer to link below for an example of what ‘cable monkey’ will supply...

https://www.cablemonkey.ie/cat6-cable/21-ccs-cat6-utp-cable.html#/56-length-305mt for €80

I take it this will do the job or should I go with this....

https://www.cablemonkey.ie/cat6-cable/13839-ccs-cat6-utp-cable.html for €90
.?

65535

VM here also.
I use it in bridge mode out to a Fritz Box which is on a mesh of 3 Fritz Boxes - no gaps etc.

garo

I am in a similar situation to you OP and am in the middle of ordering stuff/have ordered some stuff.


Running cables behind walls etc. is a lot more work but you are going to get a much more reliable connection and better latency. A good quality mesh networking solution *may* do the same job but it depends on the layout of the house etc.


I have a VM hub sitting in the front room of the house. I have it in bridge mode and a router sitting next to it - you don't need to do that if you don't want. The plan is to run Cat 6 from the router - two cables, always run cables in pairs - up to the attic crawl space and into the attic office and then down the other gable into the So's home office.



Re cables: the one's you linked are CCA/CCS (copper clad aluminium/steel). Pure copper cables are more expensive but better quality. You want to go with 23AWG (smaller number = thicker wire) and get connectors/wall plates to match. The price variation reflects the wire thickness and material (pure copper or CCS/CCA). HTH.