4 ms·

It only works if there is cat5 cabling.

by tssva 3y ago

thunfischbrot 3y ago
Have you considered laying flat or slim cat5e under the floor skirting, carpet or even just along the floor? Had this setup in rentals, it‘s the most reliable way and not or barely visible if you spend an hour or two.
- sony22 3y ago
  This is the correct option. Also OP says 'for a year' this problem exists? could be also the computer issues.
walterbell 3y ago
Distance/obstacles between the two rooms?
- slau 3y ago
  You can easily run a few dozen meters of cat5e while still having a better signal, latency and throughout than wifi or powerline will at equivalent distances. In a pinch, I once ran an in-door Ethernet cable along the building exterior to connect multiple floors together. The cable held on for over 3 years until I left. Total length was about 70m. A longer time ago, I did the same, with a cable going from my window, over the roof, to my sister’s window. Granted, this was in a time where 54Mbit/s was the pinacle of wifi performance.
  - phone8675309 3y ago
    For that last run - I'd be _very_ concerned about differences in electrical potential frying stuff.
    - saltcured 3y ago
      In the realm of things that shouldn't have worked, I remember my brother in the early-mid 90s strung a telephone-grade wire around a house to directly connect two computers via their serial ports for serial-line IP (SLIP). His best result was using one pair to connect send/receive lines like a null-modem. With XOFF/XON inband flow control and no grounding, he increased the serial port rates beyond what the modems of the day would achieve, and it worked. Our guess was that above a certain rate, it acted more like an AC transmission line and less like ground-referenced levels.
    - jcalvinowens 3y ago
      That's not a real concern, ethernet is galvanically isolated by design. If the cable was shielded and/or foiled you might have a problem, but it almost certainly wasn't.
  - yomlica8 3y ago
    I'm kind of thinking of doing the outdoor side of the house run myself. All my network equipment is in the basement and the second floor would involve difficult drilling and cutting holes in drywall to get access to drill. I don't really like the idea of drilling holes in the exterior walls of my house all that much though. One tip I read while researching this is to make sure the low point where the cable enters the house has a loop or other feature such that the cable's lowest point isn't also the entry point of the house. This way condensation and water will drip off the cable instead being fed right into your wall.
    - slau 3y ago
      Now that I have disposable income, and a fair amount of common sense, I would probably ask an electrician-friend to help me out on a project like this. Although, Crosstalk Solutions has some very nice comprehensive videos on how they wired up some houses up at a lake[1], and it doesn't feel _that_ difficult, although there's probably a lot of know-how and gotchas they don't mention in the videos. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bDxMgvG1I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bDxMgvG1I
toast0 3y ago
Ethernet over residential cat3 is often viable. Many homes have cat3 wiring for telephone. The spec for gigE says you need cat5 (maybe cat5e) for running 100m in dense bundles; shorter links in single runs can work on lesser cable. Telephone wiring is pretty tolerant, so you might have daisy chain, star/home run, or a cursed mix. With star wiring, you just put rj45 ports on both ends, and a ethernet switch at the nexus point (which hopefully isn't outside, but often is). For daisy chain, you can put an upstream and a downstream port in each room where the connection chains, and either place a switch there if you've got wired devices for that room, or a short patch cable if not. For a cursed mix, you've got to find the splice points, and break apart and have one port for each direction. Depending on your wiring and your immediate connectivity needs, you might be able to do this a little bit at a time. There are also some in-wall access points with ethernet switches which could be worth considering, if you need a switch in each room anyway.
- anonymousiam 3y ago
  cat3 cable will work fine for 10Base-T Ethernet. If you want higher speeds than 10Mbps, you'll need something better.
  - toast0 3y ago
    Eh. I had a run that was a mix of cat5e and cat3, and it ran gigE just fine. About 50 ft cat5e, 10 feet cat3; it was in crowded conduit to an out building, no sense trying to pull something new, when it cost zero to try what was already there. And it worked, so great.
    - zamalek 3y ago
      That's strange, gig uses more pairs. Maybe yours has all 4 pairs?
      - toast0 3y ago
        Yes, 4-pair cat3. I should have mentioned that at some point.

It only works if there is cat5 cabling.

by tssva 3y ago

It only works if there is cat5 cabling.

Have you considered laying flat or slim cat5e under the floor skirting, carpet or even just along the floor? Had this setup in rentals, it‘s the most reliable way and not or barely visible if you spend an hour or two.

sony22 3y ago
This is the correct option. Also OP says 'for a year' this problem exists? could be also the computer issues.

walterbell 3y ago

Distance/obstacles between the two rooms?

slau 3y ago
You can easily run a few dozen meters of cat5e while still having a better signal, latency and throughout than wifi or powerline will at equivalent distances. In a pinch, I once ran an in-door Ethernet cable along the building exterior to connect multiple floors together. The cable held on for over 3 years until I left. Total length was about 70m. A longer time ago, I did the same, with a cable going from my window, over the roof, to my sister’s window. Granted, this was in a time where 54Mbit/s was the pinacle of wifi performance.
- phone8675309 3y ago
  For that last run - I'd be _very_ concerned about differences in electrical potential frying stuff.
  - saltcured 3y ago
    In the realm of things that shouldn't have worked, I remember my brother in the early-mid 90s strung a telephone-grade wire around a house to directly connect two computers via their serial ports for serial-line IP (SLIP). His best result was using one pair to connect send/receive lines like a null-modem. With XOFF/XON inband flow control and no grounding, he increased the serial port rates beyond what the modems of the day would achieve, and it worked. Our guess was that above a certain rate, it acted more like an AC transmission line and less like ground-referenced levels.
  - jcalvinowens 3y ago
    That's not a real concern, ethernet is galvanically isolated by design. If the cable was shielded and/or foiled you might have a problem, but it almost certainly wasn't.
- yomlica8 3y ago
  I'm kind of thinking of doing the outdoor side of the house run myself. All my network equipment is in the basement and the second floor would involve difficult drilling and cutting holes in drywall to get access to drill. I don't really like the idea of drilling holes in the exterior walls of my house all that much though. One tip I read while researching this is to make sure the low point where the cable enters the house has a loop or other feature such that the cable's lowest point isn't also the entry point of the house. This way condensation and water will drip off the cable instead being fed right into your wall.
  - slau 3y ago
    Now that I have disposable income, and a fair amount of common sense, I would probably ask an electrician-friend to help me out on a project like this. Although, Crosstalk Solutions has some very nice comprehensive videos on how they wired up some houses up at a lake[1], and it doesn't feel _that_ difficult, although there's probably a lot of know-how and gotchas they don't mention in the videos. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bDxMgvG1I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bDxMgvG1I

toast0 3y ago

Ethernet over residential cat3 is often viable. Many homes have cat3 wiring for telephone. The spec for gigE says you need cat5 (maybe cat5e) for running 100m in dense bundles; shorter links in single runs can work on lesser cable. Telephone wiring is pretty tolerant, so you might have daisy chain, star/home run, or a cursed mix. With star wiring, you just put rj45 ports on both ends, and a ethernet switch at the nexus point (which hopefully isn't outside, but often is). For daisy chain, you can put an upstream and a downstream port in each room where the connection chains, and either place a switch there if you've got wired devices for that room, or a short patch cable if not. For a cursed mix, you've got to find the splice points, and break apart and have one port for each direction. Depending on your wiring and your immediate connectivity needs, you might be able to do this a little bit at a time. There are also some in-wall access points with ethernet switches which could be worth considering, if you need a switch in each room anyway.

anonymousiam 3y ago
cat3 cable will work fine for 10Base-T Ethernet. If you want higher speeds than 10Mbps, you'll need something better.
- toast0 3y ago
  Eh. I had a run that was a mix of cat5e and cat3, and it ran gigE just fine. About 50 ft cat5e, 10 feet cat3; it was in crowded conduit to an out building, no sense trying to pull something new, when it cost zero to try what was already there. And it worked, so great.
  - zamalek 3y ago
    That's strange, gig uses more pairs. Maybe yours has all 4 pairs?
    - toast0 3y ago
      Yes, 4-pair cat3. I should have mentioned that at some point.