Internet throughout entire house question

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Mike Lang

Mike Lang

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
I have a customer who had their house built about 10 years ago and they had RJ 45 jacks placed in most of the rooms. Now the cable company came in and installed a modem. The only connection they have at this point is wireless and the hard wired connection at the back of the modem. They want all of the house RJ-45 jacks to provide an internet connection. I've ran into a problem before with this not working very well on long runs over 75'. the house is about 5000 sq ft and I'm almost certain without even getting started that the internet signal will be too weak to provide any connection by the time it runs down stairs to a low voltage box then out to about 12 jacks 50 to 150 ft away. What can I use to boost this signal and provide the whole house with internet connections? What have you guys done to solve this problem?
 
If installed properly, Cat5e is good for about 300'.
Is the modem at the patch panel where all of the cables go to?
You may also need a switch if there are more cables than ports on the modem.
 
there will be no difference in performance with any length as long as you are under the 100 meter max for the spec. Works fine if you are a little over. A common misconception is 'the signal gets weak' that is not the case. With lengths over the spec, the timing of the signal gets screwed up.

If you had problems with connectivity @ 75' then you have another problem, either a bad termination or most likely a split pair resulting from improper wiring of the jacks or connectors.

In the office the modem is in, you need a router with a few switch ports. Plug one of them into the network port on the wall. Install a switch in the LV panel and connect it to all the network ports.
 
From Cable modem, you need to go to a router then to a piece of equipment Like "netgear" the nextgear can be daisy chained, I beleive the Gear comes in 4, 8, 12, 16 ports. or just an 8 and a 8 daisie. Or your could go 8 & 8 & a wireless, cause someone's going to walk in the house with a wireless and wonder why someone ain't with the 2000's...

But, I'm not that much of a techno nut but check out www.netgear.com
Or their competiors
 
JAMAN said:
HUH? That is a joke right?
Click to expand...

Nope. I get my high-speed from a local cable company, but they don't actually have cable in my area. Therefore, they erected an antenna in the center of my housing development and they broadcast their signal from there. There is a receiver in one of the windows on the side of my house facing this antenna.

The modem connects to a special plug via ethernet cable and there is another special plug at my computer. Anywhere I move that plug it picks up the signal that the first plug is sending out.

I have cable internet but the only actual cable in my house is the ~2 feet between the wireless receiver and the modem. :D
 
drbond24 said:
Nope. I get my high-speed from a local cable company, but they don't actually have cable in my area. Therefore, they erected an antenna in the center of my housing development and they broadcast their signal from there. There is a receiver in one of the windows on the side of my house facing this antenna.

The modem connects to a special plug via ethernet cable and there is another special plug at my computer. Anywhere I move that plug it picks up the signal that the first plug is sending out.

I have cable internet but the only actual cable in my house is the ~2 feet between the wireless receiver and the modem. :D
Click to expand...

Very cool. But what happens if the plug that you connect your computer to is on a different phase than the plug that the modem is connected to?
 
As mentioned, you need a router or a switch.

Your customer needs to choose between a wireless router, which usually also has hardwired ports to use, a fully wired router, or a combination of both.

This depends on whether your customer wants all 12 jacks to have connectivity at all times, and whether wireless connections are acceptable (they are slightly slower).

I had an 8-port wired router, but I have 16 wired jacks throughout my house, as some rooms have more than one jack. That gave me the ability to make one jack active in a particular room, but make one of the other jacks in that room the "active" one when the wife rearranges the furniture in that room.

I have since installed a wireless router, using the router's hard ports for specific ports in my house when I want a blazing fast connection.

Keep in mind, if your customer has kids that want internet connections for their Wii or XBox, they might not have the connections they desire in the gaming room and a combination of wireless and wired might be needed.

kent
 
JAMAN said:
Thanks for the link, that clears it up. I thought the data actually passed through the branch circuit wiring (like an X10 device).
Click to expand...

It is. I believe PoE is not the same thing. PoE is for providing limited power to an ethernet device without using a separate power cable.

D-Link has some devices for what petersonra is describing, such as this: http://support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DHP%2D300#faq

The description of this product is:
The D-Link DHP-100 is a plug-and-play Ethernet-to-Powerline Bridge providing a convenient way to extend the range of a wireless access point or router. It is especially useful for homes or small offices when concrete walls, elevator shafts, successive floors in multi-storied buildings, or other architectural impediments inhibit the wireless signal.

The DHP-100 transmits data reliably even in noisy media environments by intelligently adapting to strong signal channels. This Ethernet-to-Powerline Bridge uses proven Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), an advanced signal processing technique used by wireless and xDSL applications to ensure strong signal throughput while filtering out interference.

kent
 
JAMAN said:
Thanks for the link, that clears it up. I thought the data actually passed through the branch circuit wiring (like an X10 device).
Click to expand...

With what I'm talking about, the data DOES pass through the branch circuit wiring. The link was for something different.

As far as what happens if plugging into a different phase, I suspect that the signal makes it back to the panel and onto the other phase so it would work the same. I've only tried a handful of receptacles and I don't know if they were on the same circuit or phase.

Didn't mean to highjack this thread with my internet connection...my intention at the beginning was to suggest my type of connection for the OP's customer. It would render the pre-installed data outlets useless, but it would work.
 
Mike Lang said:
I have a customer who had their house built about 10 years ago and they had RJ 45 jacks placed in most of the rooms. Now the cable company came in and installed a modem. The only connection they have at this point is wireless and the hard wired connection at the back of the modem. They want all of the house RJ-45 jacks to provide an internet connection. I've ran into a problem before with this not working very well on long runs over 75'. the house is about 5000 sq ft and I'm almost certain without even getting started that the internet signal will be too weak to provide any connection by the time it runs down stairs to a low voltage box then out to about 12 jacks 50 to 150 ft away. What can I use to boost this signal and provide the whole house with internet connections? What have you guys done to solve this problem?
Click to expand...

Need an Ethernet switch with suitable number of ports and cable suitable for Cat5. You may want to suggest to the Owner to step into the 21st Century and go wireless throughout the house.:)
 
The first thing you need to determine is if the wiring is cat5 or better. Then you need to see what the jacks were punched down as if a homeowner did it it could be anything they punched down to. Here is a handy link to the punchdown colors. http://www.derose.net/steve/guides/wiring/ They are usually marked standard 568a and 568b will be marked on the jack if you pull one out.
 
They have wireless now but they want a hard wired connection... I think they wanted a faster connection. Anyway I'm really suprised that you guys all say it can work up to 300 ft. So with the basic cable company modem I can brodcast out 300 ft without any problems? I don't know if the cable company's equipment makes a difference but I find that hard to believe. I've never had a signal work at around 100 ft. I'm 99% positive that my connections and configurations are correct. Has anyone here had a similar problem or is it just me?
 
George Stolz said:
Hardwire is faster for cheaper, in my experience.
Click to expand...
An average electrician by me charges anywhere from 80-150 a working line. 80 being to a gc 100 is what I charge to a customer per, Some guys get 150 per tel or data wire. A wireless router is less than a hundred bucks but it is slower and less secure. So if you work for the cia dont use wireless. If you dont care buy a wireless router.
 
Mike Lang said:
They have wireless now but they want a hard wired connection... I think they wanted a faster connection. Anyway I'm really suprised that you guys all say it can work up to 300 ft. So with the basic cable company modem I can brodcast out 300 ft without any problems? I don't know if the cable company's equipment makes a difference but I find that hard to believe. I've never had a signal work at around 100 ft. I'm 99% positive that my connections and configurations are correct. Has anyone here had a similar problem or is it just me?
Click to expand...
Read the link I posted to you above it will give you the exact distance requiremens by industry standards. The number is 100 meters which is about 324 ft. If this was installed 10 yrs ago you have to make sure it is cat5 not cat3 which is what I susspect you have by your problems.
 
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