Wired home network, no Ethernet
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As long as you didn't rip out your old coax...
Bye bye, Wi-Fi: How to add a wired network to your home without running Ethernet
Running Ethernet wiring can be messy and expensive. If you have cable outlets, you can use a cheap adapter to set up a high-speed wired connection with minimal effort. And it works no matter where you get your internet.
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Back to the future. Ethernet was originally specified to run over coax cable. Later iterations evolved to run over twisted pair cable and eventually fiber optics.
I remember visiting a model home in the 1980s that was wired with coax to almost every room and had a patch panel for interconnections in the basement. Cutting edge technology for the time.
Big Al
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But your new devices have to be wired, right?
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From the article:
Wireless internet connections are convenient, but they're also notoriously unreliable. Nothing proves that point more emphatically than a glitchy video conference call, especially if it's tied to a crucial business meeting.
The solution, of course, is to run a wired network connection to your home office. Wi-Fi is great for mobility, but a wired connection offers many advantages when it comes to working from home. It's faster and more reliable, with lower latency, all of which matters if you regularly share large files, participate in high-quality video meetings, or even (ahem) play games.
MoCA technology is a great alternative to standard Ethernet wiring, and it costs a tiny fraction of what you'd have to pay to retrofit dedicated Ethernet cabling in your home. It's a worthwhile option to consider when Wi-Fi simply can't get from Point A to Point B.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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If you use co-ax cables, then yes your devices/routers/Wi-Fi access points will need to be able to terminate co-ax cables. It's just easier to find gears that can terminate Ethernet CAT5/CAT6 cabling with RJ-45 connectors than it is to find gears that can terminate co-ax.
I ran my own Ethernet CAT6 cables in my house, and installed multiple Wi-Fi access points in my house.
Co-ax cables are nice if you know how they are "split" because every time you "split" a co-ax cable you divide the signal strength evenly among the cables joined at the splitter. If you inherited an old co-ax "network" that came with your house, chances are you don't know where and how the cables split, and it will be hard to know which co-ax outlet will give you enough signal strength to run at maximum speed.
If the co-ax cable network is "old," you also don't know whether the old cables and the old splitters can handle high frequency signals. (That's why when you order new Internet service, often times the technician who goes to your home to install stuff resort to running new cables for you -- it's easier to just run new cables with new splitters than it is to diagnose or fix old cables and old splitters.)
Ethernet CAT5/CAT6 cabling is more predictable because, assuming you use Ethernet switches (which is most commonly sold these days), you don't have to worry about "splits." Just make sure each cable is 100 meters (~300 feet) or shorter and you are pretty much guaranteed maximum speed.
Another option is powerline Ethernet -- using your home's electrical power grid to network your devices. Problem there is that, to do that well, you need to know which wall outlets are on the same circuit. The average homeowners typically don't think about this, and if you live in an old house with very old wiring, who knows how well the old wires can carry high frequency signals?
For my next house ideally I would like to run 10+ Gbps optical fibers but I'm not sure many consumer networking devices will support optical fiber by that time. Honestly, I think I will be fine with Gigabit Ethernet at home for a long time.
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@wtg thanks! That makes sense.
Although I do sometimes have to do zoom meetings in the evening (bc the other people are in Japan), beyond that I try not to work at home if I can help it. And we don’t game etc., so if our wifi is lacking, we don’t have much occasion to notice it.
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Since I installed my mesh router system all of my WiFi problems disappeared. Everything works great!
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@Steve-Miller , just curious what mesh router system you use. Thanks.
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I’m thinking I need a mesh router too. Our router is 20 years old and connected to the internet on the 3rd floor of a 3-story house. Although the main computer is up there, we live with our phones on the 1st floor.
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EEOS. Amazon. Among the best designed products I’ve ever used.
Plug them in and they install themselves seamlessly. Add one and it becomes a part of the network without further intrusion. Got a part of the house that doesn’t get a good signal? Just add one. No wiring required. Power goes out and when it comes back on everything works again within a few minutes. I get a phone notification whenever a new device signs on.
I have a house served at 200MBPS with 7 TVs and There has never been an issue.
Rock solid.
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Link to video
An interesting video (at least for those who find the history of technology interesting) about how Ethernet transitioned from coax to unshielded twisted pair.
Big Al
