bmw88rider
bmw88rider GRM+ Memberand Dork
4/12/16 1:19 p.m.

So I have a few COAX cable runs on the house from a satellite dish that is no longer there so I'm thinking about taking that down and replacing it with network cable. My house is a 2 story and has vaulted ceilings in each room and is not a big box so there is not an easy way to feed it right through the wall. I need to get from my office to the living room where the fiber comes into the house. Everything else is ok to run off wifi but I work from home and need a really good connection for my office.

Any recommendations on cable that you guys have used? I'm going to run Cat 6A or Cat 7 cable to future proof the installation. I've got some small cisco switches for each end so I'm not concerned there. I'll also be adding in a WAP for the upstairs so I'll have a good WiFi network.

All advice or comments welcome.

WonkoTheSane
WonkoTheSane GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
4/12/16 1:34 p.m.

Depending on how much bandwidth you need, I've had really good luck with the Ethernet over Power adapters Like this 500 Mbps one

It looks like they now have 1.2Gbps ones, too,but they're a bit more expensive..

Other than that, make sure the cat6e cable is UV rated and you should be fine with normal external cabling practices..

paranoid_android74
paranoid_android74 SuperDork
4/12/16 5:37 p.m.

X2 on the uv rating.

asoduk
asoduk Reader
4/12/16 8:33 p.m.

I always use shielded cables and ends with outdoor runs and haven't had a problem. That said, regular cat6 will work just fine for many years to come.

the_machina
the_machina New Reader
4/13/16 5:42 a.m.

The other option (slightly more cost, slightly easier to do, depending...) is to get a pair of Ethernet over Coax adapters (search for "MoCA 2.0 Ethernet to Coax Adapter" on your shopping site of choice). That way you can leave the wiring in place, and go from your fiber modem to Ethernet to coax to your office (if it already has a coax run terminating there) and from that run to Ethernet. If you use decent splitters where all your coax runs come together, you should be fine, and you can use the existing cabling for a wired whole-house network.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/13/16 7:38 a.m.

Running cat6a/cat7 cable is the right way to do it, faster and simpler and more reliable & futureproof than the other options. UV rating is a good idea, but I find that once the cable isn't directly exposed to the outside world (as in, inside a pipe/trunk), even the plain-jane stuff pretty much lasts forever.

It would be a good idea to run a second "spare" cable while you're at it though, so that if the first one does fail you can just put ends on the other one and you have a new cable already installed. Could also be useful for a bonded connection or a second device in the future.

Autolex
Autolex Dork
4/13/16 9:25 a.m.

(do this for a living) - You want Cat6/Cat6a CMX (Outdoor UV Rated) UTP Cable, and yes, pull two.

I've had good success with the Ubiquiti branded Access points (~$100 price point). I run a UAP-AC-LR in my home and I get pretty good 5GHz out to about 75' away from my brick home, 2.4GHz even further than that. (it's about the size of a smoke detector, and comes with it's own passive PoE injector)

bmw88rider
bmw88rider GRM+ Memberand Dork
4/13/16 10:38 a.m.

Thanks Everyone.

I've tried the powerline adapters and they are good for xbox and such but when I work from home it has just a few too many dropped packets and it drives my work VPN crazy especially when I'm on Lync which we use a lot.

Some good advice here and I appreciate it.

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