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Options for Wired Internet Connection

BigDagger
I've been here awhile

What are my options if I want wired connection to my room? But my Ignite WiFi Gateway modem is in the basement? Tried using the search but I could not find a related post. 

 

 

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Re: Options for Wired Internet Connection

Bplayer
I'm a trusted contributor

The two obvious choices are to:

1. run an ethernet cable from the basement to your room

2. install a pair of Powerline network adapters, one in the basement and the other in your room

If you need multiple wired connections in your room then you can install a multiport switch to one of the above options.

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Re: Options for Wired Internet Connection

Bplayer
I'm a trusted contributor

The two obvious choices are to:

1. run an ethernet cable from the basement to your room

2. install a pair of Powerline network adapters, one in the basement and the other in your room

If you need multiple wired connections in your room then you can install a multiport switch to one of the above options.

Re: Options for Wired Internet Connection

BigDagger
I've been here awhile
First time hearing about Powerline network adapters. That's awesome. Thank you so much!

Re: Options for Wired Internet Connection

57
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

I used the following powerline adaptor 1.5 years ago to overcome poor WiFi.  The one I purchased has 3 ethernet outs and also does WiFi.

 

https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa8630-kit/

 

Here's the thread where I discussed it over on Digital Home.

 

https://www.digitalhome.ca/threads/powerline-adapter-discussions.171986/page-2#post-3078317

 

Be aware that these devices intimate that you can get quite high speeds, however, that's under ideal conditions, etc.  Depending on the electrical circuitry in your home, you will get less than advertized, perhaps 100+ mbps, etc.

 

Re: Options for Wired Internet Connection

Datalink
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@BigDagger first question, why is the modem in the basement?  

 

Are you using the telephone port on the modem to connect to the house telephone system?

 

Do you have a house alarm, which must be the first device that the modem connects to via the telephone port. 

 

Does your house have ethernet cabling which is connected to the modems ethernet port, either directly or thru a gigabit switch?

 

If the answer to all of those questions is no, then there's no reason for the modem to be in the basement other than personal preference.  Any of the Rogers modems can be installed or moved to any location in a house where there is an available cable port.  Moving on .........

 

How old is your home.  If it was built within the last 15 to 20 years, it might have structured cabling installed, which is a cable bundle that runs from the structured wiring cabinet in the basement to each room upstairs, with each room getting its own cable run from the basement.  That bundle usually consists of two RG-6 cables for cable tv/satellite plus one Cat-5e for data plus one Cat 3, possibly a Cat-5e for telephone use.  If you take a wallplate off of the wall which contains a cable or telephone port, you might see the other cables in behind the wallplate, waiting to be discovered by the home owner and put to use.  

 

If you have telephone ports in the wallplates, and your family doesn't use a landline, if that telephone cabling is Cat-5 or Cat-5e, you can repurpose the cabling, removing it from the 66 block in the structured wiring cabinet in the basement and the upstairs RJ-11 connector.  Then, you would have to install an RJ-45 connector on the basement cable end and a RJ-45 keystone at the upstairs end.  If the modem doesn't have anything connected to its ethernet ports, you can then connect the RJ-45 connector to the modem. 

 

Here's what the basement RJ-45 connector looks like.  Note that the RJ-45 connectors for Cat-5/5e and Cat-6 are slightly different, so you would need to buy the connector that matches up with the cable type, Cat-5/5e or Cat-6:

 

https://www.amazon.ca/CableCreation-100-PACK-Connector-Network-Transparent/dp/B01K9Z4A2E?th=1

 

Here's what the upstairs RJ-45 keystone looks like:

 

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/leviton-cat-5e-snap-in-8p8c-jack-white/1000138216

 

Also note that there are two cable wire to pin standards, 568A and 568B.  They are slightly different, so both cable ends have to be connected with the same standard cable to pin assignment:  568A to 568A, or 568B to 568B.

 

 

The next consideration is a Multimedia of Cable Alliance (MoCA) adapter which is an ethernet to cable adapter.  With the ignite XB6 modem installed in the basement, you would need one adapter in the basement and one adapter in your room, assuming you have an available cable port in your room.  If the cable run from the basement to your room is one cable run without any splitter in the path, this will work without any problems.  The ideal cable is RG-6.  RG-59 would probably work but, the adapter set probably wouldn't approach their maximum data rates.  If you have a look in the basement, in or around the structured wiring cabinet, you should see the cables that run upstairs.  Have a look for the product type which should be printed in the cable jacket.  In that data you're looking for "RG-6".  That would be ideal.  But, you might see that its RG-59 which was built for television system broadcast using the old frequency standards.  

 

There are two adapter manufacturers, Adaptec and gocoax.  Adapter manufactures two adapter models, the MoCa 2.0 ECB6200 andMoCA 2.5 ECB6250.  The ECB6250 is the newer version with a rated network capacity of 2.5 Gb/s.  The gocoax adater is also a MoCA 2.5 adapter with a rated network capacity of 2.5 Gb/s.

 

Those adapter can operate in a point to point mode, or in a network.  Given that you're running the Ignite XB6 modem (as seen by the product sticker on the bottom of the modem), that should mean that the rest of the house cable system has been disconnected and is now free for use.  You can install more that two adapters in a house, only requirement is a MoCA 2.0 splitter installed, in place of the current splitter which should now be out of use.  With a MoCa 2.0 splitter in the basement, connecting all of the cables that are no longer in use, you could conceivably install an adapter in every room.  Only drawback to this is the cost of the adapter.  Despite that cost, if the cable run from the basement to your room is a single run of RG-6, this is probably the simplest, and by far, the most reliable way to get high speed internet capability up to your room. 

 

Note that I say, single run.  In some cases that we've run into in the past, customers have found that there are splitter hidden somewhere in their walls or floors, which connects a single cable run from the basement to multiple cable ports upstairs.  That results in a signal reduction when passing thru the splitter and a reduced data rate.  One way to detect that situation is to use an ethernet/cable tester, which consists of a transmitter and receiver unit.  This is a basic unit which tests for signal presence at a cable port:

 

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/sperry-instruments-cable-test-plus-coax-utp-stp-tstr-tests-for-open...

 

With the transmitter connected and running in the basement, you can walk around the house, testing each cable port to see if in fact that cable port might be fed off of a splitter.  The best result is to determine that your room is the only room where the test signal from the basement is detected.  That doesn't guarantee that there isn't a splitter in stalled in that cable run, but, it greatly reduces the possibility.  

 

Adaptec adapters:

 

https://www.actiontec.com/products/ecb6200/

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0

 

https://www.screenbeam.com/products/home-networking/ecb6250/

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Actiontec-MoCA-Network-Adapter-Ethernet/dp/B088KV2YYL/ref=pd_lpo_147_t_0/135-4...

 

 

gocoax adapter:

 

https://www.gocoax.com/products

 

https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=gocoax+moca+2.5&i=electronics&crid=3SJFEMZJ6XBPM&sprefix=gocoax%2Celectron...

 

My choice would be to:

 

1.  Look behind the existing cable port in your room for any additional cabling, indicating the presence of structured wiring.

2.  Consider repurposing an existing telephone cable if in fact it turns out to be a Cat-5/5e cable

3.  Use MoCA adapters, one at each end of the cable run, basement and your room. 

 

I would look to those alternatives first and as a very last resort, I might consider either a Mesh network to run a network via wifi up to your room or, consider using a powerline adapter.  I'd probably consider using the powerline adapter as a last resort.  They will either work or they won't.  As @57 indicated above, the lab performance versus real world performance can be worlds apart.  It depend on what side of the circuit breaker the basement and upstairs power plugs are connected to.  Ideally both circuits would connect to the same side of the circuit breaker panel.  If not, then the adapters rely on induced magnetic fields and induced currents.  That works, but a direct path via the circuit breaker panel backplane would be the preferred signal path.  So, without some input and assistance from an electrician, at around $100/hour, powerline adapters can be hit and miss.  Experimenting with different rooms upstairs would show the effect of connecting to the same side of the circuit breaker panel.  

 

The preferred powerline adapter would be an AV2 standard, which uses all three prongs on the plug as part of the transmit / receive ethernet circuits.  So, if you look at the end of the adapter which plugs into a wall socket, you would see three prongs which are the hot, neutral and ground.  All of those are used by an AV2 standard adapter for data transmission.  

 

Hope this help.   More food for thought as they say......

Re: Options for Wired Internet Connection

Pauly
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

I thought I would share my 2 cents, if your home has ethernet cabling and it all connects to a central switch your modem does NOT need to be in the basement.  At my parents home, I installed 8 ethernet runs throughout the house and originally the modem was installed in the basement because the tech was lazy, but my parents wifi was garbage,  we moved the modem to the second floor which has a cable outlet AND a RJ45 Ethernet Outlet, so the ethernet outlet is one i installed back in the day and goes into the switch i put in the basement which all the other ethernet outlets connect to, so essentially my modem in the upstairs office room will back feed the internet to ALL the ethernet outlets in the house

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