Networking the House - Worth it?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

So my house currently has an coaxial aerial socket in the living room, the kitchen and three bedrooms upstairs.

 

I have a router from my ISP that uses all 4 ports.

 

I have one of those special plugs that allow me to have a wired connection in a other room using the existing electric wire. This also provides WiFi in that area of the house.

 

We don't use the aerial sockets as the TV downstairs has a satellite cable.

I'm in the UK. Not sure if FreeSat has any benefits over Freeview.

 

Currently don't have an aerial on the house and not sure how the cables end/where they go in the loft.

 

Not sure if it's worth doing but I was thinking perhaps I could pull through some CAT5 (or newer, better?) cable so each of the rooms have a wired connection.

 

Not sure how I could connect this to the (already full) router, I guess using some sort of switch?

 

Not sure whether I'd really need it either. WiFi is okay in every room around the house and in this day and age, maybe wired connections are just old hat?

 

Don't have any kids yet but it's likely we'll have some very soon so thinking whether they'll have a TV in their bedroom, would it be better to have an aerial connection or internet connection?

 

And all of that depends whether I can pull through a CAT5 cable at all! 

 

Advice? 

[Mindovermaster]

Get Cat6 wires.

 

Get yourself even a unmanaged switch if you don't want to do VLANs.

 

I have this one in the basement (near the ISP modem): https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16833704065?Item=9SIA2F83373147

I have these in each of our 2 rooms (mine and office): https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16833122610?Item=N82E16833122610

 

Can use AP's on either of those switches to have wireless throughout the house.

[+BudMan]

48 minutes ago, Sir Topham Hatt said:

maybe wired connections are just old hat?

Yeah no - that is not the case for sure

 

You do know you could use a moca adapter to run your ethernet over coax.. Kind of like your powerline adapters.

https://www.actiontec.com/moca/

 

But sure if you could pull some typical ethernet cable along the same path as your current coax that would be better, since you wouldn't need to buy the moca adapters.

 

If you need more ports for your router, then yeah a simple switch would be used, 8 port gig can for sure be had for the $40 price point.  You can even find smart switches (can do vlans) for that same price point

 

As to the overall question of wiring your house.. yeah this would and will always be a great solution to distribution... For long time to come.. Even when new wireless speeds of ax or even ay... Your going to want a wire stuff..  For one a way to distribute network connectivity to your wireless AP that provide the wifi..

 

Keep in mind that 10gig is currently possible run even on a "home" budget - while it is a bit on the pricey side still for doing it over copper.. That is coming down and with the new bz standard where you can do 2.5 or 5ge over cat 5e..  If you just want it use 10ge as uplink for a few devices.. Doing this with lower cost sfp+ is very doable... You can get a 2 pack of UF-MM-10G from unifi for like $40.. So yeah if you wanted/needed say 10ge from your Pc to your NAS.. it can be done on the cheap for sure..

 

I would do this for sure, and kind of kick myself for my nas choice not being able to add a nic to be able to do it..  But pretty happy with the use of smb3 multi channel with just 2 1ge connections which gets me 220MBps transfer to and from the nas and pc for the cost of $20 nic to add to my pc..

 

So if you really wanted to be "ready" while your running the ethernet cable, you might also want to run some fiber

[goretsky]

Hello,

In the United States, having properly-run and terminated Ethernet cabling through a home can increase its value by several thousand dollar when the house is resold.  I am not sure if that is a consideration, or what the pricing factor might be in the UK, but it could be a point to consider, especially if you are planning on selling the home to move to a bigger one due to the kids, etc.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Shiranui]

I wouldn't bother. Stick with Wifi, then get a nice mesh setup once Wifi 6 becomes mainstream.

[+warwagon]

I Love me some Ethernet. I hardware my computer when ever possible. I can't imagine running my couch computer off wifi. I transfer a lot of data on the couch computer.

[+InsaneNutter]

If you are planning on living there long term I certainly think wiring each room up Cat5e is a benefit.

 

In the computer room I have a 24 port gigabit switch, from here a Cat5e cable is run to a wall point in each room of the house:

 

 

I then have a gigabit switch connected to the wall point in each room, the devices in that room all connect to the gigabit switch.

 

Honestly it's the best thing I ever did. This was done around 12+ years ago, I don't even think the final standards for Wireless N had been decided upon back then, so gigabit vs Wireless G was a no-brainer.

 

I prefer to have everything wired its just a lot more convenient, Wireless technology has improved a lot today, however I think the only thing I have on Wireless is my phone and handheld consoles like the 3DS and Switch (when not docked)

 

In theory I could probably do 10 gigabit in the future as the length of my Cat5e cables are less than 45 meters, although i've not seen the need for this yet. If I was doing this again today i'd probably use Cat6 just to be more future proofed.

 

As for TV i'd sooner network it these days. You might well decide its better to use Plex to stream TV / recordings around your house from a central location in the future for example. I personally think having a network point in each room is far more beneficial than an aerial socket.