Wired ethernet connection from Upstairs to Downstairs router.

[th0r0n]

Hi guys,

I live in a shared house, and I have an upstairs bedroom with the router and cable broadband modem downstairs...

I currently use 11g Wireless (On a WRT54GL with Tomato, if that's important) but I like to play games online, and watch stuff on my Xbox 360 that's streamed on my PC, and 11g just isn't cutting it, so I'd quite like to get a wired connection going.

As the property is rented, I'd quite like a solution that's not particularly visible, but the cable has to run to the back of my bedroom, over a landing, and across a ceiling, through a door and down to the router by the door. Is it possible to get flat CAT5 cable?

I've looked at Homeplugs too, but they're too expensive, and they don't sound that good.

Also, would I be better off running 2 cables down to the router, or just one connection with a switch/hub? I'm not too hot at networking!

There is an alternative, that I get a phone lined based connection (Which is still downstairs, but I can run cable a lot more conspicuously from the location of the phone line). But obviously I'd have to pay for my own line then.

Thanks a lot.

T

[Templar87]

I've never seen flat cat5 cable, but a quick google shows it exists. Looks pretty expensive, and not really all that much less obvious than normal cat5.

I've only ever used a homeplug system and it was *useless* (to the point of not working at all) although I'm sure others have had better experiences.

Definitely best running two cables while you can - if you use it later, great, if not you'll have only wasted an extra few minutes.

[peterb]

Cat 5e cable isn't that much thicker than telephone cable (and some phone installations use Cat5 anyway. You can tack the cable to the top of skirting boards, hide it at the edge of carpets, tack it down the side of stairs. Really you need to look at the options.

A cable tacker makes for a neater job and aren't too expensive.

Two cables would be better - if the router has sufficient ports, however you want to minimise the visual impact, so a single cable and a 5 port switch might be a visually more acceptable solution. Cat 5e contains 4 twisted pairs - only two of which are used for a 100Mb/s connection, so you could break out the two pairs and use one cable that way, but I wouldn't really recommend that - better to use a switch - they are pretty inexpensive these days anyway.

[GringoFrenzy]

Just to throw my two-penneth into the pot....

A year ago, I had a similar problem regarding my router being the exact opposite side of the house to my bedroom, to the point that wireless wasn't working (I swear my room is a black hole or something), and I wasn't able to run a cable down.

Anyway, I took to using an 85mbps homeplug setup (which runs at about 65mpbs on my home power lines), whereby I had one plug down by the router, and the other in my room connected to a 5 port netgear switch. I then have my everyday PC, media centre, xbox 360, and Wii connected into the switch.
Now in fairness, I don't stream a lot of media across the network, I mostly use it for gaming (which is flawless) and internet browsing, however the guys downstairs have occasionally streamed DivX files from my media centre and it's been perfectly fine.....even whilst playing online games. Obviously if there were a lot of concurrent users it would be a different story, but if you're the only one that will be using the power lines for data, I personally think you'll be fine.

Obviously, if you intend to stream HD video, you'll need the higher spec homeplug setups which do cost a fair whack more.