Is it a bridging router cable or just a long cat one?
Is it a bridging router cable or just a long cat one?
I have a home network using Mesh. Internet comes into the house via Virgin Media to their router (v3) > TP-Link Deco M4 "master" > (wireless) > Satellite Deco M4 > ethernet cable > my PC. The distance it goes over wireless is about 10m 15m. A metre or so from the first "master" Deco is an in-use Chimney breast. A couple of metres after that (about a third of the total way) is an extension, which has a roof that loves to stop any sort of signal. About half way through there's a small porch, and then finally into the room with my PC in it (but it's long and because of plug sockets, the Deco is right at the back). Here's a rubbish (but the best I have right now) picture: Yellow = Deco units Red = Cable in to house Blue = Possible site for new Deco unit / router There's a couple of things to note: I can't really move either downstairs Decos closer as there are no suitable plug sockets in the room, or the Virgin Media cable simply doesn't come into that part of the house (it would also mean drilling new holes in the house - see below). I can't really wire / drill to/from outside as the way the property is laid out means outside access would just be too difficult. Using existing wiring around the house is a no go as it's old / used it before and had speeds less than 4MB. I get around 10MB as it is now. My connection into the house is 250MB. Attack 1: Get a bridging router and put it in the little porch to act as a booster between the two Decos (or get another Deco unit?). Someone said latency would suck eggs as it would have two hops. I don't online game often, mainly browse the net and use Teams for work. I have an old TalkTalk router from just last year so don't know if that can be utilised some way. Attack 2: Get some flat Cat (what cat would I need?) cable, move the existing Deco hub to the porch area, which should increase speeds. Flat as it would have to travel around 10m before getting to the Deco as there's a bathroom on that side of the room so have to run it round the other way, likely between the carpet and the skirting board. HOWEVER, note to self : could run a flat cable over and around the bathroom door without the Good Lady moaning as it wouldn't be noticable. Attack 3: Put a wireless card in the PC (I thought the motherboard came with it built in but it doesn't), move the Deco to the porch area and see how speed goes then. As we're expecting twins, I have next to no money for this project so Attack 1 is the least likely option. I also need to test as we have a garden that's 23m long. Before, no wifi down the back but since upgrading to Decos, then you can now get internet at the back of the garden but I think that's coming from the third Deco unit that's upstairs. If it is, that's great as I can move the downstairs Deco without loosing internet access in the hosting part of our garden.
Use a special Ethernet cable that isn't thin or flat because regular flat wires aren't strong enough and don't meet the right standards for speed or safety.
Hey, the problem with using a non-flat runner is that I need to put it under a thin carpet. It would roll from the yellow dot down that wall all the way to the light green hallway or porch area, but then I'd have to move to the other side to get into the mauve utility room. I can use a round one normally, but it will look like a big bump if people walk on it unless I run it around the doorway. If I started from where the PC is, I still have to cross over a doorway, which means figuring out how to move it from one room to another again. On the picture, the PC is in Bedroom 1, sitting right opposite the yellow dot. The light blue room is actually a bathroom. The easiest way would be to cut a hole in the wall and run something outside, but we're on a hill so that hole would have to be pretty high up, or it's going in the middle of next door's shed and garden!
If you are okay with running it outside, you can use cable meant for direct burial. It is not much more expensive than normal cable. You just have to bury it deep enough so it doesn't get damaged if you run the house wire inside and want a backup connection. Most mesh systems won't work like that because the remote units talk directly to the main router, and some can even talk to each other but you need to check carefully. I strongly recommend against this method. At best, you might have extra wifi signals in your path plus one coming from the end unit. You will get a big drop in internet speed. If it's just about having no connection versus using repeaters, then repeaters are probably okay. Why not run the ethernet wire up to the attic or basement? Do you have coax cable in both rooms? Maybe that would work. Or you could look at powerline networks; they will likely be slower than 150mbps but it is really easy to install. Still, if your house is long and narrow like many others, you should make sure you choose a place with good support for installation. Although uncommon, there are some houses where powerline doesn't work at all.
Do you actually have an open and shared or easily accessed attic area right there? If no, then I'm strongly in favor of going with the option to run a direct buried cable. Basically, that's what every other choice @bill001g is proposing for us.
That picture won't show up right now, so I'm guessing around here. The internet comes in one corner of the house, but you need to run it through the other side too. Wireless doesn't work well because houses are mostly made of wood and drywall. You really should try running a cable through the wall or another space. If that fails, just look at MOCA, which uses old coaxial cables to act as a bridge for your internet signal.
I did have power lines, but as described before, the speed at which electricity moved was really slow. Probably because my house has old electronics and all the stuff in the back gets its power from a main fuse box outside, then runs through some cable trays into the room on the right side of the plan, where it hits its own switch panel before going to lights and plugs. Coaxial cables go upstairs instead of to that specific room, so they are already out there. I live in the UK with brick walls and no attic or basement for my extension since it's a single-story home. Maybe I'll just leave everything exactly as it is now. It isn't bad by itself, but not great either.
It looks like Attack 1 won't work for me because I could just move the Deco unit next to my router or connect everything with a cable instead. Even though the Decos probably talk to each other, they might not always reach the main router. I'm thinking about running ethernet cables from the main deco all the way to the satellite node. Here is where it looks like: https://static.tp-link.com/upload/faq/Pi...54337d.png Once I do that, I can plug my PC into the satellite node and use ethernet for everything.
The middle picture just pays for things that aren't really needed. The third picture almost shows you that their main unit only runs in router mode. When you run all ethernet cables to those units, you're running a router and an access point at the same time. This is how companies set up wifi back before silly mesh systems were even made. Mesh systems are just used when you need extra connections from repeaters. Cabled APs will be much better than this setup. You can use a regular router as your main router and then buy cheap routers to act as access points. They don't need fancy stuff because they only use wifi radios. If you really want power, say plug them in via ethernet. So called mesh systems give no real advantage over just using a router or an ap. They like to pretend they can let devices roam around freely, but the network itself isn't actually controlling where things connect.