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We're retired, not gamers, use internet for TV streaming, Alexa, and browsing using tablets, laptop and phones. Nothing heavy. I have a 2000 square foot house with the Google fiber router in a closet behind doors. It's a small house.
The biggest problem is that we use our smart phones in the house with wifi - NOT 4G. The house is so well insulated that 4G is darn near useless. The phone calls using wifi are dropping and patchy.
It is odd that you cannot make a single router cover your house. As you said, it is small. Walls and insulation should not be that big of a problem. Is your router at least 5' off the floor?
One thing to be aware of - all WiFi connections are full duplex, meaning both sides transmit. Cell phones and laptops have weak transmitters - about 35mW compared to 200-400 for a router. So the problem is not that the router signal is weak, it is that the cell phone wifi signal is too weak for the router to pick up.
I don't understand all that you said, but I did speed tests using my smart phone and tablet, using 4 different places in my home, and repeated it on two different speed test sites (including the Google fiber site).
The speeds do vary from location to location. What really confuses me is that I can sit in the same chair, using the same device, using the Google fiber speed test site, and get different results. I'm doing one test then immediately doing it again. The variance is mostly in the upload speed - as much as 40mbps.
The reason for those big fluctuations is above my head. Can anyone help?
I THINK I understand running Ethernet cables - but how would that work from a closer in the laundry room to the other end of the house?
I think those mesh extenders are a very expensive solution to the problem of getting a signal from one end of the house to another.
1) Powerline network extenders take advantage of the fact that all houses have electrical wiring. The problem is that a normal home does not have a power wires that extend in unbroken lengths, they go in and out of fuse boxes. You almost always end up with noise.
2) MOCA is the same thing as powerline network extenders except you are using coaxial cable as your medium. MOCA is designed for people who want to use coaxial cable that was installed in the walls when the home was built. If you don't already have coaxial, it is easier and cheaper just to install your own ethernet wire. The signal is at a different frequency than television, so the internet and TV signas do not interfere with each other. Just like Powerline, you normally need pairs of devices to turn the internet signal into a MOCA signal and then back again.
3) Mesh wifi extenders are often unnecessary because you really don't need a perfect wifi signal in every corner of your home. Sometimes an extra wifi access point for about $30 is all you really need to get a good signal in one particular valuable location.
4) I try to purchase items that have an ethernet connection even if they cost a little more than devices that only have wifi connections. For instance, a Roku Ultra is $79.99 and is the companies most expensive streaming device, but it is the only with an ethernet port. Our home has 9 rooms on the first floor and all of them either have holes drilled in the floor for cables, or I use the space near a radiator pipe.
These Jacks ($3.27 apiece at Home Depot) are the easiest way to terminate category 5e network cable as they don't require your to purchase a crimper (they come with a cheap plastic punchdown device). They can be attached to an in wall plate if you want to get fancy.
Patch cable is tempting since you don't have to do your own terminations. (1) It can be a lot more expensive, and (2) you have to drill much bigger holes in the floor to get the plug through.
If you do decide to crimp your own terminations then as a novice get the "pass through" connectors as it is much more difficult to make an error. The video show the regular "non pass through" connectors. The Amazon link shows "pass through" connectors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3jrHElvfqw
That's not 'fancy', that's how it should be done. What, you have plugs just coming up from the floor with all the holes you drilled in your house?
yes I do.
I took a picture where from behind a cabinet where I have four power cords (TV, Speaker, DVD player & lamp) and an ethernet cord coming through a hole in the floor (my fingers are holding back the carpet).
My router is old and cheap as is my modem (both from circa 2013).
I am not saying you have to use these terminations, I am simply saying they are the easiest to work with if you have no special equipment
And if you want to get fancy, they are designed to snap into wall plates.
You can get wall plates for less than $1, but you have to dig into the wall to run the wires. As my walls are plaster that is sometimes difficult and messy to do.
A surface mount is also an option
Last edited by PacoMartin; 01-27-2020 at 07:23 PM..
Paco, do it right and put some damn jacks on the walls. Plaster, schmaster. Do it right or don't do it! It'll sure be nice if you ever sell the house.
I'm not so sure I agree. In every room in my house I have outmoded wall jacks of various types that are useless.
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