Running ethernet in a townhouse?

I have been reading all day and am not sure of the best option here. I will be moving into a 2 story townhome in September that is not run for Ethernet. It will be a 2 bedroom which I plan on using the spare as an office. The issue I am facing is that I will have some Ethernet based equipment downstairs (smart TV or a Roku) which will have high bandwidth demands that Wi-Fi might not be able to cover.

Has anyone had success in hiding cable without causing too much damage? I don't technically own the walls, so I would have to patch if I drill. Any tips would be nice. Else I guess I will have to pray that Powerline works for my needs.

Thanks

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Comments

paul78

I used to go through the trouble of running cable through my homes, But with the cheap availability of high-bandwitdth bridges, I gave up on running cables in my homes. I use software from dd-wrt to replace the software on Cisco/Linksys SOHO routers so that I don't have to deal with running cables. Works great!!!

NetworkVeteran

I would take another look at Wireless. Ten years ago, I would have understood your situation, but these days wireless can achieve high speeds and reliability as long as you're willing to spend some coin.

sratakhin

Agree here. A $25 router may not be the best choice, but if you are willing to spend like $200, the wireless signal will be really strong. After all, the bottleneck is your Internet connection (most likely), and not the bandwidth between whatever device you happen to use and the router.

ptilsen

Yeah, I had these crazy plans to do this in my new single-family house, but the wireless works well enough that it really isn't necessary. I may do it to certain rooms one day anyone, and I definitely still see utility, but I'd recommend you take a step back and consider whether you really need this.

SteveLord

Wifi on Roku will work just fine. Don't do ethernet just to do ethernet.

Asif Dasl

Don't forget you can use HomePlugs/PowerLine adapters too, but as others have said 802.11ac runs at Gigabit these days which makes it a lot less messy option.

tpatt100

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Don't forget you can use HomePlugs/PowerLine adapters too, but as others have said 802.11ac runs at Gigabit these days which makes it a lot less messy option.

That is what I use to stream media from my machine upstairs to my Apple TV. I have a switch in the entertainment center and my game consoles, TiVo, and Apple TV are plugged into the switch and the switch is hooked up to the Powerline adapter.

Mike-Mike

i used to be a telephone man, and I can tell you running wiring in a Townhouse suuuuuucks if possible at all. Roku has solid wifi.

About7Narwhal

Whatever happened to the Ethernet is always the best option mentality? I AM AFRAID OF WI-FI! Latency will keep me from nailing those awesome headshots and watching ultimate HD. And God forbid I get a "Buffering..." when trying to watch YouTube.

On a serious note, if you guys think a Wi-Fi router will suffice, I will give it a shot. I will have to buy a new router either way anyway. Now I will have to spend hours finding the best AC router... heard a lot of them are plagued with firmware bugs. Anyway, Thanks for the help.

NetworkVeteran

Don't feel confined to AC. Many Wireless N products have measured throughputs far exceeding any common consumer DSL/cable connection. The key, for me, is buying a device that is extremely reliable.

DevilWAH

I agree N will deliver in excess of 250mbs bandwidth.

And consider this that the latency between my laptop and wireless router is <1ms compared to an average of 20ms to Google and amazon servers.

While only 4 or 5 years back I would have considered wiring a house, these days its just not worth it, the gains are so small now. In fact for our new builds at work we are putting in less cables and using wireless and going completely wireless for all voice and data. In fact in the labs there wont be a single hardwired device for the users.

I think in the last few years Wireless has almost drawn level with Wired in terms of performance at the access layer. Your not going to use it for inter-server communication in a low latency server farm.

I would say go for N (AC needs some time to bed in before I would go for any home AC router), a few repeaters if needed to cover any weak spots.

petedude

SteveLord wrote: »

Wifi on Roku will work just fine. Don't do ethernet just to do ethernet.

Anybody remember the security aspect of all this? If you want to do anything personal at all, wouldn't Ethernet cabling be more secure?

Asif Dasl

petedude wrote: »

Anybody remember the security aspect of all this? If you want to do anything personal at all, wouldn't Ethernet cabling be more secure?

Use GRC Random Password Generator and use WPA2 and he should be fine. It's just a pain to enter on a phone or tablet.

DevilWAH

Nah, set up wireless right and its just as secure as a hardwired connection.

in fact by default wired is run un-encrypted whilst wireless is encrypted from the end point. Do your due diligence, and unless you have the likes of the government or hacker personally focucing on you. Your data is safe as if you run over wire, possible more so.

Put it this way, how many news stories have you hear where wireless encryption was used as an exploit, in a malicious attack.

About7Narwhal

I would be manually allocating IP addresses and adding MAC addresses for my devices anyway. That is just a personal preference of mine regardless of where I live. I would only be adding them via my desktop through ethernet. I am not too concerned about security. It does people no good to figure out my WPA2 key when there are no addresses to be allocated for communication on the network. Plus, I generally turn off remote configuration first thing. If you are not connected directly you cannot modify settings.*

I do appreciate the though though, as I noticed 3 or 4 unsecured networks while I was doing the walkthrough of the Townhouse. Sad state of affairs.

* Note that I am aware that if someone has a will, they will find a way.

datacomboss

The Sonicwall controller-based APs along with a TZ210 firewall works great for me at my house. I have a few Axis IP cameras and a couple of Cisco VoIP phones too.

MeatCatalogue

I had a $60 router with just N300 (cisco e3000) and pulled about 80Mbit 3 rooms away, several walls, etc. I used this for recording full HD cable (about 25Mbit per channel) to my living room HTPC and a silicondust HDHomerun Prime. I would occasionally get drop outs/garbage on the screen if I were recording 3 channels at once (up to 75mbit) but it mostly worked just fine.

Roku and stuff uses far far far less bandwidth. I think netflix even tops out at 8Mbit/sec maybe?

My rec is with wireless as well. Even a $50 router running dd-wrt will most likely work so long as the signal is strong enough. If not, get a repeater/bridge in the mix and you'll be fine.

Regarding ac routers, keep in mind that they are great but ac adapters are still around $100.. not the most economical solution.

exampasser

You could also get an amplifier to boost your signal, abit pricy though:

Amazon.com: Patuoxun 2W Wifi Wireless Broadband Amplifier Router 2.4Ghz Power Range Signal Booster: Everything Else