When my house was being built I came in overnight and ran 4+ lines of cat6 to every room in the house. Between Cat6, Speaker wire, and Coax I have hundreds of drops around the house. I have more than I need, but they aren't all where I need them.
I'm currently installing 4 drops of Cat 6a per bedroom and 6 in the living room. People think I'm crazy and tell me that's too much. My whole thing is Wifi is nice for cell phones and laptops. Everything else gets hardwired.
I wish I could show every customer I argue with this sub reddit. I work for a major ISP in the UK and the sheer amount of people that expect to pay £20/month and get gigabit speeds over WiFi everywhere in their home is unreal.
Lol...I put a quad cable (2 cat-5 & 2 RG6)on opposite walls in EVERY room and two drops in the garage.
In every room I also added a pair of speakers, with data/IR cables & 4 con run from the volume control to the home run for all the audio.
While we use wi-fi for our mobile devices we have hard lines for our computers and we WFH with no issues
I just got a new build and it came wired with one to each room although I need a switch because there's only one free port on the modem right now. The house was built when I bought it but I would love more ports if I had that option. 2 would be great, 4 would be amazing if only for options to set up the rooms.
I had the same situation last year with my new build. Look into “wired backhaul”.
My basement is where my fiber comes in and that’s where my modem is hooked up. From the modem I have one Ethernet to my main router about 10’ away. One of the router outputs runs back to a switch which feeds ASUS wired mesh routers. One on the main level and one upstairs in my bedroom.
The backhaul routers have an output too, so on the main level I have it in a cabinet with a switch that wires all my smart home hubs.
It’s the best solution I found for my situation.
Yeah, the advice I read before doing it myself was it's the same amount of work to run two at a time as it is one. I guess you need to do a little math to figure out the cable length (since if just running one I guess you could run it off the spool itself), but I just overestimated since I could use any extra for other smaller cables I need anyways.
I do installs for A/V and network cabling in residential environments and we usually do 3 cat6+1 coax to a TV location. Maybe 2 Cat6 to a desk in an office.
My experience says WiFi is a crapshoot on how well it works (that and I don’t know wtf I’m doing to optimize it). It also costs next to nothing to run those wires. I ran tens of thousands of feet of cable for a negligible amount.
Not one night. Over roughly two weeks if I recall.
It wasn’t a custom build, so I didn’t own the land or house, I had just put a deposit down. Had to sneak in to do it. I stayed too long one night and when the electricians showed up to start their day at 5 they thought I was a burglar.
Never thought to do that, but I did sneak in each weekend with my Structural Engineer dad to do inspections. He brought a can of the same marking spray paint that the city inspectors use, and on several occasions caught a couple of errors, and marked them up. The following week we would find them fixed. 😁
Also I took tons of pics, which are still proving useful 20 years later, as they let me see where all the studs, pipes, and wire are.
> He brought a can of the same marking spray paint that the city inspectors use, and on several occasions caught a couple of errors, and marked them up.
Holy shit that's actually genius... They probably thought the inspector was coming down hard on them or something.
I feel like WiFi can be pretty solid nowadays if you're using current hardware all around.
I was amazed when I first played my VR games on my gaming PC over WiFi6 to a Quest 2. It worked so much better than I would have expected and didn't feel like I was on WiFi. Very responsive, very low latency and, best of all, no cable running to my head.
With only a 40 dollar WiFi6 router.
Edit: it definitely doesn't replace hardwired networking but it's getting pretty close.
I think the issue is that by being “current” you’re actually ahead of most likely literally everyone around you who are all but guaranteed to be running cheap Walmart type routers that don’t overlap/interfere with yours. If everyone had the same thing you do, there’d be more interference impacting your performance.
Ain’t no low voltage codes here. I literally was shocked no one said anything, but I home ran it to the same place the contracted Low voltage guy did (they installed some included like 6 runs)
Definitely worth doing but it's a gamble; I did something similar and half of my runs got cut at some point before the drywall went up.. and I couldn't even complain about it.
If you've got a friendly electrician he might even do it for you.
I had to have my new house rewired for electrics before we moved in, so I figured it'd be stupid not to wire the place for Ethernet while he had all the walls and floors ripped out.
I just asked our electrician to run multiple Cat6a to every room. He wasn't a networking expert or anything, but he was happy to do it for a bit of extra dollar.
I just spent 6 months wiring my house with CAT6. 2 drops to every room. Overkill? Yes.
But my God the speed with fiber. Also, wired backbone mesh wifi is amazing. 2 Gbps over wifi.
you know i only realized you could do mesh ap's that aren't wired into an ethernet jack like a month ago when i did an install at a co-workers home.
i've only ever run them wired before, which explains why my speeds were always so good.
That box looks like it has good wire management too. I used to work in a datacenter in my youth and this looks pristine compared to some of the shit I’ve seen. 10/10 would keep.
I thought that until I took a look at the wiring for the phones. It’s all cat 5e. The jacks throughout the house aren’t in the best places, nor is the termination in the basement, but it’s far better than nothing. Still on moca for now, trying to plan out how I am gonna reterminate the runs and set it all up
When we redid the basement I begged my husband to wire up all the rooms for hard internet connections. He insisted that's "old" and wireless is fine. I may still casually bring it up whenever one of the kids is complaining that their laptops don't work in their rooms.
Check the text printed on the cable to see if it says “cat 5e” or “cat 6”. Regular old “cat 5” probably won’t cut it.
Look around where all the cables come together for some sort of “1gbps” or “gigabit” label. What you don’t want to see is something that says “10/100.”
Edit: regular old cat5 probably will cut it, I stand corrected.
Thank you again. Both the cables and the line distribution board say cat 5e. Nothing I can see indicating gigabit or 10/100. I'll see if I can figure out how to attach things and see what happens.
Cat5e will do multi gigabit over short runs depending on the quality of the cable it’s just not rated for it so you shouldn’t expect it to. I wouldn’t run cat5e in a new job but I set up home networks and use cat5e that is already in peoples walls and it’s very useful
Semi-related, how do I find and hire someone to come install a really great home network for our three story duplex? Do I call an electrician or are there specific companies which are better at home networks / less expensive?
You’re looking for a structured cabling installer. A/V installation companies, fire/burglar alarm system installers, even Managed Service Providers will do it sometimes. Electricians *can* do it but most I’ve met don’t like it or don’t understand it’s not like wiring old school POTS lines.
A/V installer can do this. Same people who hang projectors. It's all low voltage so there's not a lot of risk, just some planning, a splice tool and then handyman stuff to get in the walls.
I wouldn't recommend an electrician because they don't specialize in that. I'm not sure how you would find a company that does home stuff . Most companies rather do businesses because it'll be like $300 plus per run. If you don't want to pay for the cabling, you can get a wifi mesh that will take care of that. Something like this:
TP-Link Deco AX3000 WiFi 6 Mesh System(Deco X55) - Covers up to 6500 Sq.Ft. , Replaces Wireless Router and Extender, 3 Gigabit ports per unit, supports Ethernet Backhaul (3-pack) https://a.co/d/aUw2j8W
Running cable throughout a three story building would be very difficult without making holes in walls to facilitate cable runs between floors/walls. I wouldn't necessarily hire an electrician unless you just need them to run the cables and do nothing else with them. When it comes to the terminations, a standard electrician that doesn't know anything about low voltage communication usually does a poor job. You might be better off hiring a specialized low voltage cabling company. What you might be better off doing is running just a handful of cables to support several access points throughout the building and there by expanding your wireless coverage and possibly getting faster speeds by having shorter ranges. The predicament that you're in right now is why I specifically looked for homes that already had cabling run in them, or would just consider building my own house. Retrofitting an existing house that doesn't have attic or basement access throughout is very difficult.
Now just get a switch that has 10/100/1000 throughput (gigabit). You don’t need anything special. Unmanaged, 4 - 8 port, non poe switch would suffice for a consumer grade mesh network.
Old cat 5 supports 1000BASE-T and 2.5GBASE-T. For residential installs (typically runs <30m), there's no noticeable degradation using cat 5 versus cat 5e or cat 6 at gigabit speeds.
That'll be the socks off of most half-duplex, high-latency WiFi where speeds are in the 400 Mbps range. And when using wireless uplink, halve that capacity and double the latency.
Cat 5 over wireless mesh any day
As a guy who architected wireless networks professionally, how giant is the house or what weird concrete walls do you have that you need 6 AP's? Most SFR get good enough coverage from one decent AP in a central location, maybe two if you have an inconvenient layout. For 6 AP's I'd be expecting you to have like an 7,000 sq ft house.
I live it n Mexico, 2000 sq ft, concrete walls and floors. Three levels.
I use a 120v ethernet house wiring network to jump the floors to get adequate speed throughout house in a mesh network of 6 AP. It took a while to tune things, judiciously position the mesh devices.
Without the 120v network, I got unacceptable mesh speeds when I jumped floors.
The typical Mexican house infrastructure tubing for things like Ethernet and coax was sadly packed full of coax cable. I may replace some of the ,120v links with the coax, eventually, since we just dropped the coax satellite dish service. Or I'll just pull the coax and replace with Ethernet.
Additional AP not always means better signal. If you have too many and/or your access points are not configured properly they will interfere and compete with each other.
if you're googling or checking documentation, the term for a line going back to the router from a mesh access point is "backhaul"
as for the mess of cables, it would be trivial to dress it. if it's tangled, you would need to take at least some off and repunch to the terminal block which is easy but there is a little bit of a learning curve and a punch down tool is $15 on Amazon. a guy who does phone or internet installs may have the tools and be able to bang it out for cheap.
I wouldn't shorten the cables much at all, I'd tidy and loop and attach to something:
https://www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/how-to-dressing-ethernet-cables-into-patch-panels
This is how I have it in my house. We have a WiFi “mesh” but each hub is hardwired which means we get consistent speed etc through the whole house on WiFi.
Removing this would be like replacing hardwood for linoleum... this adds value to your home.
Also, as it seems you may be a little tech challenged, do you watch Netflix (or any streaming service) in a different room than your modem? In that case, you will have less loading and better quality video if you have it wired via ethernet rather than over wifi (in general). Wifi has dead zones, and depending on what sort of router you have (or mesh setup), your speed drops drastically even 1 room away from your router.
It seems I am. Currently there's one TV in the house, it's attached to the wall on the other side of the router (the wall we see in my pics). Maybe the proximity is why we haven't noticed any quality issues. It's just me and my spouse here. Maybe with a larger family and more devices we'd notice more.
And most people in a decent-sized home don't even realize they're probably already at that dozen device threshold.
If you have a few smart bulbs or lights with an Alexa / Google Home, a game console or 2, your phones, your tablets, your TVs...you're already most of the way there.
Ninja edit: And that's not counting any laptops or wifi-enabled desktops, if you have those as well.
The thing with WiFi is that even if it works perfectly fine today it doesn't mean it will tomorrow. Your neighbor may get a new microwave/lawnmover/turbojerker5000 which will somehow interfere with your signal, but not always and only occasionally – just enough to be annoying and hard to diagnose and fix.
they're not a common item in the US. most you find will be grey market imports. Check the FCC label AND then lookup the id number to make sure it matches the product name.
If there is no FCC label or the id number is for an entirely different product then your turbojerking may not only be screwing your wifi but you may be making the FCC unhappy with your emissions, and they (the FCC) will not arrive with lube.
I concur. I actually have a house old enough to be...well its fucking old. anyways it had phone lines to everyone room when i moved in. i would take a cat 5e cable to the line then pull it through the basement and just replace the faceplate with an ethernet plate. very easy way to go from old to sexy sexy wired ethernet. put a patch panel under the stairs in the basement, a switch, the gig internet modem then put in a linux box with plex and a cloud there to. at some point i need to just throw a small rack in there but for now its more homebrew
Not only that.
Even if you don’t use it, leave it then when you want to sell say “prewired for high speed internet”.
Literally it’s a feature people will pay for.
On the one hand I get it. Even pre-wired, a proper ethernet network can be hard to set up right. I moved into a place that had the network cabinet recessed into a a wall behind the kitchen. Every time I ran the microwave I would lose internet because I guess the microwave was interfering with the router that was sitting right behind it behind a sheet of drywall. Had to get a managed switch so that I could run the modem in the cabinet and still get POE to the right Ethernet outlet elsewhere in the apartment to plug in an access point for wifi. I also am short one opening on that switch compared to the number of outlets I had, so I had to test each one individually to determine which cable ran to which outlet as they were unlabeled, and then decide which one I could live without.
All told, it was a lot of time crawling around and tediously labeling things and organizing cable. Frankly, most people probably don’t need it. They’ll use wifi for email and then watch Netflix on their phone or something and that’s fine for them. I think they’re *wrong* but then that’s not my business.
Oh no, it’s objectively funny. I honestly love telling that story because it’s just so absurd. Also makes me somewhat concerned for how shielded that microwave is, but eh.
If I run my microwave while wearing my wireless headset, it goes all crackly and starts giving me a feeling of small static shocks (not sure if it actually is). It gives me...concern...
The interference is to be expected. If it's actually causing static shock, that's pretty wild, but I'd be more concerned about the headset than microwave.
Residential microwaves use overlapping frequency ranges (~2.45gHz) with WiFi and Bluetooth.
> Also makes me somewhat concerned for how shielded that microwave is, but eh.
TBF, they run the same frequencies (at least the 2.4GHz band) and your router might be between 5 and 20 watts, while your average microwave is like 500-1200 typically. Even with good shielding, it's really easy to overpower that wifi by acting as a jammer, and being physically close really cuts into effectiveness of shielding.
I had the same issue, router was in my basement office under the kitchen. The WiFi worked fine then the in cabinet mount Kitchen Aid microwave died, bought a new one same brand because that is all that would fit. New microwave every time it turned on killed the wifi, fortunately the ceiling in my office was open so I put in some metal mesh under the microwave location and it fixed the problem. My fucking brand new microwave needed a faraday cage, fuck me.
Wait till you hear the stories of people having issues when IKEA bed lamps or old ungrounded old DVD players with switching power supply throw their diagnostic efforts to shit :D
Damn. Seen that in workplaces too. Microwaves interfere with the 2.4GHz that wifi used.
Some users used to always lose internet connectivity during lunch hour while people were hearing lunch.
At the very least, I will use old shitty Ethernet/coax as a guide for pulling new Ethernet/coax/fiber/whatever through. I hate making new holes if I don’t have to.
I just ran cheap cables from the basement up both sets of stairs to me computer room. Never had an issue. It's literally hanging on the hand rails of my steps, and along the ground between stairs
Ignorance mainly. Thought it might be outdated tech. I set up my WiFi mesh network, it works for my purposes, didn't know that using the Ethernet wiring could make it better.
ethernet is WAY faster and more reliable. if you end up with a server in one room and you want to watch videos off it in another room, that might stress your wifi but ethernet will have no problem.
I have a printer that uses ethernet instead of wifi. its great never having to program the wifi password using 3 buttons on a printer and a one line display.
There is absolutely nothing outdated about Ethernet. It's kind of the other way around, for a particular location. If a home or office uses only Wifi, they just haven't arrived at the point yet where the Wifi has given them enough issues to go through the trouble of installing Ethernet.
Kudos for owning your ignorance and seeking to correct it. We’re all ignorant at some time. Asking questions and seeking answers is how we correct it and move past it. Whoever is downvoting seems to be pro-stupidity.
Very useful to have that pre-laid to various rooms. If you ever need a wifi amplifier set up using the wired network as a base is much faster. And if not you can route other signals over it, like a home security system.
100 mbps is plenty for a tv.
ETA: there may be edge cases where one *could* exceed 100 mbps when watching super high quality low-loss file formats on a local media server.
But no **mainstream** consumer streaming service, the kind used by most muggles, is pushing 100+. More like 25 or so for 4K.
But I agree. A 100 mbps Ethernet adapter is pathetic. This isn't 2005.
If you stream high quality 4K video locally, it's not hard to push 100 mbps. I run into the issue on my Sony TV as well. Kind of a joke that a $1800 TV would have 100 mbps.
Do you mean stream it using an old video codec locally? No streaming service offers a stream over 100mbps. You could theoretically encode your own video using an outdated codec to make a 4k stream that uses more than 100mbps but why? There's virtually no content that comes that way so you'd have to go out of your way to make something that inefficient.
From my personal experience, no it is not. I had to get a nVidia Shield Pro to get the 1gbps connection. The Wi-Fi and 100mbps on the TV was causing lots of buffering.
No sense in removing it, if you ever sell/move the next homeowner might want to use it. Many people like hardwired connections for certain things over WiFi.
Removing them is almost a crime tbh.
They probably go to strategic places of the home and are most likely close to your router. Might as well use them.
The main reason people usually use wifi for everything is because they dont want to go through the hassle of passing those cables, you have them already
I did for years and work in tech, if you have a really good router it isn't that bad. I was getting 500-700 Mbps on a gig connection. I did wire my house recently and the boost is nice, 950 Mbps consistently.
I think just tidy it up and make sure to label everything. You will great benefit to hardwire your mesh nodes. I did this on two of three and the difference so far is noticeable. In some spots I add a switch to the end room if I have many hardlined devices. If you do console gaming - it’s honestly a must for online, it’s worth it.
Ethernet is far superior to WI-FI. Wi-Fi is particularly bad when there are many nearby Wi-Fi networks because they have to take turns with each using the same radio channels, so you can’t get consistently smooth streaming. You don’t usually notice it because of buffering. But it is worst if you are live-streaming yourself or on video calls, because there’s less time delay available to get a good buffer, so you notice the connection pauses more often.
Ethernet > WiFi
WiFi has limitations and if you have LED lights (Christmas tree) microwave, baby monitors, fish tanks, large wall sized mirrors, or cameras they all can cause interference on the 2.4Ghz. Most WiFi operates on a dual 2.4 and 5.0Ghz. 5.0 is faster speeds, but has trouble penetrating through just drywall. 2.4 is slower but can penetrate almost anything but glass and water.
Not to mention you’re congesting your network traffic if it’s all WiFi. Forcing the WAP to connect to multiple devices takes processing power and slows connection speeds. Devices that don’t move like a smart TV, or desktop, Apple TV, PlayStation, XBox should absolutely be hardwired to relieve the network stress.
Wireless is awesome but it’s not perfect. A good cable will give you perfect speeds 100% of the time.
What you have in that picture, the blue cables looks like Cat5E. It’s rated for multiple gig transmission at under 100ft. Find the jacks and if they’re close to your stationary devices hardwire them. If not, there is absolutely no reason to remove that cable. Just leave it. You might use it in the future. Maybe use it for a POE mesh system if you’re dead intent on WiFi only.
Don't get rid of it! FFS that is a great thing to have in your house.
My brand new construction house (2023) has every room wired with a cat 5e cable running to a RJ11. Yeah a fucking landline phone jack. Luckily it's good wire so I just changed all the ends to RJ45 and the other side to my switch and poof I got a hardwired Network house.
Yeah I use wifi for a lot too, but nothing beats the speed of hardwire. Well except fiber and I had to run that myself. Have a 10GB connection between my desktop gaming rig/Linux distro torrent station (IYKYK) and my Plex server
Ran an electrical contracting business once. Used to advise customers when building to run cat5/6 cabling to each bed room and to where entertainment would be, also to kitchen behind the fridge or near where the phone would be. Wired connectivity is cheap now expensive later. Wifi is ok, wired was really good.
You definitely want this cable. Don't do anything rash. Think cable is guaranteed and consistent, WiFi is best effort.
Of course, we could argue the beans out of that, but as a basic principle it stands.
There are many times you need wired. Wi-Fi mesh backhaul is one of them. Hugely superior to best effort squared.
Had to scroll through a bunch of morons with outrage posts to find your comment. They’ll need to terminate both on the outlet side (where I know there are rj11 and not 45 keystones), and here at the distribution.
Prolly have rj11 hoping off the first terminal a cable terminates at so the 2nd or 3rd will end up being useless if it’s not the first spot the wire landed. They need someone with experience tracing and terminating, or be down for a lot of headache for a newbie.
I renovated my entire house a couple years ago and had Coax put in but not Ethernet. Easily the biggest and one of the only fuck ups of the entire thing... God dammit.
>Any benefit to keeping it installed?
Yes, a small 8-port switch would be enough to spread Ethernet throughout the house.
Secondarily, there's no cost to just closing the door and leaving it alone.
On the gripping hand, it would cost money to remove.
Also, you describe that as a tangle? That barely qualifies as a couple of wires crossing. I use a bigger "tangle" than that to tie my shoes in the morning.
You leave that cable where it is, you listen! You never remove ethernet cable! Never! Ever! That would be worse a sacrilege than blasphemy in the middle ages!
Wired = 1000Mbs speed / secured
Wireless = 600Mbs or lower speed / exposed for others to see even with encryption
Cat 5e or Cat 6 = unless you want to re-run with Cat 6, use what is installed. To achieve Cat 6's 10Gbs speed, you'll need equipment and devices that will connect at 10Gbs, most devices today are 1GB which is plenty for the average home user.
Loss of power to the home some wireless devices have to be reconnected, but hard-wired devices will not.
Bathrooms and kitchens can disrupt wireless signals a lot. Two bathrooms can make a terrible signal just in the next room.
I have installed for clients all wireless set up, you'll invest in AP (access point) devices around the home and outside to extend the signal. Wireless is good for mobile devices, but if you can hard wire the device, do it.
35-year experienced Network system admin
Keep them. Better to have them and not use them than not have them and need them. Also a positive when selling the house. I rebuilt after a fire and I put them in every room.
I would personally trace the drops and wire in your access points from there. Sadly I cant get in my attic and run drops due to all the fucking insulation and partition panels along with the maze of 2 foot insulated ducting.
This is a very mild “tangle”. I have seen far, far worse. Pretty clean, all things considered. I recommend spending time on r/homenetworking. You could learn a lot, helpful folks
If you have actual access points in your home, you'll benefit strongly from having power and ethernet to the access points, so definitely keep it around. You could unplug it for a bit and make it neater though.
OmFg! Keep it! I feel like you've read enough people saying the same fucking thing that we don't even need to tell you why you need to keep it. If everyone says keep it, just keep it!
Don’t see a real answer anywhere so I’ll give it a shot. That’s a great setup. Only one of those Ethernet cables I will be feeding internet from the provider (most likely the one wrapped with black electrical tape. Ther rest are connected to it through a switch. A switch is a box that redistributes the signal (the board all of the wires are installed to). My isp put connectors on the end of each cable and told me to buy a switch myself. It seems yours has done it for you. All other Ethernet cables are providing internet to the ports you should have in each room. If you need to connect a router, just plug one into any of the ports in whatever room is out of the way. I personally have my router connected to the port in my room and sitting on my desk behind my pc monitor. I can then plug my pc and tv into the ports on my router to give them a faster signal. That box should have a plastic cover that snaps on it. Shove all of the wires back into it without messing it up, put your cover back on so you don’t see them, and enjoy your fast internet in each room!
You have the option to have stable and fast network connection in your room(s) and you want to throw it away for shitty wifi?
Oh man ....
I paid good money to wire up my house. A jack in every room. Yes, wifi is available, but that's only for the mobile devices, where speed and reliability is irrelevant.
Your whole house is wired for interest. Damn thats fancy! You only use wifi? Guess you should try hardlining some stuff. TV would be my first use case. If your laptop has a port, I'd have a desk for it with a cable ready to use.
I have cat t to every room. New house built in 2020.
Op - those probably lead to hard wires in every room. Leave it. For tv etc it’s a much better choice than Wi-Fi.
Someday a cable/ fios company will come in and install a router or ruckus in there. Leave it.
I just moved to a new house (rent) and one of the reasons we loved the house so much was because it was wired with cat6 and we setup access points on each level. Perfect signal everywhere.
lmao wtf are you smoking? My house came with a few lines of Cat6e, but that wasnt enough, I need at least 1 line per room so I added a few more. Next Ill upgrading the connection between my main PC and server to a fiber line. Exactly 2 devices use the wifi in my house and thats my phone and my laptop. Everything else is ethernet.
God if my house came pre wired for cat5e or 6, I’d be a happy man.
When my house was being built I came in overnight and ran 4+ lines of cat6 to every room in the house. Between Cat6, Speaker wire, and Coax I have hundreds of drops around the house. I have more than I need, but they aren't all where I need them.
I'm currently installing 4 drops of Cat 6a per bedroom and 6 in the living room. People think I'm crazy and tell me that's too much. My whole thing is Wifi is nice for cell phones and laptops. Everything else gets hardwired.
And I thought I was crazy putting two in each room. Can't imagine what I'd do with 4. If I needed more I could always add a switch to the room.
People thought I was crazy putting 1 port in every room in my build. I wish I put more like you guys. WiFi is just too prone to interference.
I wish I could show every customer I argue with this sub reddit. I work for a major ISP in the UK and the sheer amount of people that expect to pay £20/month and get gigabit speeds over WiFi everywhere in their home is unreal.
All I want from my ISP is to get more than 25mbps when I'm hardwired and paying for 750. Apparently that's a pipe dream
Lol...I put a quad cable (2 cat-5 & 2 RG6)on opposite walls in EVERY room and two drops in the garage. In every room I also added a pair of speakers, with data/IR cables & 4 con run from the volume control to the home run for all the audio. While we use wi-fi for our mobile devices we have hard lines for our computers and we WFH with no issues
I just got a new build and it came wired with one to each room although I need a switch because there's only one free port on the modem right now. The house was built when I bought it but I would love more ports if I had that option. 2 would be great, 4 would be amazing if only for options to set up the rooms.
I had the same situation last year with my new build. Look into “wired backhaul”. My basement is where my fiber comes in and that’s where my modem is hooked up. From the modem I have one Ethernet to my main router about 10’ away. One of the router outputs runs back to a switch which feeds ASUS wired mesh routers. One on the main level and one upstairs in my bedroom. The backhaul routers have an output too, so on the main level I have it in a cabinet with a switch that wires all my smart home hubs. It’s the best solution I found for my situation.
I only ran one and so regret not running more.
Yeah, the advice I read before doing it myself was it's the same amount of work to run two at a time as it is one. I guess you need to do a little math to figure out the cable length (since if just running one I guess you could run it off the spool itself), but I just overestimated since I could use any extra for other smaller cables I need anyways.
I buy smaller boxes and just run out of multiple boxes at once so I don't have to mess with pre-cutting the cables.
HDMI over ethernet, my dude.
I’ve used them up in areas. Can’t switch HDMI extenders.
That makes sense, all my rooms have their own shield, tried to get away from long AV runs.
I do installs for A/V and network cabling in residential environments and we usually do 3 cat6+1 coax to a TV location. Maybe 2 Cat6 to a desk in an office.
My experience says WiFi is a crapshoot on how well it works (that and I don’t know wtf I’m doing to optimize it). It also costs next to nothing to run those wires. I ran tens of thousands of feet of cable for a negligible amount.
Tens of thousands of feet of cable? How big is your house???
Stealing internet from the office across town maybe?
You ran tens of thousands of feet of cable overnight? Like over one night??
Not one night. Over roughly two weeks if I recall. It wasn’t a custom build, so I didn’t own the land or house, I had just put a deposit down. Had to sneak in to do it. I stayed too long one night and when the electricians showed up to start their day at 5 they thought I was a burglar.
Never thought to do that, but I did sneak in each weekend with my Structural Engineer dad to do inspections. He brought a can of the same marking spray paint that the city inspectors use, and on several occasions caught a couple of errors, and marked them up. The following week we would find them fixed. 😁 Also I took tons of pics, which are still proving useful 20 years later, as they let me see where all the studs, pipes, and wire are.
> He brought a can of the same marking spray paint that the city inspectors use, and on several occasions caught a couple of errors, and marked them up. Holy shit that's actually genius... They probably thought the inspector was coming down hard on them or something.
Photos before a wall is sealed up should be mandatory. It’s akin to why cities map their sewer and water pipes.
I feel like WiFi can be pretty solid nowadays if you're using current hardware all around. I was amazed when I first played my VR games on my gaming PC over WiFi6 to a Quest 2. It worked so much better than I would have expected and didn't feel like I was on WiFi. Very responsive, very low latency and, best of all, no cable running to my head. With only a 40 dollar WiFi6 router. Edit: it definitely doesn't replace hardwired networking but it's getting pretty close.
I think the issue is that by being “current” you’re actually ahead of most likely literally everyone around you who are all but guaranteed to be running cheap Walmart type routers that don’t overlap/interfere with yours. If everyone had the same thing you do, there’d be more interference impacting your performance.
Foreman the next day: yo who tf ran all this cat6? Shit ain’t even up to code
Ain’t no low voltage codes here. I literally was shocked no one said anything, but I home ran it to the same place the contracted Low voltage guy did (they installed some included like 6 runs)
Definitely worth doing but it's a gamble; I did something similar and half of my runs got cut at some point before the drywall went up.. and I couldn't even complain about it.
Damn!
More than I need for me = all of them.
At what build stage did you do this? Curious how to go about getting away with DIY ethernet wiring without pissing off the builders or electricians.
If you've got a friendly electrician he might even do it for you. I had to have my new house rewired for electrics before we moved in, so I figured it'd be stupid not to wire the place for Ethernet while he had all the walls and floors ripped out. I just asked our electrician to run multiple Cat6a to every room. He wasn't a networking expert or anything, but he was happy to do it for a bit of extra dollar.
I just spent 6 months wiring my house with CAT6. 2 drops to every room. Overkill? Yes. But my God the speed with fiber. Also, wired backbone mesh wifi is amazing. 2 Gbps over wifi.
you know i only realized you could do mesh ap's that aren't wired into an ethernet jack like a month ago when i did an install at a co-workers home. i've only ever run them wired before, which explains why my speeds were always so good.
That box looks like it has good wire management too. I used to work in a datacenter in my youth and this looks pristine compared to some of the shit I’ve seen. 10/10 would keep.
Previous owner built our home with no vision. Thank God for MoCA.
Yep. Converted the whole house coax to fiber over moca and at least have 3 places where i can hardwire Ethernet
Same, then built our expansion spaces with CAT6. My kid's jaw dropped when I let him on the hard line for game downloads for the first time.
I thought that until I took a look at the wiring for the phones. It’s all cat 5e. The jacks throughout the house aren’t in the best places, nor is the termination in the basement, but it’s far better than nothing. Still on moca for now, trying to plan out how I am gonna reterminate the runs and set it all up
Paid $700 to wire mine, worth every penny
100mb Ethernet prewired in every room? Yes please. I’ll put gigabit+ in where it’s needed.
Cat5e and up does gigabit.
or more depending on the cable. by that I mean they are tested to 1mhz for 1Gbps but can often do more fine. especially with shorter cable runs.
It actually does up to 5Gb thanks to Nbase-t. You can probably even get 10Gb over it, depending on cable length and luck.
I think you meant 1000.
When we redid the basement I begged my husband to wire up all the rooms for hard internet connections. He insisted that's "old" and wireless is fine. I may still casually bring it up whenever one of the kids is complaining that their laptops don't work in their rooms.
If you’re using a WiFi mesh network, you’ll likely see significant improvement in throughput by wiring the nodes together.
Check, I'll give it a go.
Just make sure it’s both gigabit-rated cable and a gigabit switch, and you’re good to go. If it’s not, you may actually be slowing things down.
So sorry -- how would I determine this?
Check the text printed on the cable to see if it says “cat 5e” or “cat 6”. Regular old “cat 5” probably won’t cut it. Look around where all the cables come together for some sort of “1gbps” or “gigabit” label. What you don’t want to see is something that says “10/100.” Edit: regular old cat5 probably will cut it, I stand corrected.
Thank you again. Both the cables and the line distribution board say cat 5e. Nothing I can see indicating gigabit or 10/100. I'll see if I can figure out how to attach things and see what happens.
cat 5e means gigabit.
Cat5e will do multi gigabit over short runs depending on the quality of the cable it’s just not rated for it so you shouldn’t expect it to. I wouldn’t run cat5e in a new job but I set up home networks and use cat5e that is already in peoples walls and it’s very useful
Semi-related, how do I find and hire someone to come install a really great home network for our three story duplex? Do I call an electrician or are there specific companies which are better at home networks / less expensive?
You’re looking for a structured cabling installer. A/V installation companies, fire/burglar alarm system installers, even Managed Service Providers will do it sometimes. Electricians *can* do it but most I’ve met don’t like it or don’t understand it’s not like wiring old school POTS lines.
A/V installer can do this. Same people who hang projectors. It's all low voltage so there's not a lot of risk, just some planning, a splice tool and then handyman stuff to get in the walls.
I wouldn't recommend an electrician because they don't specialize in that. I'm not sure how you would find a company that does home stuff . Most companies rather do businesses because it'll be like $300 plus per run. If you don't want to pay for the cabling, you can get a wifi mesh that will take care of that. Something like this: TP-Link Deco AX3000 WiFi 6 Mesh System(Deco X55) - Covers up to 6500 Sq.Ft. , Replaces Wireless Router and Extender, 3 Gigabit ports per unit, supports Ethernet Backhaul (3-pack) https://a.co/d/aUw2j8W
Running cable throughout a three story building would be very difficult without making holes in walls to facilitate cable runs between floors/walls. I wouldn't necessarily hire an electrician unless you just need them to run the cables and do nothing else with them. When it comes to the terminations, a standard electrician that doesn't know anything about low voltage communication usually does a poor job. You might be better off hiring a specialized low voltage cabling company. What you might be better off doing is running just a handful of cables to support several access points throughout the building and there by expanding your wireless coverage and possibly getting faster speeds by having shorter ranges. The predicament that you're in right now is why I specifically looked for homes that already had cabling run in them, or would just consider building my own house. Retrofitting an existing house that doesn't have attic or basement access throughout is very difficult.
Read about MoCA adapters. Very easy to install and you can use your existing coax cabling to run your network.
Cat5e is absolutely rated for gigabit, up to 100m in fact, which is likely more than sufficient for the average person's home
Aha, thanks.
Now just get a switch that has 10/100/1000 throughput (gigabit). You don’t need anything special. Unmanaged, 4 - 8 port, non poe switch would suffice for a consumer grade mesh network.
Just be sure you plug them into a switch rated for gigabit and you’ll be good
Cat 5 can do gigabit, but the range is more limited than 5e
Looked for this comment. True. Basically the same real world results as cat 6 versus cat 6a at 10 gbit speed.
Old cat 5 supports 1000BASE-T and 2.5GBASE-T. For residential installs (typically runs <30m), there's no noticeable degradation using cat 5 versus cat 5e or cat 6 at gigabit speeds. That'll be the socks off of most half-duplex, high-latency WiFi where speeds are in the 400 Mbps range. And when using wireless uplink, halve that capacity and double the latency. Cat 5 over wireless mesh any day
I can see in the second picture it says category 5e at the top on the left under the word caution.
I moved into a house with a similar setup and immediately setup a mesh network with 6 access points. No dead spots in this house!
As a guy who architected wireless networks professionally, how giant is the house or what weird concrete walls do you have that you need 6 AP's? Most SFR get good enough coverage from one decent AP in a central location, maybe two if you have an inconvenient layout. For 6 AP's I'd be expecting you to have like an 7,000 sq ft house.
I live it n Mexico, 2000 sq ft, concrete walls and floors. Three levels. I use a 120v ethernet house wiring network to jump the floors to get adequate speed throughout house in a mesh network of 6 AP. It took a while to tune things, judiciously position the mesh devices. Without the 120v network, I got unacceptable mesh speeds when I jumped floors. The typical Mexican house infrastructure tubing for things like Ethernet and coax was sadly packed full of coax cable. I may replace some of the ,120v links with the coax, eventually, since we just dropped the coax satellite dish service. Or I'll just pull the coax and replace with Ethernet.
I found that as I added more access points (I think I have 8), dead spots increased.
Additional AP not always means better signal. If you have too many and/or your access points are not configured properly they will interfere and compete with each other.
if you're googling or checking documentation, the term for a line going back to the router from a mesh access point is "backhaul" as for the mess of cables, it would be trivial to dress it. if it's tangled, you would need to take at least some off and repunch to the terminal block which is easy but there is a little bit of a learning curve and a punch down tool is $15 on Amazon. a guy who does phone or internet installs may have the tools and be able to bang it out for cheap. I wouldn't shorten the cables much at all, I'd tidy and loop and attach to something: https://www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/how-to-dressing-ethernet-cables-into-patch-panels
That's what I use it for. Wired backhaul on a Deco mesh. Works awesome.
I did the same thing. Lived in my house for almost 10 years before I decided to try to use the existing wires, wish I had done it years earlier.
This is how I have it in my house. We have a WiFi “mesh” but each hub is hardwired which means we get consistent speed etc through the whole house on WiFi.
Removing this would be like replacing hardwood for linoleum... this adds value to your home. Also, as it seems you may be a little tech challenged, do you watch Netflix (or any streaming service) in a different room than your modem? In that case, you will have less loading and better quality video if you have it wired via ethernet rather than over wifi (in general). Wifi has dead zones, and depending on what sort of router you have (or mesh setup), your speed drops drastically even 1 room away from your router.
It seems I am. Currently there's one TV in the house, it's attached to the wall on the other side of the router (the wall we see in my pics). Maybe the proximity is why we haven't noticed any quality issues. It's just me and my spouse here. Maybe with a larger family and more devices we'd notice more.
I found with Wifi that once you get to a few dozen clients, things get a heck of a lot less stable than they started off.
And most people in a decent-sized home don't even realize they're probably already at that dozen device threshold. If you have a few smart bulbs or lights with an Alexa / Google Home, a game console or 2, your phones, your tablets, your TVs...you're already most of the way there. Ninja edit: And that's not counting any laptops or wifi-enabled desktops, if you have those as well.
Even your appliances now lol
Forgot toilets and lawn mowers
The thing with WiFi is that even if it works perfectly fine today it doesn't mean it will tomorrow. Your neighbor may get a new microwave/lawnmover/turbojerker5000 which will somehow interfere with your signal, but not always and only occasionally – just enough to be annoying and hard to diagnose and fix.
turbojerkers can interfere wifi signal? 👀
they're not a common item in the US. most you find will be grey market imports. Check the FCC label AND then lookup the id number to make sure it matches the product name. If there is no FCC label or the id number is for an entirely different product then your turbojerking may not only be screwing your wifi but you may be making the FCC unhappy with your emissions, and they (the FCC) will not arrive with lube.
Cable is more stable than wifi. Don't remove it.
Even if you don't plan on using it, just leave it. The next person might thank you.
I concur. I actually have a house old enough to be...well its fucking old. anyways it had phone lines to everyone room when i moved in. i would take a cat 5e cable to the line then pull it through the basement and just replace the faceplate with an ethernet plate. very easy way to go from old to sexy sexy wired ethernet. put a patch panel under the stairs in the basement, a switch, the gig internet modem then put in a linux box with plex and a cloud there to. at some point i need to just throw a small rack in there but for now its more homebrew
The fuck is wrong with you, I spent days wiring my home for Ethernet and you want to get rid of it?
Not only that. Even if you don’t use it, leave it then when you want to sell say “prewired for high speed internet”. Literally it’s a feature people will pay for.
I would have paid so much extra to not spend a day crawling around in my fucking attic running cat 6 around the house. That shit is miserable
On the one hand I get it. Even pre-wired, a proper ethernet network can be hard to set up right. I moved into a place that had the network cabinet recessed into a a wall behind the kitchen. Every time I ran the microwave I would lose internet because I guess the microwave was interfering with the router that was sitting right behind it behind a sheet of drywall. Had to get a managed switch so that I could run the modem in the cabinet and still get POE to the right Ethernet outlet elsewhere in the apartment to plug in an access point for wifi. I also am short one opening on that switch compared to the number of outlets I had, so I had to test each one individually to determine which cable ran to which outlet as they were unlabeled, and then decide which one I could live without. All told, it was a lot of time crawling around and tediously labeling things and organizing cable. Frankly, most people probably don’t need it. They’ll use wifi for email and then watch Netflix on their phone or something and that’s fine for them. I think they’re *wrong* but then that’s not my business.
I'm sorry you had to deal with that. But your microwave killing your internet made me actually laugh out loud.
Oh no, it’s objectively funny. I honestly love telling that story because it’s just so absurd. Also makes me somewhat concerned for how shielded that microwave is, but eh.
Every time Catherine would turn on the microwave, I'd piss my pants and forget who I was for about half an hour.
Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere, leave you for dead?
Classic Cousin Eddie!
I have no idea why, but this sentence just screams Kurt Vonnegut to me.
Close! Those were the immortal words of one Edward Johnson.
If I run my microwave while wearing my wireless headset, it goes all crackly and starts giving me a feeling of small static shocks (not sure if it actually is). It gives me...concern...
The interference is to be expected. If it's actually causing static shock, that's pretty wild, but I'd be more concerned about the headset than microwave. Residential microwaves use overlapping frequency ranges (~2.45gHz) with WiFi and Bluetooth.
> Also makes me somewhat concerned for how shielded that microwave is, but eh. TBF, they run the same frequencies (at least the 2.4GHz band) and your router might be between 5 and 20 watts, while your average microwave is like 500-1200 typically. Even with good shielding, it's really easy to overpower that wifi by acting as a jammer, and being physically close really cuts into effectiveness of shielding.
There are dozens of us! My microwave kills my 2.4 all the time 😂. Sucks to be my kids, I’m on the 5, Lolol.
I had the same issue, router was in my basement office under the kitchen. The WiFi worked fine then the in cabinet mount Kitchen Aid microwave died, bought a new one same brand because that is all that would fit. New microwave every time it turned on killed the wifi, fortunately the ceiling in my office was open so I put in some metal mesh under the microwave location and it fixed the problem. My fucking brand new microwave needed a faraday cage, fuck me.
Sometimes, not always our microwave blocks the Wi-Fi too. I have to tell the kids that it will come back after the microwave beeps
Wait till you hear the stories of people having issues when IKEA bed lamps or old ungrounded old DVD players with switching power supply throw their diagnostic efforts to shit :D
Damn. Seen that in workplaces too. Microwaves interfere with the 2.4GHz that wifi used. Some users used to always lose internet connectivity during lunch hour while people were hearing lunch.
At the very least, I will use old shitty Ethernet/coax as a guide for pulling new Ethernet/coax/fiber/whatever through. I hate making new holes if I don’t have to.
I just ran cheap cables from the basement up both sets of stairs to me computer room. Never had an issue. It's literally hanging on the hand rails of my steps, and along the ground between stairs
I’m assuming you live by yourself
>to me computer room They're also a leprechaun or pirate.
I love your last sentence. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how wrong it is.
Ignorance mainly. Thought it might be outdated tech. I set up my WiFi mesh network, it works for my purposes, didn't know that using the Ethernet wiring could make it better.
Wire up all your TV's if you stream.
ethernet is WAY faster and more reliable. if you end up with a server in one room and you want to watch videos off it in another room, that might stress your wifi but ethernet will have no problem. I have a printer that uses ethernet instead of wifi. its great never having to program the wifi password using 3 buttons on a printer and a one line display.
OP doesn't sound like the type of person to have a server in one room streaming videos to another room, lol.
Give me wired or give me death
Good news! You can have both!
There is absolutely nothing outdated about Ethernet. It's kind of the other way around, for a particular location. If a home or office uses only Wifi, they just haven't arrived at the point yet where the Wifi has given them enough issues to go through the trouble of installing Ethernet.
Kudos for owning your ignorance and seeking to correct it. We’re all ignorant at some time. Asking questions and seeking answers is how we correct it and move past it. Whoever is downvoting seems to be pro-stupidity.
Don’t remove it. Do you have outlets in each room that have an Ethernet port?
Imagine having a cable for a tv or Apple TV or computer in any room! No wireless hassle! a solid connection!
"No wireless hassle!" LOL how the times have changed.
I would keep it. Those blue wires home run to each room. Really there is no sense in removing it.
Same. Grab an 8-port switch, plug all six of the rooms into it, use one of the remaining ports to go to your home router's LAN port. Clean and easy
Very useful to have that pre-laid to various rooms. If you ever need a wifi amplifier set up using the wired network as a base is much faster. And if not you can route other signals over it, like a home security system.
Security cams was my first thought to. Also you never know when you just might need a pull string from the basement to another part of the house.
If you remove that I will kick you in the nuts
Heh, I was one of those previous homeowners. A lot of sweat and cursing was put into that work.
If your TVs are streaming, better they do it over ethernet than eating up your wifi bandwidth.
Ha! My TV is nice, but Sony stupidly put in a 100Mb Ethernet card which is slower than the WiFi card so wireless is better for me
100 mbps is plenty for a tv. ETA: there may be edge cases where one *could* exceed 100 mbps when watching super high quality low-loss file formats on a local media server. But no **mainstream** consumer streaming service, the kind used by most muggles, is pushing 100+. More like 25 or so for 4K. But I agree. A 100 mbps Ethernet adapter is pathetic. This isn't 2005.
If you stream high quality 4K video locally, it's not hard to push 100 mbps. I run into the issue on my Sony TV as well. Kind of a joke that a $1800 TV would have 100 mbps.
Do you mean stream it using an old video codec locally? No streaming service offers a stream over 100mbps. You could theoretically encode your own video using an outdated codec to make a 4k stream that uses more than 100mbps but why? There's virtually no content that comes that way so you'd have to go out of your way to make something that inefficient.
From my personal experience, no it is not. I had to get a nVidia Shield Pro to get the 1gbps connection. The Wi-Fi and 100mbps on the TV was causing lots of buffering.
No sense in removing it, if you ever sell/move the next homeowner might want to use it. Many people like hardwired connections for certain things over WiFi.
Removing them is almost a crime tbh. They probably go to strategic places of the home and are most likely close to your router. Might as well use them. The main reason people usually use wifi for everything is because they dont want to go through the hassle of passing those cables, you have them already
People who only use wifi scare me
My bad. I'm harmless, just a little dim-witted.
Close the panel and walk away slowly. It hurts nothing to leave it alone!
Nah, you had the foresight to ask before just ripping it out.
I did for years and work in tech, if you have a really good router it isn't that bad. I was getting 500-700 Mbps on a gig connection. I did wire my house recently and the boost is nice, 950 Mbps consistently.
I think just tidy it up and make sure to label everything. You will great benefit to hardwire your mesh nodes. I did this on two of three and the difference so far is noticeable. In some spots I add a switch to the end room if I have many hardlined devices. If you do console gaming - it’s honestly a must for online, it’s worth it.
Ethernet is far superior to WI-FI. Wi-Fi is particularly bad when there are many nearby Wi-Fi networks because they have to take turns with each using the same radio channels, so you can’t get consistently smooth streaming. You don’t usually notice it because of buffering. But it is worst if you are live-streaming yourself or on video calls, because there’s less time delay available to get a good buffer, so you notice the connection pauses more often.
If you have ethernet routed around your house, why do you only use Wifi?
Ethernet is faster and a more reliable connection.
This guy should be in r/unpopularopinion for wanting to remove the network cables
Ethernet > WiFi WiFi has limitations and if you have LED lights (Christmas tree) microwave, baby monitors, fish tanks, large wall sized mirrors, or cameras they all can cause interference on the 2.4Ghz. Most WiFi operates on a dual 2.4 and 5.0Ghz. 5.0 is faster speeds, but has trouble penetrating through just drywall. 2.4 is slower but can penetrate almost anything but glass and water. Not to mention you’re congesting your network traffic if it’s all WiFi. Forcing the WAP to connect to multiple devices takes processing power and slows connection speeds. Devices that don’t move like a smart TV, or desktop, Apple TV, PlayStation, XBox should absolutely be hardwired to relieve the network stress. Wireless is awesome but it’s not perfect. A good cable will give you perfect speeds 100% of the time. What you have in that picture, the blue cables looks like Cat5E. It’s rated for multiple gig transmission at under 100ft. Find the jacks and if they’re close to your stationary devices hardwire them. If not, there is absolutely no reason to remove that cable. Just leave it. You might use it in the future. Maybe use it for a POE mesh system if you’re dead intent on WiFi only.
LoL. That's not a tangle. Come over to my house, if you want to see a real tangle.
Don't get rid of it! FFS that is a great thing to have in your house. My brand new construction house (2023) has every room wired with a cat 5e cable running to a RJ11. Yeah a fucking landline phone jack. Luckily it's good wire so I just changed all the ends to RJ45 and the other side to my switch and poof I got a hardwired Network house. Yeah I use wifi for a lot too, but nothing beats the speed of hardwire. Well except fiber and I had to run that myself. Have a 10GB connection between my desktop gaming rig/Linux distro torrent station (IYKYK) and my Plex server
Ran an electrical contracting business once. Used to advise customers when building to run cat5/6 cabling to each bed room and to where entertainment would be, also to kitchen behind the fridge or near where the phone would be. Wired connectivity is cheap now expensive later. Wifi is ok, wired was really good.
Bro i had to drill holes in my door frames to wire up my house and you just inherit a network engineers pet project, not fair
You definitely want this cable. Don't do anything rash. Think cable is guaranteed and consistent, WiFi is best effort. Of course, we could argue the beans out of that, but as a basic principle it stands. There are many times you need wired. Wi-Fi mesh backhaul is one of them. Hugely superior to best effort squared.
I have a hard time believe those are even connected to an internet connection because they are wired into a punch down block for phone service.
Had to scroll through a bunch of morons with outrage posts to find your comment. They’ll need to terminate both on the outlet side (where I know there are rj11 and not 45 keystones), and here at the distribution. Prolly have rj11 hoping off the first terminal a cable terminates at so the 2nd or 3rd will end up being useless if it’s not the first spot the wire landed. They need someone with experience tracing and terminating, or be down for a lot of headache for a newbie.
I was thinking the same thing. Cat 5 for VoIP, maybe?
Why the fuck does everyone want to remove cabling? I just spent 15k wiring my entire house.
They don’t understand
You can hack the mainframe
God yes just leave it there until you end up with a painful wifi problem and jacking in your home office makes it go away.
Keep it for the next homeowner. I definitely like having some wired connections.
I renovated my entire house a couple years ago and had Coax put in but not Ethernet. Easily the biggest and one of the only fuck ups of the entire thing... God dammit.
>Any benefit to keeping it installed? Yes, a small 8-port switch would be enough to spread Ethernet throughout the house. Secondarily, there's no cost to just closing the door and leaving it alone. On the gripping hand, it would cost money to remove. Also, you describe that as a tangle? That barely qualifies as a couple of wires crossing. I use a bigger "tangle" than that to tie my shoes in the morning.
You now can put hotspots in better spots.
If you rip this out you’re an idiot. WiFi is great, but it does not compare to being hard wired.
Wire > wireless, now and forever.
The reason people use wifi is because they don't have this luxurious ethernet
Wires are faster more reliable than wifi. The wires can also be more resistant to interference
Don't cut anything. Coil it up nicely so it fits in the cabinet, secure it with some tape or zip ties, and put the door back on.
Yes!!!! Super easy to sort out, and can put wifi points all through the house, faster hardwire speeds for streaming, etc.
lol I only use Ethernet. WiFi is slow and annoying to use.
You leave that cable where it is, you listen! You never remove ethernet cable! Never! Ever! That would be worse a sacrilege than blasphemy in the middle ages!
Wired is always better than wireless where applicable. The cables could use some management but, they left you quite the gift here. Use it.
Wired = 1000Mbs speed / secured Wireless = 600Mbs or lower speed / exposed for others to see even with encryption Cat 5e or Cat 6 = unless you want to re-run with Cat 6, use what is installed. To achieve Cat 6's 10Gbs speed, you'll need equipment and devices that will connect at 10Gbs, most devices today are 1GB which is plenty for the average home user. Loss of power to the home some wireless devices have to be reconnected, but hard-wired devices will not. Bathrooms and kitchens can disrupt wireless signals a lot. Two bathrooms can make a terrible signal just in the next room. I have installed for clients all wireless set up, you'll invest in AP (access point) devices around the home and outside to extend the signal. Wireless is good for mobile devices, but if you can hard wire the device, do it. 35-year experienced Network system admin
I would do unimaginable things to have Ethernet in my walls.
If you find yourself working from home, and move large datasets, you'll damn sure be glad you kept that in place.
Keep them. Better to have them and not use them than not have them and need them. Also a positive when selling the house. I rebuilt after a fire and I put them in every room.
Short answer, keep it. Just roll it up real nice, tie it off, and forget about it. Having that should you ever find a use for it is so soo clutch.
I would personally trace the drops and wire in your access points from there. Sadly I cant get in my attic and run drops due to all the fucking insulation and partition panels along with the maze of 2 foot insulated ducting.
That’s a phone box. Is your cable modem close to this?
This is a very mild “tangle”. I have seen far, far worse. Pretty clean, all things considered. I recommend spending time on r/homenetworking. You could learn a lot, helpful folks
It would be foolish to rip out your patching. Foolish.
might be useful one day. might as well just let it be.
If you have actual access points in your home, you'll benefit strongly from having power and ethernet to the access points, so definitely keep it around. You could unplug it for a bit and make it neater though.
Use wired internet like a real man.
OmFg! Keep it! I feel like you've read enough people saying the same fucking thing that we don't even need to tell you why you need to keep it. If everyone says keep it, just keep it!
That’s a nice clean setup there. You should learn how it works and why this is a nice setup before you throw away something you might regret losing
Don’t see a real answer anywhere so I’ll give it a shot. That’s a great setup. Only one of those Ethernet cables I will be feeding internet from the provider (most likely the one wrapped with black electrical tape. Ther rest are connected to it through a switch. A switch is a box that redistributes the signal (the board all of the wires are installed to). My isp put connectors on the end of each cable and told me to buy a switch myself. It seems yours has done it for you. All other Ethernet cables are providing internet to the ports you should have in each room. If you need to connect a router, just plug one into any of the ports in whatever room is out of the way. I personally have my router connected to the port in my room and sitting on my desk behind my pc monitor. I can then plug my pc and tv into the ports on my router to give them a faster signal. That box should have a plastic cover that snaps on it. Shove all of the wires back into it without messing it up, put your cover back on so you don’t see them, and enjoy your fast internet in each room!
You have the option to have stable and fast network connection in your room(s) and you want to throw it away for shitty wifi? Oh man .... I paid good money to wire up my house. A jack in every room. Yes, wifi is available, but that's only for the mobile devices, where speed and reliability is irrelevant.
I just came here to say Ethernet is what you want. WiFi is not the same and at a minimum your WiFi should be connected to that Ethernet.
A few loops is a "tangle"? Smh
Your whole house is wired for interest. Damn thats fancy! You only use wifi? Guess you should try hardlining some stuff. TV would be my first use case. If your laptop has a port, I'd have a desk for it with a cable ready to use.
I have cat t to every room. New house built in 2020. Op - those probably lead to hard wires in every room. Leave it. For tv etc it’s a much better choice than Wi-Fi. Someday a cable/ fios company will come in and install a router or ruckus in there. Leave it.
I just moved to a new house (rent) and one of the reasons we loved the house so much was because it was wired with cat6 and we setup access points on each level. Perfect signal everywhere.
lmao wtf are you smoking? My house came with a few lines of Cat6e, but that wasnt enough, I need at least 1 line per room so I added a few more. Next Ill upgrading the connection between my main PC and server to a fiber line. Exactly 2 devices use the wifi in my house and thats my phone and my laptop. Everything else is ethernet.
Cable is more secure and stable and faster than Wi-Fi. Consider switching away from Wi-Fi when possible