Run Ethernet to upstairs home office

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

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Joined
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Location
Birmingham
My home office/gaming room is in the smallest bedroom upstairs. The route will be to drill a hole in the external wall just underneath the bedroom window, then run the cable externally along and down the wall to the other side of the house where the main router is located in the living room.

What do I need to do this job in terms of cable type, ethernet sockets, terminating kits etc? Is it sufficient to run a single cable or do I need two?

Thanks


Edit: the route shown roughly in red. Cable comes out of wall where the orange circle is, then comes down to ground level going underneath the bay window and into the living room on the left hand side of the photo:

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Ok so my situation is as follows:

Upstairs bedroom where I want the ethernet has my gaming PC in it. I also use it as my home office with my work laptop. At the moment everything connects via wifi to the Virgin router downstairs.

If I had ethernet into this bedroom, I could run the main PC on ethernet so would be much faster. But it wouldn't help the wifi for the work laptop (I don't have an issue though even when on video teams calls). It also won't help running the Quest 2 wirelessly, although I don't tend to do this I play wired mostly as there isn't the floor space upstairs.

With the PC connected Ethernet, the router is in the living room downstairs so I believe that I would then be able to run PCVR games wirelessly downstairs, controlling the PC remotely? At the moment this won't work because its all on wifi.

That's all I need at the moment. Eventually I might need to strengthen the wifi in the back of the house or garden, but I could run another cable for that in a different direction?
 
dlockers said:
The next alternative is a wall socket.
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I definitely want wall sockets, not a bare cable sticking out the wall. Both ends (living room and bedroom).

K.C. Leblanc said:
through the soffit and into the loft.
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I get what you're saying but its more awkward because I would then have to drop the cable in from the loft down my newly decorated walls. Its easier to go straight out the wall from a backbox, cables only visible externally. Also I don't have tall ladders to reach the outside soffit to clip the cables on.
 
dlockers said:
YPLonon 2pcs RJ45 Socket Cat6 Network Faceplate Single Port Ethernet Wall Plate with 2pcs Keystone Jacks Toolless Installation Type 86 Module Connector for Home Network Installing
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Do these fit on standard surface mounted plastic backboxes (like the ones used for electrical sockets)? What depth do I need (i'd like to go as shallow as possible)?
 
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ristac said:
I’d go up into the loft and over to the other side of the house. Before doing that though, I’d seriously consider getting three mesh TP Links and improving the WiFi signal, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much better it is over Virgin WiFi
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I don't really have any issues with the current WiFi. It's enough for what I need WiFi for, phone streaming, laptop teams calls etc. where it falls short is pc use i.e downloading games or playing with the quest 3 wirelessly. Can a mesh system rectify that?

I've tried to do speed tests in the rooms but I get very inconsistent results. For example test 1 in same room as router can record 90 Mbps but test 2 can record only 30 Mbps in the same spot.
 
dlockers said:
Does the meta quest just connect to WiFi?
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It can be a standalone device which connects to WiFi, and that works fine.

It can also do PC VR games via a usb cable, which also works fine. But some games need more space than I have in my office, so the Quest can also do PC VR wirelessly. However this does not work well if the PC has to stream to the router wirelessly and the router to the quest wirelessly at the same time - not enough bandwidth to do both.
 
dlockers said:
Ah gotcha. You might benefit from running a cable to your PC and a router upgrade. The virgin one was unusable for me, so unreliable in anything other than mild applications.
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Yeah probably that's the best solution. In which case would I benefit from a wired pc connection AND a mesh network as well? Would I have one mesh device at each end of the ethernet cable?

I might switch away from virgin anyway when my contract next expires and go to an Open reach FTTP provider.
 
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Just thinking more of how to set all this up - my home NAS is currently downstairs plugged directly into Virgin Router. Could I use this new cable to relocate it upstairs? Is that what a patch panel is for - to run both the NAS and PC off one cable?
 
Yeah and the usb dongle on the pc doesn't get anywhere near that speed.

I feel like I should go a bit further than just a single ethernet cable. I always thought the Nas would be safer up in the loft (if ever get burgled, it would be safer up there). But not sure whether it's worth all the hassle trying to move it up there. Im still to make the loft a good area for storage, and I would need to get power up there too. Plus lofts get hot in the summer don't they.
 
Armageus said:
Better off replacing usb dongles with intel based pci-e WiFi if having to use WiFi - normally a lot more reliable than the realtek chips usb dongles normally use
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Yeah exactly, there's several options and I'm not sure which one to do tbh.

Wired ethernet is fixed in one location, but fastest. Or mesh WiFi or better ethernet card. Or sone kind of central network centred in the loft.
 
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