Using Coax for LAN

[blade runner]

When I had our house re-wired back in 2009, I had the electrician put in loads of coax points (at least two for each room) as I was expecting to be running Sky throughout the house in the future. Stupidly, I ignored his advise to also put in Cat5 at the same time and am now living to regret it as the Wi-Fi signal within the house is pretty rubbish. I've tried various boosters to help, but the places in the house where I really want a good signal for streaming TV are also the furthest away from the router and often the boosted signal isn't quite good enough. What I really need is a wired connection to each room but I'm loathed to pull up all the floor boards to run Cat5 cable if I can help it. I did hear a while ago about the possibility that coax cables could be used to run a LAN which (if possible) would be ideal as I have loads of redundant coax points in each room that I've never used for Sky and never will.

Does anyone know about these systems and if so, any recommendations or advice?

[HRL]

Not considered Home Plugs instead?

Something like these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-PA411KIT-Power...

Edited by HRL on Tuesday 25th October 16:00

[olimain]

You can but the kit is pretty expensive:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/8288905/?gr...

A more common and therefore cheaper way would be to use ethernet round your household mains with powerline adapters

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-PA4010KIT-V1-20-Powerl...

[blade runner]

I've tried the powerline adaptors, but the ring main where the router is located is only one of three in the house. Upstairs and the main living area (where I want to do the bulk of the streaming) are both on separate rings, so by the time the signal has made it's way to these, the speed is so low it's of little use.

[SHutchinson]

Ethernet over coax? Pah, it'll never catch on. Get yourself some BNC connectors and install a token ring network.


Or, you know, try the homeplugs.

[George111]

Can you not go into the loft and drop the cables down the side of the walls and put a little switch in the loft ?

[blade runner]

Possible yes, but there's no way I'd have exposed cables on the walls!

If I have to run Cat5, then I can do it under the floor boards. I just wondered if it was possible to utilise all my redundant coax in some way seeing as it's in all the right places.

[George111]

blade runner said:

Possible yes, but there's no way I'd have exposed cables on the walls!

If I have to run Cat5, then I can do it under the floor boards. I just wondered if it was possible to utilise all my redundant coax in some way seeing as it's in all the right places.

I meant in the loft finding the gap between the inner and outer brick walls, drop a cable into the middle and then drill a large hole in the inside wall in, eg, your cinema room, and pull the cable through - you then have a cable run from the room to the loft. It does assume your walls are not solid walls.

[olimain]

Is the existing coax clipped or loose enough that you could use it as draw wires somehow to pull ethernet through (long shot here!)

[Murph7355]

Try homeplugs, but they don't suit every house/electrical wiring set up (like mine for example!).

If they don't work for you, my advice is to bite the bullet and wire the place up. Everything else is a frig.

When you do this, run enough cables that you can scatter wifi access points around the house. I use Ubiquiti Unifi items - PoE and work really, really well.

[jas xjr]

my internet connection comes into the house via co-ax . so it should be simple enough to split the signal surely ? would you have to have another router at the end of it?
sorry for being a bit thick if the answer is obvious

[wombleh]

Could try buying some old thinnet kit on eBay and see if it works, might need a computer with ISA slots though and not sure they've made any for a decade or so..

[Brother D]

They are available - $70 here in the US https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-...
or http://www.dual-comm.com/ethernet-over-coax-adapte...

Assume you run coax back to a central point? Use these, then install your router or AP at the remote end where you need it - assume you don't need these in every room? So shouldn't be too expensive...

[blade runner]

Brother D said:

They are available - $70 here in the US https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-Adapter-...
or http://www.dual-comm.com/ethernet-over-coax-adapte...

Assume you run coax back to a central point? Use these, then install your router or AP at the remote end where you need it - assume you don't need these in every room? So shouldn't be too expensive...

Many thanks for the links - a bit expensive, but that's the sort of thing I was hoping might be available. I'll discuss with my electician to see if this is a workable solution and likely to be fairly future proof.

If not, looks like I'll be pulling up the floorboards and running some ethernet cable. Going to need around 250m to cover all points in the house. What type/spec of cable would I be best to use if I go this route?

[OldGermanHeaps]

You get passive ones quite cheap that can handle around 20 meg, haven't tried those but i regularly use the veracity highwire active ones, they have no problem carrying 80mbps of 4k video 24/7.

[Murph7355]

blade runner said:

...

If not, looks like I'll be pulling up the floorboards and running some ethernet cable. Going to need around 250m to cover all points in the house. What type/spec of cable would I be best to use if I go this route?

Cat5e is fine. Will do gigabit ethernet and is easier to run/terminate etc. Not a massive amount more to worry about.

I still think this will be your better bet

[OldGermanHeaps]

How tight is the coax, could you use it as a drawwire to pull cat5?

[Brother D]

Murph7355 said:

blade runner said:

...

If not, looks like I'll be pulling up the floorboards and running some ethernet cable. Going to need around 250m to cover all points in the house. What type/spec of cable would I be best to use if I go this route?

Cat5e is fine. Will do gigabit ethernet and is easier to run/terminate etc. Not a massive amount more to worry about.

I still think this will be your better bet

I agree with the above - but I would add if you are going to the trouble of running ethernet, I would recommend running at least a pair. Even if you don't use both pairs, a screw in the wrong place means you have a backup to save pulling a new cable (also leave plenty of slack at the ends!)

Cat6 isn't massively more expensive but it does give you a bit more protection from crosstalk (and generally is a more 'tougher' cable) and should you ever need it (provided terminated correctly/bends etc) will let you run 10Gig over a decent distance.

I've used commsexpress in the past for a few jobs - 125 for 300m https://www.comms-express.com/products/excel-cat6a...

If you go elsewhere make sure when you buy the reel it's NOT CCA (copper clad Aluminium) its a pita a few years down the line...

[OldGermanHeaps]

Cat6 is thicker, doesn't bend as well and harder to terminate properly so bear that in mind though. There is a cat6 by draka that is as thin and bendy as normal cat5e but it is a few quid dearer a box. Good to use if your runs are tight though.

[Brother D]

OldGermanHeaps said:

Cat6 is thicker, doesn't bend as well and harder to terminate properly so bear that in mind though. There is a cat6 by draka that is as thin and bendy as normal cat5e but it is a few quid dearer a box. Good to use if your runs are tight though.

Yeah that's what a meant about it being tougher (will look at that draka stuff might come in handy for us) it's not really harder to terminate thou, takes maybe an extra couple of seconds to cut out the plastic divider when terminating on the jack. And imo Cat6 spec is how Cat5 should be terminated properly anyway : )