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Networking Project


AustinBike
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With our last remodel I had a ton of network cables run throughout the house and then had them pulled to various locations, with an On-Q panel put in my office so that I could tie them all together easily.

What I got was a shitty electrician that ran the cables and just popped jacks on the end. Half of the runs were not done properly meaning I could only get 100Mb/s, not gigabit. I fixed those, but never really took the time to do the cabling right in the panel, which is how I ended up with this:

IMG_5255.thumb.jpeg.58bd17498c031bf9fec8b7ecb6260312.jpeg 

 

This is data, phone (POTS, not VoIP) and even cable TV/cable modem - don't ask me, I think they screwed up in putting that in there.

Anyway, I got a punchdown block and actually did it right. Everything is organized and there is about 20' of cable length that was cut off. The 4 cables on the right are actually for runs with nothing connected right now, just left enough length that if I needed to pull it to a punchdown I'd have plenty of room. 

IMG_5271.thumb.jpeg.9c7adbbeb4a19bc85cb152e762d8ad72.jpeg

The handy tip for anyone attempting this is measure twice, cut once. Also, put a piece of tape over the electrical outlet so that if you clip off some cable ends you won't end up with a spare bit landing in your electrical outlet.

Also, Power over Ethernet is a very cool feature. I love running a switch without a wall wart.

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Anybody tried running Ethernet over Coax? I'd like to give this configuration a try with my SmartTV in the family room. A couple of these devices can be purchased for just over $100 from Hitron, which would be much cheaper than wiring a new twisted-pair from my wiring center in the master closet to the family room. image.thumb.png.e50fd977199abd7670897d904daeeff5.png

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I have experience in this. MoCA works well and I was able to sustain high throughput to a screen porch. For me the issue with MoCA is the extra devices and the need for power. Running Cat 5e or Cat 6 is easier in some cases, more difficult in others, depending on the house and construction. The key on MoCA is to spring for the better devices. Pay an extra $30 and get something from a name brand vendor, you'll save yourself $30 in hassles over the year. This is the one I tend to recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-MoCA-2-5-Adapter-Throughput/dp/B09KS8C3NB

Powerline networking (your other choice) is not that great. It *generally* works but a lot of it depends on your house's wiring. I live in a 50-60 year old house that has been remodeled several times. I actually have two separate power distribution networks (unfortunately), the original and one from a remodel. 

 

Keep in mind that a smart TV does not need much bandwidth. 4K streaming only consumes ~25Mb/s of bandwidth; even a marginal WiFi signal should be fine in many cases. If you are getting drop outs that is another issue, but if you are getting a stable signal today and it is not stuttering, adding anything might not necessarily change the dynamics.

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On 12/29/2022 at 7:03 AM, AustinBike said:

I have experience in this. MoCA works well and I was able to sustain high throughput to a screen porch. For me the issue with MoCA is the extra devices and the need for power. Running Cat 5e or Cat 6 is easier in some cases, more difficult in others, depending on the house and construction. The key on MoCA is to spring for the better devices. Pay an extra $30 and get something from a name brand vendor, you'll save yourself $30 in hassles over the year. This is the one I tend to recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-MoCA-2-5-Adapter-Throughput/dp/B09KS8C3NB

Powerline networking (your other choice) is not that great. It *generally* works but a lot of it depends on your house's wiring. I live in a 50-60 year old house that has been remodeled several times. I actually have two separate power distribution networks (unfortunately), the original and one from a remodel. 

 

Keep in mind that a smart TV does not need much bandwidth. 4K streaming only consumes ~25Mb/s of bandwidth; even a marginal WiFi signal should be fine in many cases. If you are getting drop outs that is another issue, but if you are getting a stable signal today and it is not stuttering, adding anything might not necessarily change the dynamics.

Thanks @AustinBike for all of this info! I ended up getting a pair of ActionTec devices off eBay. Appears that same brand is marketed as SoundBeam. Anyway, the installation was literally plug-and-play and I'm now getting a steady 100Mbs connection to the main TV in our family room. The kit came with a coax splitter which I used in the wiring cabinet to connect the coax cables coming in from both the downstairs family room and upstairs game room. So a single Ethernet connection on the router can feed two coax segments. Of course I'll need a receiving device at the end of both of those connections; so I plan to by a 3rd MoCA adapter for the game room. Instead of connecting that one directly to the upstairs Smart TV though, I will hang a WAP off of it to improve the wireless signal for all devices upstairs.

I'm sure you were right about wireless connections being adequate for 4K streaming, and it seems with Gigabit fiber coming into the house, AT&T's gateway puts out a really solid wireless signal. I just tested from my desktop computer that is currently connected via wireless, and I'm actually getting 201Mbs, which is double that of other connections that are limited to the 100Mbs bandwidth of the ethernet adapter itself. Is that really possible?  

Anyway, what I discovered over the holidays is that when we had a houseful of company all scrolling on their phones / iPads via our wireless while also streaming 4K to 2-3 TVs, the Smart TV interface was really, really slow at times. Didn't seem to be any interruptions or delays while actually watching movies (possibly due to good buffering), but when trying to move from app to app or scroll through the DirectTV Stream guide, there was a lot of stuttering. Not sure what I'm doing will fix all of that, but I love to tinker with this sort of stuff anyway. 

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You have to keep in mind that your "speed" is relevant to what is being measured. Most people (no offense) and not doing it right which is why they can't seem to figure it out. Let me give you an example:

Netflix's Server <-A-> CDN server (internet edge) <-B-> Your ISP's server <-C-> Your Router <-D-> Your switch (or wireless) <-E-> Your computer

Now, each of the segments (A-E) have a different speed, so what is your "Netflix speed"?

The short answer is "always the slowest segment."

For instance, my ISP connection (C) is 500Mb/s (generally measures out at ~560-585Mb/s) all of my networking (D) is 1000 Mb/s and my wireless is ~475-520Mb/s. So, in a perfect world, watching Netflix on my laptop *should* be ~475-520Mb/s, because the is the lowest speed link, right? Nope. That is only the connection to my ISPs server. Upstream to the internet (B) and beyond (A) are the real limiting factors. 

I deal with a lot of big files within my network, so obsessing on the speed is critical. But I think the simple answer for the non-network enthusiasts is "if you are getting a solid stream and no sputtering then your work is done." I've seen people obsess about the pings on their system and trying to get the lowest latency without understanding that A and B are having the real impact on their performance.

That being said, my network is massive overkill for the house, but the question of "is our wifi slow" is never asked. My wife knows better. If "the internet" is slow, it is Spectrum's problem, not mine.

image.thumb.jpeg.d50e0d62eec6fed1697ef49dd32721de.jpeg

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21 hours ago, AustinBike said:

You have to keep in mind that your "speed" is relevant to what is being measured. Most people (no offense) and not doing it right which is why they can't seem to figure it out. Let me give you an example:

Netflix's Server <-A-> CDN server (internet edge) <-B-> Your ISP's server <-C-> Your Router <-D-> Your switch (or wireless) <-E-> Your computer

Now, each of the segments (A-E) have a different speed, so what is your "Netflix speed"?

The short answer is "always the slowest segment."

Haha no offense taken. Been managing various aspects of IT since the late eighties, when IBM was pushing Token-ring and academics swore the internet would never be commercialized. For at-home computing these days, I don't worry about anything beyond my own ISP. Where profits drive performance, I'm satisfied that the parties delivering content and the parties delivering bandwidth have got things sufficiently sorted out. 

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