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Post by fridaycat on Jan 30, 2019 14:17:52 GMT
We are refinishing our basement (DIY) in our 1500 sf home. It was recommended to us that before we put up drywall we hard-wire internet in the basement so we get the best coverage. After doing some online research DH and I are a little fuzzy on what is the best way to proceed. There are so many options for getting the best internet coverage in a home.
So, what do you have or recommend? We are a family of 4 (a teen and preteen for DDs) in a 1,500 sf home. The finished basement will add 400 sf of living space. We have a nice sized back yard we like to be in. We are not gamers but do a decent amount of streaming for tv.
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kelly8875
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,390 
Location: Lost in my supplies...
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Post by kelly8875 on Jan 30, 2019 14:30:10 GMT
We have the box that came with the internet company in the living room. It’s a fairly central place in the house. My DS just recently went to Best Buy and bought some sort of wi-if extender to help the connection in his basement bedroom. As you can imagine, he uses a lot of wi-fi, and now he’s happy with how he connects. We have a 4,000 sft two story house.
lol, I don’t know any technical words about any of this....
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Post by ScrapbookMyLife on Jan 30, 2019 14:39:18 GMT
Studio apt.
Internet through phone company.
My modem/box/router (whatever it's called) plus into to phone jack.
I use the wifi to connect wireless for home desktop and smart phone, within the wifi radius. Wifi is password protected so only I can connect.
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Post by bigbundt on Jan 30, 2019 14:39:47 GMT
We have a mesh network. I don't really understand it but it actually gave us wifi download/upload speeds better than directly plugging into the system. Router downstairs and plugged into the hard wired jack. Everything plugged into to the router (printer, security, garage opener, mesh network). This is what we have, along with a very good router and we have very good coverage in a 3,000+ sq ft, two story house. We have four streaming TVs, computers, gaming consoles, and multiple devices. We actually have coverage into a good portion of the backyard as well. www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Orbi-Ultra-Performance-Whole-System/dp/B01K4CZOBS |
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Post by jenb72 on Jan 30, 2019 14:41:41 GMT
We have a centrally located router in our living room, but the only devices we use on the wi-fi all the time are our phones, tablets, and my DD's laptop. All of our PCs use an ethernet cord to connect to the router because it's just more stable than the wi-fi connection, especially if we have a lot of devices hooked up at once. When my BIL moved in with us in June, he kept noticing his PC would randomly lose connection with the wi-fi, so a few weeks ago DH ran a new cord through the floor into our unfinished basement and back up through the floor into his room. He hasn't had any issues since.
My advice would be go to ahead and do the wiring - you'd rather have it there in case you need it rather than find out you need it later and have to dig through floors, ceilings and walls to set it up.
Jen
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Post by myboysnme on Jan 30, 2019 15:11:19 GMT
We all use laptops now and the router is up in one of the bedrooms. We could move it but no reason to.
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Post by monklady123 on Jan 30, 2019 15:12:40 GMT
We have the router than the company brought us when we got FIOS. It's in the basement but I'm not sure why, lol. However, the signal was always a bit weak in my bedroom upstairs so ds bought some sort of extender thingy that he put in his room which is on the same floor as mine (it's just a one-story house with basement). He doesn't live here fulltime anymore but the extender thing is in his room still doing its job. "Extender thingy" is my techie language for "that box thing in ds's room"...  |
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 30, 2019 15:41:27 GMT
"Extender thingy" is my techie language for "that box thing in ds's room"...  Sounds techie to me... We have a box thing next to the TV. That is all I know.. Sometimes I have to unplug it to reboot it. All I know is that my computer which is wireless will not connect anymore to the wifi and it bugs me that I can't fix it.. I have tried. DS who is home checked it out and says I don't have "whatever it is called" LOL.. and I said I know I do because it worked last month and now it doesn't. I HATE when I can figure it out.. but at least DS is baffled. I moved my computer downstairs so I can plug it into the blue cord to work. Yep, the blue cord.. that is my tech talk for the day. |
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Post by Eddie-n-Harley on Jan 30, 2019 16:17:08 GMT
I have the router and modem hooked up to the desktop in one of the bedrooms (office). It feeds my whole place, and I also manage to get a pretty decent signal from it in the underground/basement garage (my parking space is basically directly under my apartment, which helps-- no signal at the ends of the basement, I just mean that it will go through the concrete floor). The laptops and phones connect to the wifi.
For the TV in the living room, to which the XBox and the PS3 are connected, through which SO does online gaming and through which we stream, there is a box in the office that plugs into the router and into the wall. There is a second box in the living room which receives the internet through the electrical wiring. It tends to be a more reliable signal than the wifi, especially when our last router started having fits before dying. Ours is a Netgear Powerline 2000; SO says it was about $100.
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Post by ihaveonly1l on Jan 30, 2019 16:29:28 GMT
We have the modem router thing that came from the company centrally located in the living room. It has two channels and we run things that need a faster connection on the 5G channel and the stuff that just needs wi-fi to run but doesn't stream on the 2G channel. That's all I understand.  |
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momto4kiddos
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,151
Jun 26, 2014 11:45:15 GMT
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Post by momto4kiddos on Jan 30, 2019 16:42:05 GMT
It's not a bad idea since you are closing up the walls. dh is an electrician and he's got two rooms in the house hardwired...our young adult boys. He was able to access it in the attic to do their rooms and it was easy because the access was easy.
We have a comcast modem and we bought the extenders (xi-fi commercials they run) for the rest of the house.
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Post by MichyM on Jan 30, 2019 19:46:32 GMT
In your situation I would hardwire as much as you can. If you can hard your upstairs through your basement remodel I would do that too. And although you didn't ask, if you're making a den and/or TV room downstairs, I'd hardwire for speakers as well, even if you don't actually install them right now.
My place is a two story condo in a 100+ year old converted high school. Thick cement abounds in the building, plus there are 3 TV station antennas within a few blocks of me, so all sorts of disruptions in the air. I have internet only, no cable.
I knew Wi-Fi would pose a problem prior to purchasing. After a year of using my own (up to date) modem and router and having frequent problems with DL speeds, I recently switched to paying Comcast to use their gateway ($11 per month). I also have had 2 of the Google Wi-Fi extenders in use since I moved in 18 months ago. One in my upstairs office where the gateway is installed, and one downstairs in the living room, next to the TV. I pay for speeds up to 60mps, and very rarely run I to any connectivity issues. Once I switched to their gateway I was able to downgrade my service from 150mps, so I'm the end I'm still saving about $29 monthly.
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