Phone Extension Cable To Router

[Waldo 96]

Thinking of using a phone extension cable to move my router to other side of the room. What sort of distance could I extend it by, without it causing a reduction in internet bandwidth or other issues?

[apelike 10]

54 minutes ago, Waldo said:

Thinking of using a phone extension cable to move my router to other side of the room. What sort of distance could I extend it by, without it causing a reduction in internet bandwidth or other issues?

I don't think extending the phone side will make any difference at all unless its an extension of an extension... But one question, why do you want to move it in the first place? 

[sean344 10]

Shouldn’t impact it, it’s already travelled many metres in some cases from the exchange or hub to your house so a bit further won’t hurt 

[Def Cougar 0]

It won't affect it technically in terms of signal/traffic quality flowing to the router.  If you had more physical phones on the same phone circuit that would probably affect/weaken the signal/traffic to the router depending on the REN number of each physical phone and how many used.  That's why having just one main physical phone on the circuit that is shared with the router with 'walkabout' phones transmitting from that main phone base around the house is best. Moving your router across the room would obviously alter the range of your router to a different area slightly, which is probably why you want to move it. I moved mine to allow me to use wifi in the garden and in all my back rooms, but wifi is now patchy in my front rooms since the move, which I knew would happen, but that's OK as I don't really use it much in the front areas and repeaters could fix that if I could be bothered to get some.  The routers that come with the average provider contract are OK for most small /medium sized homes, if placed in a fairly central position, but a more powerful router or repeaters are necessary in bigger homes or homes with very thick walls or other things that interfere. 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Def Cougar

[Waldo 96]

Thanks all for your comments and advice.

 

I currently have my router downstairs. Upstairs I have a NAS and some computers which are all wired (LAN cables) in to a 4-port switch. The switch in turn is (LAN cable) connected to the router via power-line adapters (which plug in to the mains).

 

It's the power-line adapters which are the main problem; they're intermittent, and I keep having to reset them.

 

I see 2 options.

 

1. Move the router to other side of living room, and connect to switch upstairs by means of a LAN cable running up the outside back wall of house.

 

2. Move the router upstairs, and just use a telephone extension cable, from the phone line's main box, across the living room, though the wall, up the outside back wall of house, and in to upstairs room. I can then physically connect router to the switch (or do away with switch altogether).

 

Unless there's another way?

Edited October 31, 2020 by Waldo

[Guest]

I'll be doing option 1, with a switch in the loft and then wiring several rooms up. 

[BadgerBodge 0]

23 hours ago, Waldo said:

Thanks all for your comments and advice.

 

I currently have my router downstairs. Upstairs I have a NAS and some computers which are all wired (LAN cables) in to a 4-port switch. The switch in turn is (LAN cable) connected to the router via power-line adapters (which plug in to the mains).

 

It's the power-line adapters which are the main problem; they're intermittent, and I keep having to reset them.

 

I see 2 options.

 

1. Move the router to other side of living room, and connect to switch upstairs by means of a LAN cable running up the outside back wall of house.

 

2. Move the router upstairs, and just use a telephone extension cable, from the phone line's main box, across the living room, though the wall, up the outside back wall of house, and in to upstairs room. I can then physically connect router to the switch (or do away with switch altogether).

 

Unless there's another way?

I'd go for option 1 but try to route the network cable inside the house. Normal network cable probably won't last very long outside in the "elements" .

The alternative I use is a 4-port wireless media extender like the Netgear EX7000 .

If your router has a decent wireless specification it can connect using that and unless you're a gamer the speed and latency can be quite reasonable.

( my router is currently connected to the media extender wirelessly at 1300mbs at 5Ghz so media streaming in HD is no problem )

 

It's a good idea to keep the router as close to your master telephone socket as possible.

Use a VDSL faceplate like an Openreach Mk3 or Mk4 and a short VDSL cable less than 2m if possible.

Extending the connection with a normal telephone extension cable between socket and router is one of the best ways of trashing your connection speed.

 

 

[Waldo 96]

To be honest, cables through walls and up the side of house, seems a bit scary, I'm not sure my DIY skills would be up to the job!

 

Maybe I could use a second router upstairs, and it have a wireless connection to the downstairs router (think it may be called a bridge). So the downstairs router just provides internet connectivity to the upstairs router, which I'll have my devices (computer, NAS, etc) physically wired in to.

 

I've tried doing something similar in the past but found it problematic, internet connection kept dropping for some reason; not sure what I was getting wrong, but in theory, is that a good idea or not?

[Waldo 96]

Many thanks to everyone who replied. Happy to report, I've resolved this problem now.

 

I now have a second router upstairs which is connected (over WIFI) to the main router downstairs, and they share the same WIFI and internet connection. I think it's called WPS or something.

 

This guy fully explains the process if anyone's interested:

 

 

 

Very happy to do away with the power-line adapter things (they were flaky as hell).

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by Waldo

[swarfendor437 14]

On 31/10/2020 at 19:09, probedb said:

I'll be doing option 1, with a switch in the loft and then wiring several rooms up. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Best way to do it if possible. (allowable by other parties in the household! 😉 )

 

On 04/11/2020 at 00:35, Waldo said:

Many thanks to everyone who replied. Happy to report, I've resolved this problem now.

 

I now have a second router upstairs which is connected (over WIFI) to the main router downstairs, and they share the same WIFI and internet connection. I think it's called WPS or something.

 

This guy fully explains the process if anyone's interested:

 

 

 

Very happy to do away with the power-line adapter things (they were flaky as hell).

 

Actually your post might help me out. I've piggybacked before doing it via ethernet but not wirelessly. I think if I bring out the old Asus ADSL router I might be able to sort out the attic Powerlines. Thanks for sharing your solution.

[Waldo 96]

2 hours ago, swarfendor437 said:

 Thanks for sharing your solution.

No problem, happy I could help!