Cable wiring question

[Hawkmoon]

I'm being forced to pull the plug on my DSL Internet service. I'm getting multiple, bief outages every day. They sent a technician to the house yesterday. After disconnecting half the telephones in the house, he did NOT fix the outages, and he left me with download speeds one-quarter as "fast" as I had before. Prior to his visit, I was getting a blazing fast 2.4 Mbps download. While he was here, he benchmarked at at 1.3 Mbps on his notebook computer. After he left, I ran the benchmark again and I got 0.6. Yes, that's DOWNload. The upload was 0.7 -- faster than the download!

I'm going to jump to a cable service, but I don't want a bunch of wires strung around the outside of the house and holes drilled through the exterior walls so I'm going to prewire before I make the appointment for installation. Three bedrooms were previously wired (by me, all interior concealed) for satellite television, but there no outlet in the room I use as an office. That's the room I need to wire. Looking on Lowe's web site, I see an RG6 coax cable, and for more money I see an RG6 "quad shield" coax cable.

What?s the difference? The run from the entry point to the room in question will be about 85 feet (cable length). Do I need to spend the extra money for the quad shield? The Internet seems to be telling me that quad shield is up to critical military specifications. For a house in a semi-rural suburb (my nearest neighbor is at least 100 yards away) is the standard RG6 adequate for bringing in data?

[RocketMan]

The RG6 quad shield is likely what the cable company would install if they were to do it.  They might even insist that it be used because it offers better shielding and lower signal loss.
Home Despot sells the tools and connectors for RG6 cable.  They're pretty simple to install if you use them.  Don't get the deforming crimp type.  Instead, get the type that slides a sleeve back on the connector to make the attachment.  Be sure to get the size that fits the cable you eventually buy.  There are two sizes, one for regular RG6/RG59, and the other for the RG6 quad.

[Hawkmoon]

I'm not going to install the terminations. The cable company won't run cables inside walls (they claim it's to avoid liability for hitting a concealed pipe or wire -- I can understand that) and I want the wires run concealed, so I'll pull the cable, but I'll let them make the terminations.

I e-mailed the cable company rep to ask which type of cable they use. I found a spool of RG6/U that has more than enough cable on it for the additional run I need, so unless the cable guy says they need RG6 Quad, I'll use what I already have.

[Jim147]

Did your dsl modem go to crap? Mine has it is the fourth that has went to dial up speed or nothing.

[Hawkmoon]

Did your dsl modem go to crap? Mine has it is the fourth that has went to dial up speed or nothing.

Don't think so. They replaced the modem a few months ago. I'm going to switch to cable anyway. The theoretical maximum speed I can get over the phone line is 6 Mbps because of how far I am from the central office. and the realistic best I've ever seen is about 2.5 Mbps. That's just not good enough. Almost everything I do involves some degree of waiting for things to download, and Youtube videos frequently stop while the next segment buffers.

I held on because the telephone company had made promises they were going to upgrade to fiber optic, which would improve speed and reliability. But it doesn't appear they have any intention of doing the upgrade within my lifetime, and I'm tired of waiting (both for the telcom and for my videos).

[zxcvbob]

Do you really need cable to that room?  Why not go 802.11ac wireless?  You will still need to bring the cable into the house, but it sounds like you have that already.

[Firethorn]

The difference between regular and quad is that the quad has more foil layers in the sheathing to provide shielding, thus "quad" shield, it has 4 foil layers vs 2.  This means that it ends up being heavier, but has better shielding.

Now, for normal cable stuff, 2 was fine, lots of "power" for cable television or even broadcast antennas.  Quad was mostly for satellite dish runs, where signal strength was pretty low to begin with.

That said, for fast cable internet, the extra shielding isn't a bad idea for ALL runs anymore.  It will probably work with the lower grade stuff - probably.

Googling, the "U" merely means "general use".

[Hawkmoon]

Do you really need cable to that room?  Why not go 802.11ac wireless?  You will still need to bring the cable into the house, but it sounds like you have that already.

Location where cable will enter the house is the garage at the north end. My "office" is all the way at the other end of the house. I don't know how good their wireless signal is, but with the DSL modem/router in the "office," the signal at the other end of the housde (even in the habitable rooms, not the garage) is VERY weak. I want my primary computer connected by a physical wire.

[Mannlicher]

I am at the end of a long run of twisted copper for my DSL.  ATT  has started putting fiber optic in my fair city, but won't give me any indication of when it will come to the part of town where I live.  I get download speeds of 5 mbps,  and upload of less than .5 mbps.
The only alternative is Cox Cable.  The house is already wired for that.  I quit them 6 years ago.  Might have to go back to them.

[Hawkmoon]

I had cable twenty-something years ago and quit, vowing never to go back. The only reason I'm making the change noiw is that the cable company has been bought out. Unfortunately, when I had cable the only room that was wired for it was the bedroom in the converted attic. And that connection was moved when I had satellite service installed fifteen years (or so) ago. The room I use as my office has never had a coax outlet in it.

[dogmush]

How big is your house?

I have cable internet and use two routers (One on each side of my ~28oosqft single story house) and get good wifi* all over the house and out to the shop in the back yard.  The newer cable company supplied router/wifi access points seem to have much better range then the ones of even 6-7 years ago.

One in the garage, and one in one of the bedrooms wired for sat TV could very well give you good coverage.

*By "good wifi" I mean my smart TV streams YouTube in 4k with no buffering, and in the shop my tablet streams video in 1080 with no buffering.

[Ben]

Yes, routers the last few years have become very good regarding wireless. I have a single wireless router on the second story that gets me strong signal all around the house and a good long ways down the road. Also the newer mesh systems out there now are nearly plug and play. If a single router doesn't do it, they will in 95% of residential applications.

Being paranoid, I do like having my main computer on a wired connection. It's close to my network switch, so easy peasy. If I needed to run cable, I might choose to run the Cat5 versus running the coax.

[Brad Johnson]

Four primary runs: your computer location, home center, and the two points furthest in distance from home center for wifi router options. If you have a closet or storage area with power, make that your interior distribution point and have a single run from there to wherever you want service coming in from the exterior.

RG6 will be fine for what little wiring you are doing. That being said, RG6 Quad won't be all that much more expensive and it's cheap insurance against signal degradation and potential interference issues. Also, grounding blocks at the interior distribution point. The cable company will probably have a grounding block at the house junction but they re usually junky metal and degrade over time. The redundancy of a grounding block at the interior distribution point is cheap protection against future grounding problems.

FYI... the new compression connectors are light years easier than the old crimp type. With a compression tool and good cable stripper, installing an end is a matter of a few seconds and a squeeze on the handle. Beats the hell out of working your fingers til they bleed trying to jam connectors into a cable without stabbing yourself half a dozen times in the process.

Brad

[brimic]

Yes, routers the last few years have become very good regarding wireless. I have a single wireless router on the second story that gets me strong signal all around the house and a good long ways down the road. Also the newer mesh systems out there now are nearly plug and play. If a single router doesn't do it, they will in 95% of residential applications.

Being paranoid, I do like having my main computer on a wired connection. It's close to my network switch, so easy peasy. If I needed to run cable, I might choose to run the Cat5 versus running the coax.

I had one of those surfboard modem/routers which I had to use a repeater with to reach the ends of even my small house. When the router end of it died (i've been getting a year or two out of each unit), I bought a Nighthawk router, which is a bit spendier than what I've been using. Its worth every penny so far in reliability, and signal strength. I get a strong signal for at least a 40 yard radius.

[Phantom Warrior]

Yes, routers the last few years have become very good regarding wireless. I have a single wireless router on the second story that gets me strong signal all around the house and a good long ways down the road. Also the newer mesh systems out there now are nearly plug and play. If a single router doesn't do it, they will in 95% of residential applications.

Being paranoid, I do like having my main computer on a wired connection. It's close to my network switch, so easy peasy. If I needed to run cable, I might choose to run the Cat5 versus running the coax.

I'm a little unclear why the OP is running coax to the office.  Are you putting a cable box or something in the office that requires coax to the office?  If you just want Internet and you are certain you want it hard wired I think you would be much better off to run an Ethernet cable from the cable modem in your garage.  That would be as easy or easier than coax and would be more useful in the future.

If you are using an old, company provided modem/router combo I could see why you might have problems with wifi strength.  As others have stated there are a lot of good options for strong, fast wireless routers these days for under $100.  I'm not exactly one to argue for wifi for everything.  But avoiding running cable all over the house is one of the situations where I would recommend looking at a good wireless router.  Unless you are looking at gigabit Internet speeds a good router might serve you just fine.

[Brad Johnson]

I'm a little unclear why the OP is running coax to the office. 

Cable modem. Cable companies still rely on coax in many places because of established infrastructure.

Brad

[Hawkmoon]

I'm a little unclear why the OP is running coax to the office.  Are you putting a cable box or something in the office that requires coax to the office?  If you just want Internet and you are certain you want it hard wired I think you would be much better off to run an Ethernet cable from the cable modem in your garage.  That would be as easy or easier than coax and would be more useful in the future.

Both the cable modem and the cable router require 120-volt power. There is no power anywhere near where the cable service entrance will be (other than the 240-volt main disconnect). I would prefer run a coax rather than run power to the garage and have the modem in an unheated, unconditioned space.

[Phantom Warrior]

Ahhh, I see.  Keeping your networking equipment in a climate controlled space is indeed a worthy goal.  I still might vote for putting your cable modem inside the first room next to the garage and plugging in a good wireless router there.  Rather than running coax across what sounds like the whole house.  But it's your house, not mine.  Good luck!

[Hawkmoon]

Ahhh, I see.  Keeping your networking equipment in a climate controlled space is indeed a worthy goal.  I still might vote for putting your cable modem inside the first room next to the garage and plugging in a good wireless router there.  Rather than running coax across what sounds like the whole house.  But it's your house, not mine.  Good luck!

That would be the kitchen, or the dining room. The range and microwave are on the wall common to the garage, so that's pretty well out. And I don't think setting up the modem in the dining room is a viable solution to anything.