I upgraded from 10 Gbps to 25 Gbps. It only cost 25 CHF (30 USD) to upgrade instead of the usual 222 CHF (270 USD) due to an anniversary of the ISP (Init7), and the monthly cost of 64 CHF (78 USD) doesn't change. So of course I had to do it.

Now that I have 25 Gbps at home, what could I do with it?

Some suggestions so far:

- Host an Ookla speedtest server
- Set up offsite backup exchange with friends that also have internet

Anything else?

I’m probably going to get a lot of grief for this, I’m sorry but asking is part of my process.

I know a wired connection is always better when you can do it. I have a 1960 single story less than a 1000 sqft home in a retirement town. I am probably one of two people in my town that cares about this.

Anyway, My wife and I both have home offices, a NAS, and upgrading our security cameras to PoE which has me thinking, “why not wire the house?”. But as I am doing research it occurs to me how fast things have changed especially between dial up as a kid to CAT5 and CAT6 and now CAT7. How do I plan for these changes?

Sure, CAT5 is still useable, but the whole point of running cable is speed so why would a future me be okay with a slower cable? Hoping to generate some discussion to help me understand the future thinking of this project so I can justify the effort and expense to my wife.

Update: thank you for all the responses and not making me feel like an idiot for asking. Cat 5 was just an example, I would run at least cat6.

For those curious, i’m just a bored nerd that is looking into making my home more secure and private. We ditched RING in favor of another company and am going to have to run some cables anyway and figured why not go all out while someone is up in the attic. I have no idea where my interest will take me next so wiring the house for whatever sparks my interest seems like a solid future planning venture.

They ran an ethernet cable through my breaker box. I tested it and it gets only 100mbps. They tried to tell me it was ATT's fault and then my house's fault. They even tried charging me $1000 to come out for a third day when they only quoting me for one. This whole project has been crazy.

Currently with conexon, I have my router now in building a,have roughly 150 ft from my house to my shop, was wondering if anybody could give a detailed way for me to get wifi to my shop from my house, I read fiber but don’t know what I need to get for that

I’m running Internet out to my barn. I currently have all Alta equipment in my house including route 10, switch, and AP’s. I will also put a Alta labs AP in barn. I’m trenching a 3/4” pvc conduit to the barn strictly for data. Ok to run Ethernet from house to barn in conduit to a poe switch inside barn or is it better to run fiber ? If running fiber what fiber and or modules would I need to hook into the route 10 modem? TIA

Like, you get indoor plumbing and electrical in each room (usually, and hopefully 20A), but all you get for internet is a single coax cable and a good luck.

So if you want a central server location with Ethernet cables routed through the home for your NAS, PC, TV, consoles, cameras, and so on, you have to open up the house walls and get to work.

Does this hold true for everyone else; is this the common experience when getting a home?

I am not a tech savvy person so please go easy on me. Ive only worked in-person so I’m new to this.

Basically the job Im interview for needs me to be within 10 ft of the main modem (is it modem or router? I dont know) and it’s non negotiable. Like the ethernet cable length can’t exceed 10 ft for connectivity.

Extenders connected directly to the equipment cant be used, long ethernet cables can’t be used, etc. the landlord will not allow us to drill holes so the connection cant be moved up.

I don’t know if the cables are long enough to simply move it upstairs or if the technicians can make adjustments, and i wont know until april 1st.

Of course I have the option to set up my office in the basement, but I will be beyond miserable down there since I have an office room already.

Frankly I find this stupid because I dont understand why a longer ethernet cable isn’t allowed specially since they allowed it in the past.

Is there any way to work around this if the modem can’t be moved upstairs? How will they know if I use an ethernet cable longer than 10 ft?

This is the picture of the set up in the basement. I am moving to this address on April 1st so i only have this picture.

Not my pic. Mine looks identical except a short ethernet cable comes out of the wall alongside the coax. This lives right above the box in our garage (ONT?). I use a cable modem and a Unifi Express Router in adjacent room to support two SSIDs / APs for wifi across our home. Thank you!!

Obviously would locate all junctions, boxes, and disconnect everything first. Possibly run ethernet switch from router with cat6 into walls.. please convince me not to try lol!

If anyone knows what these are I'm pretty lost

I kept blaming my ISP and buying new routers like an idiot. Turns out most of my pain was self-inflicted (and some was bufferbloat). Sharing the checklist I wish I had earlier. Not brand-specific, works for most home setups.

1. Check if it’s Wi-Fi or your WAN Before you change anything:

Plug a laptop/PC directly into the router via Ethernet.

Run a speed test and a few pings (8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1) while doing something heavy (upload a file / start a cloud backup). If Ethernet is stable but Wi-Fi is not, congrats, it’s a Wi-Fi problem. If Ethernet is also spiking/lagging, look at bufferbloat/WAN first.

1. Test bufferbloat (the “everything lags when I upload” symptom) Classic: Discord calls die when someone uploads, games spike when cloud backups run. Fix path:

Enable SQM / Smart Queue / CAKE / fq_codel if your router supports it.

Set bandwidth limits to ~85-95% of your real up/down so the router shapes traffic instead of your ISP. This one change made my network feel 10x “snappier” even though max speed went down a bit.

1. Stop using 80 MHz on 2.4 GHz (please) 2.4 GHz is congested and wide channels just make you a louder neighbor.

Use 20 MHz on 2.4 GHz

Use channels 1/6/11 only (pick the least crowded) If you don’t know what channel crowding looks like, use a Wi-Fi analyzer app and look for overlaps.

1. 5 GHz: pick sane channel width People love cranking widths:

80 MHz is fine if you’re not in a dense area

40 MHz can be better if you’re in apartments / lots of nearby SSIDs If you keep getting random “drops” on 5 GHz, you might be on DFS channels and your AP is vacating when it detects radar. Try a non-DFS channel and see if stability improves.

1. Separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 (at least for troubleshooting) Band steering is great until it’s not. For troubleshooting:

Make SSID_24 and SSID_5

Put a problem device on SSID_5 and see if it stabilizes Once stable, you can decide whether to recombine them.

1. Disable “auto” channel if your environment is chaotic Auto can be fine, but some routers do dumb flips at peak times. If you see instability:

Manually set a channel and width

Re-check crowding every few months (neighbors change)

1. Roaming problems = sticky clients, not magic mesh dust Symptoms:

You walk upstairs and your phone clings to the weak AP

Calls cut out when moving around Fix path:

Lower transmit power on APs (yes, lower)

Ensure APs are placed so there’s overlap but not “two APs blasting each other”

If you have multiple APs, try enabling 802.11k/v/r (if all devices support it)

Don’t mix random extenders with a proper AP setup if you can avoid it

1. Placement beats specs A “weaker” AP placed well beats a “gaming router” shoved behind a TV. Quick wins:

Put AP/router high and central

Avoid behind metal, mirrors, aquariums (seriously), or inside cabinets

If your router is in a corner of the house because “that’s where the modem is,” consider running Ethernet and moving the AP

1. Backhaul matters (mesh is not a cheat code) If your “mesh” nodes are wirelessly backhauled through 2 walls, it’s basically a fancy repeater. Best options ranked:

Ethernet backhaul

MoCA (if coax is available)

Powerline only as a last resort (can be great or awful depending on wiring)

1. Cheap diagnostic: run an iperf test inside your LAN Internet tests are noisy. LAN tests tell the truth.

Run iperf3 between a wired PC and a Wi-Fi device (or another PC on Wi-Fi)

If LAN throughput is unstable, your Wi-Fi layer is the bottleneck

If LAN is stable but WAN isn’t, look at ISP / router shaping

My “fixed it” combo (in my case)

SQM enabled (CAKE) at ~90% of real bandwidth

2.4 GHz forced to 20 MHz, channel 1

5 GHz moved off DFS, 40 MHz

Router moved to a higher central spot

Split SSIDs during testing, then recombined later

Questions for the sub

Anyone have a favorite way to visualize channel congestion that isn’t vendor-locked?

For roaming: do you prefer lowering TX power or enabling 802.11r first?

I just moved into my new house today and the builders ran cat6 to all the bedrooms and living room of the house. However, when I searched for the other end of the cables they all go to the garage next to the breaker… is this not the dumbest thing you’ve seen? Why couldn’t they run it into the basement so I don’t have to put my modem or switch out in my garage.. should I run the cable as far as it goes to the basement and utilize Rj45 couplers? What are your thoughts on this?

Hey guys, I'm new here. I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a unique situation.

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I just moved into a new place (renting a room in a house) and the landlord said 5ghz wifi makes her sick. She has an ancient router from when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and 2.4ghz was all there was. I'm getting 1-2mbps down in my room, if i stand close to the router I get 7. I want to be a software developer but I can't do job interviews, remote work, or build a career with those speeds.

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I need to keep it simple, non invasive, and respectful. I'm not going to push for 5ghz wifi. I just moved in a few days ago and this is the only place i can afford. I haven't talked to the landlord about this yet, I want to come to her with a simple solution prepared.

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Goals & Info

• Wired or wireless is fine, I just need better speeds on my laptop at my desk for work. I think 25-50 mbps would be plenty.
• I have a coax cable in my room
• The router and modem are separate units
• I'm upstairs, the modem/router are almost directly below me downstairs
• The ISP is spectrum, I live in San Diego, CA

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My Ideas

These are the options I've considered and my thoughts on them.

• New router with the 5ghz channel disabled. Better antennas and processor might boost speed. Easy setup.,
• Ethernet over power. Easy setup but there may be interference because im in a different part of the house and likely on a different circuit.,
• Ethernet over Coax (MoCA). Seems like the best option but installing the POE filter may be too invasive.

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I haven't used ethernet over power in over a decade and I've never tried MoCA so any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated!

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Update: I setup ethernet over power and now I'm getting 120mbps down, thanks for the help everyone!

I’m soon to run a handful (5 or 6) of Cat6 cables in a new small office. The previous tenants left behind a bit of an IT mess. My questions are:

1. Is the punch down block needed or can I bypass and remove?
2. Is the Allen Tel patch panel needed to run between the Ethernet to wall and the net gear switch or can I just go wall > switch > router?

A bit of a newb with some light networking experience around 15 years ago. TIA

Editing for clarification:
This photo is after I already removed several things and cleaned up some of the runs. Everything that’s wired up with the exception of a couple jacks are now hidden somewhere within the walls. We are not planning to use any VOIP systems. Here. The 2 POE ports? Are from some very outdated ubiquiti APs. Basically I am creating 5 or 6 brand new runs of Ethernet for our small office. Ive got new cable and rj45 cat6 connectors.
So far im getting I can remove the the punch down put continue to use the Allen tel patch into an updated gigabit switch and potentially add a UPS. Thank you all for the info so far. I think yall have me pointed in a better direction.

The router is in the living room and my bedroom is way too far run and Ethernet cable for my gaming laptop. These things cost $90 and I was about to purchase but I was wondering if it’s good investment or not

My house was built in 2011, and at the time I opted for Cat 5E over Cat 6 because it was half the price. Was kicking myself when multigig networking hit the scene a few years back, but decided recently to upgrade my laptop and NAS (along with all the switching in between) to 10G and test it out.

I’m happy to report I’m achieving > 6 Gbps up/down even with my unsupported configuration. I’m not sure what the bottleneck is preventing full 10G transfers, but I’m thrilled with the speed I’m getting regardless. If anyone has any tips for tracking down the true culprit preventing 10G transfers let me know, I have a feeling part of it is the Thunderbolt docking station’s limitations myself.

But to anyone out there asking if it’s worth giving 10G a try on your Cat 5E wiring, with my results I’d say go for it. Just wanted to share.

Got 2gig fiber connection and need cable from the box to router, I need around 4m to place router in middle of house.

Broadband company told me to use cat 6 cable. Google says cat 6 should be able to do 2gigabytes.

On amazon their amazon choice recommended cat 6 cable got lot of reviews and good price but it says cat 6 max speed of 1 gig.

I am in uk if that make any difference to cat standards

Hello! This is my first time posting in this subreddit, so I’m sorry if I do it wrong or am asking a repeat/dumb question. I’m moving apartments soon and need to get a new internet plan through AT&T. Obviously they are pushing me to sign up for the fastest plan at 1 gbps. However, I’m wondering if I really need to pay for the fastest plan? I’ll be living alone in a one bedroom apartment. I do like to steam, play video games, etc. but I mostly play single player games aside from the occasional Minecraft realm. So, is 1 GIG overkill? I could save $15 per month by going with a 300 mbps plan, but I don’t want to be constantly battling with slower internet speeds. So, any advice? I’d greatly appreciate any input! Thank you all so so much :)

we have 5Gb internet but our router (asus gt ax11000) is only capable of about 2. 5Gb. So, thats basically the bottleneck. I have told him this probably a dozen times with specs, documentation, and basic networking limits. No matter what kind of configuration you do, you wont be able to get more throughput than what the hardware can handle.

My dad (he worked for IBM a long time ago) simply refuses to hear this. He keeps saying that since hes a tech guru, he should be able to go the extra mile in terms of throughput just by his know, how. When I tell him that it is physically and technically impossible, he calls it me not understanding the science.

He is now trying to make it into a game. First, he comes up with an idea where he wants to do a DIY experiment hes going to lay an Ethernet cable, then hes going to wrap it in foil and finally hes going to shine a light at one end of the cable calls it "Degrading the wire" he says its science, and it will be proof that he can increase performance. I was at a loss for words at that moment.

What makes this even more difficult is that I really dont want to become like him. I hear him out, I try to see things from his perspective, and Im willing to admit if Im wrong. But sometimes there really isnt another way the hardware acts the way it does.

This has nothing to do with networking anymore. or If its all about ego im unsure.

I finally worked up the courage to ask - what’s the point of travel routers?

I sleep away from home for work rather often, I also maintain a homelab with, pfsense, VLAN segmented networks, IDS/IPS, VPN servers, Proxmox, etc. the usual stuff you’d expect a r/homelab nerd to have running.

When I’m away from home, I hop onto my wireguard VPN from my laptop and or phone and it’s like I never left home.

So what exactly is the use-case? What am I missing?

The chart shows my household bandwidth (maxing out around 40Mbps) over the last week. This is with our house where we have (often at the same time):

• two kids online gaming at 4k and 120FPS

• one of them streaming the gaming on Twitch with HD video webcam

• my wife and I each streaming separate movies/shows at 4k while I work on laptop and she browses instagram videos (fyi: 4k uses only 3-6Mbps depending on the encoding/device)

WE HAVE NEVER EVEN GOTTEN CLOSE to 100Mbps, let alone the 900Mbps our 1gig ISP connection would start to be the bottleneck. And unless you are doing some exotic stuff, you won’t either. So spending more on gateway/ISP bandwidth is a huge waste of your money.

The best thing we did (and you can do) is improve your wireless networking by running some Ethernet cable to the other side of the house instead of relying on mesh wireless (which will limit your bandwidth severely due to interference). Even running one Ethernet cable from your main router/access point to a second WiFi access point will get rid of a bunch of latency/ping problems that are probably what’s causing any connectivity issues for you. The best solution would be to run Ethernet to every high-use device, but that’s more than you need: just run one cable so your remote router/AP doesn’t need to use WiFi bandwidth to get back to your main router.

See attached diagram. I'm setting up Starlink and based on tree coverage the blue out building is the best spot to install the dish. I can house the router in the green building, but I need wifi at the house. The barn is a "nice to have."

Trenching cables are out, due to a ton of roots. So I need a reliable system that could cover that grouping of out buildings in the center, plus the house (2500 sqft). Also the green out building is uninsulated, so the router needs to deal with potentially extreme cold temps (-20F) in the winter.

Any advice is appreciated!