Project planning... shop built ethernet cable 'wiremold'

Ned Bulken

Member
Messages
5,529
Location
Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
I recently upgraded to a Tivo Roamio for the house, so I'm planning on running ethernet cable out to the living room so that it will get better feed than with the wifi from my AirPort. While I'm at it, I might as well go 'whole hawg' and move the Airport itself out to a shelf in the living room, and run cable over to the Computer room as well. One problem... i don't fit in the crawlspace under our house, nor up into the attic space. I also don't want to put my wife or son in either of those spaces either. This leaves me with one or two logical options...

1) leave things as they are, the house runs fine with just the Airport
2) Surface Mount the cables somehow.

I'm going with option 2), but I priced some ugly plastic wire chases... and had severe sticker shock. NO way I'm paying the prices I found. SO I'm going to try another tack. Once I have the cabling in hand, I plan on cutting a dado or two into a series of boards, and screwing them up near the wall/ceiling (shortest route avoiding all of the doorways in the path... is up and over)... painting them wall color to hide them.
 
I've seen folks do that hiding it behind some crown moulding and even chair moulding before.

Another option would be a powerline adapter (http://www.amazon.com/ZyXEL-Powerline-Ethernet-Adapter-PLA4201KIT/dp/B008BFAGIC/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_8). They work quite well for getting ethernet from one room to another. Can't plug them into surge protectors though and work best if you get them on circuits on the same phase of the electrical panel.

One of my good friends started using that powerline adapter when they bought a BluRay player. He has had it for several years, and added to it for another computer. I can't even find an IT guy to give me any solid negatives about them.
 
thanks guys, that sounds like a win/win. I may still move the Airport closer to the center of the house, though... but that's just one Cat-6 cable in the same room. I can 'live' with that snaking along the baseboard and to a handy shelf.
 
As mac'ed out as I am, I have 0 experience with the Airport. Is there a reason you couldn't use a powerline setup for that, as well?

I'm with you-I hate visible cables. I need to use trim to cover the speaker wire at the house, and there were some spots I just couldn't find any way hit hide wires in the RV-unless I literally ripped walls out.
 
As mac'ed out as I am, I have 0 experience with the Airport. Is there a reason you couldn't use a powerline setup for that, as well?

I'm with you-I hate visible cables. I need to use trim to cover the speaker wire at the house, and there were some spots I just couldn't find any way hit hide wires in the RV-unless I literally ripped walls out.

No reason other than sheer finances... I'm only thinking on moving it because it is on one end of the house & I'd like it a bit more centrally located, closer to the shop for example... For streaming purposes.


Ned
 
I'm totally down with both reasons. Central is much smarter. Wired works much much much better for streaming, in my experience. Do you have cables and such? I used to have a box of Cat6, I will check today to see if I have it out here with me. If I do, I'd be happy to mail you what you need of it for free.
 
Top