Setting up home network in new condo

[hamsterchris]

Hi guys,

We have just moved in to our new condo and got Starhub cable set up. All working fine but with walls etc Wifi in bedroom is pretty poor and no where near good enough for streaming to TV etc.

I know I could try buying a new wifi router to replace the stock starhub one but noticed that all rooms have two ethernet ports in them, one labeled T and the other D so thought I would try these.

Not very technically minded but assumed this stood D for Data and T for Telephone. Tried a variety of set ups as follows:

1. Plugged router cable in to D and bedroom in to D
2. Plugged router cable in to T and bedroom in to D
3. Plugged router cable in to T and bedroom in to T
4. Plugged router cable in to D and bedroom in to T

None of the above seemed to work. Did some searching on line and responses seemed to suggest that there should be a network junction box I could use patch cables with to set up the ports. There is indeed a box that says 'Data' on it but there are no ports just a lot of wiring pre set up so no where to use the patch cables.

Has anyone else got a similar set up or any ideas how I can get this working?

Alternatively there is another cable coaxial port in the bedroom so I could just buy another modem/router and plug it in the bedroom but not sure if that will create other issues. I have set up two wifi routers before but only from one modem. Has anyone tried this before with two modems in one condo?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Chris

[x9200]

Normally it's a different socket for the telephone and the net. They look similar but they have a different Nos of connectors. It looks to me like you are plugging VOIP socket from you router rather than the net cable.

Please verify, the one for the net should be RJ45:

[x9200]

They could be both RJ-11 sockets with the D for the ADSL network (over telephone line) and in this case they will not work with your Starhub router.

[AngMoG]

I think the wall sockets for network are if you have ADSL, and not internet via cable. So you won't be able to use it to extend your network.

My advice is to either get a better router with a better range (you may need to spend a bit), or get a repeater that you put closer to your bedroom.

[JR8]

We faced the same issue (if you search the forum on 'ferro-concrete' or 'funan' you might find the discussion (c. Aug '13)!).

Our solution was 'TP-Link' (powerline adaptors) in each room where the internet gets used. I'm not techie, but we have a incoming fibre connector board, a router, and that is plugged into the 240v mains cabling. In each room where needed we have another adaptor plug, that seems to function as a WIFI sub-router. Those work fine in two rooms (streaming internet TV seems pretty faultless too).

In my study as my desktop does not have a WIFI router, I have my PC connected via a network cable, that is plugged directly into a TP-Link adaptor, that in turn is plugged into a 240v standard wall socket.

Google terms for more info would include:
TP-Link
Homeplug adapter
Powerline adapter

p.s. The product has been completely glitch-free so far (touch wood).

[zzm9980]

Those network ports are 1 to 1. You can't just plug everything in and think it will all connect. So if your bedroom has a port, there must be an equivalent port somewhere else. You need a network device, called a hub or switch, in order to have all of the devices plug in and be able to talk to each other.

Now, your router most likely has a small switch (4-8 ports) built in. Look at the back of it. One of those ports will be the "Internet" port, that is supposed to go to your Starhub cable modem. The other ports are for the other devices in your house. Now, as I mentioned above, it's one to one. If you only have a patch panel without jacks, kinda like this:



You'll need to look closely and see if you can figure out which one is which room's port, and then see if any of them are jumpered together. Basically it'll let you connect two arbitrary points in the house.

[hamsterchris]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the quick responses.

X9200, definitely RJ-45, one of the reasons the whole set up throw me, could not figure out why you would need two sets of them.

AngMog and JR8, my next steps if I could not get this figured out. Gives me a bit of a project to try and figure out and learn something new, having said that give me a couple of days and will be on Amazon!

9980, yep our junction box looks like this:
[img]
(Not sure if the upload worked could not find option to import picture.)

The junction box has taken say all the orange at the top from all the rooms on the left hand side and than on the right hand side connected the sold orange to the solid blue then to solid brown and then to solid green, there is no break on the right hand side so all solid colour cables are effectively connected together. The same is then done for the orange/white etc. Not sure what this is achieving but does not appear to be either a straight through or cross over connection. Have you seen this before?

My thoughts on to proceeding (apologies for any stupid suggestions never done this before):
1. The wiring looks really bad, the cable were not stripped before placing in junction box and some are really loose. So first suggestion would be to re-wire the junction box as it stands and see what happens. Will this work?
2. Rewire left hand side (ie grouping of matching colours) to fix dodgy wiring and then remove right hand side (unknown connection of all solid colours together). This would then be a poor mans version of a hub as it will effectively be matching a straight through cable. Will this work?
3. Just wire up the two I want to link together, ie lounge and bedroom again in principle a straight through connection. Will this work?
4. Scrap the junction box all together. Buy a small hub with an uplink input, wire up all the cable ends as straight through cables and plug in to hub. Feed from lounge (were router is) going to uplink and feeds out to bedrooms going from output ports. Router will plug a straight through cable from out put port to socket in lounge. Will this work?

My suggestions probably confuse straight through and cross over scenarios but any assistance would be greatly received.

Thanks for all your inputs.

Chris[/img]

[zzm9980]

Yeah your upload failed. Why not just scrap the idea and go either Wifi and Ethernet over Power adapters? If you have any need for gigabit speeds, just keep those systems in the same room.

[hamsterchris]

Thanks will give the powerline option a go and see how it works out. May have to work on the junction box if streaming for TVs, Xbox etc does not work.

Thanks

Chris

[Strong Eagle]

Thanks will give the powerline option a go and see how it works out. May have to work on the junction box if streaming for TVs, Xbox etc does not work.

Thanks

Chris

Powerline adapters work great and TP Link are amongst the cheapest... and mine were reliable for years.

[JR8]

We originally looked at options (incl TP link) at Courts and Challenger in Funan mall http://www.funan.com.sg/malls/website/FloorList.aspx

I think my wife finally ended up buying it from Best Denki @ Ngee Ann, Orchard Road. http://bestdenki.com.sg/

http://www.tp-link.sg/products/?categor ... &ref=pline

So no visit required to Sim Lim!


--- I'd heard about it previously years ago, from people trying to retrofit DSL/BB through their home, with minimal additional cabling. At that time I thought little of it. But yeah, it is a pretty neat and ingenious product.

[x9200]

Challenger has a very good choice of the TP adapters and yes, they are good, reliable and pretty cheap. Pricewise just a bit over the SLS average.

[durain]

it's a shame these days, most wireless router had their antenna build in. my old router had the visible antenna sticking out and i swap it for a high gain antenna with extended cable.

actually, on your home ethernet, if you plug in the network cable, do you get a "link light" flashing on your PC network socket? the link light will be 2 small LED, one amber and one green. that could check if the network is live.

[Tanuki]

it's a shame these days, most wireless router had their antenna build in. my old router had the visible antenna sticking out and i swap it for a high gain antenna with extended cable.

We put in a wifi extender at one of our exec's home. It picks up your weaker wifi and resends it. Worked really well for him. I think it was about $60 or something like that.

[Strong Eagle]

it's a shame these days, most wireless router had their antenna build in. my old router had the visible antenna sticking out and i swap it for a high gain antenna with extended cable.

We put in a wifi extender at one of our exec's home. It picks up your weaker wifi and resends it. Worked really well for him. I think it was about $60 or something like that.

The problem with a wifi extender is that it doubles the traffic on your network. It has to receive, then retransmit. Powerline adapters are a much better solution.