Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
cire80
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have Gigabit Fios. My end goal is to have a solid WiFi connection across three floors of the house, a hardwire connection in the upstairs office, and a hardwire connection in the basement. I have 2 of 3 and am working on the hardwire connection to the basement.

The router was installed on the top floor. It’s connected to an ONT box in the basement via an Ethernet cable and a coax cable. There is also a wireless extender on the main floor that I’ve temporarily moved to the basement. I’ve confirmed that the internet still works with the coax cable disconnected. The extender is connected over coax, however. There is one device upstairs connected via hardwire directly to the router. Everything else is connected over WiFi.

I have a tech support appointment scheduled, but of course it's going to cost a small fortune. I’m looking for what I can do on my own and my best option to connect via hardwire in the basement to replace the temporary solution — running a wire from the router out the upstairs window to the basement.

I’ve confirmed that there is cat6 cable running through the walls to various places in the house, one of which being the basement. I’d at least have to connect rj45 connectors as the cabling is unfinished, but that shouldn’t be too difficult. What I’m unsure of is what to do about the router.

I’ve tried using the extender over coax and hardwiring via Ethernet in the basement, but that option is slow and shows regularly dropped frames on my TV (why I want to hardwire in the basement), which doesn’t happen with the temporary option directly connected to the router.

At this point, i’m not sure if I have another option than to move the router to the basement where the cabling terminates and to connect the cabling to the other parts of the house to the router there. I’m a little concerned, however, about degraded WiFi quality with this option. I could also put the extender on the top level connected over coax to see if that gets me a good enough speed over wifi.

Anything else I should be considering?

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
Edg1
Community Leader
Community Leader

@cire80 wrote:

Yes, the cat6 from the basement to the upstairs is currently used to connect the ONT to the router upstairs. There are lines run from the basement to elsewhere in the house, but there isn't a second line between the router upstairs and the basement.


I would say you have 2 options. One would be to move router to basement then you can use the cat 6 that  currently goes to the router upstairs to feed a wireless access point. 

Option two you could order a FiOS Network Adapter (FNA) from Verizon. It has 4 ethernet ports and is coax fed. So you could leave router in place and put FNA in basement to connect to the cat 6 cables. 

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

Just use the existing cat 6 cable.

Connect to a LAN port on the router and then connect to whatever device you wish in basement.

Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
cire80
Enthusiast - Level 1

Right, but to do that I’d have to move the router to the basement. Which I believe that’s my only option given that all the cat6 cables terminate there. I’ll try that and figure out improving WiFi to the upper levels after.

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

Not sure I understand.

if you have cat6 to basement, why not use that?

Or are you using that to run from ont to router upstairs?

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
cire80
Enthusiast - Level 1

Yes, the cat6 from the basement to the upstairs is currently used to connect the ONT to the router upstairs. There are lines run from the basement to elsewhere in the house, but there isn't a second line between the router upstairs and the basement.

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
Edg1
Community Leader
Community Leader

@cire80 wrote:

Yes, the cat6 from the basement to the upstairs is currently used to connect the ONT to the router upstairs. There are lines run from the basement to elsewhere in the house, but there isn't a second line between the router upstairs and the basement.


I would say you have 2 options. One would be to move router to basement then you can use the cat 6 that  currently goes to the router upstairs to feed a wireless access point. 

Option two you could order a FiOS Network Adapter (FNA) from Verizon. It has 4 ethernet ports and is coax fed. So you could leave router in place and put FNA in basement to connect to the cat 6 cables. 

Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
CudaJoe
Newbie

Option 1:  Move gateway to basement, since it requires the ethernet to ONT box for gigabit.  Get a excellent mesh router system or an extender that forwards your network ID for wifi needs upstairs instead.   If you need hard wired upstairs aswell, get a FioS network adapter or network extender.  Both extend the network via MoCa assuming you have coaxle upstairs.

Option 2: Get a FiOS network extender or Adapter for the basement and connect via MoCA.

Option 3: 3rd party hardware.  Use a PowerLine Adapter to get ethernet to where ever you need.

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
Mesko2875
Newbie

You could try using the Eero Pro mesh wireless system. 

I have three Eero boxes

one in my family room where the ethenet comes up from the basement Fios box

one in my living room which is connected wirelessly to the family room box

one in my office upstairs which is connected wirelessly.

I have my Surface Pro 6 docking station connected to the Eero box via ehternet cable and serveral Fire TV device connected to the Eero network.

I have 300/300 Fios internet and I can get the 300/300 speed anywhere in the house when I do a speed test.

This setup may work for you as it seems you have the ethernet run already.

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
Mesko2875
Newbie

one more thing the Eero system has replaced the Fios router.

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Re: Router upstairs —options for hardwire in the basement?
Sla6yer
Enthusiast - Level 1

Option 2: Get a FiOS network extender or Adapter for the basement and connect via MoCA.

If I was to get a Network Adapter for the basement (MoCA enabled, coax to ethernet) would it work given that the coax feeding it would come from a splitter, not directly from the router?  In other words ONT to coax splitter, then one coax to router, another to adapter.

Also, will this degrade the signal too much that it won't be worth it?  Should i just move the router to the basement, use an extender for first floor?

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