Suggestions For a Coax-To-Ethernet Solution? 608
watanabe writes "I just moved from a house with Cat5e wiring to a house with ... a whole bunch of coax cables. Like, my living room has five coax cables coming out of a hole in the wall. All of them go back up to my attic.
The house is big, (and I like it, thank you), but I have realized that our digital usage pattern (media server + squeezeboxes + remote time machine backups to a linux box) will not work without wiring. I am currently bridging some old Linksys WRT54Gs to the right places, but of course, that slows everything down.
This got me thinking: 100mb ethernet is four wires, yes? And I have four wires for every two coax cables. What about a two coax-head -> ethernet jack setup? Has anyone done this before? Searching online only gives me $100+ coaxethernet transceiver type boxes. At that price, a HomePNY system would make more sense.
I'm willing to solder if I have to, but I first wanted to get advice and holes shot in my plan, if there are any."
Re:Use the Coax as a wirepull for the cat5 (Score:1, Interesting)
10Base-2? (Score:3, Interesting)
ATT Uverse runs over coax (Score:5, Interesting)
Related Questions (Score:4, Interesting)
If you were building a house today, which kind of connectivity would you set up ?
Since the expensive part is probably paying someone to put the cable, it could make sense to set up both gigabit ethernet and optical fiber in all rooms. Do any slashdotters have some opinion on that ?
Re:Use the Coax as a wirepull for the cat5 (Score:3, Interesting)
Or this one from Netgear [amazon.com].
Anyone have experience with these?
Re:MoCa (Score:1, Interesting)
+1
i had the same dilemma for a mythtv hd frontend and a pair of netgear moca bridge devices worked like a charm. It was a bit pricey at $200 but i hear you can get refurbed actiontec devices from ebay from old verizon fios installs for about $60 each
Wifi-over-Coax (Score:1, Interesting)
Wifo over coax was sold for hotel rooms. If you connect the access point and end point to coax you will have a great connection and no interference. This may be a very good solution.
Coax has huge damping at 2.5 GHz, but that should not be a problem for the receivers used.
Re:ATT Uverse runs over coax (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes it did -- it gave me an idea. I don't know if it would work, but maybe he could use cablemodems to connect ethernet to the coax. Of course, he probably doesn't have enough cablemodems laying around, but if he does, or can get a cheap supply of used ones it might work.
Re:10Base-2? (Score:3, Interesting)
Resistors don't work for bidirectional signals (which 10base2 is), because they only provide the desired effect one way (the other way, you end up with the opposite effect).
Stop wasting your time (Score:3, Interesting)
You cannot use RG-59 (CATV COAX) in any useful fashion for networking. Don't bother thinking about it any more.
Pull CAT-5 or better. Bite the bullet. Ignore the coax.
Even if it's RG-6 or whatever, if it's F connectors (screw-on) forget about it.
Now, if by some chance, you got RG-58 and BNC connectors, then you can maybe run 10MB over it. Another supreme waste of time.
I suspect all the media convertors that claimed to drive 100MB over wacko coax are finally gone, since none worked worth a damn.
And if you've got so much coax, you can use one as a pull string. At least for one run. You might be able to bribe a buddy to help you. Once.
Worked for me with 6-conductor phone cable (Score:4, Interesting)
Coax cable might behave a bit differently, because one of the conductors is exposed and can pick up signals, but the other isn't, unlike a twisted pair. Differential signaling relies on both picking up the same signal, so that it can be rejected at the receiver by finding the difference between the two. You mentioned it having five coax cables; with that, you could use four coax cables, with the outer layer grounded on each. This way neither will pick up much of anything extra. It sure seems worth a try to me.
Re:Use the Coax as a wirepull for the cat5 (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, we take for granted that his coax cables are installed in a way so they can be used as fishers ;-))
True. All of this well-intentioned advice goes to hell if the prior installers had stapled the RG-59 to the studs.
Plan B: hire pros to at least pull the Cat 6 cable runs, even if you have the equipment and supreme confidence to terminate the wires yourself.
what?? (Score:4, Interesting)
You can afford a huge house, but you can't come up with $100 for a tranceiver? That's absolutely daft.
Re:Use the Coax as a wirepull for the cat5 (Score:3, Interesting)
Why shouldn't he pull CAT7 now? Everyone with access to Ebay as supplier AND his own house as proof of wealth has no valid reason not to buy the best cables he can procure there. No, not Monster Cables, but cheap run-of-the-mill SSTP CAT7 (Screened/Foiled shielded Twisted Pair S/FTP).
Wiki-Grandma says Cat7 is a worldwide standard except for the USA, but that may or may not be true. Anyway, I think some webshop will sell them for a few bucks, just look for
SSTP (Screened-shielded Twisted Pair)
PiMF (Pairs in Metal Foil)
For fixed installations in vertical ducts (like the GGGGP said he had), try to get a flame retardant cable. It may save you more than money.
If that fails or is actually much to expensive, buy a good Cat6.
The price difference between the Cat5, 6a/"e" and 7 are rapidly coming down and are not too big when compared to the cost of pulling several hundred meters of them through conduits and tubes and the prospect of having to pull a new cabling in a few years.
Always pull in new strings alongside the cable, though. Your house will probably survive long enough to see terabit ethernet and that will be over optical wire with a neutrino-shielded made of Unobtainium. Which Chinese webshops or Ebay will sell for a dime a dozen, by then, as usual.