Coaxial cables around house - how to make use of it

[gambo]

I'm a bit sick of poor wifi in my house so I thought I'll try to make a use of existing cables (installed years ago by previous owners). No idea how old the cables are and but I can see lots of coaxial cables running outside of the house into sockets in most of the rooms. What's the best approach to check if they are suitable for LAN? Some of them are branded virgin media.

[IanR]

Sounds like they were originally installed for TV distribution.

 

You can push ethernet along these with an Ethernet to coax adapter. As long as you are not after PoE, and 10/100Mbps is all you need on each cable, then the adapters are relatively cheap. You'll need a pair of adapters per coax lead. Something like

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Network-Extender-100Mbps-Transmitter-Receiver/dp/B07NPLR5D6/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=ethernet+over+coax&qid=1679670573&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1&smid=A2MGH2IKJRHS5

 

Do all the cables come together at  a single point in the house. If so, you could put an ethernet switch at that location and plug each of the coax cables you wish to use into the switch with one of the adapters, then run a Cat6 cable from the ethernet switch to your broadband router.

Edited March 24, 2023 by IanR

[Ralph]

You can use coaxial cables for LAN but you will need MoCA Adapters. You need to find the start and end point of each run of cables and plug in a MoCA at each end which you can then use to extend your wifi or plug in a device

You can buy a coax continuity tester for about £20. It comes in two parts one with a little speaker, put one in each end of the coax if they are both on the same run you hear a tone from the speaker.

 

I looked at it for our last house when we started working from home but in the end just went for a TP Mesh system.

[gambo]

There is a box outside the house and the virgin media cable goes through that box. i've now disconnected the VM cable going to VM box inside the house and connected to one of the extra cables going into another room and it's working fine.

 

I have a mesh solution but it struggles, perhaps too little boxes or just the VM hub itself is poor.

[Temp]

I'd look at using Powerlan to connect extra WiFi AP to your router.

 

I think others here favour mesh AP.

[joth]

11 minutes ago, Temp said:

I'd look at using Powerlan to connect extra WiFi AP to your router.

 

I think others here favour mesh AP.

I'd do both. Some mesh network APs have the power line adapter for backhaul built in. E.g.. 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Deco-Powerline-Replacement-P9/dp/B081ZWJ6FX

 

 

[joth]

15 hours ago, gambo said:

I have a mesh solution but it struggles, perhaps too little boxes or just the VM hub itself is poor

Plug a computer directly into the VM hub via ethernet and do a speed test. If that's okay but it degrades on WiFi, you know the VM hub is not the limit 

[PeterW]

16 hours ago, gambo said:

or just the VM hub itself is poor

 got it in one !! They are pretty crap, we switch everything off and only use it as a DHCP server and then use TP Link mesh