Technical > Home Improvement > Running Cat 5 from attic to downstairs outlet

Running Cat 5 from attic to downstairs outlet

So you don't know what's the path taken by the coax between Room A and Room B? For all you know, it could make quite a few detours, and not just be a straight line.

Since you managed to run the CAT5 to Room A, it means you know the path it takes from the attic.

Why not try to run another Cat5 from the attic directly to room b?

The only way to bring Cat5 to Room A and B would be to run TWO cat5 cables anyway.

Or, what I did is run my network cables from the basement ceiling up into the rooms above.

I don't think I can access the exterior wall in Room B from the attic. The roof tapers down, there are nails sticking out of the rafters, and I just don't have enough room to squeeze in there and even see what I'm doing. And if it was doable, I figure they would have run the coax straight from the attic to B in the first place.

I don't understand why I would need two cables. If I pull a bunch of slack down from the attic to A, I should have enough to feed directly to B.

There's no basement or crawl space here. I've never seen a house with a basement my entire life in California and Florida. From what I've read, in Florida it's because of the high water table and flooding.

reply to quatrix
If you have a clear shot from the attic to room A you should consider yourself fortunate to have that blessing.

In my two story house it's impossible to run anything from the attic to the first floor without tearing things up. "Horizontal" runs are even more challenging because you either have to find a soffit/bulkhead somewhere or go through studs.

I resorted to using DECA (DirecTV's dirt-cheap-on-ebay version of MoCA) for areas I couldn't reach with CAT5 cost effectively .
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reply to djrobx

What's above Room B? Run a cable through the floor to the room above and install another wireless access point.

reply to quatrix
I perfectly understand the varies reasons to avoid wireless and I have hardwired ethernet in most rooms. For those places where I don't have an ethernet outlet I'm using powerline ethernet adapters (I have had good success with the older 85Mbps Netgear products).

As for trying to follow the existing route of the coax it is probably futile. You are much better off looking from where to where you need the cable run and try to find the easiest route to traverse walls and ceilings. Exterior walls can be problematic not only because of the difficulty to access them from the attic but also because they are often filled with insulation. In general, interior walls are easier for vertical drops.
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reply to quatrix

reply to quatrix
Above Room B (the office) is the master bedroom. Putting an access point directly above won't make much of a difference. The signal is only a problem at the opposite corner of the house. I recently replaced both 802.11g routers (the main gateway and a wireless bridge) with 802.11n, and it made no difference. Right now DD-WRT shows an SNR of 5 (which DD-WRT calls a "signal quality" of 29%) to the bridge and 1 (25%) to an Android phone in the same bedroom.

reply to quatrix
MOCA.
If the coax was installed when the walls were open, it's going to be stapled. Things are a lot different when the walls are open.
Save yourself some headache. Get on Amazon, order some MOCA adapters, and don't sweat it.
I have 20,000 ft of Cat5. I still use MOCA adapters before chopping holes in peoples houses for a simple ethernet connection.
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reply to quatrix
Yeah, I've been doing some research on coax piggybacking. It sounds like there can be problems with splitters and amplifiers though. If I went with that solution, the signal would go through an amp and a couple of splitters. One end is also the coax leg that feeds DC power to the amp.

reply to quatrix
As others mentioned, trying to follow the coax route isn't likely. (bummer). Is running an exterior line a possibility? What type of siding is your house clad with? Any way to hide/ protect the CAT5 behind siding, etc?
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reply to quatrix
I've found splitters not to be that big of an issue. There's always a way around the AMP. Insert and remove the MOCA before.
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reply to quatrix
Garden variety Cat5 will not last long outside. If you take that route, use electrical conduit (gray plastic type) with boxes at top and bottom where the cable enters the house.

Were it my home I would run the cable inside through the walls. Since the room above the office is a MBr, there must be a closet. I would open (1x2 foot) an area of sheetrock on an inside wall of the closet. Using a long, flexible drill bit, drill into the attic and the room below. I now have a cavity to feed a cable from attic to first floor. Open the ceiling in the office where the cable comes down and feed it to an inside wall and down toward the floor.

Patch the sheetrock and everything is good to go! Alternately, if I didn't want to patch the sheetrock, I would just install 'inspection plates' over the holes (painted wall and ceiling color).

reply to quatrix
I'm curious as to why the need for networking cable.

I moved into a new home and needed to extend my network upstairs. So I want fast and dirty and used a power line network adapter. The newer models have some decent bandwidth. I've used a switch on them as well, and it works fine.

My more modern devices use wifi. But I still like the power line adapter. As you aren't required to snake lines through walls and cut holes.
The first power line adapter I had was rated for 10mb, and lasted for 6 years. The new one is rated for about 50mb [If I remember correctly] and seems to work as well as the old model. Granted I only have 1 PC currently using that wired branch of the network. Before I had a switch with 3 PCs using the adapter, and it worked fine. Granted they were only running to crunch seti units/fold at home [I gave up on that years ago], and those 2 extra PCs have since been retired to the trash heap.
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Sometimes it's nice to have a wired network to support the wireless (extenders) and to have a more flexible network than to use powerline adapters.

I recently completed a network project where I ran a cat6 drop to each bedroom, one in a rec room, 4 to my living room, all terminating in my closet to a patch panel and gigabit switch. My motivation was that my desktop which hosts an ftp server was unable to fully utilize my FiOS because it's faster than the G-wireless can provide. I also want to put a media server in my network stack.

Wireless is nice but there are situations where wired is preferred.

reply to Snakeoil
I've had a lot of problems with powerline and HPNA over the years. I'd say they are both about dead.
MOCA has worked flawlessly for me on every installation. You can jam a lot onto the bandwidth in a piece of coax.
Even RG59 and old 600 MHz splitters don't seem to bother it.
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