Ethernet line to the office for dummies

Presumably you have got power to the shed? How does that run? If your power has been run in trunking then you may be able to run ethernet cable through the trunking also.

Problem is getting through walls. A Cat5 cable will go through a 5mm hole, unless the RJ45 connector is on the end when suddenly you need a much bigger hole. e/.g/ this patch cable comes with prefitted connectors - one end into the router,the other end into the laptop.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OUTDOOR-EXTERNAL-cat5e-Network-Ethernet/dp/B009U81EFI

You can buy cable and fit the connectors afterwards but it's a fiddly job and you really need to test the cable to be sure you've got it right

if the laptop doesn't have a LAN port then you will need an access point in the shed like this
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WA901N-Wireless-Injector-Ethernet/dp/B087MSF7BR

I'd honestly just get a cable guy to install it. I just got some ethernet ran from the living room, up and around the house to the study on the second floor, for not a lot over £100.

I have done this to the summer house I built and to my 3 kids' bedrooms to get stable connections.

I used an external grade Cat5e cable and terminated at both ends into an RJ45 outlet (Screwfix 34584). I ran 2 cables in case there was a need for more or one failed.

Doing it this way means you have to terminate the 8 colours data wires into the modules, for this just make sure you copy the same standard on each end of the cable. There are propper 'punch down' tools for this, I have used them but also done it successfully with a knife.

Doing it this way means you do not have to make up plugs and the connection is more permanent.

Then connect your router to the outlet at one end with any length patch lead and the same at the other to the computer.

So you need a patch cable from your router in the house to an RJ45 faceplate like this: https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat6-modules-outlets/41869-cat6-utp-rj45-modules-with-faceplate.html

That will fit on the front of a single gang back panel, grab one from Screwfix, B&Q etc. Surface mounted or receessed, you're choice.

Drill through the back of that to the outside of the house. Get some external rated network cable like this: https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat5e-cable/20-ccs-cat5e-utp-external-cable-ldpe-outer-sheath.html

Poke that through the hole in the wall and terminate it in the RJ45 faceplate.

Pop another RJ45 faceplate and back box in the garden office and drill a hole behind it. Poke the other end of your Cat5e cable through this hole and terminate it in the RJ45 faceplate.

Make sure you fill the holes with silicone and and also have a drip loop on the cable. Oh and the cable should run slightly upwards from the external course of bricks to the internal course so any water goes towards your outside wall.

Then connect a wifi router/switch to the garden office RJ45 faceplate using a patch cable and connect everything together.

^^ that.

There are propper ‘punch down’ tools for this, I have used them but also done it successfully with a knife.

It's worth investing in a 'proper' tool, they aren't expensive, but if you're penny-pinching you can get disposable plastic punch-down tools for like 99p. There's absolutely no reason to be using a knife. You don't want to be chasing weird intermittent network issues for the next year for the sake of a quid.

Proper tool on order, can't have too many tools 🙂

Good good.

I've seen people do it with a screwdriver. It almost invariably mostly works.

I assume you have already checked you have internet at the router.

Any issues I've had with video conferences have been router/incoming internet based rather than the powerline adaptors.

I’d honestly just get a cable guy to install it. I just got some ethernet ran from the living room, up and around the house to the study on the second floor, for not a lot over £100.

@oldnick I have one of these which has been a life saver when doing this job. As you said, you can never have too many tools

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Network-Cable-Tester-RJ45-Ethernet/dp/B08RNDBQRX/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=lan+tester&qid=1613477323&sr=8-5

DavidB, if there is a tool like that for plugging into faceplates I'd buy it in a shot 🙂

I’m all for getting someone in for complicated stuff, but you can get all the stuff you need including tools and 100m of outdoor cable for about £20! Ten minutes on YouTube will teach you how to do it, if you’re ever going to have to do more than one cable it’s a no-brainer really!

Battle-damaged from too many days playing "find the broken ethernet cable" in a cabinet worth of cables we decided to make ourselves.

One not-great connection can cause so much pain. Those cable testers work with faceplates, just patch cable them in at each end.

I didn't bother punching the cable down to a faceplate either end. I already had a route into the big shed via a thin hose-pipe installed when we built said shed 10+ years ago.

External cable pinned to the bottom of the fence, into a 4 port ethernet switch in the shed which powers an WiFi access point and three fixed connections (Rasp Pi, Sonos, Phone)

Other end is plugged into the back of the Orbi Mesh as that's in the kitchen and the router is in the roof!

Mate did most of the work as a) he's a sparky b) he has the crimping tool and c) he has a massive SDS drill and bit to get through the very thick wall into the kitchen.

I'd been using powerline and it seemed to be getting worse. They were v. old ones tho. Now it's 60 meg in the house and 60 meg in the shed.

How far away is the office/cable length required? Sometimes those cable testers need plenty of juice to go the distance and ensuring you don't get false negatives. i.e. the cable is working but the tester returns a negative due to lack of power

and something to produce wifi in the shed.

If it's just the one device that matters, I wouldn't even bother with a wifi point. Just connect the computer directly.

Cheaper, easier, more reliable.

DavidB, if there is a tool like that for plugging into faceplates I’d buy it in a shot 🙂

It does. You just use 2 patch leads

@loughan they are fine to 100m which is usual limit on ethernet. I’ve used it in 2 houses and a large datacentre.

WiFi required for wifey as she likes her wireless gadgets.
I'll order a tester when I order the bits, and a small facepalm for not thinking of two patch-leads myself.

I'd still patch in the cable to an RJ45 faceplate to allow a wired connection for the PC and wifi for phone etc - perhaps run two cables out to the shed if you can? Or find an access point that has extra LAN ports to act as a switch (you can usually set up an old router to do this if you don't mind fiddling with settings)

Easiest solution:
Cat 5 cable (exterior grade is you want but I've got standard cat 5 that's been outside for >10 years and is fine)
RJ45 crimping tool
RJ45 connectors - just get these and thank me later (you can see if the wires have gone into the right places)
https://images.app.goo.gl/wnz2oMECBnJickZz5

Why bother with a faceplate?..... just connect straight to the laptop? No wifi required, get a cheap RJ45/USB adapter and off you go!!

Why bother with a faceplate?….. just connect straight to the laptop?

Faceplates are neater, cost buttons, and move the common failure mode (stressing the cable/plug - tripping over it etc.) to a more easily replaceable part.

Cat 5 cable (exterior grade is you want but I’ve got standard cat 5 that’s been outside for >10 years and is fine)

Same here - but only 9 years 🙂

But it would be easy for me to swap the cable out if anything went wrong.

I wouldn't even be bothering with cables, just look at wifi options.

FWIW we've wifi broadband for the house, aerial is about 2 miles away.

Cat 5? I *THINK* you mean Cat7 (just to catch @Cougar's attention 🙂 )

Would something like this work in the office? Teams meetings are the deal breaker for the boss.
For that matter would it work better than the standard Sky router in the house?
I don't want to go mad money-wise as we are probably emigrating in a year or two so won't be taking any of this stuff with us.
Thanks again

Great thread. I've been looking at how to do ours so I can get away from the same tiny spare room 40-50 hours a week at least for doing some calls / meetings that don't need a big screen and sounds like this is all very doable. 🙂

Why bother with a faceplate?

Because it's Not Shit?

Cat 5? I *THINK* you mean Cat7 (just to catch @Cougar’s attention 🙂 )

You almost got me.

When I've done this I've also put a small network switch on both ends and then connect everything into that rather than directly into the faceplate. The idea is to provide some surge protection in case of lightning.  It's not perfect as ideally you should be using proper rated devices to earth points but the switches have built in power and short mains leads. They are there as cheap sacrificial devices

I also recognise I may be over thinking it but lightning isn't fussy about how it gets to ground.

Yes, just use an old router as the WAP (make sure it's not routing).
I did this in my son's room as the wifi was terrible there. Now he has 3 ethernet ports and strong wifi. Plenty... for now.

I did it on Sunday, the hardest bit was getting a sensible cable-run given the state of our lofts.
The cable came without a drum so I made a reel from an Ikea stool some 2x2 and a spare bit of log-burner stove-pipe, this helped a lot.
Tester tool thing worked fine, punch down tool is a brilliant thing, the router I linked to above (tplink TL-WR841N) works fine as an access point (has instructions for the various ways to use it) and fires wifi all over the back garden and the rear of the house!
Wife happy with it, and I get wifi in the garage too (:
Next question, if I wanted to change it's settings so the new access point is a clone of the Sky router how do I do that/ what's the correct search term? The switchover from one router to the other is quite clunky at present.
@garage-dweller, if I can do it anyone can!

Next question, if I wanted to change it’s settings so the new access point is a clone of the Sky router how do I do that/ what’s the correct search term?

you need to disable DHCP on the new router so that all IP addressing is handled by the original routeer, then change the wifi SSID and password on the new access point to match the SSID and password of the original router

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/417/

I searched for "tp-link tl-wr841n as access point"

^^^ that will work, but it's always going to be a bit clunky I think vs a mesh or other AP system that's designed for seamless roaming/handoff or whatever they call it

Thanks nbt, exactly what I needed.
And thanks zilog, even if it doesn't cure the clunk (desperately holding onto the previous wifi even when it has zero signal strength before flopping onto the nice strong alternative signal) it will make it easier when friends come round, you know, in 2022 or something.

wifi roaming is client controlled, so unless you're using AP's that can kick off clients at a certain signal (RSSI).... you're screwed 😉

Make sure the AP's are on the same SSID but different channels and you've done your best....

Silly questions as I'm about to do ours in next week or two...

Assume I don't need to shove a bit of conduit through the wall? Cavity wall and insulated if that makes any odds.

I have just realised I'll also need a 300+mm 6mm drill bit.

Assume normal silicone frame sealant will do around the hole?

Drip loop is I assume a reference to taking the cable down and then up in a gentle U below the external hole yes?

Pro tip, you can hire big stupid drill bits it's a one-off job (and a drill beg enough to drive it if you don't have one).

People saying about holding onto wifi is only partially true. We have 2 or 3 extenders and it is not a problem most of the time. Sometimes you can pulse wifi off and on and get the one you want. For 95% of the time it works just as you would hope it would.

I'll add a question to this ahead of our move to our new country pile; if I have stick one end of an ethernet cable in the back of the main router (which is, let's say "IHN Towers WiFi") and the other end in the back of another router, can that second router be a 'different' WiFi network (let's say "Hunting Lodge WiFi)?

@ihn - yes it can, kind of. it won't actually be a different network as the main router still needs to handle all the IP addressing (unless you start setting IP ranges on each router of course). If anything, it's more effort to make the Wifi details match than it is to leave them different

Cool. So I still need to

disable DHCP on the new router so that all IP addressing is handled by the original router

?

ideally yes. do you know what routers you will be using?

You don't need a new router, you need a wireless access point.

Disabling DCHP on the remote end is for if you've already got an old router lying about the place that you're repurposing as an AP and that being the case you absolutely need to do so or you're going to have a bad day. With a dedicated AP it shouldn't have a DHCP server to disable in the first place.

As nbt says, it's fundamentally the same network, by having different SSIDs you're just forcing the connection point. It's like, you could walk into your living room through the front door or the kitchen door, ultimately you're still in the same room.

cougar explains it very eloquently. I've used an old router as I had one lying around. an AP would be easier to install and use but would have mean tme buying one

Ta. I'll be using one of the three spare routers we'll need moving house with (one EE, two PlusNet, all the same model of router).

I get it's the same network underneath. My thought about having the different SSIDs was to avoid the AP 'clunk' from further up the thread; would the device, seeing the different SSIDs, assume they're different networks and swap to the one with the strongest signal, rather than hold on to a weaker signal as can happen with same-named APs?