1y ago

What's the best way to run a temporary eth cable?

I'm planning out my next homelab when I move soon. I have the floor plans and it looks like the best place for my computer is not centrally located, so the Wi-Fi won't be ideal. I'd like to run the cables a short distance so the router would be in a better spot.

I'm just renting and will likely only be here for a year so I don't want to do any drilling. I just want to secure the cables somehow to the crease where the wall and ceiling meet.

The total length will only be about 20 feet to the router.

27 comments

I use a long cable and command brand sticky cable clips to route the cable around door frames to get where it needs to go
- I'll look at that. My main concern is leaving a residue or taking paint off with it but command strips are usually good about that.

If you have carpet you can get a flat Ethernet cable and tuck it around the border. That’s how I have mine set up because my ONT is in the closet.
- Flat cables are a lifesaver
  
  But also unshielded so uncoil them entirely and do not lay them next to other data lines. I had so many dropped packages because of that.

Power line adaptors
- Be careful with those, they can interfere/kill your or your neighbors DSL connection. Terrible to diagnose these.
- Don't buy dlink ones if you have arc fault breakers. They'll randomly trip them, even on totally different circuits.
  Fuck powerline over Ethernet. Took me way too long to identify the cause.
- Its best to run a cable, but if you cant then power line is the way to go IMO. I didnt have any issues in 3 different houses with Dlink and TPlink

You can get surface mount cable raceways that connect to the wall with adhesive. Works well and also looks great.
https://www.amazon.com/Raceway-Management-Channel-Paintable-Concealer/dp/B07GPFDL1K/
Another option is called "sticky backs", they're not as nice looking, but they're commonly used by electricians in cabinets to secure wires:
https://www.amazon.com/Adhesive-Mounts-Holders-Multi-Purpose-Sticky/dp/B08XLR46Y7
One thing is if you're really concerned about the walls, maybe put a strip of masking tape on the wall before the sticky backs or cable raceway. That way you don't need to worry about the adhesive on them taking the paint off afterwards.

If you don't care for the looks, just put it down where needed, and fix it to whatever is around with cable ties.
I did the same in my daughters shared accommodation. Officially they had wifi in all the student rooms, but my daughters room basically had no reception, so I ran a cable from the other end of the flat where the router was down the staircase into her room for a local AP. When she moved out, it was a quick job with a pair of pliers to get it out again.

Blu Tac?

Painters tape is great… but it’s blue. Maybe attach white tape to the top of painters tape? Not sure how it’ll look. Right now I just have the cable running at the floor and I’ve forgotten about it
- I don't know where you are, but painter's tape (or masking tape) comes in all sorts of colours. Including white.
  
  But it usably getting dry over time and you can't remove it cleanly.
- Painters tape is fucking gold. I use it SO much, from labeling food in the fridge to holding table cloths on. It's the best.

Is there trim in the crease or it is a sharp corner? If there is trim and its not painted clean over, you can cheat and use paperclips. Fold the long leg out straight, so its horizontal, and the short U curl down at a 90, so it forms a hook. If you stick the horizontal wire in behind the trim itll usually wedge in without damaging the trim or paint visibly and hold enough for a cat5e.
If no trim, the sticky hangars are probably the best. Be careful not to buy cheap ones that might fall down, leave residue, or stick too hard and rip the paint off when you go to remove it.
- Is there trim in the crease or it is a sharp corner?
  It's more than likely just a sharp corner.

I have done exactly this.
Ikea wire management pack. Seriously. It used pin nails so at that height it is literally invisible and you don't have to spackle when you leave.
They are white and with a white cable and white wall, they are close to invisible.
They are sturdy, but easily removable. Worst case you can pull the cable 90 degrees to the nail-in angle and they will all pop out.
They don't cause damage either to the paint like those fucking sticky raceways and hooks ALWAYS do, even when properly removed.

Buy rug, put rug over cable on floor, disregard any discouragement of steps 1 or 2.

I had a friend that ran theirs though the air conditioning ducts. For mine though I ran them in the corners and under area rugs.

I’m not sure of the floor plan or roof type. But what I do is run a cable up the corner and drill a tiny hole right in the corner through the ceiling. Then I use a PoE powered access point and leave it in the ceiling space centrally located. One tiny hole you can patch with just about anything when you move house. If you have a rj45 crimper then the hole can be the diameter of the cable.
I’ve also done something similar where I run Ethernet under the floor. I lift up the carpet slightly right in the corner and drill a hole through the floor and run the Ethernet under the house. You also then take it up into a closet etc.
If you’re more adventurous and confident with electrical work you can also TURN OFF MAINS, then open up a wall power socket, disconnect the wires, tie a pull wire and your Ethernet cable very securely, and go into the roof and pull the two through into the roof space. You then tie the end of the elec cable to your pull wire and pull it back down to the socket. You can then get a wall plate that is a power socket and Ethernet female combo and voila….

Does Linksys still have their velop line? Back when I rented I used to use them as wireless bridges, at the time they were way faster than my Internet was... I believe they handle jussst about gig probably way more now with wifi 6 .
I'd use them to jump network segments around the house, they worked great.
Each floor had a switch wired to it with All devices from that floor.
They'd use a dedicated 5g backhaul ( extra wifi radios ) to link them together exactly like mesh networks work. Or you could plug switches or even just an Xbox into their Ethernet port and the whole network was accessable like it was wired.
I used to use the 3 wifi pack, and id put one on each floor directly above the other on each floor of my 3000 sq foot home at the time.
I'm pretty sure it was expensive, but most mesh systems will work this way, and usually the two radios do not interfere with each other so speeds were good.
I also bought actual wireless bridges, maybe tplink, and they were fine but they'd randomly crash after heavy BitTorrent use back then, velop was always solid for me, but now I use unifi dream machine se, and drill holes so I can get 10gig with my 2 gig fiber
Or even better (cheaper and easier) I've also run cat 6 along the outside of the houses I rented with black plenum cable, using the existing coax taca, I'd cut the coax In rooms I didn't need, I was cable modem, streaming TV only so only needed eth where the modem was and run my Ethernet outside to different parts of the house for about 6 years zero problems, in South Dakota, USA since I my area, cable and satellite guys installed everyone's homes that way. So I'd use their plate location and just punch it down, and add a faceplate.

27 comments