Home DIY

WHAT?

I'd put the router upstairs. Got that. Then what?
I don't have a phone line.

Oh, how does your internet work then? Is it cable?

Usually it's either over a phone line (which may or may not have a phone on it) or via cable TV.

Is cable. (no telly, no phone line (voip on the cable to avoid line rental))

Oh well then you're pretty much stuck with the router where it is. If it's ethernet out of the cable modem you could patch that elsewhere, but chances are the router and the cable modem are one and the same these days.

If it's Virgin (which is a lot of cable supplies) the Virgin router can be set to act as a router or just as a cable modem.

^ This.

I have virgin and have exactly the same set up as @aggi is suggesting. A cat5e cable goes out one window by the modem/router and in the one upstairs into a little switch for my desktop/NAS etc etc. You don't need to do anything to set it up - just plug it in. The switch forwards everything it needs to (slightly clever than a hub, nowhere near a router), as far as the router knows it just has a few extra devices connected over LAN.
The only real thing I would do is neaten up how I got the cable upstairs, but that's out of my control (renting innit).

Why do you want to have it plugged in, bad signal? Upgrading to a better router may give you the desired effect.

So cat5e out the super hub, up the outside wall, back into the house, into a network switch so I can plug in desktop, voip ting, and a drive should one appear?

Also seems reasonable.

Let me know if you want a long patch lead (Cat5 cable), you've got until 12th August.

If damo doesn't want it, I'll take it...

Works for me. If I had the option I would possibly do something slightly neater than running it out the window but I doubt my landlord would like me drilling through the exterior walls like that...

This is the switch I got, it works well enough to give me ~80MB/s transfers over the network. You'll probably want cat5e rather than cat5 to get yourself gigabit ethernet but it will certainly work with either.

That switch looks fine - 5 ports gives you one to go downstairs and 4 to use upstairs. That's enough for a desktop or laptop plus 3 spare for things like a NAS, network printer, etc etc.

Always go gigabit - you'll find 10/100 fast ethernet switches for a few quid less but if you're going for 100Mbit/s you may as well go wifi!

Gigabit really comes into its own if you're shifting things like large video files from machine to machine and don't want to go moving USB hard drives around.

Also, with the faster cable services and even the 80Mbit/s FTTC service (BT Infinity) you can find that your wireless connection is actually slower than your internet connection!

It's worth becoming familiar with the various wifi standards - 802.11 a/b/g are the older standards with a marketing limit of 54Mbit/s. 802.11n has a marketing limit of 600Mbit/s but only if you have multiple antennae and a clear airspace without interference from other wireless networks etc. Currently we're up to 802.11ac which can go twice as fast but again only if you have multiple antennae and clear airspace.

Wiki has a reasonable guide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

Most laptops and phones don't have enough antennae to use the modern wifi standards at max speed.

^What @rhowe said. WiFi is convenient, but not good.
I can transfer internally over WiFi at 3MBps tops (Virgin SuperHub 2, wireless N at 5GHz) while in the same room, but I can download from the internet at ~6MBps over ethernet.

I had to replace my powerline stuff with ethernet because they were slower than my internet connection.

@stevo_com
Oooh yes please.

Righto. And say I wanted to have a switch downstairs as well. That would also be fab and groovy right?

Daft question, you know to fit my general profile, can I bring the cat5e cable into the previously mentioned RJ45 socket (so it looks nice) and then into the switch?

I can't see anything wrong with that. But you know.
I'm guessing there aren't electrical face plates (for plugs right) with a cat5e outlet as well.

I'll nab the longest one I can get or I could make one to whatever length you need? What do you reckon?

I'd reckon about 2.5m - 3 m will cover the distance from ground to 1st floor. Then probably 4-4.5m.

I'd make that 8-10 m to be safe. is that reasonable?
WHAT AM I DOING?

I'm guessing there aren't electrical face plates (for plugs right) with a cat5e outlet as well.

They exist but you'd need to install them during a rewire.

Combination Plates

You can select modules to add to them including Cat5e outlets.

I have an electrician who is putting new plates and switches in the house, he's also checking the electrics, installing new lights, and is willing to do the cat5 thing for us.
So. That's nice. And probably safer for everyone.

(thanks, i'd tried face plate + cat 5 in google with one eye on Frozen and hadn't found anything)

We should have 10m ones ready made, i'll have a gander on Monday and PM you