kagome26isawsome

@BronxWench Got a couple half-used spools of cat 5e myself, but given the current standards, I’d rather put in cat-latest if I’m crawling in the attic and going through that effort.  In the meanwhile, the stuff stapled up is...working fine.  I do like to control the router, because it’s basically running my internal network, and I don’t want my printer, my network drive, etc, accidentally “published” to the internet as a whole.  Cable company… to mitigate service calls for “internet not working”, likely has it configured to maximum-open possible.

Hi, all.

“Not ordinary” is actually a great thing if you can either set it up yourself, or have a friend that can do that for you.  In my case, I only turned the WiFi on on the router when I finally broke down and got a iPhone.  The computer(s) are wired into the switch ports of the ADSL box with good patch cables.  Wires are not obsolete by a long shot.  They just take some effort, and to more than a few people appear to take far more effort than they actually do.

Since I live in “BFN,” my cell coverage is so good that I’m still subscribing to PTSN telephone service at the princely sum of just over $100 per month, since it works, where the cell coverage usually works, most of the time.  Worse, the way the cell towers are set up around me, when my ADSL conks out, so does cell service, and vice versa.  And, the cable company’s Internet also gets wiped out.   Neat, hunh?  So, I can’t even switch over to VoIP, despite my ADSL box having provisions for two lines plus internal battery backup for the VoIP, since I could end up SOL if the internet and cell towers break.  And, they have broken several times in the past year, exactly like I’ve described. 

I have my computers and stuff in my dining room, which admittedly isn’t the best place for them.  I am now the proud owner of a beautiful color printer/scanner/copier/fax that I need to take apart to clean the laser mirrors on it to get it behaving itself again.  I will do that before the end of the year, or pay to have done; but I’m putting it off because that’s an hour or two of my life that I would never get back, and it would be too much like work.  The fancy rig replaced a 1995 monochrome laser printer that has the “same indigestion” going on, and will likely never get set back to right, since no one refills cartridges for it anymore, and they haven’t done so for a few years. 

When the color printer is behaving itself, I can print to it from the iPhone, which really does come in handy sometimes.  And, I could run steel or PVC conduit (for future-proofing,) and wire my house with Cat 6a, and put a “real” switch in a service cubby “somewhere.”  But, I’m retired, and all the cutting, patching, etc would be too much like real work.  I have walked the configuration of the “ADSL Box” to get it where I want it, which is actually a pretty good rig all things considered.

@kagome26isawsome, @BronxWench and @Desiderius Price’s advice is still absolutely spot-on.  Being hard-wired in is better than WiFi, if your circumstances actually allow it.  Back to your original problem; did “fubar.com” ever work for you from your usual computing location?  If so, what “changed” around your house at the same time it stopped working?  Did you get additional housemates?  Or did your “existing” housemates get more WiFi stuff?  Or, did their data requirements go up?  Did you get a new TV and install it wirelessly?  If so, there’s your problem.  If not, you just managed to find a site that doesn’t like WiFi at the edge of its working area.  WiFi transmitters, like anything else, do degrade over time.  So, that might be all, or at least part of the problem. 

WiFi transmitters also operate as hubs instead of switches, even if the ethernet sockets on the device are a switch instead of a hub.  What’s the difference?  A hub is a single “collision domain,” where every device on it can have its traffic “crash” with the data from the other devices.  A switch provides a separate collision domain for every subscriber, so data collisions don’t happen.  If your household got more “WiFi stuff,” you now have more data collisions, so you have reduced service, no matter how good a signal you get.  The first solution below won’t help that much if “everybody” has a smart-phone, plus a computer, plus some if not all of your TVs are all on WiFi, along with your doorbells, your thermostat, and so on.  Improving your signal may still help somewhat, since you never turn down a better signal if you can avoid it.

The easier of two possible solutions for you would be to have the cable equipment moved out of the basement and installed in your parent’s office, or some other sane location on the first floor instead of the basement.  That would put less distance and fewer barriers between your computer and the router, giving you better signal, and better data capacity because of that.  Spectrum could do that for you, and if “you” [the account holder paying the bill] complain properly, they might do the move as a “free-of-charge courtesy” service call, since the location they arbitrarily picked for the equipment isn’t working for you.  Or, your father could do it himself.  Beyond a “new” location for the cable that has electricity, he would only need a length of top-quality coaxial cable, plus a top-quality coaxial cable union to get the job done.  He might need to drill a couple of holes to allow the cable to pass, but this shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

The more “extreme” solution, if your living circumstances allow, would be to hard-wire in to the router in the basement, completely bypassing the WiFi altogether.  Pre-made Cat 6a ethernet cables cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $22-$25 for a factory-made twenty-five or fifty foot cable, and $37-$60 for a one hundred foot cable.  The variation on price depends on the manufacturer, the type of insulation, and the like.  Before buying a cable, make sure that you can route the cable without upsetting anyone, forcing the cable to make hard bends, or subject it to being crushed by doors being closed.  You can “plan” the cable’s route with string, but keep in mind that the cable is much less flexible than string.  Once you’ve successfully routed your string (or whatever,) measure how long it is, and buy the shortest pre-made cable that is longer than the string by enough to be practical.  So, if your string is twenty-six feet long, you would need a fifty foot cable, and you might also need the fifty foot cable if your string is twenty-four feet long, too.  You will need to allow for at least nine foot of length for every story up you need to go if your dwelling has standard eight foot ceilings, plus more for the “wandering around” your cable run might need to do to either avoid or minimize the drilling of holes for the cable. 

You might be able to use air ducts for part of your run.  If you do, make sure the cable you use is either marked “CMP” or “plenum rated” on the packaging or the cable itself.  Plenum rated cable, if a disaster happens, won’t put off poisonous smoke if it catches on fire.  Non plenum-rated cables, which are typically cheaper, might put off poisonous smoke, which is very much not good if problems happen.  If you pass the cable through a grate, make sure the edges of the grate the cable comes in contact with are taped with electrician’s tape to minimize chafing.  If you actually drill holes in any duct work, make sure that the hole is grommeted, and seal the hole between the grommet and the cable.  Don’t enter the supply ductwork right on top of your furnace.  Better yet, if you do use ductwork as part of your route, try to use the return ducts as much as possible over using the supply ducts.

You might also be able to run the cable through a grommeted and sealed hole at the nearest window frame, up the outside wall of your house, and back in through another grommeted and sealed hole in the window frame into the room where you use your computer.  You would use “spiral-wrap” cable shielding for the outside portions of your run, and either nail, screw, or glue cable staples or saddles and zip-ties every few feet to support the outside cable run and keep it “out of trouble.”

All of the above are suggestions based on the assumption that you (or your father) are possibly somewhat comfortable with “homeowner DIY” tasks but are not professional cable installers, and do not want to hire a network cable installer to do the job for you.  It also assumes that you don’t have a local friend to do all of this for you.  While I just noticed that I am much physically closer to you than I realized, I’m still south of I-80, and you’re still north of the “Cheddar Curtain,” even if you’re somewhat “Milwaukee-ish” or “Kenosha-ish.”  And when I was still doing this stuff routinely, I’d always had my employer buy the top quality tools I used, which does bugger-all for me now.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing to fix things.

wow just wow you guys gave me alot to think about and do! i love the support! @Desiderius Price we currently have 2 computers, my laptop, 5 cell phones, and my sister is connected thru her xbox in the playroom. my parents computers might be the ones getting the most access since they are connected by the ethernet cords. @Wilde_Guess I do pay the spectrum bill so i guess i can make a stink to them but its under my dads name. um as to my dad moving it from the basement to the office (or livingroom) he can barely walk at times. we do have other capable people who can do it but it is all up to my dad and hes very, very anal about stuff. this is a recent thing with fubar. we did get a 5G transmitter installed across the street like 4 months ago but i doubt it would wait til now to do anything. I am looking into everything you guys wrote and hopefully i can get this resolved soon. thanks