Suggestions on how to run CAT networking cables from basement to 2nd floor?

Pulling cables though the cold air return (assuming your house if forced-air heated) is often a good way.

I've run a cable through the cold-air return before. Mine was a bit of a pain but great when it's done. Now I just use the plug in powerline adapter, getting about 220-240mbps from the basement to the second floor.

cold air return and a fish tape. the 2nd floor room i wanted to wire has cold air return near the ceiling. it required going down the 8 feet to the floor, turining 90 degrees to run horizontally for 10-15 feet, then turning 90 degrees again to run down another 10 feet to the basement. I tried jury rigging some things at first but could never make it do the first 90 degree turn. after borrowing a fish tape it was easy.

Going through the cold air return. Interesting. I will take a look at that.

How did everyone handle exiting the air return? Like in the bedroom if the return was near the ceiling, did you just exit out near the bottom of the wall? Or did you make a hole sideways out the return into the stud wall in the room this was located? Or up into the ceiling space?

And in the basement, did you cut a small hole in the ductwork to exit? or through the side of the joist if your return air was just bordered by joists and some sheet metal?

Skilas wrote: ↑ Going through the cold air return. Interesting. I will take a look at that.

How did everyone handle exiting the air return? Like in the bedroom if the return was near the ceiling, did you just exit out near the bottom of the wall? Or did you make a hole sideways out the return into the stud wall in the room this was located? Or up into the ceiling space?

And in the basement, did you cut a small hole in the ductwork to exit? or through the side of the joist if your return air was just bordered by joists and some sheet metal?

That's the trick - you didn't say you wanted it to look good

If you want it to look clean, going outside, up an outside wall, up to the attic and then back down is probably the standard route. If you exit outside near the other utilities you will hardly notice it. If you are going to do that, consider also running some fiber cable because if you want to go past 1Gbps in future it will give you more options (even if you plan to use Cat 6a, 10G over copper is more power-intensive and the devices tend to be expensive, run hot, and give fewer options than using fiber to do the same).

Another thing to check - this will depend on the age of your house - is whether you have any phone jacks that are wired with Cat5. Newer houses that have phone jacks may have wired them up using Cat 5 with just two of the wires connected. In those cases, you can just remove the phone jacks and replace them with RJ45 jacks.

One single 2" PVC conduit run outdoors from basement to 2nd floor? Looks cleaner it's run beside a downspout.

+1 on Cold air return. I've done that in two rooms in my house over the years. I tied and taped a golf ball to a roll of string and slowly lowered it down the air return. My basement has dropped ceiling so I can move the tile and listen for which duct the ball was hitting. Pry open the sheet metal duct cover and you have your route. If you have good access you can notch the duct cover I guess, but I just bent a small opening without pinching the wire and used a bit of duct tape to cover up.

If you basement ceiling is not a drop ceiling then it becomes much more difficult cause you'll have to open up ceilings and walls to find the end. At that point you might as well have someone pull it thru walls the whole way.

Someone's going to mention Plenum rated cable to use on air returns for building code reasons. That'll be the official/up to code way of doing it.

You have any coax outlets in your house?

Buy some MOCA adapters on each end and you won't have to worry about fishing through the cold air return:

https://www.amazon.ca/Actiontec-MoCA-Ne ... B088KV2YYL

More expensive upfront, but very effective.

chadw01 wrote: ↑ You have any coax outlets in your house?

Buy some MOCA adapters on each end and you won't have to worry about fishing through the cold air return:

https://www.amazon.ca/Actiontec-MoCA-Ne ... B088KV2YYL

More expensive upfront, but very effective.

This is basically like powerline, except using coax?

Skilas wrote: ↑ This is basically like powerline, except using coax?

I believe it's much better than power-line as your coax runs are likely to have less interference on them, so can do higher throughput. I was looking at this route, but in the end I'm doing a 3/4" conduit from basement electrical panel up into attic to supply cat 6 line on every level of the house. At the same time I'm going to leave a port so that I can run the optical fibre straight into the place I want it in my house as I've heard that Bell etc. often just run it into the garage which is definitely not ideal. I have a finished basement, which is why I can't do the cold-air return path that others have suggested.

Skilas wrote: ↑ This is basically like powerline, except using coax?

Yes its like kinda powerline but better since thicker cable. You have to make sure the splitter in the coax line is compatible with MOCA, the mhz range on the splitter has to be higher than 1675mhz or higher. If its not too hard to get the ethernet thru, use ethernet. I've tried both getting my internet signal from the modem in my basement upto my second floor router. Ethernet is much superior.

chadw01 wrote: ↑You have any coax outlets in your house?

Buy some MOCA adapters on each end and you won't have to worry about fishing through the cold air return:

https://www.amazon.ca/Actiontec-MoCA-Ne ... B088KV2YYL

More expensive upfront, but very effective.

I use a hybrid of MoCa and Cat5e to get Ethernet into every room of my house. The speeds are pretty much the same between the two.

ndiniwachojeff wrote: ↑ I use a hybrid of MoCa and Cat5e to get Ethernet into every room of my house. The speeds are pretty much the same between the two.

If you can run Ethernet cable, do so, otherwise MOCA is a solid alternative, and much better than powerline.

You can potentially get up to 2.5Gbps with a pair of the newer bonded Actiontec adapters on each end of the coax.

Make sure you use proper splitters/diplexers and a MOCA POE filter like this at the demarc into your house, to keep your signals from filtering to your neighbours and improve your latency and speeds:

https://www.amazon.ca/Filter-MoCA-Cable ... B00DC8IEE6

Stacked closets are a great way to run the cable - put it in the front corner so when you look into the closets, you see nothing. As others have suggested, you can also follow duct work, but I avoid putting it in the ductwork - rather, I use the existing chases following the ducts and then come out next to the vents. Unless you want to purchase plenum rated cable.

Before going down the rabbit hole, why do you need low latency 1Gbps network on 2nd floor to warrant the effort?

Xtrema wrote: ↑ Before going down the rabbit hole, why do you need low latency 1Gbps network on 2nd floor to warrant the effort?

Compared to which alternative are you thinking about, if this were to be in excess to what I need?

Skilas wrote: ↑ Compared to which alternative are you thinking about, if this were to be in excess to what I need?

That's why I'm asking what's your use case. There are Mesh wifi 6 solutions that can give you pretty close to 1Gbps bandwidth (subject to your neighboring wifi installation, positioning and house construction material). The only time you would use CAT5 is if you want less interference and lower latency in case that extra couple ms is going to impact your gaming or workflow.

Like what's your use case? Do you have 1Gbps internet to home? Do you have 1Gbps NAS in your home network that you need to transfer back and forth over CAT5? Are you gaming over the CAT5 for more stable performance? Are you worried about people snoping your wifi and find out you are surfing porn?

I just want to see if YOU can justify it. And if you are ready to to do the work, send CAT 6 cables down to future proof. All I know is fishing that stuff thru cold air return thru 2 floors ain't fun if you have never done it.

Wired will always be better than wireless. Just sayin.

Xtrema wrote: ↑ That's why I'm asking what's your use case. There are Mesh wifi 6 solutions that can give you pretty close to 1Gbps bandwidth (subject to your neighboring wifi installation, positioning and house construction material). The only time you would use CAT5 is if you want less interference and lower latency in case that extra couple ms is going to impact your gaming or workflow.

Like what's your use case? Do you have 1Gbps internet to home? Do you have 1Gbps NAS in your home network that you need to transfer back and forth over CAT5? Are you gaming over the CAT5 for more stable performance? Are you worried about people snoping your wifi and find out you are surfing porn?

I just want to see if YOU can justify it. And if you are ready to to do the work, send CAT 6 cables down to future proof. All I know is fishing that stuff thru cold air return thru 2 floors ain't fun if you have never done it.

I've started moving all my main internet or network wired devices to ethernet mostly for the stability and reliability. Not necessarily for speed, latency, or privacy. Sometimes I only have issues with wifi on a specific device 1% of the time. That may only be a few times a year, but it can be enough I don't want to bother with it anymore.

The biggest culprits have been smart tvs. I'm unsure if the wireless antennas in them are just weak, or prone to failure. But I figured if I was already running several wires to a tv (multiple HDMI, power, etc), then might as well run a CAT as well.

I assumed that taking as many devices off wifi as I could would improve the stability for the dozens of other devices that did not have that option. Things like tablets, laptops, phones, home smart devices... I don't have a fancy expensive router, so I figured the less congestion on it, the better.

Also, at my previous house, I had the router set up upstairs. So I could have strong wifi for the bedrooms. But then ran a cable down to the basement where I had network switch that fed my desktop computer and gaming consoles. The wifi was still strong enough to reach the basement, or vice versa. But every once in a while it may drop. And even that was too much. In that situation, I was lucky because where my router was located, I was able to fish a cable through an interior wall, that exited in my basement ceiling (that was unfinished). It was not nice, but got the job done. My new place has a finished ceiling. And the layout is not as convenient as the last time. So I was curious as to what most people do, if they go this route.