The Pub

[glennd]

The building is 100+ years old, a big old colonial monstrosity, the walls are 6 inches thick, solid brick. There is 3 phase power, the building is divided into a number of circuits. The downstairs and upstairs are on separate circuits. There is a domestic adsl wifi modem at the phone point downstairs, there is a domestic netgear router attached with some dodgy ethernet wiring going beneath the floor and out to a few points on the ground floor.

My task is to provide network to a newly provisioned office upstairs. I can't see a simple way of running cat5 except through an existing mains power duct. I believe EoP won't work because of the separate mains circuit, someone tell me I'm wrong there. The only option I can see is setting up one or more powerful repeaters to punch through the walls and ceiling.

I just thought of the possibility of running cat5 under the floor to the outside rear of the building and up the external wall and back in again on the top floor in to a wifi AP.

There is talk of moving the modem out of the somewhat awkward position it now occupies to a more convenient, out of the way location of my choosing.

Is there another approach I haven't thought of?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'd be determined to find an existing way to run ethernet between the floors. You mention the main power duct....but surely there must also be some plumbing 'tween the floors? Or some other utilities crossing between the levels. If wiring is that old, I'd try to avoid EoP.
Any existing coax traverse the floors?
I'd avoid trying to punch wireless through stone 'n walls that thick.
Outside runs is certainly a last option that is do-able.

 

[nerd2u]

Try finding the main plumbing stack you may be able to use it to go between floors.

Here we run outside when needed nothing wrong with it.

Any existing phone lines you could use as a pull string and attach 2 new cat5e cables to?

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[Diggs]

You didn't say the amount of bandwidth required. I always tend to the low key unless needs are otherwise. Do Powerline modules work over there? A couple of powerline systems with multiple access points for both WiFi and Ethernet would work well in an old place like that. Use the existing cat5 to bridge the different power grids if needed. They're so easy and cheap to sprinkle where needed. Admittedly low-tech but depending on budget and needs.....

 

[glennd]

I'd be determined to find an existing way to run ethernet between the floors. You mention the main power duct....but surely there must also be some plumbing 'tween the floors? Or some other utilities crossing between the levels. If wiring is that old, I'd try to avoid EoP.

Yeah, I'm searching for all that. I can't go up from the modem, I have to go down. The client showed me the only way to get under the floor through a small cabinet in the men's room! So, tomorrow I'll disappear through the wardrobe to see what options are there.

Any existing coax traverse the floors?

So far I haven't found anything that traverses the floors except the mains. You're right of course, it must be there, just gotta find it. There's a telephone wire that appears out of the floor upstairs, gotta find the other end of that.

I'd avoid trying to punch wireless through stone 'n walls that thick.
Outside runs is certainly a last option that is do-able.

You think that would not give me a useful signal? I haven't struck this kind of awkward setup before so I wouldn't know if a repeater would work.

A complication to the 'run the cable outside' idea is that the outside wall is not straight up vertical. I'd have to go up the first level wall, across the first level roof to the second level wall, across the second level wall and up to a window, in through the window timber...

Idea, I'm making this up as I type: run cat5 down from the modem, under the floor to the rear of the building, outside to something like a Nanobeam, a second Nanobeam upstairs connected to an AP?

 

[glennd]

The walls may be six inches of stone but I'd be surprised if the ceiling is. You might be able to run a cable up a wall, through the ceiling, and terminate it in a socket at floor level without having to drill through anything more than a bit of plaster and some old timber

You're probably right. Maybe I should look for possible access to the cavity between the floors, is that a thing? The only thing I've seen run between the floors so far is the mains duct and one phone line.

If this were my client I'd also give serious consideration to a wireless solution. What kind of signal do you get upstairs from a wireless access point downstairs?

Right now that's my preferred solution, see above, because I'm getting too old for this crawling around under floors and on building rooves. The current wifi signal does not make it upstairs at all.

 

[glennd]

Try finding the main plumbing stack you may be able to use it to go between floors.

I'll look out for that when I disappear through the men's room.

Any existing phone lines you could use as a pull string and attach 2 new cat5e cables to?

I found one but I haven't seen both ends of it yet. There is one other that appears out of the floor that I think must be connected, have to find the other end of that.

 

[glennd]

You didn't say the amount of bandwidth required. I always tend to the low key unless needs are otherwise. Do Powerline modules work over there? A couple of powerline systems with multiple access points for both WiFi and Ethernet would work well in an old place like that. Use the existing cat5 to bridge the different power grids if needed. They're so easy and cheap to sprinkle where needed. Admittedly low-tech but depending on budget and needs.....

I think that is essentially EoP which is not going to work in this case because of the power isolation between floors.

The question of bandwidth is worthy of further thought. The client just wants it for herself so she has access to other computers and printers in the building, not for guests. I would say her bandwidth requirements would be small. Maybe a high power repeater would be not a good solution but it may be enough.

 

[nerd2u]

Just remember wifi is a two way street just because you have an AP blasting out signal doesn't mean the wireless card in the PC will be able to hit the same range.

Something that old may use balloon framing giving you an option.

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