No more WiFi: How to wire your house for Internet

So you've read all the studies about our Wireless Wonderland, and you'd like to go wired.

But where to even start?

It turns out that wiring up your house or apartment with ethernet cables and switches is WAAAAY easier than most people think.

It's literally a plug-n-play kind of thing.

There are a few things to keep in mind though before purchasing gigabit ethernet switches and Cat 7 ethernet cable.

Video on WiFi vs Ethernet speeds:

Video on USB-Ethernet adapters for smartphones and tablets:

Article: Run cables the easy way: with a hot glue gun --

Goodies to get wirin':

T-shirts/Goodies from my store:

[riquepr]

The reason I'm watching this video is so my wife won't punch me in the face for having so many cables loose in the house. Thanks bro

[ItReallyIsiPOD]

This is great knowledge.

Now to get a house...

[KevinBenecke]

For my long runs, I drilled into my basement and ran my Ethernet cables across the basement to where they needed to go. And upstairs, I ran my Ethernet wires up into and across my attic. And if you want to make it all neat, put your network device in a closet and run your wires up inside the wall and use outlet boxes and an Ethernet jack. And if your building a new house, just bite the bullet and decide where you want the data center and wire Ethernet connections in every room in the house so you can connect no matter what.

[aleksmukha]

Things I learned watching this video:

1. How to hardwire a house for internet without WiFi
2. Bob is my uncle

[digitalevidenceexpert]

I wired my home completely with Cat6 cable. I have found that running the cables under laminate floors with slots cut in the foam padding is very helpful for crossing rooms. If you want to get the cables into the walls, use a routing machine (a machine that cuts a slot in wood, not a router on a network) to cut slots in the base next to the floor (moulding) to create a slot to run the cables and then cut holes in the wall and fish the cable vertically to where the cables need to go. My home is built on slab so I don't have a basement to run the cables so I have to rely on running the cables under the laminate floor.

[diogene]

I take umbrage at the term:" Bob's your uncle". My name is Bob and I have 10 nephews and nieces and I don't need any more, thank you.

[zaednovideo]

YAY! I did convert back to cables at home, stopped my WiFi, feel much better now. Chose very, very thick window drapery, got rid of electronics at night in my room. I really feel much, much better now. Great idea to present this for people to consider, Scottie, keep it up!

[KevinTLS]

bruh this is like bob ross in 2020
keep up the good work

[JxBx]

You don't have to turn off the wifi in order to use an Ethernet connection, fyi for anyone watching that still wants to use wifi for their phones and tablets. This video is brilliantly educational however.

[ToskaRap]

Cat-6 can support 10Gbps, not just 1Gbps. Cat-7 is not an official standard but is also rated for 10Gbps - however it can achieve 40 Gbps to even 100 Gbps at shorter distances. That being said, most places use Cat-5e still and Cat-6 will be future-proof enough in SOHO environments for some time now

[johnstancliff]

when I wired my home for TV, I also included Ethernet wiring.... thank goodness I did! its really handy!

[idubois]

If you’re going to run your cable in the air duct, not recommend IMO make sure you get one that is rated for it. As in plenum rated.

[Bendini_gaming]

Even if for whatever you only have 1 device, never plug a device straight into the modem. There should be an intermediary between the modem and devices, like a router. Most router provide some level of DOS protection and firewall, while a modem does not.

[Alexoferith]

I want to add a few important notes to installing ethernet cables.
1., remember that each individual ethernet cable should not be longer than 328 ft or 100 metres. Be careful when planning your route for the cables. It may be only 10 m between the source and the target location, but maybe due to cosmetic reasons, you route the cable along the door frame, up behind the cupboard, etc.. it can end up very long indeed.
2. It will be rare but remember that the shortest is no less than 60cm.
3. Be aware of speakers due to the magnetic field. Now most home electrical appliances are shielded. But cheaper ones have poor shielding properties due to obvious reasons, cost of manufacturing. Magnetism destroys digital data signals. As a side note, NEVER place your external HD or USB sticks on top or near speakers. Also, low-quality power supplies emit magnetic fields due to poor shielding.
4. When daisy chaining switches, the amount of data bandwidth is shared by the number of connections at each level. I mean each switch in the chain is a level.
5. As in the example in the video, the sitting room, even if the first connection source is 1 GB connection, is then shared by 4 devices. Now, if all 4 are watching a 4K video, the experience may get choppy or stuttering.
6. Although this video is about replacing WiFi with ethernet, just to mention some reasons for the degradation of WiFi signal apart from poor equipment. Beware of any lattice structure in metal between your router and your device. Such lattice will act as a sponge, soaking up or rather interfering with the WiFi signal, e.g. concrete wall with metal reinforcement, or a simple metal ladder.
7. As pointed out in the video, all the switches rely on a power adapter. In my experience over 40 years, most of these are made in China. If anything goes wrong with the switches, it will most likely be the power adapter. Most, if not all users, will never switch off their network switch. So, the power adapter would have been on for days, if not hours, or months. Due to the cheap price of the switch, the power adapter will not last forever. Oh, one more thing, these power adapters can get pretty hot. So, don't keep them in a jam-packed space or have things piled on top of or around them. Do check on them and make sure that they are not so hot that can burn your fingers. If they are too hot, switch it off.

[donluasco]

Speaking very soft. Why does he remind of Bob Ross?

[moritzlang]

Fantastic stuff man. My dad and I are total noobs at this so a simple explanation like this was a lifesaver

[DJizLurch]

I appreciate the time and effort that you put into this video and going into deep description for the people who aren’t IT savvy. I myself am an IT and definitely was thinking the whole time I was watching it that if I wasn’t an IT I would appreciate the details. I tried a mesh system and that works OK, but the goal is always to have Ethernet ran throughout my house. I definitely like this method of passing off to various switches, but I did have a question. Does passing off to multiple switches degrade the speed performance?

[brettmartin]

If I want my 650k house to look like shit I’ll run my cable like this. I was hoping to learn how to actually wire through the walls and have an actual Ethernet plug in my wall.

[MajesticValadez]

But, did anyone notice Godzilla outside the house?

[vblisa]

Thanks, Scotty!! You convinced my husband that this would be better than wifi. Guess a guy needs to hear it from another guy...the wife...its just another honey do on a list to be ignored! Love your videos!