Move or extend cable access point?

[Lindamaginda]

Hi, Virginmedia installed my broadband cable box in our shed and I connected our router. However we can't get a wireless signal in the house. Can I connect a longer (is it coaxial?) cable to the box and move the router inside the house? Or is there a limit on cable length? I wonder how much they would charge to put another connection in? Any advice welcomed.

[Chris]

They will charge you £99 to do any re-cabling in your house. You may get away with buying a length of satellite-grade coaxial cable and doing it yourself, but you risk upsetting signal levels in your home if you do this. If that happens, and you end up calling them in for repairs, you're stuck with the £99 charge again.

What cable length do you think you would need? And why is the cable point in your shed?!

Thinking about this, you might be better off buying a wireless range extender and placing it in a window overlooking the shed, where it can receive the signal from your router and relay it to the house.

[Kymmy]

A short length of cable isn;t really an issue, but remember that cable attenuates the signal more for the longer it is..Better quality of course attenuates a bit less than cheaper cable...

You could simply try it and see...if it doesn't work you're not gonna do any harm as you can always put it back...

One thing you could do is leave the cable modem where it is and get a long ethernet cable between it and the router, you should be OK with a cable upto 100m..

---------- Post added at 17:29 ---------- Previous post was at 17:29 ----------

LOL, Chris beat me to a lot of it..

[v0id]

Why would they install in a shed? :/

[mischievious]

You "should" be fine running a cat5/cat5e extension to your house unless you shed is closing on 100m from your house....

I'll gloss over the issue of having it installed to your shen in the first place as I presume at the time there was a good reason e.g. outside office.

Cat cable rated for external use may not be the most cost effective / ideal solution so you may want to spend the £99 to have it done properly. Range extenders can help but they still cost money and arn't always totally reliable e.g. lock-ups etc.

In my experience range extenders often quote up to 300m but in reality are 50m at best.

ultimately the options can be provided but the final decision is yours.

[Lindamaginda]

Hi thanks for the replies. The shed is an outside office and I currently run a CAT5 cable indoors to get a connection but I would like to reverse this and have wireless indoors. I have since found others on the forum who are having the same problem getting a Netgear WGR614 router to work wirelessly on Virginmedia. I could try the extended cable (any idea on cost of a 10m satellite quality co-ax?), or I could tinker with the settings again or I could just chuck my new laptop in the river.

[Chris]

Hi thanks for the replies. The shed is an outside office and I currently run a CAT5 cable indoors to get a connection but I would like to reverse this and have wireless indoors. I have since found others on the forum who are having the same problem getting a Netgear WGR614 router to work wirelessly on Virginmedia. I could try the extended cable (any idea on cost of a 10m satellite quality co-ax?), or I could tinker with the settings again or I could just chuck my new laptop in the river.

Cables and f-connectors are easy to come by. Try maplin.co.uk. Best option is to get the cables with the connectors moulded in place for you, as poorly-attached connectors are a likely source of interference that could mess up your entire cable service. Maplin don't do ready-made 10-metre lengths but they will sell you a 5 metre length, plus a made-to-order 5-metre extension (male plug one end, female on the other). Details here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29536 Scroll down to see questions at the foot of the page for details.

[Jonnymeg]

You could just stick another router or access point on the end of the CAT5 running into your house. This will give your the same outcome.

[Lindamaginda]

Hi thanks for the replies. I've got the connections indoors now by running a longer coax cable into the house. Now its all going pear-shaped with the Netgear WRG614 router. Do I need to post to another part of the forum as it seems to be a known issue getting Virginmedia and Netgear's Wireless Setup software to work?

[Chris]

If you're sure the problem with your router has absolutely nothing to do with the issue of you moving cables, then you can start a new thread for help setting up the router here:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/87/

We have a number of networking experts who will more quickly spot your query if it's posted there.