Re: Finishing basement, suggestion on RG6 cable needed

["Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I don't know how big your house is. If it's to big for a solid WiFI
> signal from one access point I'd do some planning for as many AP
> locations as necessary to give youself a strong signal, everywhere.

Size doesn't matter.  It's a matter of construction.  Plaster on wire lathe
and assorted other older constructions methods are notorious for causing
WiFi signal problems.

> Pull a Cat5 cable from your cable closet to each of these
> locations. They can be in closets, crawlspaces, etc, in the rafters of
> the basement space.  You don't even have to terminate the cables until
> you want to light up the WiFi signal in that part of the house.  The
> AP will be powered over the ethernet cable, so you don't need to have
> a power receptacle near the AP.

WiFi still WILL NOT HELP YOU if you want to move anything more than just
small bits of data.  If you want to do something like stream video to/from a
Tivo or other media device you'll find wireless is woefully inadequate for
the task.  Wireless works great for web surfing and other small transactions
but it's not good for media.  More houses will be doing more media-related
activities, don't hamstring yourself by depending on it.  Especially not if
you've got the walls open and ready for wiring.

But if you do use wireless, take the time to move the access point around to
different locations and see how it affects signal strength.  Our ideal
location for covering the inside of the house and the back deck was on a
windowsill in a basement window.  That provided effective coverage in our
L-shaped house with only a single access point.  I used a 50' ethernet cable
to move the unit around and then a laptop running NetStumbler to get a graph
of signal strength.  Worked great!

-Bill Kearney