Pricing home networking

[sandstorm2001]

We have ATT Uverse. I want to have them install Ethernet access in the walls. They said iit would be a 99 dollar technician charge and the $45 per wall Jack. I'm sure there would be an extra charge to have the two lines run upstairs but the Indian man on the phone was unable to tell me what it was. Anybody have any experience with that? I don't want to pay the 99 for the guy to come out and have him tell me an extra $200 or something

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by sandstorm2001

We have ATT Uverse. I want to have them install Ethernet access in the walls. They said iit would be a 99 dollar technician charge and the $45 per wall Jack. I'm sure there would be an extra charge to have the two lines run upstairs but the Indian man on the phone was unable to tell me what it was. Anybody have any experience with that? I don't want to pay the 99 for the guy to come out and have him tell me an extra $200 or something

why? wouldnt it be cheaper to install a wireless card or adapter in the devices you want wireless...

if you insist on going wired, is the home wired for phone? if so is there a phone jack in the locations you want ethernet availible? if so how old is the home and do you know how it was wired for communications?

[Spur's Addiction]

Buy a $50 Wifi router and call it done.

Or if you insist on hard wired - get a couple of ethernet-powerline adaptors. They turn your existing power wiring in your home into network wiring.

[Spur's Addiction]

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=1194444

[FlorenceCock]

Hard wired cat5/6e is WAY better than wireless for something like Uverse. The prices that you have been quoted actually very good for a run like that. Did they quote you to do wall drops that they have to fish through the wall or are they going to do baseboard through the floor? Either way you could not find a company to pull that small amount of cable for that price. It just wouldn't be worth it to them.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by FlorenceCock

Hard wired cat5/6e is WAY better than wireless for something like Uverse. The prices that you have been quoted actually very good for a run like that. Did they quote you to do wall drops that they have to fish through the wall or are they going to do baseboard through the floor? Either way you could not find a company to pull that small amount of cable for that price. It just wouldn't be worth it to them.

how so??? Uverse is the trade name for the service to the demarc...once to/thru the demarc (modem) the bandwidth will be shared depending on QoS criteria (or lack thereof) within the router/switch... the demarc/isp side should still be the "bottleneck" with a TOTAL bandwidth of whatever your service provider caps it at...5M,10M,40M whatever...then that bandwidth is shared by what ever devices you have tied back to it, physically or wirelessly. The medium your ISP uses to deliver your desired speed (part of the WAN side) has nothing to do with the LAN side (your network inside your house, whether wired, wireless, or any combination thereof)


I agree with you on the pricing btw...only thing I would have issue with is the "truck roll" charge if you are having 4 wires pulled...even including that tho, its not a bad price

[FlorenceCock]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

how so??? Uverse is the trade name for the service to the demarc...once to/thru the demarc (modem) the bandwidth will be shared depending on QoS criteria (or lack thereof) within the router/switch... the demarc/isp side should still be the "bottleneck" with a TOTAL bandwidth of whatever your service provider caps it at...5M,10M,40M whatever...then that bandwidth is shared by what ever devices you have tied back to it, physically or wirelessly. The medium your ISP uses to deliver your desired speed (part of the WAN side) has nothing to do with the LAN side (your network inside your house, whether wired, wireless, or any combination thereof)


I agree with you on the pricing btw...only thing I would have issue with is the "truck roll" charge if you are having 4 wires pulled...even including that tho, its not a bad price

It more has to do with the menu's and navigation than the actual tv programming as far as the speed goes. I set up uverse at a buddies house and while it worked on his old G connection changing channels was painfully slow. I upgraded his router to a dual band wireless N with gigabit and it did improve on the wireless but still there was noticeable lag in changing the channels and getting channel info. After that I ran a few drops of Cat6 and put a gigabit switch in with his router and it made all of the difference in the world. The actual TV service will run fine on a 10/100 connection as I don't think a single HD stream even approaches that but when you start doing multiple streams and channel guide info etc it will bog down.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by FlorenceCock

It more has to do with the menu's and navigation than the actual tv programming as far as the speed goes. I set up uverse at a buddies house and while it worked on his old G connection changing channels was painfully slow. I upgraded his router to a dual band wireless N with gigabit and it did improve on the wireless but still there was noticeable lag in changing the channels and getting channel info. After that I ran a few drops of Cat6 and put a gigabit switch in with his router and it made all of the difference in the world. The actual TV service will run fine on a 10/100 connection as I don't think a single HD stream even approaches that but when you start doing multiple streams and channel guide info etc it will bog down.

gotcha, didnt realize he was wiring for IPTV basicly, dont know what kind of bandwidth UVerse (TV) is using, but at my house, Netflix in super HD (true 1080P) is pulling a constant of about 5M when running, still not noticible when you are surfing on another device, unless you are trying to stream several Super HD streams at once

[SpuroftheMoment]

Originally Posted by FlorenceCock

Hard wired cat5/6e is WAY better than wireless for something like Uverse. The prices that you have been quoted actually very good for a run like that. Did they quote you to do wall drops that they have to fish through the wall or are they going to do baseboard through the floor? Either way you could not find a company to pull that small amount of cable for that price. It just wouldn't be worth it to them.

I agree. Having been a telecom tech for over 15 years (not anymore) the price they quoted you was pretty good. I mean it's really not hard to actually pull the wire, but having to fish the walls is going to suck as is trying to get to your second floor. Unless you have a closet that is stacked on top of another closet on the second floor you are pretty much screwed. The suggestion of the powerline adapter is pretty cool - I had never seen those before. Although wireless should be just fine. There's really no reason to use a wired connection if you can get signal throughout your house. If you have a device that you need to connect that is not wireless then the powerline adapter would probably be a good solution. either that or find an adapter for the device if there is one. Good luck.

[SpuroftheMoment]

Originally Posted by FlorenceCock

It more has to do with the menu's and navigation than the actual tv programming as far as the speed goes. I set up uverse at a buddies house and while it worked on his old G connection changing channels was painfully slow. I upgraded his router to a dual band wireless N with gigabit and it did improve on the wireless but still there was noticeable lag in changing the channels and getting channel info. After that I ran a few drops of Cat6 and put a gigabit switch in with his router and it made all of the difference in the world. The actual TV service will run fine on a 10/100 connection as I don't think a single HD stream even approaches that but when you start doing multiple streams and channel guide info etc it will bog down.

I thought that's what you were talking about, but I wasn't sure. And you're right, for that type of solution then yes the wired connection would be better. Although I don't know if that's what the OP was asking. I think he was just talking about networking devices liek laptops, tablets, DVD player, phones, etc, not necessarily TVs/boxes.

[johnnyb]

florence...question about the install for the friend...he still had to have the Uverse device at every tv correct? just used twisted pair to deliver the bandwidth to that box? he wasnt able to directly connect the tv to the ethernet jack and watch tv that way was he?

[johnnyb]

So op...whats the intended use of the ethernet jacks???

[Jwilson]

Hot setup, if a two story house, or house with basement, is to have 1 hard wire in each floor. Use the wireless router at one level and a wireless access point at the other level. You'll just about never have any wireless throughput issues this way.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by Jwilson

Hot setup, if a two story house, or house with basement, is to have 1 hard wire in each floor. Use the wireless router at one level and a wireless access point at the other level. You'll just about never have any wireless throughput issues this way.

shouldnt even need the wire on each floor...most decent ap/repeaters can handle multiple hops, if you are using decent equipment, using the standard (residential) ISP provided wireless solution as a starting point may leave a lot to be desired tho

[Jwilson]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

shouldnt even need the wire on each floor...most decent ap/repeaters can handle multiple hops, if you are using decent equipment, using the standard (residential) ISP provided wireless solution as a starting point may leave a lot to be desired tho

Also spreads the bandwith usage over multiple wireless points. Add up the number of wireless devices you'll be using against the bandwith of any/all routers. Remember also, that wireless steps its speed up/down based on signal strength. Can't miss these steps if you want premium performance. All routers, switches, etc. really have 2 specs, the radio specs and the backbone specs as well.

[SpuroftheMoment]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

shouldnt even need the wire on each floor...most decent ap/repeaters can handle multiple hops, if you are using decent equipment, using the standard (residential) ISP provided wireless solution as a starting point may leave a lot to be desired tho

Yeah unless you got some thick ass walls or traveling a long distance you shouldn't need an additional WAP.

[SpuroftheMoment]

Originally Posted by Jwilson

Also spreads the bandwith usage over multiple wireless points. Add up the number of wireless devices you'll be using against the bandwith of any/all routers. Remember also, that wireless steps its speed up/down based on signal strength. Can't miss these steps if you want premium performance. All routers, switches, etc. really have 2 specs, the radio specs and the backbone specs as well.

Valid point. I guess it depends on how many devices he really plans on using at the same time.

[sandstorm2001]

Ok background on why I want this. The wireless access/modem is downstairs. I was going to just move it to my room upstairs but it has like 3 different connections into the wall and I don't have all of those in my room. I just built a gaming PC at a cost of like $1200 not counting monitor, keyboard, and mouse. With all of this money invested in my gaming rig it's very important to me that it has the best internet connection possible as I do play a variety of competive games (shooters, rts, etc). It would be a shame for me to have this beastly computer and then have my gaming hampered by the wireless. Networking your home also raises property value so I feel like it would be a good investment.

I just remember a while back I was going to have cable run upstairs in a place I was renting and when the tech got there he said it would be an extra $150 to fish the wire upstairs. If I'm doing 2 upstairs and the guy gets here and wants to charge an additional $300 that would be a problem.

[sandstorm2001]

Moving the computer is obviously not an option or I would have already done that.

[Jwilson]

Originally Posted by SpuroftheMoment

Yeah unless you got some thick ass walls or traveling a long distance you shouldn't need an additional WAP.

It's not just that. Remember, all these things are are fm radios. Lost of stuff can interfere with the signalling.