this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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Home Networking

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Sorry if this is a very general question but I currently have a wifi connection for my desktop in my home office. I’d like to hard wire directly to my router but my router is in my living room. Does anyone have a general idea how much it would cost to have some work done to get my desktop hardwired to my router? Live in a 1-story, 1400 sq ft home so shouldn’t be a big job.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Do you have coax in all the rooms. You could also try MoCA.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

This largely depends on how classy you are, and what materials you need to go through.

The cheapest and least-classy option, is just a long cable.

The step-up is something like Powerline, where you use an adaptor that uses the power lines in your house. Still no contractor needed.

The next step is to actually wire through walls/ceilings, or to run a bunch of conduits.

If you go the powerline route, you are looking as cheap as $50-$100.
If you do the contractor route, well, it could be thousands if you run into a bunch of problems. It might only be a couple hundred though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'd be surprised if you get a quote for less than $350 for a single cable run, depending on location and complexity of the house.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Very little if you don’t mind the cable being on the outside of your walls…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

From the square foot thing, I assume you're in America?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

There are far too many variables to tell online.

Find someone that can come and take a look at your specific home and seek their advice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

To many variables to give a solid answer. But there are questions. Do you have basement or attic access between the two locations? The cable could be run through those spaces, then up or down the wall.

You might search for low-voltage/network cable installers in your area. Because it’s a single cable run, you may not get much of a response, or a crazy expensive cost.

If you have a friend, or friend of friend who does network work, you might be able to get them to help, for the cost of material and beer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

$250-350 average in my area but there’s a lot of factors we don’t have.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Depends on how your house is set up and whether you have a clear shot between the router and the room through the walls/ceiling/basement. I just moved my router to the basement and ran cat6 to an AP on the second floor for better connection in my office. Took me a day to figure out after the route I figured I could go didn’t pan out and I had to do a big loop instead of tearing through drywall… completely dependant on your layout!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

You should really be posting this on NextDoor or local forum/subreddit, & get some referrals at the same time.

That said:

  • Single story home implies you at least have an easy cable run in the attic. Depending on construction basement/crawlspace could be easy too (unless it's a slab).
  • Low voltage contractor is generally a better bet than electrician for the termination and materials choice. Unless you have the networking knowledge and social skills/gumption/experience with contractors to micromanage a electrician into do the right thing (and you need all those skills, even though I can research the technical info in more detail than contractors on some types of projects I cannot always convince them to do it the way I want)