Home networking question; ethernet, powerline or ???

[dissent]

Hey folks. I've got another conundrum that I'd like to run past the resident brains here.

I'm trying to help set up a network in a house. One bedroom on 2nd floor is where the Comcast m/n TC8503C gateway is located; it has one computer plugged into one of the 4 ethernet jacks on the back. Now I need to get a connection set up in a second bedroom, also on the 2nd floor, but across a hallway. Access to ceiling and wall spaces via the attic. Would like to have a wired connection to this second computer and plug into one of the other ethernet ports on the Comcast gateway. I have several options -

1) run a long ethernet cable between the two bedrooms through the attic in some way

2) get a pair of powerline adapters and try to network through the house wiring

3) use the tv cable line (which also has to be installed from the cable access point int the second bedroom) to carry the network

4) or screw all this and bite the bullet and set up wireless on one of the computers and just go with that

I've never tried to do any of this before, and it's a rented house, so I don't want to be tearing up the walls or other infrastructure too much, yet a wired connection is still preferred.
What would any of you recommend as to preferred option(s) and can you recommend any hardware devices to go along with your preferred option(s).

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions.

[fliptw]

Well wifi and powerline are the only two options that leave the house intact, and wifi is much better than powerline. You could also run the ethernet cable along the base of the walls, don't have to worry about ladders and drills.

also... how is the house heated?

[Krom]

or
http://www.handymanhowto.com/how-to-ins ... e-network/
(Except skip the whole "how to wire the port" part, just get a ethernet cable with the ends already on it and then get a couple of these.)

Buy a 100 foot cat-6 cable and have at it. If you are feeling really ninja about it, you could carefully chop out the old box the cable line comes through and get a rework box and cover with both coax and ethernet ports on it, then pull it through there with the cable line so you get both in one without opening up any new holes. Either way you probably want to follow the cable lines to each room, odds are they are routed somewhere near both locations you want to reach and should have a fairly clear path (assuming the cable lines are not routed horizontally through studs, in which case that path is pretty much impossible without cutting open the walls).

[Lothar]

Wireless is fine as long as you're not gaming. If you're gaming, go to the trouble of getting an ethernet cable. Don't be that guy who's skipping around in Descent.

[dissent]

I was wondering about the powerline thing, but was concerned with throughput compared to plain ethernet. Looks simple, but I've never used it before.

I have been considering the long ethernet cable thing; from the attic I could run the line into a small hole in the wall in the bedroom's closet and just tack the cable to the inner wall surface of the closet ceiling and then just let it trail out of a corner of the closet and run along the base of that wall to wherever the computer get set up. Will be fairly invisible, once al the furniture is in the room. Depends on how easy it is to get the ethernet cable snaked up through the wall in the first bedroom to the attic, assuming I want to keep things fairly neat and tidy. Gaming won't be an issue, but videoconferencing is likely to be in play.

[Foil]

I had a similar issue, connecting a media-center computer in a semi-distant bedroom.

I first tried wifi, which worked fine for some things, but not well enough for my networked hdtv tuner. Ended up carefully running a cable down a wall, around a corner, and over a door frame. It's fairly unnoticeable, as long as I keep the cable taut so it sits along the molding lines (I'm finding that my cable can slip a bit, so I need to find a better way to secure it).

[Lothar]

I have cat5 running all over my house. The basement ceiling is unfinished (there used to be this terrible cardboard drop ceiling that mostly just caught dust and provided a hiding space for spiders and mice, so we tore it out) so I just run cables along the floor joists and ductwork. Got a couple of small holes drilled in the floor from the main level, one from each of the 3 bedroom closets, and one in the corner of the dining room (where the cable comes in to the house), so every room has a direct wired connection.

[Top Gun]

Wireless is fine as long as you're not gaming. If you're gaming, go to the trouble of getting an ethernet cable. Don't be that guy who's skipping around in Descent.

When your room is literally the furthest in the house from any wired ports of any sort, and your house allows no feasible way to run cables through the requisite walls and ceilings, unfortunately you're stuck with shitty flaky wi-fi. *sighs wistfully for ethernet*

[dissent]

Well the hard part is done - getting one end of the ethernet patch cable down the wall from the attic to where the existing wall plate was. Turns out the cable line does come horizontally through a stud (at least one), so had to drill through a chunk of wood in the attic above where the wall plate was and then make the hole big enough for the ethernet connector to get through. A few observations:

the fish tape was a wise investment to help push the cable through the insulation stuffed in the wall between the studs,

working in an attic in the summer is less than pleasant,

blown-in insulation is a pain in the ass to work around, and

why is it that roofers leave so many nails sticking through the inside of the roof.