Home AV / Internet / Low Voltage System (Concrete walls/floors)

[uppie1414]

Hey everyone! Looking for some help on a home setup that we're moving into.

Sellers have insulated concrete floors and advised we will need internet boosters/etc. when we hook all of this up. They are an older couple and had a company build a commercial-grade AV system in the basement in 2011, but the company is now defunct. Long story short, they're not much help with the current setup and seem to have part if running through 2x directv boxes and 1x comcast box, so now some sort of loop/chain is broken.

Curious on thoughts on how to set up the home network.

Comcast is coming out for free today/tomorrow to take a quick look. We have our own router/modem (NETGEAR - Nighthawk X4S Dual Band AC3200 Router with 32 x 8 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem Model:C7800-200NAS).

Sellers currently have a MASSIVE amount of cables/coaxial/low voltage running through the home. I need to run through today and see what all is hooked up. What I do know is they have CAT5 throughout the house. Am I better off running boosters on each floor, or hooking up different routers for each floor to create networks that way? They have a ton of "old, high tech" in the home and I'm trying to see if I can at least utilize some of it.

Sorry for not having all of the information--but at least this can possibly help start a conversation in the short-term.

Thanks!

 

[marcoi]

I would probably invest in a network tester off amazon and confirm network drops as a first step. It might also help you map them, if it was poorly setup.

As for TV cable, might be better to have comcast redo the runs, as co-ax cable improved in quality over the year. (per friend that use to work for comcast) So better lines might not need cable boosters. Comcast should test each cable line to confirm lost of signal, etc.

As for WIFI, if dealing with alot of concrete and walls i would invest in several AP and hook them up directly to network drop throughout the home. I like the TP-line EAP-245 v3 as they sell for cheap and work well with free controller software. I currently have 4 AP around my house to have good coverage. I live in FL home for reference. So each AP has about 4-8 clients so never overloaded.

Nice things with AP, you can create vlans to separate traffic out. So my 4 AP have 3 different WIFI SSIDs, each with a different function.

 

[uppie1414]

Wow, this is a ton of good info. Appreciated!!! I may pick your brain if interested.

 

[Markess]

I would probably invest in a network tester off amazon and confirm network drops as a first step. It might also help you map them, if it was poorly setup.

+1 on the network tester. Especially if you didn't plan/do/oversee/label the original installation. I have CAT 5 coming into every room and a structured wiring box, and assumed that all the runs terminated there. Took having a tester to figure out I assumed wrong!

 

[uppie1414]

Done on both--thanks again! Will update accordingly!

 

[Mithril]

Done on both--thanks again! Will update accordingly!

Is everything run "bare" in wall, or did you really luck out with some conduit runs? If you might be doing some re-work and it is not in conduit you might consider getting "fish tape". Remember if you run anything new, leave a pull line for pulling a new cable later when (not if ) you end up wanting more/newer.