Hello, I’m a newbie at this sort of thing so please forgive my ignorance. I’m just trying to understand what would be my best setup for a brand new apartment I’m just moving into. It’s a new build, and so it is connected to fiber optic. There is one connection in the living room (on the ground floor) for the fiber optic. The apartment itself has two levels, and so I would really like some connection linking the ground floor to the 1st floor (European floors :) ) where our bedroom, possibly my media server and potential home office will be.

I don’t do heavy gaming or anything, so I don’t necessarily need super fast everywhere, I just need at least an ethernet connection (I think) up to the 1st floor to connect to my server and to plug into my computer. So I’m thinking about trying to get just that connection run. Is this probably the best idea instead of trying to run the fiber optic up to the top as well? I’ve read that fiber can be tricky and finicky and I really don’t think I need a guarantee of the top top speeds when ethernet should be fine.

Then, I can also plug a separate wifi router into that upstairs connection so we can get good wifi upstairs, correct? Or what would be the best way to unify the network? Thank you all for your help.

4 points

No, you want Ethernet not fiber.

Your downstairs router, computers, and your new upstairs switch / Wi-Fi access point are all guaranteed going to be RJ45 Ethernet.

The only part that is fiber is the part running to the outside.

You can put both a fiber and CAT5E/6 Ethernet in, but just a fiber connection will not accomplish what you want. You need the Ethernet connection in order for each floor to have its own wired connection and/or wifi access. That’s what the consumer equipment will use. Otherwise, you will need more enterprise-level equipment and that will add unnecessary complication.

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1 point

Thanks, this helps a lot!

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1 point

WiFi might be good enough, and you don’t have to run any wires.

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Well except I’d like my server to be upstairs and that needs to be plugged into something*. So at least Ethernet is what I’m hoping

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1 point

Run cat6.

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1 point

Will do, thanks

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1 point

Run cat6.

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