hiding access point and other gear

[jerryk]

Hi,

We are remodeling our kitchen and adjoining family room and I want to take the opportunity to do something about the wireless situation. The family room and kitchen are downstairs and I plan on running CAT 6 down from the upstairs where the cable modem and switch are located. I am thinking about running 2 cables. One cable will be terminated on the family room on the wall where the TV will be mounted. The other cable would be in the kitchen which is about 15-20 feet away.

I have several questions.

1. Do I need a second access point or is this overkill?
2. What is the best way to hide my gear?
3. Would I get better coverage with a ceiling mounted access point? If so, are there units that are flush or hidden? FWIW, I am having ceiling mounted speakers installed.

Thanks,

Jerry

[stevech]

Originally Posted by jerryk

Hi,

We are remodeling our kitchen and adjoining family room and I want to take the opportunity to do something about the wireless situation. The family room and kitchen are downstairs and I plan on running CAT 6 down from the upstairs where the cable modem and switch are located. I am thinking about running 2 cables. One cable will be terminated on the family room on the wall where the TV will be mounted. The other cable would be in the kitchen which is about 15-20 feet away.

I have several questions.

1. Do I need a second access point or is this overkill?
2. What is the best way to hide my gear?
3. Would I get better coverage with a ceiling mounted access point? If so, are there units that are flush or hidden? FWIW, I am having ceiling mounted speakers installed.

Thanks,

Jerry

I'd put an access point (AP), not a router downstairs, since you're wiring. Add a 10/100/1000 ethernet switch downstairs, perhaps behind the TV or in that area out of sight. To this switch, connect TV and WiFi AP and cable running up to the router/switch. Just saving some cabling. An AP can be made by re-purposing any extra WiFi router.

CAT5e is fine, and you can cut it and put on plugs. Very difficult with CAT6.

My gear is screwed/mounted on the back side of the TV furniture, out of sight. WiFi AP... elevate it as best as you can, but out of sight. Yes, a ceiling mounted AP would be better. But I think it's an overkill. A friend put his in the top/back of the pantry in the kitchen where the drywall faces the living room. Drywall is only about 2-3 dB of loss - small in ratio to the overall path loss.

Lots of ways to go. Good idea to pull two CAT5/6 cables for growth/spares.
In our remodel, I pulled cat5e and RG6 for possible use, terminated in a fancy outlet plate. Cables run to garage where all my really ugly stuff is.

[jerryk]

Thanks Steve,

I am looking at Access points. I am leaning toward an in wall/ceiling device since I have access to run speaker wires, electrical for the lights, etc. I will probably have the electrician add a outlet in between a couple of beams. The only downside of going to the ceiling seems to be lack of APs with 5GHz support.

My other option is to go on top of a kitchen cabinet by a wall that adjoins the living room. I appreciate hearing that the loss through the wallboard would not be too bad.

Jerry

[tipstir]

Site Survey or a walk around your dwelling would be more ideal to see where you can get the best WiFi Signal, Range, Quality. If you have Android Smart Phone download the free app WiFi Analyzer does wonders. Or you can pay a professional to do the same test.

When it comes to the kitchen and WiFi you'll run into some issues on WiFi. To get around that you would need to see where in the kitchen has the lease interference.

For me I use the cabinets to store all network and WiFi media gear. (VIZO HDTV 22" LED/LCD Thin Chassis 1080p with SONY SMP-N100 network media player over 802.11n WiFi.) Also the HDTV for the Kitchen is mounted to one side of the cabinet along with a pre-drilled out hole 1/2 to 1/4. This hole can't be seen and it's being blocked by the HDTV which is mounted to the cabinet via HDTV mount. One cabinet is dedicated for this purpose. So I don't have to see anything gear just the HDTV is expose to match the kitchen major appliances.

Same method is used in my outdoor Screen Patio although the cement blocks doesn't effect the WiFi signal, strength or quality. HDTV 24" 1080p with SONY SMP-N100 network media player over 802.11n WiFi.

[jerryk]

Originally Posted by tipstir

For me I use the cabinets to store all network and WiFi media gear. (VIZO HDTV 22" LED/LCD Thin Chassis 1080p with SONY SMP-N100 network media player over 802.11n WiFi.) .

Is there any issue with attenuation having the wifi gear in a cabinet? That is, if you open the cabinet how large is the change in signal strength?