Okay, all-knowing dopers, I need help. My web search is getting me nowhere.
I’m looking for something like hollow baseboard where I can run cables. Because of the house configuration and the fact that we have absolutely crap internet, most of our computers have to run on ethernet not wifi. I have green cable running all over the place, and it’s driving me bonkers because it’s ugly, the floor robot gets tangled in it, the cats chew it/pee on it (plastic is a cat attractant ) and it’s ugly. The spot where it runs across the hallway I can use a throw rug, but the rest of it snaking along the walls everywhere has GOT to go. We have hard surface floors so there’s no tucking it under the carpet edge, alas.
And yes, at some point it will go either into the wall/ceiling or the wall/crawlspace, but that’s a project that will take some finagling and I just don’t have the time or resources for it yet.
I know there’s the fairly industrial white plastic chase that’s suitable for offices, and I found some 1/2 round that might work, especially if I can paint it. But ideally I’d like wood or wood-product that’s just normal looking baseboard. Any ideas out there?
I have the cable across the hall entrance tucked into a groove between the different floors, with the rug over it so it doesn’t get snagged. There’s only 2 of us in the house and the way the entrance is situated it’s rare to put a foot down in that spot.
I thought about making my own, but I don’t own a router or any of that kind of tool and wouldn’t know how to begin to do it. I don’t mind replacing baseboards, but I was hoping to take off the old, put on the new with wires under it, and call it good.
You can most likely solve your problem with wifi extenders. The quality of your internet connection shouldn’t matter. Whatever your house configuration, you can add wifi extenders such that the whole house has a good connection to the router. The connection from the router to the world may still be slow, but within the house the wifi can be fixed so that it’s good from everywhere.
In case you’re not aware, a wifi extender is a device which you put some distance from the router to get better quality wifi further out. So if your current setup is like this:
you put a wifi extender in the middle so that the living room gets better connection like this:
router ===========— wifi extender =========— living room
The wifi extender doesn’t need any cables. It connects to the router’s wifi and broadcasts wifi.
Replacing baseboards is one option, but it’s not exactly trivial. It can be a fair bit of effort to install the baseboards so that they look good. It will likely be much simpler, cheaper, and easier to get wifi extenders to solve your internet issues.
Another option would be powerline extenders, they use your electrical wiring as networking cable. I used to use one made by TP Link. You plug one end in to a receptacle near your router and connect it with ethernet, the other end plugs in to a receptacle near your device and provides a wi-fi connection and ethernet.
They can be helpful in some situations. The receptacles used need to be on the same side of the breaker box, at least that used to be the case and I believe it still is true.
I know an electronics hobbyist who remodeled some rooms in his house so that the drywall did not come fully down to the floor level as is usual, but ended at the baseboard level. So behind the (thicker) baseboard was the bare studs of the walls. Then he drilled holes in each stud for cables to go through, then be covered when the baseboard was in place.
In his computer rooms, the baseboard had concealed piano hinges across the bottom, so it could just be easily flipped down like an oven door to allow open access to add or remove cables. In other rooms, the baseboard was mounted with decorative screws, still easily removable when access was needed.
Where ever he wanted a outlet box (for cable jacks, phone, CATV, etc.), he just mounted the box at the appropriate height on the wall, dropped the cable straight down to behind the baseboard, then ran it through his ‘baseboard raceway’ back to the connection point.
Seemed like a convenient system, that would be easily adaptable over the years.
Note: you can’t mix electrical power cables in with these communication cables; that’s unsafe & against the electrical code. Also could cause a lot of electrical interference in your communication cables.
Imagine this image with the baseboard mounted a half inch higher, leaving a nice big gap under the whole baseboard that is completely covered by the base shoe.
I’ve had good success with powerline units, even if they are on different hot legs. I still got about 220 Mbps with a unit that claimed to be “up to” 1 Gbps.
Buuuut…my newer TP-Link S4 mesh system puts that to shame. Each unit has two ethernet ports and you can hook them up either hardwired or wireless (dual-band). With three units in the house, I consistently get 500+ Mpbs over the wireless gaps. The set is expensive, but it really does the job for me. I’m sure other manufacturers have similar offerings.
Pull the baseboard and use a circular saw to cut a raceway about 2 inches off the floor. You’ll need to make two parallel cuts and then may need a chisel to knock out the material between the two cuts. Then you’ll have a channel in which you can run the wiring. The channel will be hidden when you replace the baseboard.
) and it’s ugly. The spot where it runs across the hallway I can use a throw rug, but the rest of it snaking along the walls everywhere has GOT to go. We have hard surface floors so there’s no tucking it under the carpet edge, alas.