Anyone have a recommendation for an installer in the houston area? need to get some cat6 cables ran to a few parts of the house...doesn't seem easy to get to...
Not feasible to get them to 12”-18” inches from floor with fire blockers without opening up the drywall or exterior wall. Unfortunately homes don’t have empty conduits that you can use. If you have a two-story it’s even worse. I ran mine on the exterior of my house then just drilled through like a cable tv installer. You can get all weather exterior network cable. I know a guy who does high end home automation and whole-home audio systems. He may be able to do it. What’s your budget?
I got a quote from “install a jack” for 425. I was hoping for 150-200… .. I can’t figure out how they can get to the area of the house through the attic so you are right that they might have to go outside and come back in. moral of the story: don’t buy 2 story homes.
Electricians are the ones with the tools and tricks. mine is punched through the exterior wall, used scrap pex for conduit and buried it in the yard. Albiet I am using scrap industrial grade cat5e and at $2 a foot, i dont want some dumbass contractor cutting the line.
15 years ago I was charging $75 for an easy drop, 150-200 for complicated drops. $400 is still high however not surprising. If you have FTTH, you could consider going with fiber drops.
Not a bad price, maybe even too low. Specialized equipment, expertise, cable, termination, time and transportation to the site. They may even throw in some patch cables. You said a ‘few’ which would indicate at least three.
Oh he quoted one drop for 425. That was a bit more than what I wanted to pay. I turned my dining room in the front part of house in a nice WFH setup. It's the only room in the house that doesnt have an ethernet port.. Debating whether to relocate or spend the money to add a drop here. The other drop I wanted is on the ceiling to get a Unifi ceiling mounted AP.
That could be ok based on what complexity you've hinted at. I know when I was building my house a few months ago, the builder offloaded the low voltage wiring stuff to some other company. Those guys ended up being a rag-tag bunch I probably wouldn't trust with any further wiring at my house. lol. For every drop, they were charging $200 (I think that was the price) and that was before the drywall was even up (yet they somehow managed to screw up with that, too). Usually builder prices are complete rip-offs, so I knew I'd probably be getting swindled. What else Ubiquiti do you have on your network? I use their Dream Router a couple of switches and a FlexHD access point at my old house. I'm starting to plan what Ubiquiti stuff to buy for the new house because the Eero access points came with the house are kind of driving me nuts. That and where they're located. I think the low voltage guys didn't want to get on ladders taller than 6'. I can't blame them. Vaulted ceilings suck.
I am running a Cloud Gateway Ultra with 3 U6 pro AP's dispersed around the house. I get great coverage all over the yard and a little way down the street. I have a 4th AP but haven't set it up because I don't really need it currently. I looked for a Dream Router for a while but they were constantly out of stock and I could only find them from resellers for 2-3 x the price. We use heavy duty Ubiquiti equipment at work, and I went through one of our suppliers for mine. I love it and will definitely go that route again when I need to. My house has CAT5e drops in every room and a couple of rooms have 2 drops. They all end up in a Hub in my garage along with coax drops. My builder actually did a good job with the cabling but they all initially had phone jacks on them but I have gone back and put ethernet punch down keystones in their place.
I was quoted at 1200 to run 4 wires in a one story. I bought long wires and taped them along the baseboards.
I got 1gb connection from ATT. Just got the Cloud Gateway Fiber Switch Lite 8 port POE (debated and actually bought the Flex 2.5 but it's overkill for now) Flex Mini 4 Port FlexHD AP (waiting for some new In wall models to replace these). They released a XG version for the ceiling AP with a new fanless design...so I think they might release a better IW version soon. I put all these in a Deskpi T1 mini 10" rack. Also put the synology and raspberry pi in there.
I don't know why I said "Dream Router". I meant the OG Dream Machine shaped like a capsule (just like the Dream Router). They put one of those structured wiring box in my build, too, so that was good, but the only problem is that they're never big enough for the crap you'd like to put in there. Your setup is sounding eerily like mine may end up for the most part. The Cloud Gateway Fiber is a bit of a steal, but I keep thinking they may update the rackmount UDMs (Pro, SE, etc.) to finally be better right after I buy a CGF. Right now, for the prosumer, the CGF may be the better buy over the UDMs. For now, I'm probably going to buy the CGF. I'm probably going to need an nvr and about 5-6 POE cameras, too. I'm debating going away from Ubiquiti for the cameras and NVR, though, and maybe going with Reolink. I have a Synology NAS, but it's ancient (DS916+), so I doubt I'll use that for nvr duty. As for the access points, the whole house is wired with Cat6, but there are only 2 rooms I really care about having wired ethernet, but I went ahead and wired it to a couple of other rooms. Everywhere else can do with really fast Wi-Fi. lol. I was looking at the U7 Pro XG, if that's what you were talking about, but I'd have to put it on 13'-14' ceilings, and I don't enjoy the thought of trying to troubleshoot crap that high. lol. I could do the less optimal and buy one and slap it behind a tv on the wall and see how it goes while hoping it doesn't burn a hole through the tv. I'm also looking into their U7 Pro Walls as access points. I love my FlexHD and want them to release an updated version. Until then, I'll look into something else or just use that temporarily. What are you using the Raspberry Pi for?
Ya the UCG-Fiber is a great deal. 5gbps throughput with IDS turned on. NVME slot for recordings. I want to get a couple of Unifi cameras (front/garage/backyard) but of course I will need to get my ethernet drops there. Reolink I have heard good things about. I have an E1 to watch the doggie when I am out and about. I was very close to replacing the FlexHD with a centrally placed U7 Pro XG (mounted sideways) and adding an In wall 7 for the farthest room...but I am going to wait for the mythical XG version. Like you, the central area of my house has very high ceilings and I am not putting an AP there. Have you used the Wifiman app to get a signal map of your house? it's pretty cool! Raspberry pi just random stuff like qbittorrent.
Yeah, I used Wifiman to just figure out dead areas in the house. Using it, I noticed my sprinkler controller wifi was kind-of-weak-but-maybe-good-enough in the garage, but am hoping that will take care of itself when I install an AP in the office. Also just noticed the U7 Pro Wall doesn't have a built-in switch. I swear the only negative I've had with Ubiquiti is sometimes differentiating their product line can be annoying.
I think we are the same person? lol! I too noticed my rachio having super weak signal).. Yes, that's why I returned the Pro wall. They have a U7 regular in wall with a port but...no 6ghz radio. 100% agree on Unifi's product line up. always missing 1 thing.
It's even weirder because my controller at my old house is a Rachio and I'm about to install another Rachio at the new house.
