Title: Transform Your Outdated Home Entertainment System into Lightning-Fast Internet with This One Simple Hack!
Introduction:
If you own an outdated home entertainment system, you already know how frustrating it can be to experience slow internet speeds while streaming or downloading content. You might have looked for ways to upgrade your equipment to the latest technology available or feared the high costs of subscribing to premium internet packages, but there is one solution that doesn’t require a significant financial investment - using a wired connection instead of Wi-Fi. In this article, we will explain the benefits of using an Ethernet cable to connect your home entertainment devices to your router and guide you through the process of transforming your outdated entertainment system into lightning-fast internet.
Main Body:
The primary reason why using an Ethernet cable can speed up your internet is because it provides a more stable and reliable connection than Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi signals can be disrupted by walls, distance, other devices, and even the weather, which can cause the internet speed to fluctuate and make streaming or downloading choppy and slow. Wired connections, on the other hand, have a direct and constant connection between the device and the router, allowing for faster and more consistent data transfer.
To start using an Ethernet cable, you need to have a few essential pieces of equipment:
- An Ethernet cable (also known as LAN or Cat5 cable)
- A router (usually provided by your internet service provider)
- A device that can connect to the internet via Ethernet, such as a laptop, computer, or gaming console.
Once you have all the necessary items, follow these easy steps:
Locate the Ethernet port on your device - this is usually a small rectangular socket labeled with “LAN” or “Ethernet.”
Locate the Ethernet port on your router - this is usually located at the back of the router and has several sockets labeled with numbers or colors.
Connect one end of the Ethernet cable to the Ethernet port on your device and the other end to the Ethernet port on your router.
Turn on your device and check to see if it’s now connected to the internet through the Ethernet cable.
If your device has both Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections, it’s essential to disable the Wi-Fi connection to ensure that your device uses the Ethernet connection for the internet. To do this, go to your device’s network settings and turn off Wi-Fi.
Conclusion:
Using an Ethernet cable to connect your outdated home entertainment system to the internet can make a significant difference in speeding up your connectivity and online activities. Furthermore, it can also improve the overall performance of your devices, especially when it comes to streaming or downloading content. It’s a simple and affordable solution that can transform your outdated system into lightning-fast internet. So next time you encounter slow internet speeds or suffer from buffering while streaming content to your TV, give Ethernet cables a try, and experience the difference for yourself!
But, as technology marched on, many of us moved away from these TV services in favor of streaming our TV and movies over the internet. While this left many homes still using a single coaxial cable line to carry their broadband signal to a modem, even those have largely been replaced by Ethernet due to many ISPs requiring its usage for service tiers over 100Mbps. Because of these transitions, millions of homes find themselves with seemingly useless coaxial cables and coaxial outlets emerging from walls and floors. But, don’t rip all that cabling out just yet. With a couple of relatively inexpensive adapters, you can use those lines that already spiderweb across your home to carry the same data that would otherwise require hundreds of feet of expensive-to-install Ethernet cabling. Review: Slow internet at home? This adapter can turn your unused coaxial cable into Ethernet In fact, it can connect any two devices that use Ethernet connections – modems, routers, switches, PCs, streaming devices, and more – even if they’re on opposite sides of the house. Read on to find out how to turn that idle coaxial into a ready-to-go, whole-home networking asset.
How to convert your home’s coaxial cable into Ethernet lines
Materials needed: Built-in coaxial cabling, a coaxial-to-Ethernet adapter kit, any networking hardware you’re hoping to connect
Estimated time: 30 minutesEstimated cost: $115 to $150 (depending on adapter model)
Which adapter should I buy?
This depends entirely on your goals for the run, the level of security you want, and other factors specific to your home and devices. However, we’ve collected a few good candidates for the most common scenarios below. This is a great time to have a friend or family member on the phone with you to help this process. If you have a bare coaxial line emerging from the wall, it may be as simple as having them jiggle one end while you watch the other for movement. Or, if you have a built-in outlet, it may take a little more detective work to visually verify which line is which. To install the adapter, you’ll need to make a total of three connections:
Coaxial cable: will screw into the port marked G. Hn., In, or MoCa (Multimedia over Coax Alliance), depending on your modelEthernet: will click into the Ethernet portPower: should usually be connected last
The power adapter type will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but is almost always needed to provide the current used to convert and carry your Ethernet signal over coax. Some adapters may also have a TV or Out port for a second coaxial cable. This is used if you still want the same cable to carry a TV signal. While it is possible to keep an active cable or other pay TV connection running over the same line, we’d recommend avoiding it. The two competing signals have the potential to interfere with each other, leading to poor performance for both. The placement of each adapter depends entirely on your goals for this new coax-to-Ethernet run. For example, if you’re attempting to connect your incoming broadband connection to a modem or router that will be located elsewhere in your home, you’ll want one adapter wherever the broadband connection enters your home, and the other located wherever you want your router, with a coaxial line located between them. Likewise if you want a hardwired connection running from an existing router to a basement home theater setup for reliable 4K (or even 8K) streaming, you’d place one adapter near the router and the other near your home theater. The important thing is to think of these adapters as nothing more than endpoints for a run of Ethernet. With their help, that’s exactly what any old run of coaxial cable can become. Once you’ve connected your other networking hardware and verified the connection is up and running, you should be good to go with your new home networking setup. You can also repeat this entire process to convert other runs of coaxial cable to Ethernet, but you’ll need another set of adapters for each. This is the adapter we used in our demonstration. It includes built-in encryption for security, and offers maximum speeds of up to 2Gbps. Read our full review of the Nexuslink G.hn Ethernet Over Coax Adapter here. A starter kit that supports MoCa 2.5 for running entire home networks over a single coaxial cable. A great option for those upgrading to a faster broadband tier that might otherwise require Ethernet installation. A cheaper alternative to the above model that offers very similar features but comes with a few less cables and adapters that you may need to provide yourself, depending on your situation.
Can I use this method to connect my entire home to my ISP?
Yes. One of the main reasons why adapters like these are most commonly used is to help customers upgrading from slower (100Mbps or so) broadband connections to something faster (300Mbps or more). Since many broadband connections above 100Mbps require Ethernet cabling to be run from their origination point to a modem or router, lots of customers were stuck with a huge bill to replace their existing coaxial connections (which were fine up to 100Mbps) with the required run of Ethernet. Instead, these adapters offer a way to convert that existing coax into Ethernet at both ends, letting you connect broadband hardware, even hardware running at up to 1Gbps, to a modem or router over your existing coaxial cable. If you’re planning to do this, we would recommend choosing an adapter kit that uses the “bonded MoCa 2.5” protocol. This is a standard created by the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCa). It’s rated for up to 2,500Mbps (2.5Gbps), and was designed to carry the kind of traffic an entire network is likely to create. Other adapters may work, but you could experience some slowdown based on what specific protocols and technologies they support. Obviously, you don’t want to pay for gigabit broadband only to be accidentally throttling yourself to less than 300Mbps by using the wrong hardware.
What if I’m having trouble figuring out which coaxial line is which?
In homes that had lots of TV all hooked up to cable or satellite hardware at one point, you could be dealing with dozens of lines of coax running through walls. If you’re not lucky enough to have them helpfully labeled for you, it may seem too daunting to trace each run. Thankfully there is a very helpful tool that can expedite the process. This inexpensive gadget lets you plug one end of it into a run of coaxial cable, go to the other end, and screw on a tiny speaker. If you hear a tone, you’ve found a complete run. If not, you need to try another endpoint. It’s a huge help if you have in-wall coax outlets that prevent the “jiggle it” method, or if you don’t have any help handy to sit at the other end. I’d recommend picking one up if you’re serious about making use of your home’s defunct coax for more than one run.
What are some other uses for converting coaxial cable into Ethernet?
As mentioned above, essentially anything that could be handled by a run of Ethernet could also be done by a coaxial cable with the appropriate adapters at either end. But, just to set you on the path to how varied those possibilities are, we’ll include a handful of other example scenarios below. You could…
Use a run of coaxial cable to create a hardwired connection to a Wi-Fi extender to counteract a Wi-Fi dead zone in your home or office.Connect a gaming PC over adapted coax to reduce the game-breaking latency Wi-Fi can sometimes introduce.Create a fast, wired connection between a NAS (Network Accessible Storage) device and a remote computer or media streaming setup.Install an over-the-air broadcast antenna and receiver that you’ll use with adapted coaxial cable to connect to your LAN for streaming or recording.Skip the hundreds or thousands of dollars a contractor might charge to install any in-wall runs of Ethernet cabling for any other purpose.
