How to run ethernet from Master Socket

[#1]

Hi All,
I'm on Fibre to Cabinet, Copper to property getting around 39 mbps. No fast fibre here yet. I want to move my router to a more central location, possibly install another ethernet socket in the lounge (TV location) and to have the option later of running ethernet quite a distance down the garden to a future garden building.
The master socket is at one end of my single story house. It's fed from an OT junction box on another corner of the house at ground level.
So questions:
1. Could I move the Master Socket myself to a more central location? If so is there a good guide to doing this?
2. Moving the master socket would not help running ethernet to the other locations, so is it possible to 'hard wire' cable (Cat6?) from the master socket and run this externally to 2-3 other ethernet sockets +one for main router, one for TV connection or 2nd router as WAP, one in future to the garden building? How do I connect up between NTL5 master socket and ethernet sockets? (My prev telecoms experience is limited to once extending a copper phone line to a new phone socket)
Thanks All!

[#2]

1. You are not permitted to do anything with the master socket - that is the demarcation point of BT’s network / control. You can run internal PHONE extension wiring from the back of the faceplate to anywhere you wish to a slave phone socket. There you could install the router. Such might degrade your sync speed. Such wiring has nothing to do with Ethernet (LAN) cabling.

2. Fitting Ethernet sockets is something different you’ll need multiple sockets at the location of the router (or hub) - one for each end point - and a fist full of patch cables.

Why do you want to relocate the router?

You could buy an Ethernet switch (as cheap as £15 for an 8 port device) and locate it where you want the router if the purpose of the move is accessibly of the Ethernet ports. Then run a Ethernet cable from the location of the master socket / router to the switch. You can then connect the other Ethernet runs to the switch. Note that the Plusnet Hub Two has only hot 3 Ethernet ports.

Should you later upgrade to FTTP and the ONT is located at the current master socket (a power socket is required) then the Ethernet cable could be used to connect router remotely to the ONT.

[#3]

Thanks @Townman
I want to relocate the router because the master socket is at one end of the house and the lounge is at the other end of the house. At the moment I am using Powerline adaptors to get the signal to a second router configured as a WAP which is sited in the study around the middle of the house. This extends the WiFi to the lounge but is not foolproof. It's also not strong enough to carry WiFi into the garden for summer alfresco browsing (when that finally happens).

[#4]

An additional WAP Powerline adapter might be a more pragmatic simpler solution.  Basic systems are pairs, but you can have any number on the network.

[#5]

I completely agree with @Townman there's no point in moving the router unless that's some sort of physical obstacle to daily life. And it's not going to improve speeds if it makes the cable run longer.

To move the master socket or router you need telephone wiring, whereas to create new WiFi access points you need either ethernet cabling or Powerline adapters (or WiFi repeaters if you're desperate).

Ethernet runs happily at up to 100mbps over telephone cabling by the way and Cat5e is the most you're likely to need in a domestic setting as that supports 1000mbps. Any higher spec cable is pointless and probably bulkier, more visible and less easy to run.

I happen to have a mixture - telephone cable 100mbps Ethernet from my router to the lounge and a powerline link to an access point that provides a signal to outside as it's close to a patio door. With my recently upgraded to FTTC service at around 60mbps that's all still fine.

[#6]

@Prologica 

If you have a telephone extension socket in the lounge you could simply connect the Router to it and see what your speeds are like. If you're happy that the loss is minimal then that's your router sorted.

Brian

[#7]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Broadband to Everything Else

[#8]

Ok I haven’t tackled running an external Ethernet cable as yet. One question: Can Ethernet be run from the reverse of the master socket so I could run the cable out through the back of the master socket itself and through the wall? I don’t really want another socket on the wall as it’s in a bedroom right by the bed.

thanks all

[#9]

You should (as I think has been noted earlier) just leave the master socket completely alone!

In any event the phone/ADSL signals are very different to Ethernet so don't mix them up. You can't hijack any of the BT wiring so you'll need a new cable through a new hole.

You don't need a socket though, if you can terminate the cables yourself just run the cable straight through a hole drilled in the wall and fit a plug on the end to go into the router. All my satellite aerial cables were fitted that way, though they are a LOT easier to terminate!

And as I mentioned earlier, using 4-core telephone cable (also easier to fit plugs) is less visible, easier to run and operates up to 100mbps at domestic distances.