"HerHusband" wrote in message ...
Several of us have mentioned a wireless router now, but you bring up
a good point, which is location. So far, haven't heard if the OP
needs wireless now or not, but most of us do and your point of at
least taking the location for a wireless router into consideration is
a good one. Some centralized location would be ideal, but it doesn't
have to be centralized. I have my wireless router on the second floor
at one end of the house and get good coverage down to first floor at
the other end. If it were easy and practical central would be better.
But the closer you can get to that, without a lot of trouble, the
beter.

My router is located near my computer in my home office so it's easy to
connect the computer, VOIP adapter, network printer, etc. However, the
location under my desk is not ideal for Wi-Fi coverage.

So I ran a network cable up to my "attic" space and added a wireless access
point there. It is up high, right in the center of the house, so I get
great coverage anywhere inside and most places outside as well.

In my experience, the cable connection is more finicky than ethernet
cables. Any cable connection that was less than perfect, or a splitter that
was not up to par, would completely wipe out my internet service. In
comparison, I can plug in a CAT5 cable and run it just about anywhere with
no issues.

I recommend putting the cable modem as close to the incoming cable as
possible, with as few splitters as possible. You can always add an access
point to improve wireless, or network switches to get more network
connections.

Anthony Watson
www.mountainsoftware.com
www.watsondiy.com

Thanks, AW. In my case, it will take about 50-feet of cable to go from the outside interconnection box to the computer. Would I get a faster connection if the modem is located near the outside box or near the computer?