First thread and first post: I would appreciate any support that you could offer me for a struggle that I've been having for the last years, which I would like to put to a stop.
I live in an older apartment in Lucerne, whose electrical and connectivity cables are kept in a very small wiring cupboard. I am a Swisscom customer, and when I moved in to my apartment, I wanted to use the fibre optic internet available at the address. However, I could not use this because the Swisscom modem for fibre optic cable would not fit in the wiring cupboard or around it. I am using an older Swisscom modem that fits. Over the last number of years, my internet has not been good enough to meet my needs and I need to improve the signal.
My issue is that I don't what the right combination of things to do to get the fastest possible signal. Do I switch providers to get a modem that will allow me to get a better signal? Is there a way to amplify the signal around the house?
Any help that you could offer is much appreciated. Please feel free to ask me questions if you need more info.
I'm assuming that the modem delivers the speed, but the problem is connecting to the modem via WiFi. Have you consider powerline adaptors? I have my modem on the ground floor, and use powerline (TP-Link) to have internet on the 1st and 2nd floor and in the cellar. And another one in the nuclear bunker. (Not much use when the power is out, I know, but that's where my backup NAS is).
I can't resist to say it, sorry - The proper solution would be to lay a fiber cable from the wiring cupboard to a more convenient place, possibly close to a power socket. We all have the fiber coming to the wiring panel and the standard solution is not to have a modem inside it.
Cheapest solution: a 3m commercial fiber cable entering the cupboard from a small aperture in the cupboard door. A few CHF.
Biggest solution: a small cable duct leading to an external fiber socket to be attached somewhere nearby. Needs a hole leading to the wiring cupboard, but it's a very simple and fast work. Tens of CHF in materials + CH manpower.
Intermediate solution: if the telephone or TV line also comes to the wiring cupboard you can probably recycle the existing telephone/TV cable ducts and you just need to install a fiber cable to the closest telephone/TV socket (and replace or extend the telephone socket).
*probably = check regulations about sharing cable ducts
WiFi signal strength from the existing modem is a different problem. Wifi has known issues with walls and having the antenna inside a cupboard does not help. In my experience (not a pro but had a few modems in my life, in different houses) changing the modem would not help. I had and have powerline adaptors and they do miracles, huge value for money IMHO, but you need a power socket inside the wiring cupboard and space to fit the modem AND the power adaptor (say a small brick 5x5x10 cm).
If the power adaptor has to be external to the wiring cupboard then it's the same problem again and better to install a fiber cable...
Many thanks to getting back to me. I really appreciate your support. I ask for your patience in advance. I'm not very good with internet connectivity topics. I hope that I can learn with this. I have the feeling that I am paying way too much money for what I get as an output, and that something can be done to fix this. I think that we can all relate to this.
@NotAllThere: I have the Swisscome standard Internet router from Arcadyan. I haven't used powerline adapters yet. This has been suggested to me in the past. If I were to use these adapters, would my laptop always need to be plugged into the adapter via Ethernet cable?
@venetian: I agree with you that the proper solution would be to lay a fibre cable out to a more convenient place. I investigated this when I moved in and I came to the same conclusion. However, the Verwaltung did not give me permission to do this. They told me that there is no need to do it. I've added a picture of my setup to show you what I'm working with in my apartment. I don't think that I have the space for the modem and the power adapter and be able to close the door fully.
@Tom1234: These are the speeds from my apartment after the speedtest:
Office (a number of walls between router and laptop): 33.84 Mbps d/l, 61.59 Mbps u/l
Bedroom (furthest distance from router): 38.78 Mbps d/l, 62.20 u/l
Living room (closest distance from router): 46.06 Mbps d/l, 52.73 u/l
Ethernet: 221.19 Mbps d/l, 333.30 Mbps u/l
The Wifi is being dampened 5x from the wiring cupboard to the rest of the apartment.
I've added some pictures of my wiring cupboard configuration to give you some insight on my situation. I hope that this helps and I'm looking forward to your replies.
Our apartment doesn't have fibre optic, nothing we change in our apartment will help because there is no fibre optic cable running to the building.
However our modem is not in a wire cupboard, it is just plugged into the phone socket in the living room (then we also have the 5g booster plugged into to the modem which makes a huge difference). Where is your phone socket? Can you not plug your modem into it, or get a longer cable that you can run from phone socket to modem? Then get a 5G booster (1 off payment) to increase speed. https://www.swisscom.ch/en/about/new...tep-newsletter
No. Get adapters that are wifi. They can extend the range. All my adapters have the same SSID as the router. My laptop switches effortlessly between them as I move up and down the house.
Thank you for reaching out IslandMonkey. I wasn't able to place the Swisscom router in the wiring cupboard because (1) the router was too big to go inside and (2) if I placed the router outside the wiring cabinet, it would be too far away from the other devices that I need to plug the cables into for my home's setup and I wouldn't be able to close the wiring cupboard door because of these cables. You can have a look at the pictures that I uploaded to understand better. My router has to be placed in this wiring cabinet because there is this connection distribution system installed in the wiring cabinet that distributes the internet connection to each of the multimedia plug-ins (coaxial/telephone/etherner) in the apartment. I've heard about this 5G booster from Swisscom. If I plug this booster into the wiring cupboard, I'm not able to close the door of the wiring cupboard and the door for the closet. Please let me know if I've missed something here.
The 5G booster has to go on the outside of a window, the cable is reasonably long , but you have to be able to run it to your modem. You also get a new Swisscom modem with it - which is not massive but not tiny either.
Well if you are not concerned about the technology, may be have a look at a 4G type solution. I use this one from Yallo as a backup and it is fairly reasonable. If I'm sitting in the same room as the box I get around 200/250 and occasionally 300. If I'm in the attick at the other side of the house it goes down to may be 30. And of course you can always move the box...
Hi! The pictures really help, thanks. I had the same type of cabinet in my previous apartment, it is quite a modern installation IMHO.
I tend to agree with Verwaltung that is should not be needed to add more external cables. From a quick search with Google it looks like those "universMCS" are devices that take an Ethernet connection and send it to wall cables, where you can extract telephone, TV and Ethernet signal. Check the picture you have on the inside of the cabinet door.
If you can locate those wall sockets and make one of them work with Ethernet, you can either use an Ethernet cable or install a small WiFi access point connected to the socket:
Check with your Verwaltung or with an electrician, I never installed those multimedia plugs myself and I don't know the status of yours, it could be you have to replace one or it could be that you have already all you need in 1-2 rooms...
Maybe you have checked this solution already, in that case what was not working? Because it really looks like the official solution, pre-installed in your apartment.
In any case changing the modem would not help - as long as you have a fiber modem, if it's not a broken one then speed should be more than ok. Your issue is generating Wifi from within the cabinet.
Or maybe you don't have a fiber modem right now? From the pictures it looks like yes, the long cable with blue terminals wrapped up at the corner of the modem looks like a single fiber going from fiber socket to the modem. If you don't have a fiber modem, get any of them, not necessarily the official one. I have an AVM FritzBox 5490 and I am super happy.
Thank you to everyone who has gotten back to me this morning on my situation. You've given me a good education on this topic really quickly.
@Venetian: I think that you're right that there is an official pre-configuration for my apartment. If you look at my pictures, I can extract the telephone/TV/Ethernet signal from 3 specific outlets that are sent out from one of the universMCS boxes in the wiring cupboard.
I think that the solution is twofold:
(1) Currently, my router doesn't support fibre optic connection. 5 years ago, the only fibre optic routers from Swisscom were these large boxes that didn't fit in the wiring cupboard, so I switched to a router that doesn't support a fibre optic connection. I need to get a fibre optic modem that is skinny enough to fit in the wiring cupboard. Swisscom sells a few of them on their website, like this one () which should be able to fit in the wiring cupboard now. I don't need to worry about the signal being weakened because the router is in a wiring cupboard because I will use the wall cables to send the signal to the individual rooms and the access points to deliver the Wifi signal.
(2) I should buy 3 small Wifi access points and install them next to the special outlets to deliver the Wifi signal throughout the apartment.
Please chime in if someone sees a different solution.
One last question from my end: I've been trying to find this out today - what is the difference between these Unifi access points and the Wifi powerline adapters? Which is best to use for my situation?
There's no need to make assumptions. The OP has time to sort this out.
The only time assumptions, based on experience, are useful is in time-critical screw-ups which need sorting ASAP.
(2) I should buy 3 small Wifi access points and install them next to the special outlets to deliver the Wifi signal throughout the apartment.
Please chime in if someone sees a different solution.
One last question from my end: I've been trying to find this out today - what is the difference between these Unifi access points and the Wifi powerline adapters? Which is best to use for my situation?[/QUOTE]
One thing I couldn't understand from your text was whether the router was in the metal wiring enclosure or not. If it was (and it was in a photo), that's a really bad idea as a metal enclosure will act as a Faraday cage (though not a perfect one in this case) and severely reduced signal strength of your wifi.
If it was, do the tests again with the router outside the metal enclosure!
There are pros and con with wifi access points and powerline modules.
A well placed Unifi AP (placed as described in their manuals) should give you good coverage for your whole apartment -more so if it is fairly open plan.
Powerline modules are good for individual rooms but due to the location of existing electric power sockets (perhaps in a corner next to the floor), their range may not be optimal.
If you work in one room, why not just use ethernet (assuming the sockets you described are ethernet)?
since everything is in the cupboard anyway, why not just leave the door open and let the cable router sit outside. crammed in there you could have some overheating issues.
(2) would be my solution. Set the router to bridge mode and splash out on a mesh repeater system, running a cable from the router to the base module of the mesh. Not the cheapest solution, but one that works well for me with three terminals and cable of the base module to the TV...
How much space do you have? The FritzBox is 6 cm thick, I guess there could be thinner ones.
Yes. But maybe you don't have to buy three, you can e.g. buy one for where you use a tablet and let the TV use the Ethernet. It depends on the geometry of the apartment and what is your intended coverage.
An Access Points is a "converter" between Ethernet and Wifi.
A Powerline is a "converter" between Ethernet/Wifi/both and 230 V cabling, and you always need at least two.
Powerline adapters are used when you want to reach a location with cables but you can't lay proper Ethernet cables, so you "recycle" 230 V cabling. But you have Ethernet cables in the walls, so you don't need Powerline.
Thank you for all of your support today. I went to the Swisscom shop to exchange my 5 year old non-fibre optic router for a fibre-optic router and placed it outside of the wiring cupboard. It is still inside of a closet, but the Faraday cage effect is gone. This improved my speed immediately to what I should expect on a normal basis throughout the apartment.
I think that it makes sense for me to still buy a couple of access points to keep the Wifi signal high in the apartment. I will see how it goes over the next couple of weeks. Thanks to all of your help, my internet speed has gone up by 5x. I really appreciate all of your support.
