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Attic Network setup

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PandemicNetNewbie

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My current home setup is that I have my router in the attic as the previous owner had wired the attic to be the central hub. The router is now connected to ethernet cables from ISP and ethernet cables that go to my wall outlets. Due to recent cold weather I have noticed significant degradation in performance and fear the same is bound to happen during Texas summer as well. I wanted to find the simplest solution to move the router down into the home and was thinking of using a switch (or hub?) in the attic to connect the ISP ethernet cable and the ethernet wall cables to the switch. I would then connect the router to one of my wall outlets to enable Wi-FI for the home.

Only thing I could find is that if go with this approach I would need industrial strength switch to be able to handle the extreme heat (and now cold).

Can you please point out why my naïve idea will not work and what other better options I have to consider?
 
The key issues can be condensing moisture ( if parts of the device are at a temperature near/below the air dew point), or heat build up.
The temperature cycling and moisture can be an issue for connections as well.
Cold is not so much an issue unless moisture condenses.

One idea to evaluate would be creating a large insulated box around the switch and opening the ceiling below to make that part of the house enclosed space if you cannot move all of the equipment below the ceiling. Maybe you can re-route or extend the ethernet cables ? replacing couplers when needed would be cheap.
Attics in Texas can reach 130 F or higher if not well ventilated and with reflective foil on the underside of the roof sheathing. The big issue is blocking solar radiation in the IR region to avoid heat gain on the ceiling surface. You would need equipment rated for 60 C + the device internal heat gain - 30-50 C , so max 110 C roughly.
 
and was thinking of using a switch (or hub?) in the attic to connect the ISP ethernet cable and the ethernet wall cables to the switch. I would then connect the router to one of my wall outlets to enable Wi-FI for the home.

This approach usually won't work. In almost all cases the cable from your ISP must only be connected to one device. That device could be a single PC but is usually a wireless router and it is this router that allows the ISP connection to be shared between multiple devices. Therefore simply replacing the attic router with an Ethernet switch (and connecting the router to one of the wall outlets) is not a valid configuration.

If you want to move the router inside your house the challenge is usually the physical restrictions of where you can run the cables. Basically you need a location where not only can your ISP cable be plugged directly into the router, but also has all of your wall sockets terminating at the same location.

What kind of internet connection do you have, e.g. cable, ADSL, etc? What is connected to the other end of the "ISP cable" and where is that located? Is it just a cable modem, or is it a modem/router. If It's the latter then your idea for a switch in the attic might be possible.

Also, what is the make and model number of your current router?
 
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My current home setup is that I have my router in the attic as the previous owner had wired the attic to be the central hub. The router is now connected to ethernet cables from ISP and ethernet cables that go to my wall outlets. Due to recent cold weather I have noticed significant degradation in performance and fear the same is bound to happen during Texas summer as well. I wanted to find the simplest solution to move the router down into the home and was thinking of using a switch (or hub?) in the attic to connect the ISP ethernet cable and the ethernet wall cables to the switch. I would then connect the router to one of my wall outlets to enable Wi-FI for the home.

Only thing I could find is that if go with this approach I would need industrial strength switch to be able to handle the extreme heat (and now cold).

Can you please point out why my naïve idea will not work and what other better options I have to consider?

Assuming the attic is a hostile place, I would try to get out of the attic, either partially or wholly.

Partially: Leave a switch in the attic to connect the existing Ethernet cables and use one of those cables for the uplink to the router re-located to the lower living area. Try to ventilate the switch with conditioned air somehow. And insulate it from combustible materials... set it in a metal pan(?).

Try to re-locate the router i) near an existing cable, ii) centrally for whole house/yard coverage (sq ft?) or to one end or the main media center for mesh system coverage, and iii) near the re-located ISP service.

Finally, re-locate the ISP service to be near the router.

If you decide to wholly abandon the attic hub, you can fallback to a wireless mesh system.

I don't think the cold should be affecting performance unless the thermal change has revealed some electronic fault (I suspect typical summer attic heat will be too much), so be prepared to discover some other issue affecting network 'performance'... like one of those homeowner-installed Ethernet cables... you could disconnect them all to see if the issue stops.

OE
 
Here is an idea. Get your isp to pull a new line into your house where you would like to put the main router AND there is already an existing wall connection. If they do it, then you can just buy an industrial switch for your attic and get all the wiring in your house working. If you have a WiFi dead spot there should be some Ethernet jacks close enough where you can hard wire another AP in giving you entire home WiFi, wired wall ports, and all for the price of an industrial switch in your attic.
Network setup: new isp line >router WAN port > lan port > existing wall port > feed attic switch > all the other Ethernet lines in the house
 
Thank you all for all the responses and confirming that I m smart enough to know I m naive :D

@Collin - I currently have frontier which is Fiber network. I have a Frontier router connected which I plan on replacing with own router soon.

You guys have given me a few ideas to explore before I fallback on Callinc's option. Let me try a couple of things over the weekend and I will report back if i had any success.
 

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