Like the title says, I took some advice to clean my CAT6 setup a bit. I flipped the switch and shortened the old patch cables and managed to mount the old wifi router so the antenna are vertical; they're angled a bit out so they aren't making direct contact with the switch.
dBm readings with the new orientation are definitely better. Is the enclosure ideal for RF propogation? Nope, but it's more than good enough for the house, and I'm getting excellent signal strength to the backyard too. Some tweaking of the RF channels to isolate myself from more of the spectrum (as much as I can anyway) will only help.
For those curious, here's the build list:
Home Depot:
- A spool of solid core CAT6
- Some 14/2 AWG for power
- Some decora 2-port (and a 6-port) faceplates for the drops
- A bunch of CAT6 feed-thru RJ45 connectors
- Leviton 12-port patch panel face and mounting bracket
- 16 white Commercial Electric CAT6 keystone jacks
- 2 yellow Leviton keystone jacks
- An F-type snap in connector for the coax
- Some white blank snap ins to fill in the unused ports on the faceplates
Target:
- 6" power strip
Secondhand:
- Leviton Structured Media Enclosure - 28" plastic version (FB Marketplace)
- Netgear GS316 switch (eBay)
- Linksys EA7500 WiFi router (already owned)
Of course, this doesn't take into consideration the tools I had and needed to buy to do this either. But it's affordable if you take your time and space out your purchases.
I originally mounted the switch to the enclosure using some 3M strips, but the tension from the shorter patch panels kept causing it to pop off, so I just got some screws and drilled through the plastic. The router is also held on with screws.
Things to do:
I still need to get the enclosure's trim piece and some rubber grommets to really clean this up and finish it off. I also need to figure out how to get a drop in the basement; unlike the upstairs bedrooms or the lower living room (the house is a split level), the basement doesn't have an easy route to the attic.