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I have a router and switch in the basement and have set up ethernet jacks here and there on the first floor. During some remodeling, I had an electrician pull Cat6 cable up to my 2nd floor.
Now I wish I had a jack in a different place on that floor. I can access the attic crawl space where the current jack is and where I'd like another, but because the remodeling is long done, it would be impossible (or hugely expensive) to have another line run between the basement and the 2nd floor.
Can I split the cable at the current jack somehow? I see that some responses on SuperUser recommend using a switch, but I wonder about:
- transmission problems (bottlenecks)
- What kind of switch do I need?
- Would the switch have to have power (none in the crawl space, of course)?
- what about heat in the attic?
Wireless is already present on the 2nd floor but not always fast enough or secure enough for me.
Short partial answer: You can't just cut into and split (or even splice) an Ethernet cable like you can a power or even coax cable. The signals are much too sensitive, and you'll get garbled data. You will need some sort of active electronics. – chrylis -on strike- – 2014-10-19T23:32:53.900