This is all heading towards some sort of perfect future, where there is amazing network connectivity throughout my house.
Not that it’s bad right now. In fact, it’s pretty darn good. But it could be better, you know? Since the big network update of 2020, things have been great. We made it through the depths of the pandemic (knock on 🪵) where Tammy was teaching remotely, I was working remotely and both kids were schooling remotely. If we survived that, surely things are good enough.
I would agree with you, dear reader, except an opportunity has arisen. With the imminent installation of solar panels on the roof, there will be a conduit running from the electrical panel in the basement to the attic. One of my main issues of the last 10 years has been that there are no clean routes for cables from the basement (where the cable modem is) to the upper floors of the house. I had the foresight to run cables to the kitchen before the basement was finished, and I managed to run ethernet to the bonus room by a very circuitous route, but there are parts of the house that I would love to drop ethernet into or put another WiFi hotspot, but there was just no way to do it.
But with a conduit to the attic, I will be able to run wires up that I can then drop into the bedrooms or place a WiFi hotspot upstairs wherever I like. Right now, the master bedroom (where Tammy works 3 days per week) is the place with the weakest WiFi in the house. A hotspot in the hallway would boost it a lot.
In preparation for this eventual conduit (the solar installation will happen soon) I have upgraded the switch in the electrical cabinet from a 8-port one (that was full) to a 16-port one. Now I have the capacity to run up to eight ethernet lines up to the attic, enough for drops in each bedroom and a hotspot.
I’d like to also point out that I rode by bike down to the store on October 2nd. The leaves were falling from the trees while I rode in a t-shirt. We are having a long, long extended summer into fall this year.
