I’m considering clipping the cable where it enters the wall, terminating it, and buying a PoE adapter so that I can see if a single wifi router mounted in that spot will cover the whole house.

Is this a terrible idea? What should I look out for?

  • Aggressive-Bike7539@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Are you sure that it’s two cables and not just one that loops back?

    Use an Ethernet cable tester/tracer to find where they end up.

    Reusing the cable seems like a no brainer, but you may find the cable is already setup like that. Use the tracer.

    • bouchert@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Reminds me of an old motorhome we inherited from my grandparents. While my father was getting it fixed up, he had to test all the wiring…which was a bit of a chore…the dashboard was filled with custom toggle switches my grandfather had installed over the years for various purposes, not all labeled. The service manual was useless because a fire a long time back had resulted in the makeshift replacement of all the wiring, so many functions had to be determined through trial and error, and a lot of tracing.

      One mystery unlabeled switch had no apparent function, and my father spent the better part of the day following the wire from the switch, as it snaked through almost every part of the motorhome, ending at…the other terminal of the switch. It was a dead loop left for future expansion, to be connected to whatever by simply cutting the loop. My grandfather would have been pleased to know his engineering had sent someone on a wild goose chase.

    • Tarantio@alien.topOPB
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      1 year ago

      I think it’s more likely that one cable was for internet and one was for the phone, since that’s the manufacturer labeling on the fiber access point.

      But yeah, I’ll probably put a cable tester on the Christmas list.