Anthropic Claude also discusses my home wifi

 See adjacent blog with CHAT GPT.

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We have a single family home and I have an office in a repurposed garage in back. In the middle of the house we have a cable company modem and next to it, an independent high quality router and wifi source for the house. My office has an ethernet cable (that's what I'd call it) that comes to the garage, then there was a small router, and then a second cable that goes about 20 feet to my desktop PC. I am wondering if we really need the second little router or if we could just "splice" the ethernet cables together with a connector. (It's about 60 feet of ethernet from house main router to garage, and then an extra 20 feet of ethernet to my desktop pc.)

BQ

ANTHROPIC CLAUDE

Based on the details provided, it sounds like you likely do not need that secondary router in the garage. Here are a few things to consider:

• Ethernet cables can usually run over 100 meters (328 feet) without issue, so the ~80 feet total length you described should not be a problem from a signal integrity standpoint. No need for a repeater/router for distance reasons.
• You can simply use an RJ45 coupler/joiner to connect the two Ethernet cables together if you want to remove the extra router device. This will just extend the network connection directly from the house router all the way to your desktop PC.
• The only reason you might want to keep the extra router is if you need the additional LAN ports or wifi connectivity it provides in the garage, or if you want to isolate/firewall your office network. But if you just need the one wired connection, splicing the cables should work fine.
• You may see a very small amount of additional network latency without the router, but we're talking less than a millisecond in most cases. Should be negligible.

So in summary - feel free to remove the extra router and connect the Ethernet runs directly if your goal is just to get your desktop online. Let me know if you have any other questions!

You

I should add, our system (as described) works fine for about two weeks, and then my desktop PC stops and can't find the internet any more. sometimes I reboot the whole system (starting with modem and router in the house) and sometimes I can get away with just rebooting the mini router (which is also a point wifi source) in the garage. I am wondering if I simplify the system with a coupler, it would be more stable. (However, I'd lose the point wifi source in the garage that drives my office printer).

BQ

Ah I see, thanks for providing those additional details. The intermittent internet connectivity issues you're running into could have a couple potential causes:

• If rebooting the secondary router in the garage brings connectivity back, it points to that router either overheating or having faulty firmware that requires periodic reboots to keep working properly. Removing it would resolve this.
• There may also be power or interference issues on the long ethernet cable run that cause the link to drop out after some time. Splicing with a coupler would eliminate the secondary powered device (the router) which could improve stability.

However, as you noted, you would lose the wifi access point and printer connectivity that secondary router provides in the garage. A couple options to still enable that while simplifying:

1. Replace the existing router with a basic network switch. This removes the router functionality but preserves LAN ports and wifi for the garage.
2. Add a standalone wifi access point in the garage after splicing the cables to maintain wifi only. Or, connect printer via USB or to the house wifi.
3. Consider a powerline ethernet adapter to get connectivity to the garage rather than using the long ethernet cable run. May have better reliability.

I would lean toward option 1 or 3 being the best long-term reliability play while preserving needed connectivity in the garage. But give a try splicing the existing cables first since that's easy to test out. Hopefully that helps provide some ideas! Let me know if any additional questions come up.

Thanks, very helpful. In the near term, rebooting (unplug, replug) the garage mini router for 30 seconds every two weeks is not too burdensome. But it's hugely helpful to see all your options and reasoning and advice.

BQ

You're welcome! I'm glad I could explain the options and provide some helpful troubleshooting advice. Rebooting the router periodically as a temporary workaround is just fine if it's not too inconvenient. And now you have a bit more background on optimizing your network setup when you're ready to make some changes. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions as you continue working on your connectivity out in the garage!