How is the rural self-built housing network planned? Five cables were embedded during construction, and WiFi is maxed out on the three floors

Last year, when our family built a three-story self-built house, I went through the entire process of embedding network cables before pouring. After half a year of moving in, WiFi is maxed out upstairs and downstairs, and the yard surveillance is in place all at once. Looking back, the extra 1,000 yuan spent on building the house was the most cost-effective money on the entire internet.

previously wrote about how to lay network cables for urban renovations but self-built houses can't simply copy the idea of commercial housing; the traps are completely different.

Let me clarify first: the enemy of self-built houses and commercial housing are not the same thing

urban commercial housing is a hindrance to brick walls and load-bearing walls. Self-built houses are even more ruthless—you're dealing with cast-in-place reinforced concrete floors.

my home has three floors, each about 120 square meters, with a 12-centimeter-thick floor slab and a layer of reinforced mesh inside. This device attenuates WiFi much more severely than a 24-brick wall. I tested it with a AX3000T in the living room on the first floor: when on the second floor, it could still find 2.4G, reading around -75, barely usable; 5G was completely unusable. On the third floor, only one 2.4G bar remains, and I scroll through videos.

numerically, 2.4G passing through a cast-in-place slab typically attenuates by 15 to 20dB, while 5G passing through a slab is basically left to fate, starting at 20dB. You can reduce the number of walls by a few walls, but you can't avoid the floor slab—people live upstairs, and the internet must go upstairs.

the idea for a self-built home network can be summed up in one sentence: don't expect a router to run three layers; either embed wires upstairs or place devices on each floor.

the wires buried before pouring: I reserved five points

before starting work, I circled five locations on the blueprint so the electricians could do it together when the pipes were being laid. Each part is a 20mm PVC pipe, with a steel wire left inside the pipe, so you can pull it out if you want to change the wire later.

first, the TV wall in the main hall on the first floor. This is the final stop for fiber optic installations—the optical modem, main router, and POE switch are all placed here. I kept two 86 cartridges, one powered on, one with network cables, and three five-hole sockets on the side—it's normal for devices to run out of outlets.

second location, the stairwell shaft. From the first floor to the third floor, a 20-pipe leads straight through the corner, with two ultra-fifth-class pipes running inside. This pipe is the main artery of the entire building, and every floor node branches off from it.

third location, each living room TV wall has 86 units. Even if you don't want to place routers on every floor, at least leave a gap so the exposed panel can connect anytime.

fourth location, the master bedroom on the second and third floors each has one spot, placed behind the bedside table—invisible but within reach.

fifth location: under the eaves and at the front gate, five in total: the four corners of the yard plus the main gate, all 20 tubes connected to the weak current on the first floor. For

line, I bought two boxes of super 5 oxygen-free copper, each 305 meters long. Some ask why not go to Category 6—Category 6 is certainly good, but Category 5 is more than enough for gigabit running, and your home doesn't have a solid need for a 10-gigabit intranet. If you want to get everything done in one go, swap the two main shafts for Category 6, and the rest for Category 5—this is the most cost-effective compromise.

it's already done but not buried wires? Three remedial roads

if you missed the pouring time, don't panic. Try in order:

the first one, take the exposed line. Running cable ducts from the edge of the first-floor window to the second floor takes a day, costing fifty yuan. Ugly is a flaw, but it's the most stable. The neighbor next door to my house only thought of this road after the installation was completed.

Second, Mesh wireless backhaul. One each upstairs and downstairs, but note that wireless backhaul must pass through the floor panel, which reduces attenuation. The actual bandwidth is halved and then discounted. I tested two AX3000T setups: the main router on the first floor, the sub-router on the second floor at the stairwell, leaving only about 180MB on the return trip—the sub-router itself has full signal bars, and only about this many outlets. For details on wired backhaul connection, see the article I wrote about Mesh Wired backhaul .

Third, the electric cat. I don't recommend putting it first. The rural power grid is loaded, and if anyone in the village runs a welding machine or a flour grinder, your grid will shake along with it. Emergency measures are fine, but don't expect long-term support.

Fiber Fiber Installation and Broadband Installation: The village has its own rules

broadband in the city, and the weak current box is reserved by the developer. It's different in rural areas; fiber optic is installed and installed by technicians who pull the cable from utility poles into the house. Where and through which hole it enters is up to you.

two suggestions. First, the entrance is set on the wall of the main room on the first floor, so the technician punches holes and goes straight into the 86 box, so he can't just wrap it around the window—it's common for the outer leather to crack after two or three years of wind and sun. Second, before installing the service, ask villagers: mobile coverage is wide and cheap, and China Telecom and Unicom depend on the area. Our village can have 300Mbps of telecom coverage, but China Mobile only has 100Mbps but gives away phone credit. The neighboring village is just the opposite. There's no universal answer for this. Asking people who have installed in the same village is the most accurate question: how do the three families compare horizontally to this ?

the modem is in place, my approach is to switch to bridging and dial the main router, and turn off the built-in WiFi on the modem—that signal is just for the upstairs neighbor. The complete process for converting telecom optical modems to bridges—I previously wrote a article about super admin passwords and ITMS. If you need to work around, just check it out.

: One node per floor is the most hassle

-free. After living here for half a year, my final plan was: main router dialing on the first floor, one mesh node each on the second and third floors, all wired backlinks, and the two lines in the stairwell shaft.

test: first floor -45, second-floor living room -52, third-floor living room -48, all 5G. My phone lags for a second when I move from the first floor to the third, and I can't notice it when watching videos. The nodes are placed on the walls near the stairwell in each living room on each floor, not inside the cabinet—the placement of sub-routers is important. In my article on the Mesh of sub-routers, I wrote about the entire process of measuring eight locations while holding my phone.

budget is tight or only two or three people live on the third floor, you can cut down on two devices: one on the first floor, one on the second. The third floor uses the second floor's signal, around -68, which is enough for mobile use, but not for online games. How to choose between AC+AP and Mesh depends on whether you know how to use a ceiling: Self-built homes have higher ceilings, and if you have a ceiling on the first floor, the AP panel panels are indeed clean. Comparing the two options in this , the conclusion is that if you don't mind spending money, if you have a ceiling, choose AP; for the rest, Mesh is worry-free.

the third floor is rented out, I think a bit more. I rented the entire third floor to a young couple working in town: on the third floor, I put a dedicated router worth about a hundred yuan as an AP, connected under the switch on the second floor, with a separate WiFi name, separated from the owner-occupied floor. I keep the password myself. If the tenant's network gets stuck and I can restart remotely, that's fine. More comprehensive approaches like speed limits, quarantine, and lease termination handover are all discussed in the Rental Housing Network article. The idea is the difference is that for self-built properties, each floor has separate lines during the construction period, which is much more convenient than urban landlords.

yard surveillance and lightning protection: rural two-piece set

self-built rural homes, with better surveillance than city ones—large yards, long walls, and no one during the day. When I built the house, I had five monitoring points set aside, all 20 pipes extended to the weak current station on the first floor, powered by POE, and a single network cable solved both power and signal.

the most crucial thing at the door—install it under the eaves to illuminate the main entrance, so visitors see first; Two wide-angle cameras at the four corners of the yard. POE switch: 8 ports with 4 POE ports, 160 yuan. How to calculate uplink bandwidth and the pitfalls of wireless surveillance—I've written a complete article monitoring network planning I won't elaborate here.

Lightning protection is something city dwellers don't need to worry about; rural areas must pay attention. My home is empty, with frequent thunderstorms. My neighbor's photoelectric cat was burned twice last year by lightning, both times because lightning rushed in through the electric grid. Two things: First, install lightning protection power strips on all devices with weak potential, costing tens of yuan each; Second, the metal reinforcement core inside the cable is grounded by the installer—the wire itself is non-conductive, but the core is steel wire, and the induction wire at the pole will bring it in. Generally, the master can make it, but you have to mention that if he doesn't say anything, he'll just cut it off for convenience.

Conclusion: Take the Seat According to the Numbers

order: Before building the house, determine the entry location and key points→ Lay pipes and leave steel wires during pouring → Take photos and archive the walls before sealing them (to avoid wire breaks when drilling later) → Install broadband so the technician can enter the wiring through the reserved holes → After moving in, measure the signal layer by floor, patching weak areas where needed. If each network port layer isn't enough, just add a small switch. Check out in this article for purchase.

thread embedding costs about a thousand yuan and half a day of supervision, saving the entire weekend of trial and error after moving in, breaking through walls, and mesh setups.