How to get Ethernet to your home office when the router is in another room

Your employer requires an Ethernet cable from your computer to the router, and your router is in the living room while you work in the back bedroom. This is the single most common practical obstacle to passing a tech check, and there are four ways to solve it. They are listed here cheapest and simplest first.

1. Move the desk, not the cable

Obvious, and worth saying because people skip it. If there is any workable surface within cable distance of the router, that is a twenty dollar fix and a ten minute job. A 50-foot Cat6 cable costs around fifteen dollars and will reach further than most people expect.

Employers care that you are wired and that the room is quiet and private. They do not care which room it is.

2. Run a long cable properly

If the desk cannot move, the cable can. Done well this is invisible and permanent; done badly it is a trip hazard that gets unplugged by a vacuum cleaner mid-shift.

• Buy the length you need in one piece. Joins are where problems start.
• Cat6 is the sensible default — it handles gigabit comfortably and costs barely more than Cat5e. You do not need Cat8.
• Run it along the baseboard, not across a doorway. Adhesive cable clips every foot or so, or flat-profile cable under a rug on a straight run.
• Do not staple it, do not kink it tightly around corners, and keep it away from mains cable runs where you can.

Ethernet is reliable up to 100 metres, about 328 feet, so length is almost never your problem in a house.

3. MoCA adapters — if you have coax

If your house has TV cable outlets in multiple rooms, MoCA turns that existing coax into a wired network. One adapter beside the router, one beside your desk. Typically 1 Gbps or better, latency low enough that no employer scan will object, and no new cable through the walls.

Around $100 for a pair. This is the best option for most people in a house with coax already run, and it is genuinely wired — the scan sees an Ethernet connection, because it is one.

4. Powerline adapters — the last resort

Powerline sends the network over your electrical wiring. It presents as Ethernet and will usually pass a scan. But performance depends entirely on your house's wiring: old circuits, different breaker legs and anything with a motor on the same circuit all degrade it, sometimes badly and intermittently.

Try it if the other three are impossible, and test it properly over a few days before you rely on it for a shift. Buy from somewhere with a returns policy.

What does not work

• A Wi-Fi extender with an Ethernet port. The last hop to your computer is a cable, but the link back to the router is still wireless. Some scans detect this; all of them inherit the instability.
• A Wi-Fi-to-Ethernet bridge. Same problem, same reason.
• Leaving Wi-Fi switched on alongside the cable. Some scans see the active wireless adapter and fail you even though the Ethernet is connected. Turn it off on the work machine.

If your laptop has no Ethernet port

Most thin laptops dropped it. A USB-C or USB-A Ethernet adapter costs about fifteen dollars and works immediately on Windows and macOS with no configuration. Some employers ship one with the equipment — check before buying.

Test it before scan day

Plug in, turn Wi-Fi off, close everything else in the house that is streaming, and run a speed test. Record download, upload and ping — the upload and the ping are what actually catch people out. Screenshot the result; several employers ask for proof.

None of this helps if no wired provider reaches your address in the first place. That is worth confirming before you buy cable.