As part of a cable-management effort, I'm trying to find a good place to put the router. It needs to be reasonably accessible since it has to be turned off and on whenever the wireless stops working. It's ugly, though, and has all kinds of cable sprouting from it. Any recommendations?





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Posted 1 year ago #
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I found a square-shaped loosely woven basket (check craft stores or Pier 1 type stores). I put the router in it, then stuck the cables through the gaps between the weaving. I pulled in ALL of the excess cable and coiled it up neatly (I always bind coils of cable with electrician's tape) and then re-connected all of the cables. It's been doing the trick for about 3 months and is much less obtrusive than the old mess of cables and ugly boxes.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have an old oak library desk and had a carpenter friend hinge the front face of the door (invisible) and cut a cord hole in the back of the drawer. Cables run through the desk drawer from a hidden power bar behind the desk, through the drawer, and we open the front flap of the drawer and pull out the pertinent cable. Excess at both ends--power bar and connecting end--are wrapped in bobino cord things http://eu.mybobino.com/ so there is no cable clutter at all. The printer and external hard drive are also permanently plugged in, with cords corralled in the drawer.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Right now mine is out of the way at the very back corner of my desk which is L shaped and fits in the corner. Because I had it built, it has a cable hole and all the cables are way back in the corner (coiled) and out of the way. But.... it's hard to reach the router on those occasions when I need to turn it off/on. I'm looking for another place that's more convenient, and yet still out of the way/out of sight. Same is true of the electric plug-ins. Our house was built in the mid-70's, and is very lacking in electric outlets. There are only 2 in my office each with space for 2 plugs. Sooo does not work for a PC tower, monitor, printer, router, speakers and a light. The copier on the other side of the room has the other one, with a spare outlet for charging various electronics. Yes, I have an all-in-one printer, but we've had this desktop copier for 10+ years, and as long as I can get toner for it, we'll keep it. It's faster than the all-in-one, and the toner is cheaper than the ink per copy, and less subject to fading, running if wet, etc.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I just put it out on top of a bookcase beside my scanner.
LOL This is a good example of how confusing thread titles can be sometimes. I was ready to explain that I keep it with the jigsaw, drill, and electric sander, in a lockable cabinet along with the rest of the more dangerous tools, such as prybars, hatchets, and so on. (Lockable in case I ever have children around.)
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have a cheap sewing table - you know the kind with the swing-out door that becomes the support for the extended table, and a half-shelf underneath where the machine is supposed to be stored. Daughter doesn't use it so it ended up beside my desk as a stand/storage, and it worked out amazingly well - the router sits on the shelf in there and the extension cords for all the hardware too. So it's funny to see other people doing similar things.
There's a couple of cable-management posts on the blog, with some really amazing jobs which I hope to one day emulate with a nice under-desk bracket for the router.
I actually, normally quite like having my technology visible - I built an uber cool computer this year with a window in the side - but normal cable clutter is pretty ugly!
Lol@ Rozzie with the power tools!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Mine is hanging below the shelf-thing where the telephone lives in the hallway, and I keep thinking about a prettier solution but I always put it off ;o) As I usually turn the router off or on depending on whether I need to use the internet or not (and to turn the internet connection off to force myself to work), I was thinking about a shallow cabinet with a door, with some holes drilled into the bottom so any cables can go in or out.
IKEA (for example) not only has cabinets with or without doors of various sizes, but also specific products designed for routers and the like, and other products that would work for that, here:
* All products in the category Cable management and accessories
* Or the IKEA PS laptop workstation would also fit a routerPosted 1 year ago # -
My ISP, rather than just providing a modem, provides a modem-and-wireless-router-in-one. It's actually quite nice-looking, as modems/routers go (white, sleek and shiny), takes up very little space, and only has 2 cables running from it (one power cable and one DSL cable).
I have an Expedit bookcase from IKEA (this one: http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/50147735) horizontally along one wall. The router fits nicely into one of the slots, which also happens to be placed right by a phone jack and power outlet, so cable clutter is contained and out of sight.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I use the IKEA Signum listed on trillie's link.
It's small, so it's only good if you just need to store 1 or 2 items (plus their cables).
(direct link here: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50138302)
Pros: Costs $5, requires no tools to assemble, easy to install & remove, foldable = more easily packable .
Cons: Not very long (about 20 inches), requires tables or desks with extended edges for the hooks, flat machines will need to be placed vertically.I put my router + powerstrip in mine, and hooked it onto one of the back corners of my table. I leave the power strip with the On/Off switch extended slightly outside the cable organizer for easy On/Off access. Since the router must be positioned vertically in the organizer (which hasn't affected my connection so far), the router's On/Off button on the back is now facing upwards.
Posted 1 year ago #
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