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Power-line tends to be quite slow and error prone. If you have existing coax, that is likely the better option. You can get up to 2.5gbit adapters for it: https://til.simonwillison.net/networking/ethernet-over-coaxial-cable

I have three suggestions for you.

Easy mode: find a triple radio mesh wifi system and get at least two nodes. Generally the LAN Jack on the satellite nodes will bridge to the LAN over WiFi. Just add a switch and use it normally. This will harm your overall speeds when connecting to the NAS from other wired LAN systems that are not on the same switch. I'm not sure if that's important. As long as your internet speed is less than half of your WiFi speed, you shouldn't really notice a difference.

Medium mode: buy MoCA adapters and use coax. Just be sure to get relatively new ones. They're generally all 1G minimum, but usually half duplex, so there's still sacrifice there, but MoCA is generally better than WiFi. The pinch is making sure you stop the MoCA signal from exiting your premise. You don't want to tap into someone else's MoCA network, nor have them tap into yours. There are cable filters that will accomplish this, or you can air gap the coax. I'm not sure how much control you have for the ingress/egress of your coax lines. You can yolo it and just hope for the best, but I can't recommend that.

Hard mode: do ethernet anyways. Usually in rentals, nobody can complain with holes in the walls the size you would get from nails to hand pictures, not much larger than a picture hanging nail, is a cup hook. What I did at my old place, which was a rental, was to buy large cup hooks, and put them every ~18" down the hallway, and load it with ethernet cables. I used adhesive cable runners to go down walls near doors and ran the cables under doors to get from room to room. I got lucky that two adjacent rooms shared a phone jack and I replaced the faceplate with a quad port Keystone faceplate on each side. One Keystone was wired to the phone line to keep existing functionality, the rest were connected to eachother though the wall as ethernet, and I just patched one side to the other (on one side was the core switch for my network). That was my experience, obviously your experience will be different. I used white ethernet to try to blend it in with the ceiling/walls which were off-white. In my situation, I was on DSL and used the phone jack in one of the bedrooms for my internet connection, that bedroom was used as an office and it neighbored my bedroom where I used the jack to jack connections through the wall to feed my TV and other stuff in the bedroom. The ethernet on the cup hooks went from the office to the living room where I put a second access point (first ap was on the office) and TV and other stuff. Inbetween the bedrooms and the living room was the kitchen and the wet wall was basically RF blocking, so I needed an access point on either side, so one in the office near the bedroom and bathroom, and one in the living room, provided plenty of coverage for the ~900sqft apartment we were renting. Most everything was on wired ethernet, and the WiFi was used mainly by laptops and cellphones.

I live by the philosophy of wired when you can, wireless when you have to. Mainly to save WiFi channels and bandwidth for devices that don't have an easy alternative option like mobile phones and portable computers.

I don't think you're in a bad spot OP, and any of these choices should be adequate for your needs, but that will vary depending on what speed internet you have, and how much speed you need for the LAN (to the NAS and between systems).

Good luck.

I’ve been in similar situations while renting. I ran ethernet cables along skirting boards and around doorframes and hid them inside adhesive cable raceways.

Put the nas and router where the internet comes in at and the just use WiFi for your office and the rest of the house. Thats what 99% of the people do. All the new WiFi routers are really efficient at beam forming and other technologies to get you a decent signal.

At my house, since it is raised up I was able to crawl under and run Ethernet to the living room for the htpc(gaming) computer and it was pretty easy to install a keystone next to a power outlet. Not sure if that is viable in your situation.

But even then I didn’t bother running Ethernet to all the rooms because even streaming 4k video is viable over WiFi. Though I understand it might not work so well if trying to edit on a nas or something similar.

I would look into doing a proper cable run. You would need to do a little drilling but if you have a plan and make it look nice the landlord is unlikely to have an issue with it. Just have a proper wall covering and port on each side.

You can TRY power line adapters:

TP-Link AV2000 Powerline Adapter https://a.co/d/0fa6e3f3

Their application can be hit or miss, but mine have been perfect. Had them just under 2 years. Able to get full bandwidth and no discernable latency addition

If it were me and there was no way to have an additional drop installed from the exterior, I would still consider running a single cable through the living space to your desired location, as discreetly as possible.

It's difficult to suggest exactly how to do so without pics or a floorplan, but I would try to match the wall or trim color and keep the cable tucked close to the floor and/or ceiling throughout the run.

Once in place, the cable will quickly disappear into your surroundings and you'll be left with rock solid reliable networking.

I use one of those coax/Ethernet converters in my house. It's a 2-story place and running Ethernet was going to be too daunting for a room.

Overall it works very well (I had bad experiences with using network over electrical power). The only thing that will be a downer is the gigabit coax converters seem to be expensive. Since I just had 1 client in an isolated network, 100mbps was fine for me but would hamper your NAS throughout. You'd also need to buy 2 sets of converters for your use case, so that's potentially not cheap if you're wanting gigabit from end to end.

Some of the newer wireless standards are very quick, but you'd also need to ensure all NICs are compatible and a newer AP wouldn't be free.

Perhaps talk to the landlord about splitting the cost of getting Ethernet professionally run in all rooms. It may be the most cost effective solution, but the drawback is you walk away with nothing. The landlord would be able to advertise Ethernet ready infra, so there is some benefit for them to do it.

What about power line adapters? I’ve got a pair and they just sit there doing their thing, no config needed, just plug in and away you go. So long as you’re on the same electric circuit, they’ll connect over that. Mine are made by TP Link and never had a problem (not sure if Unifi make them, sorry). Best of luck to you!

I installed cable in a couple of apartments I rented. I just made it look professional and nothing was ever said about it. In one apartment town home I even had access to the attic and was able to run cable in the walls. I did have to drill through the floor and door headers in some instances, but it can be done.

Tell the ISP you're signing up with that there's no drop for their service, and have them run a new one to the office. Check your local laws about touching their wire or box on the outside of the house before removing it.

Also, it's really easy to patch holes in drywall with a little joint compound and matched paint.

Otherwise, MoCA and powerline ethernet can work. Modern wifi is pretty good too, though consider walls, etc. between points A and B and which frequency you'll be using.

MoCA is a way to send wired Ethernet up to (300mb/s, at least the version i have) over coax. Verizon fios would provide these devices to send internet to set top boxes over existing coax cabling, but you can get a pair of these devices and send Ethernet in on one side, and Ethernet out the other side.

I have noticed however, it adds a bit of latency to the connection, which may be trouble.

If it's cable internet and not fiber/DSL, I'd look at connecting the ISP's coax to the house's coax. Provided all of the house's coax ports are connected to a splitter, you could feed the ISP coax into the nearest port and plug the cable modem into the office port.

Q: why is running a cable across the house not an option?

it's not length, since 30m should be enough for most mcmansions.

it's not cost, since cables are fairly cheap. Cheapest option there is.

you run along wall edges, taking the long way if you have to. When crossing open areas, you lay a rubber cable protector over the top (or a strip of carpet with a gutter cut out underneath), to stop tripping and make it look nice.

My current home, the landlord doesn’t have a cable and I’m separate from the house. I’ve been using a wifi router to pick up the signal and then I just connect my devices to that router. It works as an access point basically.

I’m using the GL.inet Flint and it’s been solid for several years. It runs openWRT. Just make sure the router has the ability to repeat. A lot of wifi routers are one way only.

You could source a pair of gigabit media converters and a length of fiber on Amazon for about $100. Just use the media converters to extend the Ethernet port from where the Internet hands off in your house over to your office. You can affix the fiber along baseboards and up over door frames with adhesive cleats and zip ties, or those nylon staples on a nail they use to tack down coax cable.

If you're willing to spend a little more on the fiber for a custom color, you can probably even order the fiber in a more neutral color than SMF yellow to blend into the trim better.

Where is this happening? Which country, which laws?

NAS on WiFi works, but it is less fun than NAS on a cable.

Powerline works only with solid copper wire installed in the walls, connecting these rooms with as few interruptions as possible. Never with flexible lines.

P.S. corrected PoE to powerline

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

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