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I want to move my wifi router to a central location in my home. The only ethernet jack is all the way at one end of my house. However I have a hall closet that is centered in the house and would be a perfect location but there is not an outlet in there. On the other side of the closet is the kitchen with an outlet. Can I run wire from that outlet through the attic and back down through the top plate of one of the other walls of the closet. I plan on putting the router fairly high in the closet (about one and half feet from the ceiling) on a shelf and have the outlet right next to it. I have the tools to do the work just not sure if it would be legal.

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  • What do you plan to do for the ethernet connection?
    – PhilippNagel
    Jan 24, 2020 at 18:15
  • Walls block WiFi to a degree. WiFi router in a closet sounds like the worst idea.
    – JPhi1618
    Jan 24, 2020 at 18:17
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    Drywall and wood are not a major impediment to WiFi or you would need an AP in every room.
    – DaveM
    Jan 24, 2020 at 18:28
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    you could plug the router's wall wart into the kitchen's outlet, then run the DC output through a small hole into the closet; code doesn't care about DC nearly as much as AC.
    – dandavis
    Jan 24, 2020 at 19:50
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    No it does not. It's just a wall outlet that shares a wall with the dinning room.
    – Mark Ziegler
    Jan 25, 2020 at 4:05

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I don't think it's legal to power an outlet that's not in the kitchen off of one of the 2 required kitchen branch circuits (i.e. counter outlets). I think it would be OK to tap off of the un-switched side of a light circuit for the kitchen.

Since you have access through the attic, is there another general purpose branch circuit (that is non-kitchen) that you can tap into for the closet outlet?

There may be exceptions to the "kitchen branch circuit" restriction in the code that I'm not aware of that would allow you to do what you want.

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  • Absolutely correct. Kitchen countertop receptacle circuits cannot be used for anything except receps in kitchen and dining area, and oven exhaust fan, and clock. They're rather specific on that point. "But it's grandfathered" in that case you're still not allowed to make it worse.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Jan 24, 2020 at 18:46
  • There is a Hall way light and an outlet in the hall that the closet is in.
    – Mark Ziegler
    Jan 24, 2020 at 18:49
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    There will be or should be a continuous hot feed in either the hall switch or the hall light fixture if either of these make it easier to get access. The outlet certainly will be hot all the time but it's lower on the wall, so it may make it more difficult because of it.
    – Jack
    Jan 24, 2020 at 20:40
  • Could I come off the light switch and then to the outlet in the closet?
    – Mark Ziegler
    Jan 24, 2020 at 20:52
  • Sure. Just make sure you come off the unswitched (hot) side of the switch.
    – SteveSh
    Jan 24, 2020 at 21:12

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