NIC card okay in Device Manager, but it says cable is unplugged.

It IS a patch cable I am trying to use.

Why wouldn't a patch cable work?

Thats the reason its not working.  A patch cable is for some more complicated networking.  Its something to do with connecting routers etc.  What you want is a simple CAT5 cable since the wires are connected to be used between your NIC and the wall :)  That should do the trick.  good luck!

-Dave

Still no luck.

I have wired 1, 2, 5 and 6.

Make that 1, 2, 3 and 6.

Packaging says:

Premium Snagless Patch Cable.

Ethernet Cable RJ45 MALE / MALE

It says it is suitable for home networking.

Is there anyway to test the NIC card to see if it is really working (besides having to use a networking cable)?

There is no true way to test it without the cable.  If you own a crossover cable, you can connect 2 computers with it.  But for connecting your computer to your lan it must be a regular cable, not patch (which is what you own).  You can usually do some diagnostics with you NIC utilities, but the only way to be sure it works is by connecting it to you wall jack with a regular cat5 cable.  For example, I own a modem, and all diagnostics turn up fine, but it wont dial out because there is a fuse that blew out durring a storm, so it acts like its fine, but in reality it doesnt work.  The same could be true for your NIC, so this is why I recommend testing it out by connecting it to your LAN.

-Dave

As long as you see the NIC in device manager, that is considered testing for the most part, because your computer is communicating with it, so it is functioning as desired.  But if you need certainty, then test it with a cable.

Just to sort out possible errors:
a) Looking on the back of your PC's NIC: Does it have any LEDs there
b) Where do you plug in the other side of your cable? Is it a hub, switch,
    another computer, a DSL modem ...

Please buy a new cable.  Sounds to me that your cable is dead.  CAT5 cable is relatively cheap and no point testing it to find out if it is dead.

The Device Manager is a software function which the OS communicates with the NIC and accepting the fact the there is a NIC resides on your motherboard.  If you receive the message indicating "Cable Unplugged", this means that you either plugged in the cable incorrectly to the hub/switch or router etc... like JustUNIX said, where do you plug the cable to? or your hub/switch/router or any other network device is malfunctioning.

I agree checking the cable should be the first step, the type of cable you have is fine but it still may be faulty.
if you get a new cable and then problem persists then check the LED's on the back of you NIC as JustUNIX says, if they do not light then your card is the next step.

I just bought a router and will try it out tonight.

I was trying to run a patch cable from the wall to the computer.  From what I have read here, that just does not work.

"I was trying to run a patch cable from the wall to the computer.  From what I have read here, that just does not work. "

That depends on what your wall connection connects to.

If you have Ethernet wired to your wall jack, a patch cable will work.  What davemarm said about patch cables is inaccurate.  A patch cable connects a repeater or switch to a device.  It is wired straight-through, with specific color-coding of pins. He/she was apparently confusing the difference between a patch cable and a crossover patch cable.  A patch cable works fine  to connect a device to an endpoint. If you are directly connecting two endpoints, you need a crossover cable.

If you are plugging an Ethernet device into a phone line, then it will *never* work.  A standard phone line, using an RJ45 jack, will physically accept a cat5 patch cable, but the connection won't work because Ethernet is digital and POTS is analog.  The signals don't match.

What is the wall outlet?  Is it a phone line, or is it definitely Ethernet?

If it is a phone line, whether it is POTS, ISDN or DSL, it needs a device between the connection and your network.  For POTS, it's a regular modem.  For ISDN, it's an ISDN modem.  For DSL, it's probably a DSL router.  Regardless, you need one of those three between your home network/computer and the Internet for connectivity.  Which one depends on your provider.  

If you have contracted for DSL service, your phone company should have provided you with a DSL router, which has to be in-between the phone line and your network or PC.

If this is for a larger company, and you are just plugging a PC into the nearest RJ-45 jack, you aren't guaranteed connectivity to anything.  You have to 1) work with your company's IT department for connectivity and 2) make sure you're plugging into a network connection and not a telephone connection.

The line from davemarm about there being a difference between a "regular" cat5 cable and a cat5 patch cable is just plain wrong.  They are both the same thing.  A cat5 patch cable is a straight-through cable with the correct color-coding of pinouts on both ends.

A patch cable is straight-through, a crossover cable crosses the transmit and receive pins.  EIA 568B on both ends is a straight-through patch cable, EIA 568B on one end and EIA 568A on the other is a crossover cable.

This is for a home network.

I am pretty sure it is CAT 5 coming into the phone jack.

The reason I think this is there are 4 pairs of wires (8 total) which are protected by the usual PVC protective sheath that usually comes with CAT 5 cabling.  When we built the home we asked the builder to wire for CAT5.

Right now, 4 of the 8 wires are being used for 2 phone lines (2 wires per phone line).

The other 4 have now been wired to RJ45 connectors using the following mapping:

1  2   3  and 6

I have wired them this way in the basement wall jack and the master bedroom wall jack.  I have kept the color sequence the same both times I setup the connectors.

Our DSL modem probably is a router...I am not positive.  I know that there is a web page I can go to to setup the modem configuration.  The web page is pointing directly to my DSL modem and I know that when I make changes, those changes affect the DSL modem.


Tom

Also, if this is a company network you're trying to connect to, with XP Home edition, you are bound to have difficulties.  XP Home is not designed for corporate networking.  It can be used to connect to the internet, but don't expect it to perform well (if at all) in a corporate network.

This is definitely a home network.

I am able to access my work computer through VNC.

Tom

Let's get this straight -

You have the whole house wired with Cat5.  You are using 4,5,7,and 8 for 2 telephone lines.  You want to run Ethernet on 1.2.3 and 6.  Correct?

I'm off work in about 3 hours.

When I get home I will try setting up the router, along with the patch cables, and see if I can get this working.

I have wired the RJ45 connectors in the basement and the master bedroom using the following mapping:

1   2     3    6


So I think I should be fine once I get the router configured.  I will probably need some help with that later tonight.

ShineOn:

Just missed your post....

Yes, that is correct.

Have I done something wrong?

You may end up with crosstalk interference with your phone connections, but 1,2,3 & 6 should be correct for 10-base-T Ethernet.

A crossover crosses one and three, and 2 and 6.

You may have problems if your NIC is set to 100-base.  Try setting it for 10-base only, half-duplex.

I should clarify:

I bought special faceplates for the wall, along with both phone and NIC connectors.

Here is a picture of how I have wired the connectors:

http://www.knowltonfamily.com/jacks.gif

Try the 10-base, half-duplex setting on the WinXP PC's NIC.  Let us know what happens... ;)

ShineOn:

I will try it.

Thanks.

Tom

ShineOn, thanks for correcting me.  I guess you learn a lot of new stuff on here everyday.  I've never heard of the "regular" cable being called a patch cable.  I own a cable that says patch cable on it and it never worked for connecting my computer to the wall jack, so I assumed this was the wrong cable, but I guess it must be broken.

As far as the troubleshooting goes, we can pretty much narrow it down to a miswiring or something wrong on the outside end of his NIC, since the internals and such seem to be working (as far as we can tell its communicating with the pc properly).  Try a different cable if you can, I've seen some brand new cables not work before.  If you can, try a crossover cable with another PC.  This is an easy way to test it if you own 2 PCs.   If that works, you know the NIC is working correctly, and then you can move on to rewire your setup.

DSL modem does not want to work with my router.

Hi Knowlton,

In order for us to help you troubleshoot the problem,  please give us more details of the problem.  At this point, I am not sure if I fully understood the problem.

1) Was the wiring in your house done by a qualified cableman?  If you paid for it, you should ask the company to check for connectivities.  I would assume that it has been tested but just to be on the safe side.
2) What type of router did you buy?  Brand, Make, Model etc.... This way it would give us better understanding of the hardware we are dealing with.
3) Please do some testing for us: Use a working CAT5 cable and then plug one end to the NIC on your PC and the other one in one of the ports on the router.  Turn on your PC and then tell us if there is any sign of light on either end?  If there are lights on both ends, there is nothing wrong with your cable.  Make sure you install the device driver for the NIC.
4) If we know that your cable is functioning, we should now check your connectivities.  When your house was wired, do you have a patch panel installed in the basement?  or all of the connections are terminated by RJ45 Modulators (connectors)?  

** If there is a patch panel in the basement, your router must be in the basement and then you need patch cables plugged  in each port for each connection.
** If there is no patch panel, and all cables are terminated some where in the basement, you can plug all the wires directly into the router.
5) As far as DSL internet is concerned, it is very straight forward to set up.  The DSL modem has 2 ports, one is RJ11/RJ12 and the other is RJ45.  The RJ11/RJ12 should be plugged into your telephone jack.  Make sure that there is no filter installed for this connection.  The other port on the DSL modem should be plugged into your NIC on the PC or router is you are using the router to share internet connection.
6) Assuming that your wiring and all the connections are correct, please test the connectivities of your router and your PC by issuing a ping command.  E.g. ping 192.168.0.1 (IP address of your router..check the manual for instructions).  If you receive any replies, we would assume that your router could communicate with your PC.  Next, we should now test the connection between the router, PC and DSL modem.  Follow instructions from the manufacturer of your router to set up your internet connection.  Also, your ISP should be able to help you with the connection as well.

Please try these and get back to us if you have any other questions.

Hugh

hunart:

I have been able to test several of the items you have listed.  Right now I am at work, so any action items that flow from this conversation will have to wait until I get home.

Let me reply as best I can to your questions:


You asked:
[[[1) Was the wiring in your house done by a qualified cableman?  If you paid for it, you should ask the company to check for connectivities.  I would assume that it has been tested but just to be on the safe side.]]]

My answer:
The house is a new construction.  When we had it built we asked them to wire the house with CAT5.  I assume they contracted somebody to do this while the house was being built.  I don't know if it has been tested or not, nor do I have any equipment to do so.

When we moved into the house, behind each phone jack faceplate there was a CAT5 cable coming into the jack.  2 of the wires connected to the phone jack for Line 1.  The other 3 pairs of wires were loose.

Soon after we moved in we activated a second line.  The phone company wanted to charge us $90 to do the internal wiring, so  I had a friend who knows telecom wire the 2nd phone line for me.  He did this by hooking up the "orange / orange white" pair of wires to the other two connectors on the phone jack.  He did this for the master bedroom and our basement office.  Then he went to the unfinished portion of our basement, and next to the fuse box there was a CAT5 cable coming in from the street.  It is just hanging there....no patch panel or anything like you would see in a server room.

Line 1 (which was blue / blue white) was already connected.  By "connected" I mean the thin plastic sheath covering the copper wire was removed for the blue and blue white pairs (coming from the street) and then the plastic was also removed for a handful of other CAT5 cables coming in from other parts of the house (since each phone jack has it's own CAT5 cable coming into it).  The "blue" copper wire (from the street) was intertwined with ALL of the "blue" copper wires for the house.

Line 2 (orange / orange white) was not connected at all.  So, he basically just stripped off the plastic coverings (as you could see had been done for Line 1) and twisted the wires together, matching orange from street with all other orages....same with orange white.....and magically we had a Line 2 now.  For payment I bought him a 20 ounce Diet Coke.  Not a bad trade.  :)

The thing that has me worried is the basement does not appear to be connected to the master bedroom.  This is crucial for my home network to function.

A few days ago I bought a special faceplate and a bunch of phone and RJ-45 (network) connectors.

Using the new phone connectors (which snap into the faceplate now) I re-wired Line 1 and Line 2 and then wired the RJ-45 connector for the firs time.  This is how I wired it:

Pin 1 - green
Pin 2 - green white
Pin 3 - brown
Pin 6 - brown white

I followed the same pattern for wiring the RJ-45 connector in both the basement and the master bedroom (the master bedroom is directly above the basement).

My big question mark is I don't know if the basement is connected to the master bedroom.  I explain more about this in a few minutes.

Last night I went to all of those loose wires (next to the fuse box) and I wired everthing else just like I had done for Line 1 and Line 2.  I stripped and twisted together ALL of the browns, then did the same thing for brown white, green and greenwhite.  Still the jack appears to be DEAD.






You asked:
[[[2)  What type of router diu buy?  Brand, Make, Model etc.... This way it would give us better understanding of the hardware we are dealing with.]]]


My answer:
It was a TrendNET 4 port broadband router and firewall.

See:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=T156-1034

If this is not the exact router I bought, then it is it's evil twin.  Seriously, I am 99% sure this is the exact router I purchased.

You asked:
[[[3) Please do some testing for us: Use a working CAT5 cable and then plug one end to the NIC on your PC and the other one in one of the ports on the router.  Turn on your PC and then tell us if there is any sign of light on either end?  If there are lights on both ends, there is nothing wrong with your cable.  Make sure you install the device driver for the NIC.]]]


My answer:
When I ran a CAT5 cable from the router to the NIC on my PC.....the signal came on right away.  Both the NIC and the light for the port on the router light up...so everything looks good there.  Yes, the device driver is installed for the NIC.




You asked:
[[[4) If we know that your cable is functioning, we should now check your connectivities.  When your house was wired, do you have a patch panel installed in the basement?  or all of the connections are terminated by RJ45 Modulators (connectors)?]]]

No patch panel is installed in the basement, and the connections are not terminated with Rj45 Modulators.  They are just bare copper wires twisted together....each color is twisted together will all other same colors.....blues with blues, orange whites with all other orange whites, etc. etc.  It is a big big MESS, let me tell you.

** If there is a patch panel in the basement, your router must be in the basement and then you need patch cables plugged  in each port for each connection.

No such animal in the basement, sorry.


** If there is no patch panel, and all cables are terminated some where in the basement, you can plug all the wires directly into the router.

cables are not terminated....they are just loose wires that have been twisted together.



You asked:
[[[5) As far as DSL internet is concerned, it is very straight forward to set up.  The DSL modem has 2 ports, one is RJ11/RJ12 and the other is RJ45.  The RJ11/RJ12 should be plugged into your telephone jack.  Make sure that there is no filter installed for this connection.  The other port on the DSL modem should be plugged into your NIC on the PC or router is you are using the router to share internet connection.]]]]

The short answer is YES...the DSL modem is setup as you say.  Not sure what you mean by "no filter"????

This is how the DSL modem is setup:

Phone jack ->  DSL splitter (to seperate phone from DSL signal) -> RJ11 goes from DSL jack to RJ11 on back of DSL modem.  Then a CAT5 runs from the ethernet port on the modem to my NIC card on the PC.  The DSL works just fine and is very fast.  We love it.



You asked:
[[[6) Assuming that your wiring and all the connections are correct, please test the connectivities of your router and your PC by issuing a ping command.  E.g. ping 192.168.0.1 (IP address of your router..check the manual for instructions).  If you receive any replies, we would assume that your router could communicate with your PC.  Next, we should now test the connection between the router, PC and DSL modem.  Follow instructions from the manufacturer of your router to set up your internet connection.  Also, your ISP should be able to help you with the connection as well.]]]]


This part I will have to do when I get home.

The part that concerns me is when I run a CAT5 cable from the router to the wall jack (RJ45) the light DOES NOT COME ON for the port.

Normally, Cat5 10-base-T ethernet uses the following wires: orange-white, orange, blue-white, green, as pins 1,2,3 and 6.  This is to minimize crosstalk and maximize enhancement of attenuation loss.

You are using blue/blue-white for the POTS line 1, and orange/orange-white for POTS line 2.  Therefore, you cannot do a true CAT-5 connection wiring scheme for Ethernet.

The "usual" cat5 termination is, from pin 1 to pin 8: Orange, Orange-white, Blue, Green-white, Green, Blue-white, Brown, Brown-white.   Pins 1,2,3 and 6 are used for Ethernet 10-base-T.  The pairings of colors are *critical* because of the number of twists and length of twists in the cable, required to minimize attenuation loss and crosstalk.  Cat5 ethernet and higher are not a simple low-voltage positive-negative connection.  Physics plays a prominent role in the certification of low-voltage cabling for the various category designations.

First of all, you shouldn't have planned on data and voice sharing the same cable.  The Cat5 idea was good, but the Cat5 runs should have been separate from the voice runs (different cables.)  Crosstalk does matter, and with higher-level networking technologies, you use more, if not all, of the wire pairs in an 8-wire network run (1000-base-T for instance.)

Secondly, when the voice circuits were wired for your shared-cat5-run cabling. blue/blue-white should not have been the pairing for voice circuit #1, if the intention was to establish Ethernet on the same 8-wire cable.  

You want to rewire your terminations, reserving the orange/orange-white and blue/green-white pairs for Ethernet.

As I mentioned earlier, you may have interference from your voice circuits because of the sharing of the Cat5 cable for voice and data.  It is important to have correct color-coding for Ethernet, so you have the right distance and number of twists for the circuit, even if only 10-base-T.

Sorry, that should've read "Orange-white, Orange, Blue-white, Green, Green-white, Blue, Brown-white, Brown.  

Pins shoudl be:

1 = Orange-white

2 = Orange

3 = Green-white

4 = Blue

5 = Blue-white

6 = Green

7 = Brown-white

8 = Brown


That is EIA/TIA

scobley:

The problem is, how can dumb little me figure out which is the case?

A)  Is the wiring compromised?

B)  Is the other machine configured properly?

or is it both A and B?



As far as option "A" goes....isn't there like some kind of "wand" that you can put next to jack to determine if the jack is working?  It makes kind of an "alarm" sound?  Then you go to the other end and do the same thing?

So you actually want to reserve your Orange/Orange-white and Blue/Green-white pairs.  Not what I said earlier. Ewwps.

orange / orange white     and     blue / blue white     are already spoken for by Phone Line 1 and Phone Line 2.


The only lines left available for DATA are     green / green white       and    brown  / brown white.

Easiest way at this point is to work with THOSE colors for data.  Or, undo everything and start over.


Thanks,

Tom

Your voice should only use blue, green, brown-white and brown.
Cat5Ethernet will always use pins 1,2,3 and 6.  If you get the twists and wiring order wrong, you will have dropouts, crosstalk and attenuation issues.  You MUST pay attention to the color-coding.  Orange-white, Orange, Green-white, Blue. Blue-white, Green, Brown-white, Brown.

The bottom line is:  rewire the whole shot. Data wants to use: Orange-white, Orange, Green-white, Blue
  Dy voice should only use these colors, in these pairs:  Blue-White, Blue, Brown-white. Brown. e Orange-white//Orange, B

blue / blue white

and

orange / orange white


are the 2 wire combos that the phone company turned on for line 1 and line 2.

IMHO, they screwed up your Cat5 cabling as far as Ethernet is concerned.

Does anyone else with physical networking knowledge have something to corroborate my statements?  I don't want to sound like a knob, telling knowlton their  home network wiring is screwed up, if there's another answer.  I know I got confused on the color-coding, but I also know that if you can avoid it you don't want ethernet and voice on the same 4-pair cable.

The pinouts for Ethernet, unless I'm a total idiot, doesnt' allow the blue and orange pairs to be used for voice, unless you want to risk crosstalk and such.  The phone company, if they were made aware of an intention to run Ethernet on this wire, should not have used blue and orange pairs for voice, IMHO.

There is the possibility, through basic electrical current flow, to have pairs other than those intended for ethernet on pins 1,2,3 & 6 to be used, as long as they are color-matched pin-to-pin, but depending on collateral interference and distance of run, could have all sorts of problems not strictly related to basic electrical current flow.

alex:

Your thoughts?

Orange-white, orange, green-white, green.  That's what I see as pins 1,2,3 & 6.  never mind what I said earlier on colors... I'm all done being confused on color pairs... ;)

1,2,3 & 6 on those pairs should be good for Ethernet 10-base-T

4&5 on Ethernet are usually Blue and Blue-white, in that order.  7&8 on Ethernet are normally Brown-white and Brown, in that order.

To swap any pair in any Ethernet configuration, IIRC, is to court trouble with crosstalk and attenuation.

Can you swap the "orange" phone-line connections over to "brown" so you can have the Ethernet standard of Orange-white/Orange/Green-white/Green on pins 1,2,3 and 6,respectively?  Use the blue/blue-white and brown-white/brown pairs for voice...

If I swapped to Brown I would have to map orange to brown and orange white to brown white where the telecom stuff comes inside my house from the street.

I guess I could do that....

Tom