I recently moved into a new house which has unconfigured CAT 5 wiring. How can I setup the cables to distribute internet accordingly to the rest of the house? I have attached photographs of the 'main hub' where everything comes together. The cables haven't been topped off yet either, so i need to know what tools are needed to do so, and correct method.
http://aspern3t.ca/IMG_020
http://aspern3t.ca/IMG_020
http://aspern3t.ca/IMG_020
http://aspern3t.ca/IMG_020
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The pictures show trouble:
Even if the cables themselves are CAT5 indeed does not make a CAT5 cabling.
If you look at http://aspern3t.ca/IMG_020
perhaps and only perhaps you can use this punchdown for telefone, but definitely not for data.
So follow MrHusy or have a prof do the job.
I somewhat agree.
To me, the wiring job looks VERY amateurish - like the contractor thought, "hey if we run network cable throughout the house, we can sell it for me... and by doing it ourselves, we don't have to pay anyone." Professional work I've seen will attach things like the coax cables (found in image 4) to a piece of wood that gets attached to the wall, to keep cables nice and neat. That's just a rats nest in image 4.
The cat5 cables (and I would be very surprised if they weren't UTP), are stripped way back - this doesn't make sense if they were destined to be used in a network. It does make more sense - especially with the white punchdown block - that they were intended for phone use.
You can adapt this for computers if you want, but you'll need to either put ends on the cat5 cable or, what I would prefer and do, get a Cat5/5e/6 wall mountable patch panel or a wall mount and a regular patch panel (something like this would work - http://www.smarthomeusa.co
This seems to be a nice pictorial of how a house was done (note: it looks like the patch panels are 568A, but 568B is more commonly used (how the wires are connected). Note in this image: http://chuq.net/house/pics
I'm going to agree with leew here, the cables will likely need to be reterminated at both ends, it looks like they took about a foot off the sheathing and untwisted it to make it easier to punch down. you'll probably be able to get a toner on it correctly, but you're not going to get network traffic across is.
There are essentially two parts you'll need a wall mount and a patch panel. or you can get a wall mounted patch panel as suggested above. Either way you're going to have to re-terminated those ends. I would also chceck each wall jack in each room. if you see unsheathed, untwisted slack cable at the ends, you'll need to reterminate there as well.
a brief walkthrough can be found at: http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfg
What a mess. I agree with those that recommed hiring a pro. The "UNSHIELDED" Twisted Pair can be used with no problems. I looks to me that this wiring was intened for phones, but it can easily be used for a home network.
If you want to tackle this yourself: Get a GOOD CAT 5 tool kit, a 24 port CAT 5 patch pannel, and a 16 port switch. Pop the cover on one of the wall jacks to see what wiring scheme they used (802.b) and mimic that scheme when you punch down the patch pannel.
check these
The Unbearable Lightness of Home Wiring
Ever want to wire up your house for network and video? Wonder what is involved, and what it might cost in time and materials?
http://www.fadden.com/home
http://www.sharkyextreme.c
Get Your House In Order
How To Set Up A Home Network
http://www.smartcomputing.
I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but I strongly suspect this is your ... cough .... phone "network". If you take a look at the 201 image, it looks to me like your phone line might be "coming in" on the cable on the bottom and then jumps to other rows. Then, the good news is you have Cat5 home runs probably out to your phone jacks in the rest of your house.
If this is in fact your phone network - bad news - if you take these cables and make them data, you're going to lose phone. You could test my theory by punching down a base cordon the bottom right two pins - where the blue and white terminate - and see if you have a dial tone. If you have a phone butt set, you could connect there as well. If you don't have either, then if you unplug those two wires and lose your phones throughout your house, you have the answer - but you would need a 66 termination tool to put them back correctly. You could strip the blue and white back a little and make a copper to Tin connection manually without punching it down, and be little less off for wear than you are now ;).
Some will tell you that you can run an ethernet network and a phone (POTS) over the same cable, and while that does work it is OUT OF SPEC and as a professional, I would not recommend it.
Looks to me that the builder or previous homeowner ran their cabling and knew enough to be dangerous/get it working, but didn't really know what they were doing or how to do it right - which is funny, since running the cabling to the locations is the hard part.
I did mention phones.
*I looks to me that this wiring was intened for phones, but it can easily be used for a home network.
pseudo is correct that you will loose phone jacks if you turn them into LAN drops, but hey: Most people have one phone base with 3 or 4 cordless phones anyhow; you wouldn't need all of those phone jacks.
As pointed in an early post ( Date:04.28.2007 at 04:12AM PDT) I think the workmanship is very important.
So these ethernet ports are they made OK or do the twist of cords look like http://aspern3t.ca/IMG_020
Here is a pic of the jack opened up.
http://xoi957.com/joelsstu
Joel
If you wanted to convert that wiring for data (computer) use, the good news is, it shouldn't be too costly and too time consuming. While I can't be certain, I REALLY think the cable is CAT5 or better - fine for your average 100 Mbit network - if it says 5e, you're good for Gigabit ethernet.
The termination point would require a network switch and, to do it RIGHT, a patch panel. BUT, there's nothing too bad about just putting RJ45 connectors on the end of the cables and connecting them to a switch.
On the other end in each room, you would need to replace the the wall plates with the appropriate CAT5e capable connectors - something like these:
http://www.broadbandutopia
The above would snap into these wall plates:
http://www.broadbandutopia
You can buy them on that site or almost any computer store - CompUSA, Radio Shack, Microcenter, even Home Depot and probably Lowes. Just make sure you get RJ45 capable parts - RJ11 is old phone connectors and is both too small and too few wires.
yep, phone jack. You'll need to replace all of the wall plates and reterminate those ends, make sure you don't leave too much slack cable untwisted and exposed, you'll run into network performance issues. Also keep in mind that depending on how the cable is run and how much slack cable is there, you may not necessarily get the cat5e performance spec even if the cable is rated for cat5e. If the cables were run near power cables, or the runs are long you'll get some performance degradation.
good news is that it's not too hard to reterminate the ends and you can do it yourself with a visit to home deport or radio shack and a punch tool. Remember to check the wire mappings so you make a straightthrough cable run or a crossover cable run where necessary.
Get a good RJ45 crimper and user the straight thru method for you color coding.
http://www.duxcw.com/diges
When you've finished terminating the wires, you can get any size SWITCH from linksys or another maker if you wish. From the switch, plug in your DSL modem, terminate the wires in the roomes using cat5 wall plates known as tombstones. The color coding is on the wall plate/tomestone as you'll see here.
http://www.home-technology
Then a cheap cat5 tester to verify your wiring is correct on pins 1thru 8 and you are good to go
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by: MrHusyPosted on 2007-04-28 at 03:38:30ID: 18994026
Hi orbie1234
I can not see a hub there. It is just a useless box. Here is an example hub you need
http://www.solwise.co.uk/n
Then you need cabling equipment. Following link describes them and how to do cabling
http://www.littlewhitedog.
Regards