New (to me) house... finding the wires in my walls

[wfay]

I bought a home a few months back and I know there is ethernet in the walls as there is a huge bundle of Ethernet cabling in an area of the unfinished basement. I can see the wires running along the ceiling and into the walls in that same area. Those cables are punched down into a block and then another series of cables come off the block with RJ45 ends.

There is a single Ethernet jack in the whole house that I can find, located in the office. I've plugged my laptop into it and it is not active. I've tried plugging the various RJ45 ends in the basement area into my switch and have never found what is needed for that jack to be hot.

I also have a surround sound system with speakers in various rooms - except they took a bunch of the speakers, jerks - and a similar bundle of wires in a closet. I'd like to sort out that bundle eventually but it is a lower priority. And yes, I can just plug each pair in and go through the various rooms to see which speaker is "on" but many locations do not currently have speakers installed so that's not a total solution.

Surely there is a tool (or more than one) that will help me:
1. find/trace the Ethernet wiring in my walls without literally tearing them all open
2. figure out which cable in that bundle corresponds to the jack in my office so I can make it active
3. sort out the bundle of speaker wires to determine what corresponds to which speaker

I asked for house plans when we bought it but they were not available and the builder is out of business. Other than 2 large spaces in the basement, the entire house is finished which means this is nontrivially difficult. And I really don't want to spend $100/hr or whatever to have someone come out and sort this out for me unless there are no other options.

Thanks for advice. I'm certain this is a pretty common experience!

 

[ScottMac]

The thing you're looking for is a "toner" that is usually used with an induction pickup probe. They are frequently sold as a kit.

The toner puts a warbling tone on the cable it's plugged into, the probe "hears" it inductively.

There are many flavors, thisw is a common one:
http://www.techtoolsupply.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AT8K

 

[wfay]

Thanks for the reply ScottMac. I am curious about the range for the probe -- would it be able to detect the wires behind the walls, say 2-3 inches away and through the drywall?

Or would it really only be useful to plug the toner into the rj45 socket in my office and tone-out which cable in the bundle downstairs that corresponds to?

Ultimately while that is one of my objectives, I really want to "find" the other wires behind my drywall somehow... if possible.

 

[seepy83]

I've never seen a toner that's able to find a cable inside a wall...not sure if that exists.

How old is the house? Can you contact the builder to find out where they ran the cables to?

What about phone and cable tv jacks? Have you taken the face-plate off of any of those to see if the network cable is run to them and just not terminated?

Can you look in your attic or anywhere else that there's unfinished space to see if you can trace a bundle of cables from there?

Last but not least - what about contacting the people you bought the house from? They might be able to shed some light...

 

[Modelworks]

You are going to have to use an RF based wire finder as the toners are too short a range , mainly designed to sort which wire is which or finding exact location when you are already sure of a general location. RF finders send a radio signal over the wiring then you use the detector over the surface and it measures signal strength to determine where the most likely location is for the wire. They work anywhere from 3ft to 300ft depths depending on the model. They are used for finding everything from wire in walls to pipes in the ground. They start at around $300.

Found it for $253
http://www.amazon.com/Greenlee-508S-Wire-Finder-Locator/dp/B000LDGZLY

 

[Mojonba]

$253 Geez. Get continuity tester for 5 bucks that inserts 3v/9v into the wire and with the led indicator find out which wire you have put power into. Just remember to disconnect everything while you are testing so that you don't insert 9v into a switch/router/computer and fry it.

PS: This will only help you identify wire end to end. Not through walls.

 

[cmetz]

wfay, I have an Ideal toner from Home Depot and it can pick cables inside the walls. Try it, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised (and if not, you can just return it). The ability of the toner to hear the cable inside the wall definitely varies inversely with the quality of the cable. Builder grade cat5 is no big deal to find. Enhanced cat6 is pretty faint and trickier.

 

[wfay]

Thanks for all of the replies.

The house was built in 2007. Can't contact the builder -- they went belly up in 2008. And there are no plans available, we asked for that in our original offer etc but the sellers didn't have anything.

The previous owners are 1) total schmucks and 2) no longer live in the area, and we have no real way to contact them. I doubt they would help with anything even if we asked nicely or tried to make it worth their while to reply.

I have taken the faceplates off a lot of the jacks and not found anything yet. Except I found a random unterminated phone line near the tv jack in the living room, and another one near a built-in desk. But no cat5 or cat6 wiring as yet.

There is essentially no attic in the house. But we have a large basement and about 1/3rd of it is unfinished, so I can see where some cables are running, but then lose sight pretty quickly of where they actually end up due to studs and other structures in the way.

Thanks for the suggestion on the RF-based wire finder. If I have to go that route, I could always buy one used and then resell it for $50 less. I figured this was available but didn't know the right search terms or brand etc to find it, thanks for the link!

I will try the Ideal toner from HD and see how (or if) that works. If it does, it is a pretty cheap investment in a tool that will be good to have. And if it doesn't, back it goes! Thanks for that suggestion cmetz!

 

[AG73]

dug up this old thread. Wanted to know - did any of these solutions work?

 

[bamx2]

I am dealing with this too and am also curious which if these devices generates a stone enough signal to penetrate drwall adn or plaster .

 

[luv2liv]

i use this $200 Fluke toner and probe kit
http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-MT-8200-60A-IntelliTone-Toner/dp/B00N2S6RPY/

works really well. it also has cable map and continuity to verify the wire once you think you got the correct wire. never tested it through sheet rock nor plaster but it should work as it has 2 levels of sensitivity.