pre-wired home networking

[warriorfan23]

I just bought a new home that is wired with a home network. All of the rooms have an outlet to plug in an ethernet cable. I asked the guy giving the walkthrough of the house to show me the central location of the wiring so I could see how I would attach my router. To my surprise it was in a small grey box labeled "verizon home network" outside the garage. This "verizon" box was located in a panel that also housed the cable television stuff, and there is no room in there for a router. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? I'm confused as how to hook everything up.

 

[kevnich2]

Are the network cables in the central box connected to a switch? If so, go to one of the rooms, connect a network cable to the network jack and the other end to the LAN port of the router. Now, any computers you hook up to any room will be connected to the router. If there is no switch in that closet, you need to put one in there and then do step 2

 

[warriorfan23]

ok I did some googling and found this.

http://www22.verizon.com/whole...ons/solution/NIDs.html

can someone explain to me how to get this to work with my house? or do i need to get a verizon technician to come out to my house and set this up?

 

[HannibalX]

You have RJ45 in every room? I would ditch the "verizon home network" and go with a patch pannel + switch.

 

[yuppiejr]

Interesting...

I'd like to see pictures before I jump to conclusions on this, it's possible what you're looking at is simply the point of entry for FIOS (which is awesome, by the way) and there may be a second location in the house where the actual structured wiring (usually a patch panel that you would connect to your switch which is in turn connected to your router). There may be a single RJ45 cable running from that NID to the home's patch panel that simply needs to be patched in to the WAN port on your router.

Post some pics of what you're looking at if possible?

 

[bruceb]

The cable from the FIOS optical interface data output should be a CAT 5 cable.
That must go somewhere in order to connect to the Modem / Router combo.

One thing is certain:

All the existing CAT 5 jacks in the home that you
believe to be prewired, will not terminate at the Verizon Interface Unit

You will need to trace the cables .. They will usually go either to the
basement or the attic or to centrally located closet

 

[warriorfan23]

Thanks for the help! I'll try to get some pics tonight. I may not get them tonight but I will definitely get them up here sometime. I'll also do more snooping around the house. Off the top of my head I can't remember seeing any cables in a closet. Perhaps in the attic.

 

[warriorfan23]

Ok, sorry no pics yet. Someone took my camera and never returned it. But anyways I talked to the homebuilder and they said that the cat5e is for phone lines? I haven't used a land line in ages, but do phones now use ethernet connections in the house? So, moving on... I now know that the cat5e cables end right outside my garage in the little gray box. I want to forget about using the verizon phone service and just use the wired outlets for my own computer network purposes. Is this possible? I'm thinking I'm going to have to take the cat5 cables out of that box, run them into my garage, crimp the ends with those plug things, and then plug those into a switch. Sound good?

I was looking at this website http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx on how to do this. Do I use the 568-B Wiring or 568-A Wiring?

Or should I call a Verizon rep to come out and do all this stuff? I'm a rookie at this stuff.

 

[emfiend]

Originally posted by: warriorfan23
Ok, sorry no pics yet. Someone took my camera and never returned it. But anyways I talked to the homebuilder and they said that the cat5e is for phone lines? I haven't used a land line in ages, but do phones now use ethernet connections in the house? So, moving on... I now know that the cat5e cables end right outside my garage in the little gray box. I want to forget about using the verizon phone service and just use the wired outlets for my own computer network purposes. Is this possible? I'm thinking I'm going to have to take the cat5 cables out of that box, run them into my garage, crimp the ends with those plug things, and then plug those into a switch. Sound good?

I was looking at this website http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx on how to do this. Do I use the 568-B Wiring or 568-A Wiring?

Or should I call a Verizon rep to come out and do all this stuff? I'm a rookie at this stuff.

Cat5e can be used for both phone or data. The plug for data is a little larger but can still acommodate the plug for phone.

I'm surprised you don't have a wiring panel thats meant to serve as a central home networking hub. I have the GE Interlogix panel where all the coax and cat5e for the entire home come into one place. What your describing sounds like the wiring box on the outside of the home. If there are cable splitters in there, then calling it a home network is a bit of a stretch. Check if there's another panel in the basement thats a bit bigger.

The boxes come in different sizes (at different levels of cost, of course!). That way, the cable and phone lines from outside the come simply has to be wired into one point inside the home where it can be subsequently split to the far reaches of the house. Usually the cable modem and a router can be placed in there.

ID'ing the wires can be a chore tho....

 

[warriorfan23]

Quick question. Is the cat5e for phone any different from cat5e for data? I assume its the same, but I'm not sure.

 

[emfiend]

Originally posted by: warriorfan23
Quick question. Is the cat5e for phone any different from cat5e for data? I assume its the same, but I'm not sure.

same

 

[dfnkt]

cat5 a / b wont matter, make sure it is all the same though (and for your sanity make sure both ends of the cable are the same unless your doing crossover =/)