Question about RJ45 networking using a Loop

[IcemanJer]

I have a rather odd situation here setting up networking at a friend's house. His house when built has integrated RJ45 cables in the wall so from the ouside it appears every room as a RJ45 port on the wall. However, internally behind the walls, the wiring of teh RJ45 cables is something I'm not sure will work with RJ45 networking. The guy who did the wiring used a looping technique (think back to the days of BNC where you have a loop --btw, are those things called Token Rings?-- and at the end a terminator).

So here's the wiring: we start in the den with a wall-mount for RJ45. The cable the runs to the master bedroom. At the wall-mount jack in the master bedroom, it looks like 2 wires are coming together at the same place, so it kinda looks like this:

W |__
A |XX|<--- from den
L |XX|---> to the next stop in the loop.
L |

(XX) is the wall mount for RJ45

Now, my question is this, I know this looping technique works for BNC networking, but will it work for RJ45 network? Has anyone tried this technique before?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Setral]

Got a digital camera and feel like taking pictures? I've not seen any type of 'looping' when doing an RJ-45 drop, unless of course he dropped both ends in one spot 🙂

 

[ScottMac]

It's not going to work without some changes.

Now, if there's some room that has feeds from two other rooms, then you could put a hub there, have a couple machines there, and two remote systems.

The jacks will have to be re-wired/re-punched to one of the two generally accepted standards. Daisy chaining (looping, whatever) isn't suited AT ALL for UTP cabling. If reorganizing the jacks is not an option (that would suck big-time), then you'd need some UTP to (50 OHM!!) coax BALUNs. Then just wire it up like 10BASE2 / thin coax (including terminators).

It sounds more like the guy rigged it for digital telephones..hard to say, depending on the age of the cable plant.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[IcemanJer]

eh, sorry Setral, no digicam right now. Trying to save up some money so I can get on by Christmas 🙂

Heh.. dropping both ends together.. a TRUE loop! 😉
Nah, this loop (I guess better call it a daisy-chain like Scott said) start in the den, and ends in one of the 3 bedrooms.

So basically DEN-->Master Bed-->Bed 1-->Bed 2

 

[IcemanJer]

Scott,

Thanks for the explanation. That is EXACTLY the thing I was afraid of. Well, actually, there is enough room at each stop on the loop, but making the whole thing work (correct me if I'm wrong) would require repunching each outlet so that at each stop on the loop, there are 2 jacks (say at the master bedroom, one jack goes to bedroom 1 and the other goes to the den). And then, at each stop there would be a hub with 2 ports for the loop wires, and 1 port for the computer.

Does that make sense..?


Ever since the time when he was building his house, I had a hunch that his network wiring (contracted out to someone else) was gonna be absolutely haywire.

Speaking of digital telephone and the loop, there are 3 loops running inside the house that reaches all corners of the building. Within each loop there are 6 different types of wires daisy-chained together using the same technique: RJ45, RG59 (video), RG6 (TV), telephone, audio (I think Hi-Fi), and &quot;control cable&quot; (absolutely no idea what it does).

Interesting, eh?

 

[ScottMac]

There ya go. Switch/hub in the master bedroom, a run to another machine in another bedroom, and one run to the den. If you need more connections in the den, drop in another switch/hub.

That'd work if the cables good.


Good LUck

Scott

 

[IcemanJer]

<< There ya go. Switch/hub in the master bedroom, a run to another machine in another bedroom, and one run to the den. If you need more connections in the den, drop in another switch/hub. >>


Oy... that's gonna be like... one hub for every computer in the house...

 

[IcemanJer]

oh, another question.. if the wiring inside the wall are straight-through, I can't use straight-through cables in the master bedroom and in the den to do peer-to-peer network, right? One of them's gotta be a cross-over, no?

 

[ScottMac]

Only if you're going directly computer-to-computer (or regular switch port to regular switch port, or crossover port to crossover port).

Switch in every room.....yeah, so?? You got a problem wid 'dat?

Good Luck

Scott

 

[IcemanJer]

Only if you're going directly computer-to-computer (or regular switch port to regular switch port, or crossover port to crossover port).

Gotcha.

Switch in every room.....yeah, so?? You got a problem wid 'dat?

LOL, hey man, ain't got that kind of money to buy switches. Too much trouble too, repunching the wall-mounts.