Question Understanding Prior Owner's Home Network

[LawnGuy]

I bought a house built in 2001 and it's fully wired with ethernet. It appears the previous owner had a dish service at one point (based in the dish on the roof), possibly servicing the wired network. I'm using a cable ISP and want to get the CAT5 running everywhere to allow for wired streaming, internet, etc. throughout the house. However, I don't know what to make of the existing patch panel setup and ancillary equipment. It appears the patch panel is fed from the Bell Atlantic Network Interface Device, but only the set of blue wires. I have an ISP modem and router on the main floor feed from coax providing my existing internet.

Can you help breakdown the setup in the pictures below? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

 

[ch33zw1z]

Looks like they potentially wired the bell Atlantic box to all those Ethernet drops. Looks like they didn't set it up for data, but phone...Can you inspect the trunk of blue cables to see what the cable jackets say? Looking for cat5, or cat5e, also if it's "patch" or "riser" cable. Any of the cabling specs is helpful

built in 2001 means cat5e at best, you at least can potentially have gigabit that way

How are you with network stuff? Ever setup a patch panel, punch down connections, etc...?

You'll likely have to redo the drops in the rooms too....can you post a pic or two of a room drop? Take a pic from the front, then open the jack and take a picture of how its wired.

And if you're not comfortable rewiring all this stuff, find a low voltage technician to do it for ya.

 

[LawnGuy]

Thanks for the reply! Looks like Cat 5 on the cables. Images of cables and room drops attached.

I'm not too familiar with network stuff, never setup a patch panel. But I'm a technical guy, engineer by trade, and not afraid to learn and make a run at it. Basically, I want to get a handle on if it's possibleto get this network up and running or if it's more of a scrap it and start over type of deal.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Ok, I'm going to throw a bunch of stuff at you that will probably answer a bunch of ?'s, all of info can be googled if you want more detail. Summary at the bottom

- let's start with the good news:

1. Cat5 is ethernet cable, so you can reuse it for networks
2. In your first post, the 2nd pic (of telephone patch panel) it looks like the cat5 cables might have labels. if so, that's great, so you have an idea where the cables are run to.
3. Cat5 ethernet jacks in room drops
4. You don't necessarily have to rip it all apart, you may be able to do one drop at a time and see how it goes

- Now the not-as-good news (maybe not "bad" per se):

1. Cat5 cabling is within spec up to 100Mb/s. since the Cat5 was installed, a few cable specs have been released that increased speeds to 1000Mb/s or greater. "starting from scratch" could include pulling new wires (Cat6 at this point), but that is not always feasible, it totally depends on your home whether it's worth it.
2. You may want to not rip all of the drops out of the patch panel if you plan on using the phone system currently installed, which makes getting at those cables a bit tougher. Or you can "save" a couple cables for phone drops. make a diagram and/or take pictures of how the wiring is configured(kinda already did )

- On to physical layer stuff:
*NOTE: You'll need an ethernet switch in any case, the switch will need enough ports to "activate" the room drops you want plus one port to link back to the ISP's
link to switch example - if you wanted to activate 7 ports in the house
*NOTE: links are examples, there are quite a few brands out there to choose from, different size patch panels, etc...

1. I'm sure you noticed on the jacks the wiring diagrams for "568A" and "568B". You'll need to ensure both ends of the cable run are using the same color coded pinout
568A/B wiring standards

2. Cable types (further cable jacket inspection required)
a) "patch" (stranded copper) - this type of cable is made to crimp RJ45 heads onto. it's not used for punch downs
If the Cat5 is "patch", then you'll want to get a crimp tool and RJ45 heads, and you can plug these directly into a switch
trendnet crimp tool
RJ45 heads
How to crimp ethernet cabling

You can plug these directly into the switch

or

b) "riser" (solid copper) - this type of cable is made for punch downs.
If you determine the Cat5 is "riser", then you'll want to get a patch panel, some cat 5 or 6 jacks (aka keystones), and a punch down tool:
1U patch panel bracket
patch panel bracket
keystones
trendnet punch down tool

With all that stuff, you would build the physical drops as a panel, then plug in patch cables from the panel to an ethernet switch (position the panel and the switch near each other and just use 1meter ethernet "patch" cables to complete
Google how to wire a patch panel

SUMMARY: Yes it's salvageable. However, the current cabling is a older spec and may not yield current "standard" speeds, but still good speeds for regular uses. You can do it at a moderate cost, time, and effort. You may feel like going with a wireless "mesh" system is a better use of time and money up front, and work on this in the background. I know my wife and kids would be like "when TF will the internet be up" if only wired was available

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

I agree with most of the above, except the part about spec on Cat 5. You can easily run 1000BaseT Gigabit on Cat5. I've never had an issue over very long runs with Cat5, so I would just try to use that as the base cable. It's pretty straight forward to convert that punchdown to LAN from Telco but will take some planning. In my house I used to have a bunch of Telco drops but about 12 years ago converted to wireless telco, which I think everyone does today....so you only need a telco drop in the room where the base station and answering machine is. And of course now, I don't even have a land line anymore...I couldn't take all of the robocalls.

When you add LAN I would suggest getting something like a simple Netgear managed switch. 8 port Gig switches are pretty cheap now and will allow for a lot of interesting things at a really low price.

Gig managed switch

You can get the unmanaged a little cheaper, but why?

Also, consider getting a couple of good Wifi routers like the nighthawk 1750 or AC1900 and WIRE them into each end of your home. That way you will be the best speed and coverage.

All of this will take a little planning and some cash the end result should be a flexible scalable LAN / WiFi network that is fast enough to meet your current and future needs.

all my opinions obviously.

 

[SamirD]

We wired my parents house in the mid-1990s with 400Mhz rated ethernet wire--well before wireless was even around and today most ports that are terminated correctly run gigabit ethernet no problem. The wire is good and even the wall jacks look pretty good. I think all you need to do is replace the punch down block with a patch panel and you're good to go. The good thing is that telephone runs perfectly over ethernet so anywhere you need telephone you just simply plug it into the appropriate patch jack (not the switch jack or you'll typically damage that port on the switch).

 

[ch33zw1z]

Hey guys, thanks for your XP input. I would caution against the expectation that cat5 will just automatically work at 1000mbps. The thing about operating out of spec is it's always YMMV.

It's entirely plausible that it will, and I agree the OP should give it a go before any home altering overhauls. The length of the cable likely matters, the OP could find one of the links works at 1000, and another won't (which may be fine for him).

It's also important to note that the physical layer is the most likely culprit. So if a link won't negotiate at 1000 and others will, check for any terminations at the Jack's or the panel that aren't right. 1000 needs all 4 pairs terminated well to work

I would also suggest that if, for whatever reason, it doesn't work at >100mbps, the OP look into a solid wifi setup. There's a number of mesh type systems that would allow for seamless handoffs when roaming, and still provide good speeds. Still using the cat5 is just fine. In fact, the two devices that my family uses the most (Roku and Xbox 360) only do 100mbps, no gigabit.

We don't know much about the rest of the OPs config, so it's tough to say. How big is the house, how many clients, want it to work outside, etc...

Also, the Jack's in the rooms *appear* to be ok, but in one pic it looks like the brown/brown white pair is wired to the wrong side. The OP will want to confirm the pinouts at each jack are 568A or B, and match the other end when terminating

 

[LawnGuy]

Thank you ch33zw1z, Cr0nJ0b, & SamirD for the great information!

I moved to streaming my TV service and with a couple young kids, I know the "need" for robust internet and speed will be inevitable in the near future. Overall, I'm feeling optimistic about getting a reliable network in place based on your responses. It should be a fun project for me to chip away at during the winter months. My wireless works well enough for streaming, but I do get poor service in some areas of my home. I confirmed with my ISP that my service is 200 mbps (not sure if that's great or not for streaming). Their next offering is 400 mbps, which I'm not tackling at this point for $90 /mo. Having 200 mbps sounds like it may be possible through the cat5 based on your responses.

So, what'ts next? My plan is to work on at least one test ports of the wired and check back in. If I can get one wired, then progress to the switch hardware. If that works, eventually I'd like ~4 ports active, a couple for streaming a couple routers laid out like Cr0nJ0b mentioned. Yes, the ethernet cables are all labeled, which is super helpful (assuming the labels are accurate). It seems like Step 1 is to work on converting one of the cat 5 from telco to LAN using some of the tools and hardware described. I'm also going to try to sketch out what this looks like.. I'm a visual person. If you have any good visual/diagrammatic references, that'd be great.

I'm going to digest this a little more take, a stab at it, and provide updates as things progress. Feel free to provide any additional advice. Otherwise, thanks again for all the help and I hope to start soon!

 

[ch33zw1z]

Sounds like you get the idea.

I'll just add one thing about the wireless. the speed you are getting from the ISP won't affect the coverage area of the WiFi AP. If the WiFi is having problems reaching parts of the house, that's an issue that something like a repeater would help with

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wi-Fi-Range-Extender-EX3700/dp/B00R92CL5E/ref=asc_df_B00R92CL5E/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198093101467&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13842676287169635381&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001666&hvtargid=pla-335129037544&psc=1

And again, that's just an example, there's different brands. I've only setup a Netgear and a TP-Link, both worked fine.

200Mbps is more than enough for a couple streams even at 4K

 

[SamirD]

I wouldn't add a range extender at this point since a wired setup would solve a lot of problems with wireless bandwidth as devices move to wired.

Once you go wired, you'll never look back--it's the best! (Posting on wire from 1995!)

 

[ch33zw1z]

I wouldn't add a range extender at this point since a wired setup would solve a lot of problems with wireless bandwidth as devices move to wired.

Once you go wired, you'll never look back--it's the best! (Posting on wire from 1995!)

Hey man, you gotta keep in mind who the majority of users are. I may wire each device that it's feasible, but my wife definitely doesn't want a bunch of wires hanging off he phone or laptop!

 

[SamirD]

Hey man, you gotta keep in mind who the majority of users are. I may wire each device that it's feasible, but my wife definitely doesn't want a bunch of wires hanging off he phone or laptop!

Yeah, women typically want 'just work how I imagine you should'. Annoying as hell those women/wives are when it comes to ethernet, but da-yum they're so pretty and sweet. (My wife complains when the wifi isn't fast enough and replies with 'I don't have an ethernet port on my Named_Device' when I tell her to just plug it in, so I feel your pain.)

I want my cold to just go away but I don't expect some wireless magic to do that either.