Home Network Wiring, RJ45, 110 blocks

[MRC01]

I bought a house that has CAT5 RJ45 jacks in several rooms - standard 8 wire, 4 twisted pair network connections. It also has RJ11 phone jacks. Under the stairs is a master panel room that has a couple of OnQ 110 block panels:

I've never worked with this before, seeking advice. I have a 110 pushdown tool and wired the output of my router into the "Input" panel in the upper left of the photo. I figured this would distribute that to the jacks throughout the house. But this did nothing. Any advice how to get internet to the RJ45 jacks in the rooms of the house?

Internet arrives via cable (Comcast), to my Netgear cable modem, which is connected to a Linksys AC1900 router that provides WiFi and wired outputs. I already have all of that working (both WiFi and wired). What I need to do is feed this network to the master panel shown above to distribute it through the house.

 

[MRC01]

See that disconnected yellow wire at the top? It looks like it was connected to the Input ("Line In") terminal and someone pulled it out. Maybe I need to reconnect that to the terminal, and plug 2 of my router's network output lines into the two RJ45 jacks at the bottom marked "WAN" (in the photo you can only see the "AN").

I already tried plugging the router's network output lines into those WAN RJ45 jacks but it did not work, meaning no network in any of the RJ45 jacks in the rooms of the house.

Also I wish the installer had marked the cables to indicate which rooms they go to <sigh> At least then my Plan B would be to pull the wires out of this 110 panel, bypassing it entirely, and connect the wires directly to network lines from my router and hub. That would work for sure.

 

[kyuu]

That board is for distributing analog phone signals. You can't distribute ethernet via a passive board like that, you need a network switch. What you need to do is pull all those off and reterminate them to a proper patch panel which then patches the lines to the network switch, or just go directly to the switch if you prefer.

 

[Berwhale]

As @kyuu says, these modules are for telephone signals. I think you can replace one or both of them with Ethernet patch modules. See here: https://www.legrand.us/audio-visual...res/network-distribution-modules/c/lgnd011406

I would also buy yourself a cheap Ethernet cable tester if you don't have one already. This sort of thing... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Network-Cable-Tester-RJ45-Ethernet/dp/B08RNDBQRX?th=1

 

[JustJones]

You have a telecom module which adds telephone lines , fax or security systems. It's not for ethernet. It's like This module only yours adds more lines than the basic. Check your plugs in your rooms to see how they're wired and terminate the lines with a plug wired the same then put a 12 port switch there , run your rounter line to the input and plug your wires in. Figure which wire goes where and label them. If you can't pull enough cable to terminate with a plug then a patch panel might be needed you'll stiil need a switch though.

 

[MRC01]

Thanks for the advice.

The ports in the rooms each have an RJ45 and an RJ11. I've never heard of using RJ45 for phones.

I already have a router & hub, so it sounds like the solution is to keep this panel for phone only and wire up internet from my router & hub. In more detail:

• Determine which of the cables in the panel go to RJ11 wall jacks, leave them there.
• Wire the cable modem's phone output to the panel's Line In (upper left).
• Remove from the panel the cables that go to RJ45 wall jacks.
• Connect these cables to my router & hub.

 

[kyuu]

Yep, that sounds like a good plan.

 

[JustJones]

My guess is all the yellow wires looks like you have 10, go to the rj45 plugs and the beige wires to the rj11 plugs

 

[DVDdoug]

I agree that a tester to trace & confirm the connections is the place to start.

 

[Krusty09]

If you buy a fox and hound to send tone send the tone from the room your in and not from the basement then go downstairs and snif it out and then cable. Lot easier that way.

 

[Krusty09]

Lable

 

[kyuu]

Fox and hound? Is that referring to ye olde toner and wand?

 

[Timcognito]

I put a full whole house structured network in 2006 using On Q/ Legrand/ Grayfox stuff. The phone RJ11 male plugs will go into RJ45 female and use the inner 4 wires of the of the Cat 5, 8 wires so changing them out is easy if the RJ11 female is present. All you need is to look at the wire sequence on an existing RJ45 female as there are two standards and replace it with the same 8 wire sequence. You need a universal crimping tool for male and female terminations and the empty plastic termination plugs (M & F) and one of these to tone a cable, find each end, check your work with a matching sequence at each end.

https://www.fullcompass.com/prod/226258-paladin-tools-pa1574-cable-check-lan-tester

Sadly some of the stuff is no longer made by On Q/ Legrand but most of the older stuff is on Ebay and their website has all the old install documents based on the the old Model No.s. It's tedious but easy work and and once you do a few you can take your time and fix them as you need them.

On-Q® Structured Wiring, Connectivity and Smart Home Solutions | Legrand

From reliable infrastructure products to feature-rich smart systems, On-Q’s industry-leading solutions work together to form the backbone of the connected home. Learn more.

www.legrand.us

 

[Krusty09]

Fox and hound? Is that referring to ye olde toner and wand?

Yes

 

[Timcognito]

You can terminate all of the Cat5 wires under the stairs to male RJ45 ends and all the wall plates all over the house from female RJ11 to female RJ45. Then you can use them as as ether Ethernet or phone connections by using an Ethernet switch and this phone junction box for $22 +ship. Just be sure to mark them at each end to know which is which. That's what I did and it works great

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[Krusty09]

I would not put male plugs on solid cat5. I would put female keystone Jack and then use patch cables.

Never put a rj45 male connector on a solid piece of ethernet cable unless you are desperate.

You have 2 kinds of rj45 plugs ones with 2 teeth and one with 3 and neither one is any good for solid core ethernet cable.

And whatever you do don't use keystones on stranded cable .

 

[Timcognito]

I would not put male plugs on solid cat5. I would put female keystone Jack and then use patch cables.

Never put a rj45 male connector on a solid piece of ethernet cable unless you are desperate.

You have 2 kinds of rj45 plugs ones with 2 teeth and one with 3 and neither one is any good for solid core ethernet cable.

And whatever you do don't use keystones on stranded cable .

My whole house with probably 30+ Cat 5 has been working perfectly with male plugs on the end of the home run in a single location panel in a closet and ports in the wall plates all over the house and separate garage/shop since 2006. Most terminate in a large switch which has ports preconfigured by someone else. I could understand the extra work and expense of double keystones in a commercial setting

 

[MRC01]

So it turns out all the yellow cables are RJ11 for the phone. The white cables are RJ45. They are simply cut off, never used since the house was built 20 years ago. I rang it out with a multimeter to determine they were wired as T568A and installed male RJ45 connectors at the panel end wired appropriately. Then used my cable tester to ring it out through the house to determine which wire goes to which room and labeled them. Connected them to my router and hub, works like a charm. Job complete - works great.

Thanks for the tips - that saved me many hours of frustration.

 

[Timcognito]

Looks from the photo that the yellow cables are Cat5 so they can be used for the LAN by changing the ends if needed.

 

[kyuu]

This is pretty common in new construction here. Run two cat5s to each room, each a different color. One is terminated to an RJ11 jack and punched down to one of those distribution boards, and the other is terminated to an RJ45 jack. The other end is sometimes punched down to a patch panel of some sort, but many contractors just leave them hanging out for whoever comes behind them to deal with.

Anyway, glad you got it sorted!