ouse is wired with cat5. How to tell if there's a switch?

Any way to post some pictures? If you don't have jacks built into the patch panels, most likely it is RJ11. But, the wiring might be cat5 and you could repunch to use it as network cabling. Pictures would help a lot.

Appears that all pairs are wired accordingly, but hard to tell from that six foot away shot. Unless you added a switch somewhere, or there is new technology that has been made in the past 24 hours to make your set up work, I would say that you do not have one.

Can you post a better picture, and also can in what the document states that is hanging there. I bet if you look at the paperwork hanging right there, it will tell you exactly what is what.

It appears your CAT5 is only wired for telephone distribution using two of these (or something like it):

http://www.smarthome.com/83696/Chann...-Module/p.aspx

All my CAT5e cables that enter the distribution box are terminated with RG45 connectors and then can be used for telephone or Ethernet. Unfortunately all my room plugs were wired for phone and only used one-pair of the CAT5e cable! I had to rewire every room for straight through CAT5e.

I use one of these for my telephone distribution so you can easily plug in the rooms that need a phone jack. If it's the same as the one I have, the back of the unit has one punchdown block for the incoming telephone line and a special jack for alarm systems.

http://www.smarthome.com/8681M408/4x...-Module/p.aspx

Of course, for Ethernet, I have a GigE switch.

It's almost comical that these installers have no idea how this stuff is used. All that CAT5 for just telephones when most people have wireless phones? What a waste.

Please completely research your situation before doing this, but I would terminate all your CAT5 in the distribution box with RG45 connectors (or at least the ones you want to use for Ethernet), check that your wall plugs are wired using all of the CAT5 conductors and test each one for proper Ethernet operation using a laptop on one end and a switch or router on the other. Again, only do this once you've convinced yourself that you want to go this route before you disassemble your current configuration.

Tim

It's usually the contractor and not the installer making the decision, and it's always a cost issue. In my house, each room has one drop and then the remaining connections are all pigtailed to the one drop. I needed additional lines pulled, and got the original installer to pull some wire. When I pointed it out, he said the original contractor wanted it done that way to save money. I then pointed out that they only saved a few hundred dollars, and he basically said that he recommended a full structure wired approach, but the contractor insisted on the cheapest way possible.

Regardless, I'd replace the punch blocks with better units, trace all the lines, and label everything.

From that picture, I don't see how the cat5 on your wall plate is anything but a phone connection.

Now, the good news is, you have a pretty nice panel there with all homerun connections. I'm going to take a guess and say that all of the blue wires are phone connections and all of the green connections were supposed to be "cat5" connections. Or the other way around. Just undo one of your wall plates and see what color wire is attached to the "cat5" connection. Then all you have to do is get a proper patch panel and you'd be all set.

Sorry, all of the wires are cat5e. Most likely what you saw was 2 pair wrapped and the rest connected, that is typical for phone. You can get a cheap wire tester at Lowe's or Home Depot, that will help you trace the wires. If all of the blue wires, for example, are for phone, I would leave them connected exactly as they are. They I would disconnect the green wires and rewire them to the new patch panel.

Not sure why they wired both jacks the way they did, but again, it's a simple fix. If you want to stay with Leviton, I think Home Depot sells their stuff, you can probably get a patch panel there that will work for your network.

One thing, any idea where that yellow wire goes?

I had the same box when I moved to a new house a couple months ago. Those cables are Cat5 but the two boards that those Cat5 plugged in are for voice only. This is what had to do to make those Cat5 for data:
1. Remove all cat5 from the two boards and terminate those cables with Ethernet connectors.
2. Connect these cat5 to a switch. I got a gigabit 8 ports for $20.
3. Connect your internet modem to a router( mine was wireless as I also need wireless for my mobile devices)
4. Connect your router to your cat5 jack (any jack in your house)
You should have internet in all of your rooms.

You can also connect a router and modem to your switch in step 2 above if you want to hide everything in that box; however, heat might be an issue if all three are enclosed inside that panel.

If you want to use a phone line in your house, leave at least one of those cat5 cable connected to one of the two boards ( are they Leviton?). You have to figure out which room is the other end of this cable to be used as phone line.
Hope this helps.

What I would do is get a cat5e/6 punch block that has rj45 connectors. Punch all of the wires that go to rooms on one or two punch blocks.
(you can use two if you know some wires will always be phones, so that the wires are mostly segregated)
examples:
http://www.smarthome.com/36546/Levit...e-ports/p.aspx
http://www.computercablestore.com/12..._PID48603.aspx
Now each of the wires has a *female* connector. I'd then get a POTs punch block and wire the incoming phone line to it, so that each of the *female* connectors is wired in the standard two phone manner.
You can and should actually buy this already wired so you don't have to daisy chain them yourself.
example:
http://www.smarthome.com/36542B/Levi...A-BDB47D5A1D1E


Changing from phone to computer in the data closet is as simple as moving a patch cable between the phone block and the switch. You need to keep the room ends terminated for intended use, or everyone in the house will plug in the wrong devices.


There are other ways to do it, but this would be my approach.

Hi Pood,

That would be an Ethernet cable for WAN (Internet) from certain types of Internet providers.

If you get your Internet through your CableTV provider, then your cable-modem would be in your cabinet and hook-up to the WAN port on a router that is also in that cabinet (the two devices might be combined, and might also contain a switch). The yellow wire would be unused.

If you get your Internet through your phone provider, then your DSL-modem would be in your cabinet and hook-up to the WAN port on a router that is also in that cabinet (again, the two devices might be combined, and might also contain a switch). The yellow wire would again be unused.

But if you get your Internet through a provider that mounts a cabinet on the side of your house, like FIOS, then your FIOS-modem would be in that cabinet, mounted at the other end of the yellow wire, and the yellow wire would bring the Internet into your cabinet and hook-up to the WAN port on a router that is also in that cabinet.

It looks like all of the wires are cat5e even the phone lines. Thus, in most all likelihood, any 'phone line' could be changed to a 'computer' line by changing the termination connectors. The installer used different colors to help keep track of the presupposed data type when terminating the lines. (green - data, blue - POTS, yellow - WAN). Cost is the reason he didn't terminate all the cables.

The switch does not generate any heat, at least what is noticeable. Now a router on the other hand, needs to breathe.

The modem is the box that communicates to the outside world. It essentially takes the digital data and converts it to a form that the provider needs. Thus, you would need a FIOS capable modem if you switch.
A router is like a traffic cop and sends packets to and from the modem to the computers in your network. They may also assign IP addresses and deal with name services.
Switches arbitrate traffic among members of you local area network.

I don't know if FIOS offers modems without a router function, but even if it has a router you (probably) don't need to use it.

Switches tend to generate heat, the more ports, the more heat. Older switches were worse, modern switches better.

I got this switch on sale for $25 and it has no heat inside the encloser panel.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833181098

You're leaving the blue wires punched they way they are, right? Those are for voice, and I wouldn't mess with them. The green ones, you will put in a new patch panel, then the yellow can be terminated in the new panel as well. If you get FIOS, Verizon can then use that port to connect their equipment part on the inside.

Not horizontally.

That panel you found on Amazon is meant for a Retma rack, so it will be 19 inches wide. Your cabinet is designed to fit between studs on 16-inch centers, so it will be 14 inches wide.

There should be other manufacturers that make inserts that will fit in your cabinet.

I would have bought an 8 port or 12 port panel. Again, why are you rewiring the blue voice wires? Are you wanting to convert some of those to network jacks?

Okay, that makes sense. In that case, you could return the 16 port patch panel and get 2 8 port patch panels. They would fit in your enclosure.

No. The patch panel is just a bunch of independent rj45 connectors with a 'backplane'. You then need to use patch cables to connect a switch port to a port on the patch panel. Assuming the yellow line is a WAN line, one would need to use patch cables to connect it to your router( or modem->router) and then connect the router to the switch.

How many devices do you need to connect?