Innovative approaches for setting up a new home network
Innovative approaches for setting up a new home network
Hey everyone! Hope you have all had a great new years! I have recently moved into a new house and had ATT fiber internet put in a couple of months ago and realized the network people never hooked up the new router/modem combo into the pre existing wiring in the house. It took me a while but I was able to find the old networking equipment that was put in when the place was built. The home has ethernet outlets throughout most of the house and I am definitely wanting to get this hard wiring up again. Should be a fun project for me on a weekend so I can actually get the bandwidth that I pay for. I have also looked in the attic and it looks like if I can just run a ethernet cable from the router to the switch through the walls and the attic and that I may be able to get it up and going again. Either way I just have a couple of questions if someone would be kind enough to help me out. First, Would it work to just run a wire to the switch from the router (through the wall and attic and to garage where switch is located) and leave it as is from there? The blue switch is a Trendnet Te100-s55e plus and I am not sure what the box behind it is but I can tell it was for use with cable internet. Second, What kind of tools or recommendations you all might have that would make this easy if I can do the first solution? Third, What other alternatives could I do so that the house gets full coverage? I have looked at mesh wifi systems but it looks like wired is the best way to go because it is a larger house... Any and all advice is welcome and I can get new hardware if needed but I do not have a need for anything crazy just want to try doing this myself before calling someone... Also I can provide pictures of the wiring situation in the attic if need be.
It’s a modest 10/100 connection, so it won’t deliver gigabit performance. You’ll want to check the home wiring for Cat5 or Cat5e cables. Also, the two Ethernet cables coming out of the switch suggest there may be more endpoints you need to locate beyond just those two.
Confirmed that the cabling is Cat5e and will share a diagram of the setup in the garage. The two cables exiting the switch are connected to the old modem behind it, while one originates from the tangled wires shown. Throughout the house, nearly every room has a port, and all cables converge toward this split near the attic switch... Here’s a visual reference.
You're seeing a mix of different setups that don't quite fit together. It looks like multiple Cat5 connections are being combined, which isn't standard. There might also be phone wiring involved, but the issue here is the incorrect connector and insufficient strands for higher speeds.
My previous residence shared similarities but had power drops in the basement or crawlspace. It was originally designed for POTS telephone lines using Cat 5E cables connected to RJ11 ports. Only four of the eight strands were utilized at each end, which explains why some strands are bundled around the blue wires—they aren’t needed in this configuration. If there’s electrical power close to the drop point, a simple switch can be installed. The blue wires can be finished with RJ45 connectors (or a patch panel might be excessive), then connected to the switch. The wall ports should be swapped to RJ45 if they’re currently RJ11. This setup shows a mix of RJ45 and RJ11 connections on the exterior panels. I connected one of those into the router/modem so all interior locations can join the network. My new home has Cat 5E drops positioned outside, behind small grey electrical boxes where utility lines enter from the street. There was no usable power nearby for a standard switch. Fortunately, I found an 8-port Unifi POE switch that fit the compact grey box. I plugged all the cables into RJ45 connectors and then into the POE switch. Inside, I swapped every RJ11 port to RJ45, just like at my old house. From a larger POE unit in the house, I ran power over one line back to the external switch to energize it and handle data switching for the remaining cables. It’s not perfect, but everything functions, including the three APs in my home. The new setup includes some unusual cabling that doesn’t have a clear reason unless the installers were under pressure. Edit – the white wire with four connectors likely feeds a security system.