Using Pre-Installed Cat6

Tanneseph · May 31, 2014

Hello! My husband and I just moved into a home that has Cat6 already wired throughout it. Obviously, we want to take advantage of this - we do a lot of online gaming, and use Netflix exclusively for television.

We've both attempted to make sense of how to use it via a LOT of Googling, but we can't seem to find instructions that make it clear for someone who didn't have to do the installation of the actual wiring.

1) What do we need to buy in order to hook up our two desktops, and possibly our PS3 (for Netflix) into this network?

2) We know just barely enough to know that hooking our modem up so it can power the cables is... involved? What's the best way to go about this?

3) Something about a "bridge"?

Sorry in advance for the level of ignorance that is surely on display above - I feel like this should be easy, but that we're missing something basic and/or obvious.

I hope that someone can just link a guide we were silly enough to miss. Either way, thank you for your time.

USAFRet · May 31, 2014

It all depends on exactly how the house is wired.
It probably all leads back to one central point. There you would do the main connection.

You don't need to 'buy' anything until you find out how everything is wired.

Tanneseph · May 31, 2014

We've found the closet with a host of outlets. I assume we need to connect a modem in there, somehow with connecting it with a cable for each room? My husband learned enough to know that we have to find out which outlet in that closet controls, say, the den, and hook that up. I don't know

a) How we get the modem signal split into all those outlets.

b) How we make the one outlet in the den wire BOTH of our desktops.

USAFRet · May 31, 2014

Tanneseph :

a) The device you get from your ISP should be a Modem/Router. It should have multiple ports on the back. The installed guy will be able to tell you what you need, but maybe just an n=inexpensive switch.

b) In the den, again an inexpensive 10/100/1000 switch connected to that RJ-45. And then both PC's connected to that switch.

But as I can't see your actual wiring...all speculation.

Tanneseph · May 31, 2014

Here's a pic of the hub in the closet:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg53/Karavanth/20140531_200115_zpsd78ba507.jpg

Here's one of the outlet in the den:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg53/Karavanth/20140531_200020_zpsb10ac056.jpg

Here's where we currently have our modem plugged in, near that closet:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg53/Karavanth/20140531_200102_zpsb3d753e6.jpg

On the back of our modem, there are outlets for four ethernet cords total, one of which we're obviously using for our current system.

I apologize if there's something more helpful I could be doing here. When you suggest that knowing my actual wiring would help, do these pictures give you the info you need, or do you mean you'd need to see what's up inside the wall?

bill001g · Jun 1, 2014

Yours is more clearly labeled than most. So in the closet where does the connection that say WAN go. In theory this would be your internet connection.

The exact details of this really depend on what kind of internet you have and how you get it into the closet. Just for simplicity lets assume you have internet in the closet. At this point what you do is plug a small switch into all the jacks. This puts internet in each room of the house.

Now if we go to your den room you only have 1 jack. So you must also plug a small switch in there to give you more ports. If you need wireless you could plug in a AP which can just be a cheap router configured to run as a AP.

The WAN port is the most interesting of your install. I would suspect that is going back to a location where a router/modem is normally installed. Because cable modems work best as close to building entrance I have seen people put the modem say in the garage where the cable comes into the house and extend ethernet rather than use coax to the closet. Then again it could just some random room someone decided to install the router in.

Tanneseph · Jun 1, 2014

Thank, Bill. Your details helped us piece it together and successfully get signal through the port in our den!

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Using Pre-Installed Cat6

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