Hooking up DSL setup - need help

Noah Siano · Jul 8, 2015

Okay, so I'm fairly new to all of this networking stuff, but I'm trying to move my already existing router and wireless modem/access point upstairs to where the ethernet wires are all run to. Basically, I already know I'll need some RJ11 and RJ45 cat5e connectors, which I have one of each to test with currently. What I'm not sure about is the wiring. Plugging in the RJ45 cat 5e male ends sounds really easy, but the whole cat5e phone line stuff is where I get confused. The builder did what looks to be a crap job with setting up the phone lines, and I'm not even sure where to start with it. I know I need to get a female RJ11 connector in there somehow so that I can plug my router in, but 1-I'm not sure the proper wiring and 2-I'm not sure where in the wiring loop to put it.
Here are some pictures:

link

link
First off, is this even done right? Is there a better way to do this that will maximize my internet potential? I'm currently sitting at a maximum of 7 Mbps(yes, that makes a whopping 0.8 MB/s) and since I don't have ethernet plugged up and only have wifi, it really likes to cut out a lot.

Thanks for any help guys.

EDIT: I should clarify, the blue and white/blue wires come from a phone jack plug, and it is currently not being used. The orange and white wires go to the cluster of wires, and that cluster of wires all goes out to phone jack plugs around the house, where only two of them are being used(the one for the router and another one for the phone).

Alabalcho · Jul 9, 2015

I would post the name of the contractor to make sure noone ever contacts him.

The "right" thing he did was to run independent Cat5 loops inside the house. The bad thing he did was the termination.
I would terminate all these cables into RJ45 patch panel (including incoming phone line), and from there patch them as needed to the router or phone lines.

Noah Siano · Jul 9, 2015

Alabalcho :

Don't know his name, but he was foreclosing on the house and had to rush the final stuff, so I guess this was one of those things he did a quick fix for. We bought it from him for about 50% off list price though, so not bad considering that.

Yeah, that termination looked total sketch.
So basically take all of those blue and grey cables and get some RJ45 patches for them(or at least patch the ones I want to use). Then, once they have female RJ45 ends on them, how do I get the dsl/phone line to go to more than just one of them?
Currently the dsl comes through that grey cable on the bottom of the second pic and goes through an alarm filter(the black box), then goes and is patched into whatever that tan colored box is shown in pic 1, then is run partly to just one random phone jack in the house and run to a giant mess(pic 3) which i guess delivers the dsl to the rest of the phone jacks in the house.

I think I could set up just the router with the information you've given me, but I would be left with no phone line system. So how does that work? Although, I'm not too much against giving up the phone line.

Alabalcho · Jul 9, 2015

If I was doing this for myself:
- make sure sockets in the rooms are properly terminated. Replace them with RJ45 sockets if necessary
- get an RJ45/Cat5 patch panel like this one. Punch each of cables coming off the rooms into the back, you will need a special tool (sold at eg Home Depot).
- punch the incoming phone line on space connector on the same panel, with line going over blue pair (pins 4, 5) on the socket. Label each port appropriately (eg Phone In, Living, Master etc)
- put router inside same cabinet. Use short phone cable to route incoming line to its DSL port. Flat RJ12 phone cord will fit inside RJ45 socket. Use RJ12 splitter with DSL filter to feed a socket where the phoneset is located
- use short (1'-3') patch cables to feed rooms off LAN ports of the router

Nose poking: What is this large PCB board used for?

Noah Siano · Jul 9, 2015

Alabalcho :

Very useful stuff. I'm gonna try to do a small scale version of that before I buy a patch panel and a punch tool. All of the sockets in the rooms are done very well with both RJ45(yellow cat5e cables-not pictures, but theyre all above the blue and grey cat5e cables) and RJ12(blue and grey cat5e cables), and they use some good connectors(which I took an RJ12 and RJ45 out of one to use for this temporary fix).

For right now, I'm going to ignore the home phone and focus on just the internet.
I'm going to bring the modem and the router all into this little space. The router plugs into the modem, and the modem will need to get plugged into the phone line somehow. This is where I lose you. What is the space connector? Should I take the grey cable at the bottom of pic 2 apart and punch just the two blue wires into an RJ45 connector?(for temp fix at least) And then put my dsl filter/splitter I have into that and plug up the modem?

Other than that small little thing, this is all making tons of sense and I really appreciate the help!

That pcb is...kind of useless. It's partly the alarm system which has a dead battery and we never use anyways, partly the incoming phone line, and partly the potential to have smart home features like turning on and off lights, a/c, etc via a smartphone app or something. It's not really something we're willing to spend money on, so it just sits there and is wasted haha. But it somehow has the phone line coming through it, so we gotta keep it!

Alabalcho · Jul 9, 2015

Wait a minute.... Are you saying that you have two cables per outlet in each room - "phone" and "data"? I saw in your picture some patch blocks (just behind your arm on the second picture), with piece of yellow cable showing, and some black cable going into that panel - are these cables terminated with RJ45 jacks? If so, you still cannot use them for Ethernet because they are wired in a way similar to the way blue cables are wired - all in parallel. There is nothing to stop you to combine all blue and yellow cables into single patch panel, and use them anyway you want for phone or data.

As for modem / router: Modem have one input (RJ12) where line from the Telco comes in, and one output (RJ45) goin to the router' WAN port (RJ45). Routers usualy have four (sometimes one, sometimes more) LAN ports (RJ45).

Connection between the modem and the router does not have to be in the same wiring closet - you can move the router in a room, and feed it thru the cabling by proper patching of modem' output to that room' data socket.

Noah Siano · Jul 9, 2015

Alabalcho :

No no no, the "phone" cat5e cables are the blue/grey mess i showed in the pics. Behind that in pic 2 is a sound system(completely separate from all of this stuff) that also happens to use cat5e(and those are actually orange, not yellow ;D). Above all of this(and completely out of the picture) is a bundle of yellow cat5e cables that are simply cut at the end and are not stripped, terminated, etc. Those are the "data" cables.
Each room has one of these guys:
http://www.cablestogo.com/product/27418/cat5e-rj45-with-cat3-rj12-configured-single-gang-wall-plate-white
with the yellow cable going to the RJ45 plug and the blue/grey cable going to the RJ12 plug.
Sorry, I was not too clear on that now was I?

Okay so I get the whole modem and router setup. And yeah...duh..I can put the router wherever I need it.....I toootally knew that

That's the stuff I already know how to do, luckily.
But what I'm not getting is how to get a plug from that pcb motherboard to the modem. I will somehow need a female end somewhere in there, but all I have are male ends.
I have an RJ45 and an RJ12 keystone jack(stole it from one of those wall plates) that looks like it auto-punches the wires in there, so I can put the RJ12 one somewhere and plug in my DSL filter/splitter and plug the modem into that. I just don't know where to put the keystone jack...
The rest of it I get, it's literally just figuring out how to get the modem hooked up to this phone line that I'm struggling with. Would I be fine to cut the RJ12 male end off of that grey cable that goes to the black box(bottom of pic 2) and then punch it into a RJ12 keystone jack?

I can post more pics if I'm confusing you even more.

P.S. That "grey cable" i keep mentioning that comes from the pcb, it is only plugged in with four of the eight wires. I'm assuming this is because the phone line is only two channel?

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