How do I use my ethernet ports in my condo?

[ar4757]

Hi everyone!

I'm having trouble figuring out how to use ethernet in my condo. It came with ethernet ports in every room, but when i plug in, nothing happens. I checked behind the ports, and sure enough, there are cat 5 wires. I don't know where to plug in my modem/router to utilize these.

Here are pictures of what I believe to be related to the ethernet:
http://s1085.photobucket.com/albums/j422/ar4757/

Those wires were behind a panel that said Levitron Integrated Networks.


Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

You contact the people who put in the ports....or the building manager...

All the best Brett

 

[Ubrales]

Connect the output from the Modem to any of these CAT5/6 ports. Then use any ONE Cat 5/6 Ethernet port in any ONE room to connect your computer.

The above applies to Ethernet ports connected in parallel, because at the time of wiring they do not know in which room you want to install the computer.

Instead of the computer you may connect a wireless router and go from there.

Another option is to ask the condo management about this setup. I am sure that they have been there before.

 

[Emerald]

based on pic2 it is wired for Phone service not network.

 

[LaZiO]

It's a late reply, and not sure if this helps, but I think this is a similar situation. In my condo, in the den there are 2 ethernet ports in the wall. One yellow, one white. Also, in the living room, there are the same 2 ports. They didn't really do anything when I plugged things in to them (although I didn't really expect anything to happen). I thought they maybe connected the 2 rooms together, so I did a test. I connected my router to the yellow port in the den, then connected a device to the yellow port in the living room. No connection. Did the same with the white port. Nothing.

Then I opened up the big panel in the closet. In there were 2 ethernet cable ends. I connected them to each other (with a little coupler), then did the tests again. Connected my router to the yellow jack in the den, and then connected a device to the yellow jack in the living room... the device connected fine.

 

[dbhosttexas]

What I see in the photos of that structured wiring cabinet is category 5 (possibly 5e) cable pulled and used for telephone, not ethernet.

You would need at a minimum to distribute an internet connection from this panel to 5 ethernet ports..

#1. Internet service. DSL, Cable, Fiber, what have you connected to a modem of some kind.
#2. Router. Most consumer grade routers these days are also WiFi access points. Not the best thing for a structured wiring cabinet as the steel in the cabinet plays havok with the WiFi signal. But we are talking wired connections here, so turn OFF the WiFi in the router and move on. Make sure the WAN and LAN connections of your router are capable of Gigabit speed.
#3. An 8 port ethernet switch. I say 8 port because I do NOT like cascading switches in SOHO installs. Better to put everything on one big switch. Make sure you use a Gigabit switch.
#4. Proper cabling to connect Internet service cable to modem, modem to router, and router to switch. The devices SHOULD come with them, but sometimes not. If you need to get cables, make sure you get category 5e at a minimum, category 6 is better. Not by a lot, but better...

If you do not know how to pull and terminate ethernet cable, and it sounds like that may be the case, hire out a contractor to just pull a second line where the current jacks are, or if possible remove the phone structure and repurpose the cat5e cable for network. You won't have wired telephone any more, but who uses a land line these days anyway?