Ok techies...home networking?

[Nathans_Dad]

Hello again all, I am in Dallas/Fort Worth for good now and so will be checking the forums again (collective groan noted).

Here is my question. Our house is pre-wired with what looks like Cat-5 cable. It is all fed into an Open House hub, but when I look at it all there is is a telephone hub with about 10 cables coming out of it and a Coax hub. There are some more cat5 cables hanging loose. Now then, here is my problem:

I have DSL into the house which has a modem hooked into the phone line. I have that then hooked into a wireless router upstairs. The router kindof needs to stay up there because I have my XBOX 360 hooked into it with a cable and I do not have the wireless attachment for the 360 (nor do I reallly want to buy one). My iMac has built in wireless and could connect just fine in my old house.

In the new house the iMac is only getting 2/5 bars on the AirPort. I can transfer data ok, but sometimes the internet is slow and I am wondering if the low reception might be part of the problem. I was wondering if there was a way to take the output from the DSL modem and plug it into one of the empty Cat5 jacks and try to hard wire the iMac into the router that way. I have a toner and tried to tone out the jack but got zippo signal in the office.

Any ideas on this kind of stuff?

[legion]

What is the speed of the router? B? G? N?

You can also get additional wireless nodes.

That is the extent of my knowledge. I will let the experts chime in now.

[Nathans_Dad]

The router is G plus. I guess I could try and move the router somewhere else in the media room to get a better signal downstairs...

[Joeaksa]

Nah,

Something else is going on. Unless your house is 15,000 sq feet and the WiFi is at one end and your computer at the other end there is another issue.

Assume that the house is wood framed and not anything that would block the signal like concrete reinforced with rebar?

Why not run the main output from the DSL modem into the house hub, then operate off of the Cat5 cable running into each room? Believe that you could run your WiFi switch/hub off of one of the cables somewhere upstairs to help with the range.

[legion]

Can't heating/cooling ducting deflect the signal?

[masraum]

So do you have 3 separate hub systems, 1 coax, 1 telephone, and 1 cat 5, but there isn't a cat 5 hub where the other two are? Does it seem like there are enough cables for that to be the intended location of the network hub?

And the other part of your problem is that with a tester you can't find a cable end in the hub location that corresponds to the room that the router is in?

[stomachmonkey]

Wireless routers disperse a signal in all directions, like a big orb of wifi.

That's good if you are a laptop user and roam around your house.

If your computer is stationary you should swap in/add a hi gain.

It will allow you to "point" the signal where it needs to go.

Theoretically you can use the existing cabling.

How many ports are on your wireless router? Most likely at least 4?

Just do a cable run from it to the iMac.

Forget what was in the closet.

I hate a network that I did not build. You go nuts trying to troubleshoot them.

For the small stuff I find it easier and more reliable to just do new runs.

[slodave]

Lots of things can deflect the signal. Thick walls will decrease the range as well. Fly me down there and I'll set you up.

Dave

[david914]

If you're using a toner be sure and connect it to two different pairs of wires or you won't much (if any) signal at the other end. The twist in the wires cancels out the tone. For example, connect the red toner lead to the blue/white pair and the black lead to the orange/white pair.

With regards to your wireless signal, I can only suggest moving the router around a bit to see if it helps. RF is funny stuff and sometimes just a little movement will make a big difference.

[Danny_Ocean]

Easy stuff...

Unplug everything at the patch panel. Then, go to each cable location throughout the house with your toner and tone each cable. Most homes today are wired with Cat5 for both voice & data. So...some of the cables you see could be in use for voice. Mark each cable end with a Sharpie...cable 1, cable 2, cable 3. Now you have corresponding numbers and know that when you plug cable 3 in to the phone block, cable 3 in your BR gets a dialtone. Plug cable 4 in to your router/switch and the other end becomes a network connection.

Had your home been wired by a competent cabling contractor, each cable would be labeled with the same number on each end and a map of all locations/numbers would be fastened inside the door of the patch panel/distribution center. But...your builder probably hired a hack who also happened to be the low bidder...

Relocate the DSL modem to the patch panel. Feed the wireless router from the DSL by plugging it in to the wall wherever your XBOX is (e.g. cable 3). At other strategic (Cat5) locations throughout the home, plug in a WAP (or two) that is compatible with the equipment you want to connect wirelessly.

Should go like this: Modem -> Router -> WAP

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally posted by david914
If you're using a toner be sure and connect it to two different pairs of wires or you won't much (if any) signal at the other end.

Or use a high-powered toner designed for data cabling...

[id10t]

And thats why when I ran wires in my attic I labeled each end with what it was and where it was feeding. Especially since I was using 2 cat5 runs to each area, one for 2 phone lines and one for network

[Nathans_Dad]

Danny,

Yeah, that was my thought as well. So I hooked into the free Cat5 port with the toner and went down to my office but could not get anything from any of the ports in the office. The wierd thing is I did get a weak signal from the port that has the phone line in it...

I'm wondering if they set the whole house up to have phone lines everywhere...can I still use it in that situation for ethernet?

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad

I'm wondering if they set the whole house up to have phone lines everywhere...can I still use it in that situation for ethernet?

As long as its CAT-5, yes. (I've even run 100 mb over CAT-3 UTP). You can "convert" the voice cable to a data cable. Here's a good website. Follow the color codes when installing plugs/jacks:

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/network/cable/

[slodave]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
can I still use it in that situation for ethernet?

Only if the guys ran Cat 5 or better for all phone lines and the phones are not using the wires already. Regular phone cable will not handle Ethernet very well.

Dave

P.S. There was supposed to be a sarcastic smiley at the of my previous post

[Nathans_Dad]

Yeah, all the cable is Cat-5, I checked the cables at the hub.

So if they all are going into a telephone hub, any ideas how I use only some of them for ethernet without screwing up the rest of the signal in the hub? Do I need to buy an ethernet hub and plug into that?

[slodave]

Pictures, man, pictures. Lets see what we are working with!

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
Yeah, all the cable is Cat-5, I checked the cables at the hub.

So if they all are going into a telephone hub, any ideas how I use only some of them for ethernet without screwing up the rest of the signal in the hub? Do I need to buy an ethernet hub and plug into that?

You will unplug them from the voice "hub", terminate them (if not already done) to T568B standards and then plug them in to the network hub/switch/router. Presto...your phone cable is now a network cable.

However, if the aforementioned low-bidding scab/hack cabling contractor "daisy-chained" the voice cables (like they used to do in 1970) throughout the home, instead of individual "home runs", you are SOL and those cables can only be used for voice.

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally posted by slodave
Pictures, man, pictures. Lets see what we are working with!

Yes...pics will help greatly.

This is what hacks do:



This is how it looks when "fixed": This is not my work...for demonstration purposes only. I would be embarassed to bill a client for this mess.

[Don Plumley]

We have a similar version of that panel in our house. However ours has separate Cat5 and Telco/RJ14 wiring, along with cable distribution.

Anyway, yes, you can do exactly what you are thinking. For example, in our home the cable modem is in my office. The cable modem goes into a wireless router there, and I take one of the ports and run it to the distribution box. At the cabinet, I take that line and run it into the upstream port of 100BT Hub/Switch, and then distribute the connection through the downstream ports to the downstairs of the house.

Downstairs we are running a combination of hard wire (into my son's server) and additional wireless.

You can also determine which wire is which by using a router at one end and the hub at the other. You'll get a port connect light on both sides if they are talking.

Let me know if you need more detail...