# DirecTV on Demand Installation



## Carl524 (May 30, 2008)

I have an HR-21 100 I'd like to connect to DTV on Demand. My problem is (the bad news) my HR-21 is downstairs, and my Belkin (an older Pre-N) router is upstairs. I've tried a wireless gaming adapter, but the signal is too weak for the distance, and also tried one of those expensive kits which turn your home wiring into network wiring, but I have too much "noise" in the wires to get a good enough signal downstairs. (Now, the good news, I think) When I built my home, I knew I was going to be using DSL for my internet connection so I had my whole house wired with cat5 cable. I also have an alarm system in line and everything that's connected to the phone lines, including alarm system, has DSL filters installed. My problem is when I hook up the ethernet cable from the receiver to the cat5 jack in the wall, my trouble light on my alarm system goes on and I get the can't find internet connection message on receiver. I remember seeing in a post a couple months ago (of which I now can't find) that if the house was cat5 wired, it should be a breeze to hook up. What am I missing here? Thanks for any help!

Carl524


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## lostman72 (Nov 28, 2005)

It sounds like your cat5 is your pots line. Do you know how many drops per outlet are there? If you have only one I would bet your phone is on the cat5 and you can't do that. There are tricks to fixing this you would have to wire half of you cat 5 drop for telco and the other half for network. Telco only uses one pair computer will only use 2 pair. I have done this many times but it's not easy if you don't understand how it works. You will have to use a 110 punch down splice to make it work and make it clean.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

DirecTV's Powerline Network kit might be the solution for you.


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## EricJRW (Jul 6, 2008)

I think I would concentrate on the other end of the wire that goes to that RJ-45 jack...

I agree with *lostman72*, it sounds like the other end is wired to your phone service. If you are not using that jack for phone, and it is cat5, you may just need to punch down the other end on your network, or patch it to a jack that is closer to a spare Ethernet port. Many people will just put an Ethernet switch in their wiring closest and just patch the house to that...

lostman72: So you have used a "spare pair" in a cat5 cable to use for phone? I've always wondered about that... I see a lot of installations that have multiple cat5s at one wallplate; one for an analog phone, one for digital, one for Ethernet, etc... I've been in situations where I wish I had a spare pair, but I'd typically end up running more wire... I always wondered though, would using the center pair (4 & 5) of a cable, in use for Ethernet, work for phone? Would there be any noise issues? I thought since the the telephone ring voltage (48V) is so much higher than Ethernet voltages (< 4V), that it must play some havoc with the data when the phone rings...


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## mobandit (Sep 4, 2007)

EricJRW said:


> I think I would concentrate on the other end of the wire that goes to that RJ-45 jack...
> 
> I agree with *lostman72*, it sounds like the other end is wired to your phone service. If you are not using that jack for phone, and it is cat5, you may just need to punch down the other end on your network, or patch it to a jack that is closer to a spare Ethernet port. Many people will just put an Ethernet switch in their wiring closest and just patch the house to that...
> 
> lostman72: So you have used a "spare pair" in a cat5 cable to use for phone? I've always wondered about that... I see a lot of installations that have multiple cat5s at one wallplate; one for an analog phone, one for digital, one for Ethernet, etc... I've been in situations where I wish I had a spare pair, but I'd typically end up running more wire... I always wondered though, would using the center pair (4 & 5) of a cable, in use for Ethernet, work for phone? Would there be any noise issues? I thought since the the telephone ring voltage (48V) is so much higher than Ethernet voltages (< 4V), that it must play some havoc with the data when the phone rings...


Yup, cross-talk and induced voltages from the ring signal can really disturb packet transmission via Ethernet, IOW, it is frowned upon by most network folks.


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## lostman72 (Nov 28, 2005)

EricJRW said:


> I think I would concentrate on the other end of the wire that goes to that RJ-45 jack...
> 
> I agree with *lostman72*, it sounds like the other end is wired to your phone service. If you are not using that jack for phone, and it is cat5, you may just need to punch down the other end on your network, or patch it to a jack that is closer to a spare Ethernet port. Many people will just put an Ethernet switch in their wiring closest and just patch the house to that...
> 
> lostman72: So you have used a "spare pair" in a cat5 cable to use for phone? I've always wondered about that... I see a lot of installations that have multiple cat5s at one wallplate; one for an analog phone, one for digital, one for Ethernet, etc... I've been in situations where I wish I had a spare pair, but I'd typically end up running more wire... I always wondered though, would using the center pair (4 & 5) of a cable, in use for Ethernet, work for phone? Would there be any noise issues? I thought since the the telephone ring voltage (48V) is so much higher than Ethernet voltages (< 4V), that it must play some havoc with the data when the phone rings...


I have not had a problem with noise. I use the blue pair and the orance pair for the network and the brown pair for phone. And I have used both digtal PBX systems and analog (pots) doing this because the person was to cheap. In my home I have 3 drops at each wall plate. One is a spare for now.


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## Carl524 (May 30, 2008)

Here are the pics of the incoming cat-5 setup I have. If someone can view them and give me an idea to what kind of installation it is and how to go about reconfiguring it to get internet from upstairs router to the downstairs HR-21, as mentioned in my original post.






The second pic is the wallplate in my office where my router is. The downstairs wallplate where the HR-21 is, only has one ethernet/phone jack, but since I don't order PPV movies, I don't have the phone line connected to the HR-21. Thanks again guys for your input.


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## lostman72 (Nov 28, 2005)

Carl524 said:


> Here are the pics of the incoming cat-5 setup I have. If someone can view them and give me an idea to what kind of installation it is and how to go about reconfiguring it to get internet from upstairs router to the downstairs HR-21, as mentioned in my original post.
> View attachment 14615
> View attachment 14616
> The second pic is the wallplate in my office where my router is. The downstairs wallplate where the HR-21 is, only has one ethernet/phone jack, but since I don't order PPV movies, I don't have the phone line connected to the HR-21. Thanks again guys for your input.


Can you give model numbers or point me to some doc. on what you have there? Also who makes what you have?


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## EricJRW (Jul 6, 2008)

Carl:

Do you have an unused (blue) cat5 cable near your HR21 (sounds like you can make it unused) and another one near a spare port on one of your routers/switches/hubs (and and assuming there is a DHCP server on the network - Can you manually configure IP on an HR? I never tried)?

If you do, then the quick method would be to crimp an RJ45 on the ends of those two cat5s in that box (I think it's called an SMC - Structured Media Center) and then use an RJ45 coupler... That would be the super quick way... You could get fancy with a small cat5 patch panel, but for this project, I think it would be overkill (and over $$$).

Once the two lines are _coupled_, you can then patch your HR21 directly to an Ethernet port on one of your other network devices.

Well that's how I'd do it.

Eric


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## Carl524 (May 30, 2008)

Sorry about not replying guys. I had the unfortunate luck of lightning striking my satellite dish on Tuesday  and wiping out mostly everything that was in that control panel (the pics in the above post) where the telephone and satellite cables come together (gotta love living in Florida!). It wiped out one of my HR-21 receivers, the LNB's on the dish, the multi-switch, and anything that was connected to the phone lines (DSL modem and router included). Even the AT&T repair guy said in all the years he's been doing repairs, he's never seen a network interface pretty much get blown off the side of the house before! Luckily, no fires or major appliances were harmed! (Although, we all could use another plasma TV around the house! :lol: ) I will finish straightening out the rest of my problems that mother nature has destroyed, and will hopefully continue my quest to connect my HR-21 to On Demand via the cat-5 cables as mentioned in the above posts by sometime next week. So, to all who have helped me up to this point, I would just like to say thanks. And as Arnold would say..."I'LL BE BACK!"  

Carl524


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## Apostle10 (Jul 22, 2008)

Carl524 said:


> I have an HR-21 100 I'd like to connect to DTV on Demand. My problem is (the bad news) my HR-21 is downstairs, and my Belkin (an older Pre-N) router is upstairs. I've tried a wireless gaming adapter, but the signal is too weak for the distance, and also tried one of those expensive kits which turn your home wiring into network wiring, but I have too much "noise" in the wires to get a good enough signal downstairs. (Now, the good news, I think) When I built my home, I knew I was going to be using DSL for my internet connection so I had my whole house wired with cat5 cable. I also have an alarm system in line and everything that's connected to the phone lines, including alarm system, has DSL filters installed. My problem is when I hook up the ethernet cable from the receiver to the cat5 jack in the wall, my trouble light on my alarm system goes on and I get the can't find internet connection message on receiver. I remember seeing in a post a couple months ago (of which I now can't find) that if the house was cat5 wired, it should be a breeze to hook up. What am I missing here? Thanks for any help!
> 
> Carl524


Carl,

Don't give up on wireless. See my Step-by-Step post of 8/4/08. Let me know how you do with it.

Apostle10
[email protected]


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