# ONQ Pre-Wired Network Panel?



## one918

What do I do now? I lilke to try and do things for the most part myself with my computer. For the things I cannot figure out myself, I resort to friends, family and of course forums! . 
Anyhow, this is the setup I have in my house with I guess an ONQ patch panel in the master bedroom. Pre-wired with one CAT5e and coax to each room. I had a guy quote me $100 to hook everything up if I supply the switch
(Not a bad price at all, just figured I would do it myself if I could). I am just dumbfounded because of the punchdown(?). Do I need to remove the wires and put RJ45 connectors on them then connect them to a switch, or is there something else I need to do?

I have a 2Wire DSL Cable/DSL Modem/Router. A Linksys router (only because I couldn't get laptop to connect to 2Wire's wireless) and Vonage modem.

Here are the pics.....any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!


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## phat78boy

Remove the wires from that panel and then use a crimp tool to put RJ45 ends on them. I'm not sure of your pin layout in the rooms locations, but the most used is the 568B standard. From there you can either put your cable modem and switch/router in that box or use one of your cables as an uplink to a just a switch in that box. Its not too hard, especially if you have a pair tester to help you out for any pair mishaps.

P.S. Any actual phone lines you need, leave hooked up to that panel.


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## one918

Thanks for the fast reply. Stupid question, but it seems a pain to remove the cables that are already attached to the punchdown(?) and put connectors on them, then attach to a switch. 

I noticed there are a few RJ45 jacks in the panel, I cant leave the cables attached to the punchdown and plug in my router/modem using an ethernet cable? Seems as though the punchdown should act as a switch, no? Please keep in mind I'm not knowledgeable at all when it comes to networking...LOL


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## BattleZone

The reason for your problems are that those CAT5 lines are currently connected as phone lines. Normally, you'd run 2 CAT5/6 and 2 coax to each room, which would let you use one CAT5 as phone and one for networking. Since you only have a single cable, you have to make a decision in each room as to which is needed (phone or network). As stated, if you decide you're going to use a line for phone, leave it connected to the punchdown block. If you need it for networking, you'll have to remove it and terminate it.

If it were me, I'd probably buy one of these:










and move my network lines over to it. That way, any further connections, to a switch or whatever, could be made with standard CAT5 jumpers.


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## RAD

An alternative is to 'cheat' and split a pair out of the wire for voice/pots and the two other pair for ethernet. I've done this in two homes and running a 100Mbps/FDX network having no problems at all with it. As I said, this it totally against the 'rules' but it works at least in the two environments I've done it in.


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## smiddy

BattleZone said:


> The reason for your problems are that those CAT5 lines are currently connected as phone lines. Normally, you'd run 2 CAT5/6 and 2 coax to each room, which would let you use one CAT5 as phone and one for networking. Since you only have a single cable, you have to make a decision in each room as to which is needed (phone or network). As stated, if you decide you're going to use a line for phone, leave it connected to the punchdown block. If you need it for networking, you'll have to remove it and terminate it.
> 
> If it were me, I'd probably buy one of these:
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> and move my network lines over to it. That way, any further connections, to a switch or whatever, could be made with standard CAT5 jumpers.


Nice peice of equipment, thanks for sharing!


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## BattleZone

I have several of those in my panel, and they work great and give me maximum flexibility, which is what I wanted. It costs a little more than just putting RJ45's on the end of the cables, but this way I can reconfigure going forward by just changing patch cables, and never having to mess with the structured wiring itself.

It's a habit from work, and one which I got too used to having to go without at home.


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## SayWhat?

BattleZone said:


> The reason for your problems are that those CAT5 lines are currently connected as phone lines. Normally, you'd run 2 CAT5/6 and 2 coax to each room, which would let you use one CAT5 as phone and one for networking. Since you only have a single cable, you have to make a decision in each room as to which is needed (phone or network). As stated, if you decide you're going to use a line for phone, leave it connected to the punchdown block. If you need it for networking, you'll have to remove it and terminate it.


Looks to me like all four pair are laid down properly, so I don't see any reason to reterminate. Jumpers can be made for any cables where normal telephone is needed. Use standard RJ45 patch cables between the router/switch and any computer locations.

----

Looking at it again; are we seeing the whole thing? Are there RJ45 connectors on the other side? If not, I don't understand what that unit is supposed to do.


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## BattleZone

SayWhat? said:


> Looks to me like all four pair are laid down properly, so I don't see any reason to reterminate. Jumpers can be made for any cables where normal telephone is needed. Use standard RJ45 patch cables between the router/switch and any computer locations.
> 
> ----
> 
> Looking at it again; are we seeing the whole thing? Are there RJ45 connectors on the other side? If not, I don't understand what that unit is supposed to do.


The block in question is a phone block, so all of the lines are connected together, meaning all of the white w/blue lines are tied together, and all of the blue w/white lines are tied together, etc. Think of it as a splitter/junction for phone lines. It's also got a RJ31X port for hooking to your alarm system, which allows the alarm to take over the phone line in an emergency. Here's a similar module:










This obviously won't work for Ethernet, which is why you'd need to remove those lines and either install RJ45 connectors or use an Ethernet block as I posted above.


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## SayWhat?

If it's a phone block, it'll have to go unless you want to use some of the cables for telephones. Won't work for computers on a network.


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## phat78boy

The block from the OP is just a phone block, that is why he will have to put ends on the cables he wants for data or get a new block all together. There isn't much of an option with what is shown.


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## RasputinAXP

I hope there's enough slack to reterminate those cables.


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## prazvt

Hey guys! I'm so glad I found this thread - the last 3 years, I haven't been able to figure out how to get the ethernet ports working in the house (or how to use the patch panel). I have the same exact one as the OP. Our house has a 2 rj45 ports per room (1 white, 1 blue), and as such the only difference from the OP is that I have a set of grey cat5 and a set of blue cat 5 cables. A handful of the blue cables were labeled with the rooms (bedrooms), so I managed to put the rj45 plugs on them and 2 of the rooms upstairs now have hard connections (yay!). But I can't figure out which cable goes to the family room, as the only cable marked "Family" is a grey one. But if I connect that to the gigabit switch, and plug in the router / laptop downstairs I get nothing. Right now I've got a mix of wireless/ethernet/powerline networking because our comcast cable connection only comes into the garage. But powerline networking lan speeds suck compared to the gigabit I'm getting now. So I'm trying to eliminate as many powerline adapters as possible (so just 1 in garage and 1 at patch panel). But there's one left in the living room. The Powerline adapters are slowing down the lan speeds (they go up to 200mbps, but realistically only getting 40mbps at the living room - rest of network is gigabit with isolated 100mbit devices on 2 5port gigabit switches). 

So thus far I've just been terminating one cable after another w/ rj45s trying to find the family room connection. There are 2 ports there as well as the cable input (dish network). At one point I accidentally disconnected a blue wire that ended up being a phone line for the kitchen, so I'm a bit confused. 

Otherwise, there are some more grey cables attached to the top portion of the patch panel I haven't tried yet (unmarked). 

Any suggestions on how to find the family room port? 

Thanks for starting this thread! You guys really made my day as I've been wondering about this for literally years lol


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## prazvt

As an update ... I found that a bunch of free cables were looped up into the hole at the top of the patch panel - another one labeled "Family" - added the rj45 and tried but no go .. so just finished putting ends on the 2 unlabeled cables. Hopefully one of them works...otherwise I have no idea how to tap that family room ethernet.


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## BattleZone

http://www.amazon.com/Toner-Tracer-Tester-Generator-Signal/dp/B001MB759U

Something like this is what you need. You connect the square box's alligator clips to the wires on one end of the cable, and the probe will beep anytime it comes close to the energized cable. You can trace the cable along its entire length, or just find the right one at the other end.


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