# New to a pre-wired home



## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

I just moved into a home with some sort of Cat5 pre-wiring for TV, telephone and "data".

Unfortunately, the earlier resident never used it and there are no manuals to help me how to wire my DSL modem and router so that all the jacks in the home have local network access as well as internet access. 

The DirecTV installer was able to check the signals and was able to connect the satellite signal to the required cables. 

I see 8 ports which seem to have "network" jacks only, and not telephone jacks. But I know that at least one of those jacks goes to the bedroom because I was able to plug in the phone wire into the wall connector and get a dial tone. I confirmed that it was not a fluke by unplugging that cable from the control box and realizing that the dial tone had gone. 

Now, I would like to connect a wire from that jack to the DSL modem and then have it connect to the router so that I can have 4 "local network" jacks available to send to the different rooms. Is there a connector or something which will let me go from a "bigger" jack to the "smaller" jack? (RJ45 to RJ11?)

Is that what is needed to get me going?


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## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

Is there an area in your basement where all the lines go? It is a pain in the butt, but you would need to tone test the lines one at a time. There should be a main junction box where the phone lines come in and there should be a punch down for the the network cables, or they are run to one central location for a router/switch/modem.


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

smiddy said:


> Is there an area in your basement where all the lines go? It is a pain in the butt, but you would need to tone test the lines one at a time. There should be a main junction box where the phone lines come in and there should be a punch down for the the network cables, or they are run to one central location for a router/switch/modem.


There is no basement at all, but there may be something in the attic, after which it comes to the control box in the closet in the master bedroom. From the panel in the control box, I cannot figure out much because there seems to be no difference between a telephone outlet and a data outlet, and worse, there seems to be no difference between the data out and data in (maybe by default it works in a "hub" mode?).


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## OverThereTooMuch (Aug 19, 2006)

You should try posting some pics here. Maybe that'll help someone help you figure it out.

I assume you've already tried to get in touch w/ the builder, or have asked a nerdy neighbor if they have any documentation for it?


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## BaldEagle (Jun 19, 2006)

The bigger RJ45 female jacks work with the 4 wire male RJ11's, no adapter is required. The prefered way to do a prewire is to only use RJ45's. That way the plug can be used for phones or network. An RJ11 phone jack will plug right into an RJ45.


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

BaldEagle said:


> The bigger RJ45 female jacks work with the 4 wire male RJ11's, no adapter is required. The prefered way to do a prewire is to only use RJ45's. That way the plug can be used for phones or network. An RJ11 phone jack will plug right into an RJ45.


On the wall jacks in the rooms, I can plug the RJ11 into either jack (there are two provided, presumably for data and phone) and it seems ok. On the control box, on the other hand, when I plug in the RJ11 cable it seems to "sink" into the jack and not "click" into it. From the looks of it, I can't seem to tell if the jack on the control box is different from the jacks on the walls, but looks like they are :-(


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

OverThereTooMuch said:


> You should try posting some pics here. Maybe that'll help someone help you figure it out.
> 
> I assume you've already tried to get in touch w/ the builder, or have asked a nerdy neighbor if they have any documentation for it?


Post the pics of the control box? I can do that. Lemme know if that is what you implied.

I am going to get in touch with the builder today. Nerdy neighbor is a good idea! Thanks!


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

If you have a wired phone available, you can go to the distribution box and identify the jack that has the phone line coming into the box. The distribution panel probably has two rows of jacks and all the phone lines for the rooms plugged into them. If the prewire installer did things properly, he should have identified the lines with a sharpie or labels. Otherwise, you'll have to identify them yourself by unplugging all but one and checking for dial tone at each jack. Do that for each line. Select one jack in each room for phone and one for data, labeling the lines at the box accordingly. Plug only the phone lines into the distribution panel, leaving the data lines to be connected to the router. 
You should have an AC outlet available in the closet to power your DSL modem and router. Run a phone cable from the distribution panel to the modem and a CAT5 cable to the router. You'll need DSL filters on the phone lines. In our house, we have DSL filters at each phone jack.
I've never tried it myself, but you could probably get away with just one DSL filter at the phone input jack at the panel if it's isolated from all other jacks.
DSL filters are absolutely necessary.

Now you can connect the cables from your room data jacks to the router.


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

Cholly said:


> If you have a wired phone available, you can go to the distribution box and identify the jack that has the phone line coming into the box. The distribution panel probably has two rows of jacks and all the phone lines for the rooms plugged into them. If the prewire installer did things properly, he should have identified the lines with a sharpie or labels. Otherwise, you'll have to identify them yourself by unplugging all but one and checking for dial tone at each jack. Do that for each line. Select one jack in each room for phone and one for data, labeling the lines at the box accordingly. Plug only the phone lines into the distribution panel, leaving the data lines to be connected to the router.
> You should have an AC outlet available in the closet to power your DSL modem and router. Run a phone cable from the distribution panel to the modem and a CAT5 cable to the router. You'll need DSL filters on the phone lines. In our house, we have DSL filters at each phone jack.
> I've never tried it myself, but you could probably get away with just one DSL filter at the phone input jack at the panel if it's isolated from all other jacks.
> DSL filters are absolutely necessary.
> ...


Thanks, Cholly for the detailed explanation.

My problem is that apparently the main panel "jacks" are different from the ones on the walls in the rooms. The ones on the walls in the rooms have capability to connect RJ11 or RJ45 with a proper "click" sound when either is inserted. The jacks in the panel look like they only support RJ45 type of connections and as a result when I plugged my telephone RJ11 cable, it did not "click" and my DSL speed/signal was too low.

For now, lets leave that connector problem aside. I anyway connected the RJ11 from the panel to my DSL modem, and the network cable from DSL modem to my linksys router. Where should I connect the router ethernet port output to? I assume back in the panel? If not, do I pick up the cable marked "family room" for example and assume it works both for data as well as phone, and connect it to the router ethernet port?

And coming back to the connector issue, does anyone know of an RJ11-to-RJ45 connector/convertor? I have a jack which accepts only RJ45, and I have a telephone cable with a male RJ11 connector. So what I need is a female RJ11 to male RJ45 "device"  ... Is there such a thing?


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## RandybinSC (Aug 6, 2007)

This is not the danbury homes is it?


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## phat78boy (Sep 12, 2007)

By chance is your control box labled OnQ?


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

RandybinSC said:


> This is not the danbury homes is it?


Nope, they are not. Don't Danbury homes come with fiber connectivity?


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

phat78boy said:


> By chance is your control box labled OnQ?


The control box is QuickNetwork from FutureSmart.


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## RandybinSC (Aug 6, 2007)

lifeislife said:


> Nope, they are not. Don't Danbury homes come with fiber connectivity?


They didn't when I was working on that site


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## Squid7085 (Mar 26, 2008)

So much of that stuff is done differently, depending on the installer and such. I mean, if you have a patch panel or not, ect. Like posted earlier, pictures would be the biggest help. Most people on this board could probably look at a picture and help you out, its much harder to explain when you are talking "Bigger plug" and "smaller plug" and if you were able to accurately describe it, you probably wouldn't be asking the question.  I am guessing each room is wired for Coax, RG11- and RG-45. Or in Laymans terms. Video, Voice, Data. All wired to a central location, "Structured Media System" Again, pictures are worth a thousand words.


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

Squid7085 said:


> So much of that stuff is done differently, depending on the installer and such. I mean, if you have a patch panel or not, ect. Like posted earlier, pictures would be the biggest help. Most people on this board could probably look at a picture and help you out, its much harder to explain when you are talking "Bigger plug" and "smaller plug" and if you were able to accurately describe it, you probably wouldn't be asking the question.  I am guessing each room is wired for Coax, RG11- and RG-45. Or in Laymans terms. Video, Voice, Data. All wired to a central location, "Structured Media System" Again, pictures are worth a thousand words.


I agree, pictures are more than a thousand words. And yes, as I realize it is not as simple as "bigger plug" and "smaller plug" because apparently I see two types of "bigger plugs" 

I will post the pics tonight.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

lifeislife said:


> Thanks, Cholly for the detailed explanation.
> 
> My problem is that apparently the main panel "jacks" are different from the ones on the walls in the rooms. The ones on the walls in the rooms have capability to connect RJ11 or RJ45 with a proper "click" sound when either is inserted. The jacks in the panel look like they only support RJ45 type of connections and as a result when I plugged my telephone RJ11 cable, it did not "click" and my DSL speed/signal was too low.
> 
> ...


You indicated there were two RJ45 jacks in the various rooms. One should be for data and the other for phone under normal circumstances. Actually, both could be for either phone or data, depending on how they are plugged at the panel. 
The easiest way to handle the "no click" problem is to use a female to female RJ45 adapter. Connect a short CAT5 cable from one side to a jack on the panel.
Connect the RJ11 cable from the modem to the DSL output jack of a DSL filter. Connect the RJ11 plug of the DSL filter to the other side of the atapter. All should be well. The DSL filter is necessary.

As to the DSL connections: taking family room as an example -- connect the cable you labeled "family room data" to an output port on your router. Do the same for other rooms.
For telephones: connect the RJ11 cable on the phone to the telephone output jack on a DSL filter. Connect the RJ11 plug on the filter to the room jack labeled telepone. Do this for each wired phone, using a DSL filter for each one.

Hope this clarifies things.


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

The pictures are attached only because I promised I will ... but in the meantime, the "connector" I was looking for, I found it! It is a Cat6 Crossover Extension Cable, which accepted an RJ11 connector on one end and plugged into the "bigger" RJ45 jack on the other. 

IMG55: Jacks on the walls in the rooms ("big jack #1)
IMG56: Jacks on the panel ("big jack #2", which I thought would/should have been the same as #1, but are not)
IMG57: My solution - the crossover extension connector 

So I was able to take the phone line out of the panel, connect it to my DSL modem, send it to my Linksys Router, and then connect one or two rooms' cables to the router. I checked the master bed room with my computer and there was connectivity (yippey!) and no slowness at all (double yippey!). 

Then, without a computer I just took a network cable and plugged it into my HR21-700 and voila, after attempting once unsuccessfully to connect to the home network, it was able to after all! I went to DoD, queued up a few Sesame Street episodes (coincidentally, the same ones that my daughter watched on Comcast) and I am off and running!

Now, the next challenge is to somehow get my Vonage working without using a separate router ;-)


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## Squid7085 (Mar 26, 2008)

Ahh, very nice.  Pretty basic, got all that stuff wired to a central location. The fact that it is not labeled makes me shutter though. I do these kinds of installs and that is a NoNo. :hurah: Either way, it looks like they ran Cat5 on both Voice and Data, presumably making both jacks Data, or even voice, if need be. The only issue with terminating them like this is the need for some kind of "Phone Hub" Either way, seeing as how you figured it out, I need not to confuse you more. But, The fact that it doesn't "Click" isn't always a problem, if all is wired correctly, plugging a phone line into a Cat5 Data run terminated at both ends would work just fine. The RJ-45 "Bigger Plug" is the natural successor, if you will, of the RJ-11 plug, needed those Brown wires I suppose. Anyways, thanks for posting the pictures. And I currently have Vonage without a separate router, we just had to buy the "Phone Adapter" from Linksys.


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

Squid7085 said:


> And I currently have Vonage without a separate router, we just had to buy the "Phone Adapter" from Linksys.


Ahh ... just a phone adapter. Interesting idea. That means I put the vonage/linksys router that I have currently, simply to "route" and put the Vonage phone adapter off any of the wall jacks' internet connection to get me Vonage. Right?

And to be fair to the installer, the cables were in fact marked, but I could not understand which one is telephone and which one is data. Looks like it could be either.

Also, it does look like the jacks on the panel are only incoming telephone wires, and I would need a separate hub/router to connect my DSL/cable modem. That was the other confusion - I really thought the upper set of 4 jacks were telephone and the lower were network. But looks like that may not be true.

Whatever, right now I am just happy to get the dang thing working!


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## Squid7085 (Mar 26, 2008)

lifeislife said:


> Ahh ... just a phone adapter. Interesting idea. That means I put the vonage/linksys router that I have currently, simply to "route" and put the Vonage phone adapter off any of the wall jacks' internet connection to get me Vonage. Right?
> 
> And to be fair to the installer, the cables were in fact marked, but I could not understand which one is telephone and which one is data. Looks like it could be either.
> 
> ...


If you already have a Vonage Linksys router, why don't you just use that as your main router? The only reason we just did the phone adapter was because we had a very expensive Router and figured it would work better than the little $30 Vonage one.


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

Squid7085 said:


> If you already have a Vonage Linksys router, why don't you just use that as your main router? The only reason we just did the phone adapter was because we had a very expensive Router and figured it would work better than the little $30 Vonage one.


If I put the Vonage router in the main panel, I run the risk of reducing the wireless range because the panel is deep inside the closet, and ideally I would like to keep the panel closed.

After about 2 hours of trial-and-error and vigorous searching, I have my setup done.

Control panel -> DSL Modem -> Old linksys router (with wireless disabled) -> 4 rooms

Computer room jack -> New linksys/vonage router -> network printer+wireless+telephone

The only thing that does not seem to be working at the moment is Vonage and I think it is because I have set up the second (new) router getting input from the wall into a LAN port, and not a WAN port. So the router thinks it is not connected to the internet though it is not the case.

I am in fact currently on the wireless internet connectivity provided by that router 

Maybe a tech call to Vonage ain't that bad at 11.45pm


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## Squid7085 (Mar 26, 2008)

lifeislife said:


> If I put the Vonage router in the main panel, I run the risk of reducing the wireless range because the panel is deep inside the closet, and ideally I would like to keep the panel closed.
> 
> After about 2 hours of trial-and-error and vigorous searching, I have my setup done.
> 
> ...


Wouldn't be the way I would do it, but you know, if it works.  Since you have two Cat 5 runs to each room, could you not plug the phone connection of the router into one of the Cat 5 jacks which would feed it to your panel, then you can loop it around to feed the phone jacks? Chances are that made little sense, but judging by your description, you have it hooked up more confusingly (Not a word) than you probably have to. But as I said, if it works! :lol:


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

Squid7085 said:


> Wouldn't be the way I would do it, but you know, if it works.  Since you have two Cat 5 runs to each room, could you not plug the phone connection of the router into one of the Cat 5 jacks which would feed it to your panel, then you can loop it around to feed the phone jacks? Chances are that made little sense, but judging by your description, you have it hooked up more confusingly (Not a word) than you probably have to. But as I said, if it works! :lol:


I am not sure how the loopback would work, so I have not tried it yet. I am still not where I would like, in that the telephone is still being powered by my cordless phone with 2 extensions. Each wall in the home (at least some specific rooms) does not have the Vonage phone service.

For now, just the fact that I can have one router feeding data to 4 rooms and another one feeding wireless IP's and Vonage, both working in unison (so far) is a great step ahead.

I will try to do the loopback exercise before closing up the panel later this week


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## lifeislife (Jul 23, 2004)

lifeislife said:


> I am not sure how the loopback would work, so I have not tried it yet. I am still not where I would like, in that the telephone is still being powered by my cordless phone with 2 extensions. Each wall in the home (at least some specific rooms) does not have the Vonage phone service.
> 
> For now, just the fact that I can have one router feeding data to 4 rooms and another one feeding wireless IP's and Vonage, both working in unison (so far) is a great step ahead.
> 
> I will try to do the loopback exercise before closing up the panel later this week


Just realized ... won't a telephone loopback from Vonage line back into the wall jack be a problem since I have a DSL modem which needs my ATT line?


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## Klaeq (Apr 23, 2008)

phat78boy said:


> By chance is your control box labled OnQ?


I am running into the same issue. My system is in fact an OnQ system. Is there anyway that I can plug my ATT service line (which is coming into the house via CAT5e) into the DSL modem, then plug the output of that modem into my OnQ splitter to go to the rest of the house? I have DSL filters on my phones already, but I would like the option of being able to plug either a computer or a phone into the rooms without have to go back to the OnQ and swap cables around.....


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