New Home - and pre-existing Cat 5e

[werds]

So finally got out of renting and picked up the keys to a 2 story home that is only 5 years old. While in the house today I took a look at the wiring to try and figure out the best way to setup or run cat6 (which I have plenty of spools of!)

But while poking around noticed that from the outside box the telephone cable was connected to Cat 5e!!!! As I poked around each telephone jack in the house I noticed they all had their own individual run of Cat 5e running to them and all the unused strands were wrapped around the Cat 5e tucked in the wall

So in the garage I found an OnQ enclosure installed inside the wall and opening it up found this mess of network wires with ALL the strands apparently wired up already... (see the flickr album below for some cellphone shots of what I speak of)

https://flic.kr/p/vvjepE

So my plan...errr desired outcome... Each room plus the living room (total 5 rooms) will have an Xbox 360 to run TV duties - in each room there is a phone outlet (and I already have wall plates and the necessary snap ins to convert them into rj45 jacks) that will become ethernet outlets. So each room has a home run of cat 5e but they all run into the enclosure in the garage and are connected to errrm that panel inside it. The main HTPC and internet connection will be in a downstairs computer/office room. TV and internet incoming through COAX.

In the crude drawing below (not remotely to scale) is the general setup of the outlets (colored ovals) with the one in the garage (green oval) being the OnQ panel. So right now would I need to do anything to get the all the outlets to work as a proper network (after wiring each RJ45 correctly anyways). Can I just plunk the HTPC and Internet behind a switch in the office/computer room and run an ethernet to the red wall jack that connects the rest of the house ethernet and be good?

Or do I need to do something to the "panel" wiring that is inside the OnQ panel? Like maybe get a patch panel or setup an actual physical powered network switch inside the garage? I want to avoid having to run any powered items in the garage (mostly because it is not an air conditioned space) but if that is the only way to make this function I will do so... I know I can spend the time and/or money to run dedicated cat 6 the way I want, but I am attempting to set this up as simple and quickly as possible for NOW - so that we can get moved in and enjoy the house right away (the wife does not enjoying suffering through downtime just because I am messing with hardware lol)

I think I know the answers or what I need to do but wanted to see everyone elses thoughts that have more experience than I do with this stuff!

Thanks!

PS I am assuming that I will need to purchase a mini patch panel like this one http://www.amazon.com/Legrand-AC1000-Ne ... ywords=onq connect 4 of the rooms through the patch, run patch cables from those 4 to a network switch. The cable from the computer/office room would have to be terminated with an RJ45 cable and then plug that cable into a network switch - leaving all 5 connected into a network switch (or I could go the inelegant route and terminate all 5 cables with RJ45 and plug them all into a 5 port gigabit switch)

[dkrom]

Your PS looks good to get you going. The only problem would be making sure you get switches and not multiport routers - basically you DON'T want DHCP on more than one device or your extenders will not see the HTPC. DHCP should only be turned on in one device so all ip addresses will be on the same network.

[werds]

Your PS looks good to get you going. The only problem would be making sure you get switches and not multiport routers - basically you DON'T want DHCP on more than one device or your extenders will not see the HTPC. DHCP should only be turned on in one device so all ip addresses will be on the same network.

Thanks for the confirmation, saw that Lowes down the road had that patch panel in stock so picking it up and will use that and an 8 port gigabit switch, should tie everything together nicely I guess!

[bob_p]

If all of the Cat5e cables are terminated with connectors inside the panel, you don't need a patch panel - you can plug those connectors directly into a gigabit switch.

You won't be able to avoid having a powered device in your garage - since that's where you'll need the switch. Though depending upon how hot your garage is - you may be able to keep the switch inside the closed panel.

Would recommend you get at least a surge protector for the switch - and probably for the other devices that are connected on your network, otherwise if you get a power surge, you run a risk of that getting passed through your network - and at least damaging the switch.

[werds]

If all of the Cat5e cables are terminated with connectors inside the panel, you don't need a patch panel - you can plug those connectors directly into a gigabit switch.

You won't be able to avoid having a powered device in your garage - since that's where you'll need the switch. Though depending upon how hot your garage is - you may be able to keep the switch inside the closed panel.

Would recommend you get at least a surge protector for the switch - and probably for the other devices that are connected on your network, otherwise if you get a power surge, you run a risk of that getting passed through your network - and at least damaging the switch.

Hmmm yea, i have to figure that part out (surge protection) as the only outlet near that panel is a GFI, so I can't/shouldn't cover it up with one of those outlet mounted surge protectors I assume. Guess I would have to wall mount a separate surge suppressor then huh?

Thanks for that reminder btw!

[LuckyDay]

Is the GFI outlet near the panel because the outlet is susceptible to moisture or because it doesn't contain a ground?

[DavidinCT]

Congrads on the new home. Are you sure all those Cat 5e cables are home runs ? A common thing with Phone lines is they meet in a wall someplace and they tie them together. I have seen this so many times (did custom home theaters for a few years, You name it I have seen it).

Over all, it sounds like your doing it right, just will take a little time to do if you have a bunch to go through and finding what cable goes where. If you have the right tools it should go smooth.

[kingwr]

Is the GFI outlet near the panel because the outlet is susceptible to moisture or because it doesn't contain a ground?

The GFCI outlet is near the panel because it's in the garage - that's code in most places.

[LuckyDay]

Is the GFI outlet near the panel because the outlet is susceptible to moisture or because it doesn't contain a ground?

The GFCI outlet is near the panel because it's in the garage - that's code in most places.

Yeah, I guess my point is, as long as there is a ground wired to the GFCI then there should be no problem plugging a surge protector into that outlet.

Whether that GFCI is prone to tripping would be the real question.

[werds]

Congrads on the new home. Are you sure all those Cat 5e cables are home runs ? A common thing with Phone lines is they meet in a wall someplace and they tie them together. I have seen this so many times (did custom home theaters for a few years, You name it I have seen it).

Over all, it sounds like your doing it right, just will take a little time to do if you have a bunch to go through and finding what cable goes where. If you have the right tools it should go smooth.

Thanks everyone for the responses... sorry I didn't check back in sooner but summer with the kids and getting lost unpacking boxes took me away from finishing verifying the network setup
all the switches connect as if the network is gig-e. (lights indicate as such). Xboxes seem to be much faster and responsive as extenders. Hard to tell though if there are any major wiring faults though since I don't have any laptop with gig ethernet port and the xboxes are 10/100 ports. (and the network speed tool in the Xbox dashboard is useless as download never seems to be faster than 11mb/s

But yep all the cat5e cables were home runs, I setup a pair of patch panels in the OnQ enclosure (one for upstairs and one for downstairs) - shoved a small 8 port unmanaged switch in the enclosure and ended up powering them all through a shelf mounted surge protector The wife is happy that she can now watch her shows without ridiculous lag when in certain rooms that were not on MoCa at the old residence.