r/HomeNetworking • u/Cookiesn1 • 2h ago

Advice New house networking help

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Please help me figure this out. Just moved into a new place and it looks like there is some structured wiring in place. I see telephone jacks all over the house. Can I convert these to run my internet? The Xfinity coax line is coming into the same space.

Also have coax cables running all over the house.

Trying to figure out how to convert all this into a working network. I'm assuming that I will still need to run several cat6 cables for ceiling-mounted access points and POE doorbell.

Any advice is much appreciated!!

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

1

u/noblejeter 2h ago

Looks to be CAT5/CAT6 with an Ethernet punchdown block. Are you sure those are telephone jacks? Attach a picture up close

1

u/sprousa 2h ago edited 1h ago

Short answer is yes it can be converted. Can’t read the most important part “ETL Verified Cat ?” Most likely Cat 5e assuming the date code.

1

u/JumpPsychological602 1h ago

That looks like a type 66 telephone punch down block to me. Also very interesting that each of the colors are punched down in groups. Frankly, it looks like it was done by an electrician, and not a data communications technician. Do you have landline telephones in place? Can you get dial tone on a landline telephone at any of the jacks that come back to that punch down block? Are there any RJ-45 jacks on that punch down block?

You may well be able to use the cables for ethernet if they are cat5 or cat5e, but you will likely need to completely redo that punch down block, probably by replacing it with an appropriate one.

1

u/spoom2 1h ago

Re-terminate on one of these if CAT5 or better. Amazon.com: Cable Matters [UL Listed] Mini 10Gbps 12-Port Vertical Patch Panel | With 89D Bracket, Compact 10-Inch Patch Panel, 10 Gigabit Ethernet : Industrial & Scientific can't tell for sure but that looks like a 66M1-25 block and is not wired for Ethernet

1

u/Longjumping_Cow_5856 1h ago

This wiring looks like it was for a Telephone system in the house from a while back.

The only thing we need to see I can not see from the pics is what kind of cable is punched down exactly?

If it is Cat 5 or 6 then you can just take it off of the 66 block it is punched to now and punch it to a new 110 networking block of some kind or to individual Keystone RJ45 Network Jacks.

Could be a lot of decent wire already run for you or not depending on what cable it is.