Question Activating LAN ports in New Home

[wjday1980]

Hi,

I recently moved into a new house and the network situation is as follows:

In the house, there are 11 LAN ports (+ 2 telephone ports) in the walls of various rooms

In the basement, there are 9 LAN ports (+ 2 telephone ports) all close together

I assume each of the 11 LAN ports in the house is wired to one of the 9 LAN ports in the basement (with 2 spare) but nothing is labelled

When the local ISP installer came, he connected the modem to one of the basement ports and after a lot of trial and error, got the router working in a port in the dining room upstairs, which works fine for WiFi around the house

However, I noticed that my Smart TV in the lounge was buffering when streaming, so bought a 10m network cable to temporarily move the router to the lounge to see if that fixed the issue, which it did.

So ideally, I would like to either (a) hardwire the TV to one of the 3x unused network ports closest to the TV or (b) move the router to that location and run the smart TV over the WiFi

I moved the router next the network ports next to the TV and tried to find the corresponding port in the basement, but the modem fails to sync (I have tried each of the 3x TV ports with each of the 9 basement ports). I have also tried the wall ports in each of the rooms with each of the 9 basement ports but also no joy - the only combination which works is the connection that the ISP installer found

Where am I going wrong?

Many thanks!
William

 

[COLGeek]

Are all of the network cables connected to an ethernet switch of some sort?

 

[wjday1980]

Are all of the network cables connected to an ethernet switch of some sort?

There are port LAN ports in the back of the modem in the basement, so I am directly connecting them to the wall ports.

I don't think I need a switch unless I want to get all the ports in the house working? I only need 2x of them really (the dining room for the WiFi and one for the TV)

 

[COLGeek]

If you have identified the correct cables/ports, you may need to verify that the ports in the rooms (and on the end the router is - what I think you are calling a modem unless it is a combo unit) are wired properly for network use.

Cable modems, is a stand alone device, typically only have a single output port that would attach to your router directly.

What make/model are the devices (modem, router, or combo unit)?

 

[wjday1980]

Hi

Thanks for helping me with this

The upstairs router is an Orbi RBR350
The basement modem is a Chorus fibre box with 4 LAN ports (I was referring to this as a modem in my original post)

I have 3 of the Chorus LAN ports connected to wall ports in the basement.

I thought that if I moved the router around to the different ports in the house then I would eventually find a "matching pair"

 

[COLGeek]

One the ONT (Chorus device) which LAN port is the one that worked? The first one?

When you go from the ONT to the router, you create a network via the router's wired ports and WiFi channels.

Other LAN ports from the ONT would be on a different network segment.

 

[wjday1980]

The wall ports are not labelled but let's call the basement ones A, B, C etc

The combination setup by the ISP installer (the only one which works) is:

ONT LAN 1 -> basement wall port A -> dining room wall port - router

I had (incorrectly?) assumed I would be able to do something like:

ONT LAN 2 -> basement wall B/C/D... -> lounge port -> TV
or
ONT LAN 2 -> basement wall B/C/D... -> lounge port -> router

Is that not possible ? Is there no way I can get the other house ports working?

 

[COLGeek]

You wouldn't be able to do that with most ONTs unless you setup separate networks for each port. If you used a switch to somehow connect those other rooms to the router, that would work.

 

[wjday1980]

Is there anyway i can change the live port in the house from the dining room to the one in the lounge nearest the TV ?

 

[USAFRet]

Is there anyway i can change the live port in the house from the dining room to the one in the lounge nearest the TV ?

We (or I, anyway) really need a drawing of the house config.

What parts are where, and how they do connect, or how you'd like them to connect.

 

[wjday1980]

ok thanks - i don't have a drawing but I'll upload some photos....

 

[wjday1980]

This is the current situation, which provides WiFi throughout the house.

Hopefully this works....

 

[USAFRet]

This is the current situation, which provides WiFi throughout the house.

Hopefully this works....

The "ONT" is the thing mounted to the wall. Pic #1.

Your "router" is the thing laying on the carpet, that is supplying WiFi and the single wired port.
Pic #2.

The yellow ports on the back of that are LAN ports.

To supply a wired ethernet signal to the rest of the house, all you need is a low cost 8 port switch.

ONT -> router -> switch -> all those ports in the wall, which hopefully lead to all your rooms.

 

[thestryker]

You can test every port the way you were, but as was already said the ONT doesn't act as a switch so usually only one port works. If you wanted to test with the router you'd have to go through and use the one cable and keep changing where it was plugged in.

 

[wjday1980]

Thanks - picture 1 & 2 are of the same thing, i just took it off the wall to show you the back

Pic 4 is the wireless router I have upstairs

So at the moment, it's

ONT LAN 1 -> basement wall port A -> dining room wall port - router

If I just want to change the single wall port upstairs that works, from the one in the dining room (pic 3) to one behind the TV (pic 5), will I still need a switch for that ?

 

[USAFRet]

In Pic #2, what is the thing at the top of the image? With the green connector going into the bottom?

 

[USAFRet]

ONT LAN 1 -> basement wall port A -> dining room wall port - router

The "router" needs to be the thing that serves all those wall ports.

Router -> switch -> wall ports.

It looks as if you might have 2 devices serving the "router" function.
The one in Pic 1 & 2, doing WiFi, and the one in pic 4.

This is not good or optimal.

(this is why a drawing is much preferable)

 

[wjday1980]

In Pic #2, what is the thing at the top of the image? With the green connector going into the bottom?

It's connecting the ONT to a small box which I presume is where the fibre cable in entering the house from the street

Top Picture

 

[wjday1980]

The "router" needs to be the thing that serves all those wall ports.

Router -> switch -> wall ports.

It looks as if you might have 2 devices serving the "router" function.
The one in Pic 1 & 2, doing WiFi, and the one in pic 4.

This is not good or optimal.

(this is why a drawing is much preferable)

I'm not sure the Chorus ONT box has wifi enabled, I think it just acts as the entry point for the cable connection from the street?

All the wifi lights are off

See bottom photo

 

[wjday1980]

You can test every port the way you were, but as was already said the ONT doesn't act as a switch so usually only one port works. If you wanted to test with the router you'd have to go through and use the one cable and keep changing where it was plugged in.

Yes, I tried keeping everything in the basement the same (i.e. the working configuration) and moving the router around the different data points in the house but didn't work :-(

 

[thestryker]

Yes, I tried keeping everything in the basement the same (i.e. the working configuration) and moving the router around the different data points in the house but didn't work :-(

The way I'd do it would be plug the router in where you want a connection and then go to the basement and start plugging the cable into the ports until you figure out which one it is. Then of course that that opportunity to label the port/write down where it goes to.

 

[wjday1980]

yeah that was my first approach to do it but none of them worked

So a bit stumped now !

 

[lantis3]

OP seems to own this model. With 2.4G & 5G wifi and 4 LAN ports

https://www.chorus.co.nz/q/model-type-400

On the page it says:

Check that your ethernet cable (that connects to your modem) is in the correct LAN port. Your email from your broadband provider should tell you the correct port to use. It is usually LAN port 1.​

​

Residential Gateway (RGW) capabilities​

​

This ONT can also turn into a residential gateway (RGW) with WiFi capability. Check with your broadband provider if your ONT is set up in RGW mode to provide WiFi. If it is, you can plug network items directly into the ONT, such as your PC.​

​

 

[wjday1980]

Yes, that's the one

I understand that if I want all ports to work then I would need a switch but I don't understand if I wanted just one port to work, how to swap if from the dining room to the lounge

 

[thestryker]

yeah that was my first approach to do it but none of them worked

So a bit stumped now !

That's really weird and makes me wonder how it's wired up because it should at the very least give you a link. You could purchase something to test the jacks, but what you were doing really should accomplish the same thing.