[SOLVED] Activate Ethernet Ports in House

[brown.kyle727]

My house is pre-wired with ethernet ports all around my house that all come back to the cable box in the guest room closet on the third floor. The ethernet ports around my house are not energized. Right now, my ATT Broadband connection is on the second floor. This is the green cable that connects to the back of my ATT modem/router.

I am trying to figure out the best way to energize the ethernet connections in the cable box. I know that I can install an ethernet switch but that will require an ethernet cable with internet connection plugged into this switch. If I understand correctly, this means that I need the att data cable plugged into the modem, then the ethernet coming out of the modem would be hooked up to the ethernet switch.

My only issue is how to get the att data cable up to the cable box upstairs. There are two blue ethernet cables that enter my house. I'm not sure where these two cables go. They either go directly to cable box (there are two cables labeled service here) or they go directly to the att broadband outlet on my second floor (there are two here as well, one ends in the outlet and the other connects to the back of the outlet and becomes the green data cable).

What options do I have to relocate my ATT modem to the cable box on the third floor? Thanks!

See pictures in the link below:
1). att box outside that enters the back of my house
2). ATT Broadband Outlet that connects to my ATT Router on the second floor
3). Cable box upstairs (currently there's a telephone switch but I would install an ethernet switch)

https://imageshack.com/a/Sa4r7/1

 

[bill001g]

So it appears you have a dsl connection.

Looks like they used one of your ethernet cables as a phone line to carry the signal upstairs.

So the easy way if you have another ethernet wall jack nearby. You hook the one of the router lan ports to this jack. It will lead back to the central closet. You plug that lead as well as all the other ones going to the other rooms into a switch. You have in effect plugged your router into the switch just using a long cable.

Otherwise I might consider removing the splice that goes upstairs and covert the cable back to ethernet. I would put your router in the box along with another switch. You would put a phone plug on the lines going to the ISP wires outside the house and plug that into the router wan port.

If you only need 4 ports active you could plug them direclty into the router lan without a switch.

This is not the optimum place for wifi but you could then put in AP or router running as AP in any room that has poor coverage by connecting it to the wall port.

 

[brown.kyle727]

@bill001g Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, there are no ethernet wall jacks on the second floor. Only on the first and third.

To clarify, you are recommending removing the splice that's set up in my cable box on the third floor and hook this up directly to my att modem/router? First, I'm not positive the two blue att cables that enter my house go directly to my cable box. Is it possible they went directly to the att outlet? Second, would I have to convert the ethernet to a phone line to connect the DSL to my router? Sorry if this doesn't make much sense. I'm learning as I go.

 

[bill001g]

Ethernet and phone line are sorta the same......well phones can use ethernet. Phones only need 1 pair or 2 pair if it is vdsl. Ethernet uses 4 pairs.

I guess it depends on where the blue wires go.

The final pattern ignorning the length of the wires and which are in the the wall and which are direct connect is.

ISP----(wan port)modem/router (lan port)---switch-----end devices.