[SOLVED] Ethernet port patch panel help

[Racd7]

Hi I’m a networking newbie so I’ll take as much explanation as possible. I moved to a new apartment that has Ethernet ports in each room. My modem/router is in the living room and is plugged via coax cable. I have a patch panel in a closet (pic) that looks like the Ethernet cables are punched down in.
My question is how can I utilize these Ethernet ports.
Do I need a switch at the patch panel? And where does it connect to for my router ?

Thank you for any help! I’m so confused and YouTube makes it look so simple, I haven’t seen any that the router is not in the patch panel closet.

https://imgur.com/a/sEAD4bN

View: https://imgur.com/a/sEAD4bN

 

[kanewolf]

Hi I’m a networking newbie so I’ll take as much explanation as possible. I moved to a new apartment that has Ethernet ports in each room. My modem/router is in the living room and is plugged via coax cable. I have a patch panel in a closet (pic) that looks like the Ethernet cables are punched down in.
My question is how can I utilize these Ethernet ports.
Do I need a switch at the patch panel? And where does it connect to for my router ?

Thank you for any help! I’m so confused and YouTube makes it look so simple, I haven’t seen any that the router is not in the patch panel closet.

https://imgur.com/a/sEAD4bN

View: https://imgur.com/a/sEAD4bN

The blue cables look like they could be for ethernet. The white cables are for phone.
You would need to plug an ethernet switch into the RJ45 ports on the blue patch. Somehow you have to get ethernet from your primary router to this point. If your router is sitting next to this box, then it is easy. If it is in a room, then you would have to use one of the blue cables to get the network to this point and send it to the other blue cable ports.
There are no labels on any of the cables. That is something you need to correct also.
With in-wall cabling, I recommend getting a simple tester like this -- https://www.amazon.com/Klein-VDV526-052-Scout-Junior-Tester/dp/B004CI9NRM
To help trace your cables, they also make a kit like this -- https://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-VDV501-852-Tester-Locates/dp/B08BDBB983/ It has multiple "numbered" remote connectors. You connect them to different ports and then at the patch panel you use the main unit to see which number is connected to which port.

 

[SamirD]

Hi I’m a networking newbie so I’ll take as much explanation as possible. I moved to a new apartment that has Ethernet ports in each room. My modem/router is in the living room and is plugged via coax cable. I have a patch panel in a closet (pic) that looks like the Ethernet cables are punched down in.
My question is how can I utilize these Ethernet ports.
Do I need a switch at the patch panel? And where does it connect to for my router ?

Thank you for any help! I’m so confused and YouTube makes it look so simple, I haven’t seen any that the router is not in the patch panel closet.

https://imgur.com/a/sEAD4bN

View: https://imgur.com/a/sEAD4bN

You're lucky your apartment complex has the cable pre-terminated to Ethernet--one of ours had it terminated to phone and I had to re-terminate them to a Ethernet block.

You could put a switch in the patch panel and then connect it to your router, or you could just move your router into your panel box, which is what we did. It is a bit of a tight squeeze, but there is a power outlet there to make it possible. If the door to your box is plastic, you won't lose as much wifi signal as you would think, and you won't lose as much as you think even if it's metal as I'm assuming the apartment is the standard boxes being built today and is under 1000sq ft, correct?

The bigger problem you can run into with wifi is that all your neighbors signals will bleed into yours saturating the airwaves. We had over 100 (that's right, one hundred), AP signals in our own apartment, many stronger than even our own caused mainly by the xfinity hotspots and hidden hotspots on every single neighbor's connection. Just 30 neighbors was 90 APs. 😳

The congestion caused our wifi speeds to be 1/2 of what they were originally when we moved in and there was almost no one at the complex. After messing with it for weeks and the wife complaining, I just upped the package so that the wifi was back to the same speeds again. I was always running wired so I never had issues. Having jacks everywhere like that is awesome!

 

[bill001g]

You just need to think of the patch panel as simple ethernet cables and pretend it your house is huge open room with the wires run over the floor.

The path always goes ISP--modem/router---switch---end devices. Since I suspect your internet comes in via coax you could likely relocate your modem/router to this panel. But it will work fine no matter where it is in the house as long as it has a internet connection. The difference is do you run a short cable between the router and the switch in the panel or do you run a long cable from say your living room to the panel and connect it to the switch.

So maybe the simplest thing without overthinking this is. Buy a 8 port switch and put in in the panel. Buy 8 short patch cables and hook all the port to the switch. Now go to the room where the router is and plug a cable between the wall port and a LAN port on the router.

If all goes well you now have live internet on all the jacks in your house.

....a note on the photo. Although there is a very good reason they likely did this it can be confusing if you are not careful. In the patch panel you will see they connected the green pair of wires to the orange connectors and orange wires to green connector. Rather than explain this if everything works fine just ignore it but remember if you in the future if you attempt any wiring changes.

 

[Racd7]

Thanks so much I got it all working!

 

[SamirD]

Thanks so much I got it all working!

Sweet! What exactly did you do?

 

[Racd7]

Sweet! What exactly did you do?

I got a switch and a couple short CAT 6/RJ45 cables from the switch to plug into the patch panel. Found the port in the patch panel that went to my modem/router Ethernet wall port in the living room. Then trial and errored each other patch port to find the three Ethernet ports I needed.

 

[SamirD]

I got a switch and a couple short CAT 6/RJ45 cables from the switch to plug into the patch panel. Found the port in the patch panel that went to my modem/router Ethernet wall port in the living room. Then trial and errored each other patch port to find the three Ethernet ports I needed.

Solid. That was quick and easy. 😀