Ethernet wiring is not working correctly

[hassange]

My house has a bunch of ethernet cables running from a central point (let's call it Point A) to a bunch of rooms. I'm trying to connect my router, which is at Point A, to a couple other rooms via ethernet. There are several things I'm confused about, but I believe they're all related.

First of all, I'm confused about the wire order. The cables at Point A are sticking out of the wall without connectors (picture attached), so I bought a crimper and some ethernet connectors and tried crimping the connectors onto the cables. This didn't work to my disappointment, so I took a look at the ethernet ports in the other rooms (the other end of all the cables leaving Point A), and I found something odd: there was a single cable reaching each room and it was split into two ports, four wires going to one port and the other four going to a second port. I looked up how to split an ethernet cable, and I found that you're supposed to put wires in pins 1, 2, 3, and 6 of each port. However, the wires in all the rooms were not done this way. There were wires going to pins 3, 4, 5, and 6 of each port. I tried just plugging something in to make sure that wouldn't work, and it didn't.

I unplugged the wires in the ports and rewired them in the T-568B order, according to the label on the port, and tried again. Still no luck.

So I thought maybe the problem is that I crimped the connectors at Point A incorrectly, so I went to a hardware store and bought those same wall ports for ethernet cables and wired them up, as pictured. I also used the T-568B order, as in the other rooms. It still didn't work.

Just to be clear: in all of the methods I tried above, I did not get an internet connection on the device I was trying. I tried this on an HP laptop, and on my PC, which has an Asus Z170-A motherboard. My router is an Apple Time Capsule 4th generation.

Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[kanewolf]

Your house was wired for phone at the far ends. Phones use the 4 center connectors for two phone lines.

You probably need to buy a tester -- https://www.amazon.com/Klein-VDV526-052-Scout-Junior-Tester/dp/B004CI9NRM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1455461789 to allow you to verify that all 8 cables are connected and in the correct order. It will also help you verify that you have both ends of the same cable.

 

[BuddhaSkoota]

I doesn't appear the wires are seated properly in the connector. Are you using a punchdown tool on the wires?

 

[hassange]

Your house was wired for phone at the far ends. Phones use the 4 center connectors for two phone lines.

You probably need to buy a tester -- https://www.amazon.com/Klein-VDV526-052-Scout-Junior-Tester/dp/B004CI9NRM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1455461789 to allow you to verify that all 8 cables are connected and in the correct order. It will also help you verify that you have both ends of the same cable.

Okay I just bought this tool, and all the cables seem to be disconnected. That can't be good.

 

[hassange]

I doesn't appear the wires are seated properly in the connector. Are you using a punchdown tool on the wires?

What I used was not nearly as impressive, I used this little thing that came with the port:

How are the wires supposed to look?

 

[kanewolf]

The plastic punch-down tool is acceptable. You will have to connect the tester in the room and go to the common area and, one at a time short two wires from a cable until you find the other end.

 

[hassange]

The plastic punch-down tool is acceptable. You will have to connect the tester in the room and go to the common area and, one at a time short two wires from a cable until you find the other end.

I tried that, and what happens is when I connect it to the wiring in the room, it gives me this error:

According to the manual, it says that means there's too much voltage on at least one of the wires (or something to that effect). Guessing it shouldn't be doing that?

 

[kanewolf]

Your room wires are connected to a phone patch somewhere. Phone wires have voltage on them.

 

[hassange]

Your room wires are connected to a phone patch somewhere. Phone wires have voltage on them.

Just checked, and there are two wires leaving the house and connecting to this phone panel outside. But there are seven rooms with phone/ethernet ports, so I'm not sure where all of those are going. Could they all be connected to the same outgoing cable?

 

[kanewolf]

Your room wires are connected to a phone patch somewhere. Phone wires have voltage on them.

Just checked, and there are two wires leaving the house and connecting to this phone panel outside. But there are seven rooms with phone/ethernet ports, so I'm not sure where all of those are going. Could they all be connected to the same outgoing cable?

Yes. (unfortunately). You have to do some more digging. Attic ?

 

[hassange]

Your room wires are connected to a phone patch somewhere. Phone wires have voltage on them.

Just checked, and there are two wires leaving the house and connecting to this phone panel outside. But there are seven rooms with phone/ethernet ports, so I'm not sure where all of those are going. Could they all be connected to the same outgoing cable?

Yes. (unfortunately). You have to do some more digging. Attic ?

To be honest, I'm feeling like I'm in over my head lol. I just went up to the attic, and it seems like all the cables are just going from the rooms to the living room (Point A, where all the cables seem to terminate). I thought I would see some wires sticking out and maybe twisted around other wires, or maybe terminated and connected to a splitter. But I didn't see anything like that, just cable running from each room to a central place.

There are several cables at Point A which have only four wires inside, and my brother thought that maybe each of those two cables are fused into a single Cat5 cable, and that seems like a possibility. But that wouldn't explain the voltage in the other rooms.

Anyway, I'll keep looking, thanks for you help!

 

[jsmithepa]

As mentioned, and this happens often, just because you see CAT5 cables doesn't mean the prior owner had ethernet. CAT5 is often used, and wired for landline because they are more readily available than old CAT3 used for landlines.

If you have no landline service and/or DSL service, the first thing you should do is the break the connection(s) coming from the outside, so you don't get this voltage stuff when hooking up your tester.

The next thing you should do, and there is no easy way to do this unless they are labeled, TRACE the cables one at a time. By TRACing I mean simple continuity test, say you are tracing a single pair of cables, you short one end, and on the other end you place your 2 probe tips on the 2 wires and you should get a tone if that is the cable you are working on. The signal leave one probe, traverses the length, makes a turn at the short you made, comes back the other way to the other probe's tip.

All these stuff is trivial to most of us but if you never done this, it could be... well you may need to call somebody.

 

[hassange]

As mentioned, and this happens often, just because you see CAT5 cables doesn't mean the prior owner had ethernet. CAT5 is often used, and wired for landline because they are more readily available than old CAT3 used for landlines.

If you have no landline service and/or DSL service, the first thing you should do is the break the connection(s) coming from the outside, so you don't get this voltage stuff when hooking up your tester.

The next thing you should do, and there is no easy way to do this unless they are labeled, TRACE the cables one at a time. By TRACing I mean simple continuity test, say you are tracing a single pair of cables, you short one end, and on the other end you place your 2 probe tips on the 2 wires and you should get a tone if that is the cable you are working on. The signal leave one probe, traverses the length, makes a turn at the short you made, comes back the other way to the other probe's tip.

All these stuff is trivial to most of us but if you never done this, it could be... well you may need to call somebody.

Thank you jsmithepa and kanewolf for your help! I unplugged the cables from the phone patch outside, and I'm no longer having the voltage issue. Now though, the tester is indicating that I have only two wire connected of the eight. Not sure why that is. I'm pretty sure you need at least four for phone, so there must be a mistake somewhere.

Also, strangely, if I don't have anything connected to the other side (in any of the other rooms), it says I have two wires connected, but they're two different wires.

This is what I get when I have the other end of the tester connected to the other end of the wire:

But when I don't have anything connected, it says "4 5" instead of "3 6". I'm guessing my wires are switched, but it seems the more pressing problem is that there is anything at all when nothing is connected. Any ideas as to what could be causing this?

 

[jsmithepa]

Am not absolutely sure but looks like we have come to point where something else is going on with your wirings, is not straightforward Point A to Rooms, otherwise you wouldn't getting these strange readings. The cables can be spliced somewhere else, and finding where those splices are, if they are not hidden behind walls will be your challenge.

If this was a Point A to Room, un-spliced cables, this should be very straightforward, there is no magic, wires are not magic, you are simply doing continuity, fancy word for yes/no connection. Unless what you have is not straightforward Point A to rooms.

 

[hassange]

Am not absolutely sure but looks like we have come to point where something else is going on with your wirings, is not straightforward Point A to Rooms, otherwise you wouldn't getting these strange readings. The cables can be spliced somewhere else, and finding where those splices are, if they are not hidden behind walls will be your challenge.

If this was a Point A to Room, un-spliced cables, this should be very straightforward, there is no magic, wires are not magic, you are simply doing continuity, fancy word for yes/no connection. Unless what you have is not straightforward Point A to rooms.

Yeah, it appears so. I'll try to find if the cables are spliced somewhere tonight when I get home. Thanks again for you help!