New Home - Provided with Network Switch but not sure how to proceed?

[Grandpaonfire]

Hey everyone, I have problem optimising the current setup in my home regarding a pre-installed ethernet network switch and would really appreciate some expert insight into the best way to connect up my internet. I have looked into wiring up similar networks however I am not the most "tech-savvy" individual and can't quite find the method that would suit my situation best. I have uploaded a photographs of the hardware via Imgur to aid with the description:

http://imgur.com/a/lyPuI

As it says in the title I have just moved home and the property seems to already have a Cat-5e network wired through the house. There is what appears to be a switch located in a small storage room beside the master telephone socket. This wires through the house to 12 ethernet ports located in various rooms with corresponding numbers on the switch and each port. BT installed infinity broadband last week but the engineer had no idea how to arrange everything to correspond with the already arranged hardware. This has left me unsure as to how to approach wiring up the BT Home Hub 5 to work across all the ethernet ports in each room.

The engineer placed a filter onto the socket and connected the home hub into the phone line. I have a "gaming computer" wired with a cat-6 into the home hub currently running down the hallway into the home hub and it is also providing wireless connection to a few tables/phone/laptops etc. The BT television he also installed must be hooked up to the internet through a wired connection, he did this through the switch at port number 7 (which you can see in the attached image links). On a side note the aerial is also routed through this box into a signal booster and then subsequently into three aerial ports, you can see this booster in the second and third images lying under the switch.

What I really want to know is, am I able to empower all the ethernet ports by connecting the hub to one particular port on the switch? Or do i have to connect them up individually? Cause there are 12 ethernet ports on the switch and only 4 on the home hub.

There is unfortunately no brand name on the switch to allow me to look at particular installation guides and no instructions were left by the previous owner as to how their internet was setup.

Any advice would be met with immense gratitude and appreciation, thank you kindly for taking the time to read my post.

Regards,

Thomas
Glasgow
UK

 

[kanewolf]

After I scrolled down enough I saw the "switch". What I believe you have is a patch panel NOT a swtich. A patch panel is just a place that wires come together. A switch has electronics to tie them all together.

You can purchase an additional switch hook all the patch plugs to a switch and then hook the BT router to that switch with a single wire. Something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704131 would let you hook 7 ports up with one connection to the BT router. To hook up the 8th port you could go directly from the router with a second cable.

 

[DeadlyDays]

if it is a dumb switch then you just plug it into any port and everything plugging into the switch should see it as long as they are all on the same subnet. you may want a device to provide DHCP service to devices that don't have static IP's, unless that "home hub" provides DHCP service in which case you are good.

A dumb switch is just that, there is no management, it doesn't have an IP, it does nothing but hook things together essentially(it may have some features like collision prevention, but nothing that will interfere with your network)

 

[Solandri]

Yeah, that looks like a patch panel. Basically, each of those ports connects to an ethernet cable embedded in the walls of the house going to the different rooms. They're helpfully labeled so you won't have to go through the trouble of figuring out which port goes to which room.

So just buy a switch - 8-port or 16-port depending on if you think you'll only be using the network in a few rooms or 8+ rooms. Place the switch underneath the patch panel (what you're calling a hub - don't call it that, hub means something else in network terminology and you'll confuse anyone trying to help you at the store if you say that).

I can't tell from your pics if the BT router is in the same location as the patch panel. If it is, then that gives you 3 extra ports (the 4th needs to plug into the switch you just bought). If it isn't, then plug it into the network port in the wall of that room. Note the number of the wall port. Go back to the patch panel, plug an ethernet cable from that number on the patch panel into the switch you just bought. That does the equivalent of plugging the BT router into the switch.

You can now plug additional ethernet cables from the switch into the patch panel for the rooms where you want the wall network ports to be "live". If the BT router is in the same room as the patch panel, you can use the ports on it to plug into the patch panel (meaning if you only need 3 wall ports to be "live" you don't need to buy an additional switch). If the BT router is in another room, you can use the ports on it to plug in devices (like a smart TV).

If a room only has one network port and you need to plug in multiple devices, you'll have to buy a switch for that room. Plug a cable from wall to the switch. Then plug the devices into the switch.

 

[DeadlyDays]

Solandri is going to be the best answer if that is a patch panel. I agree with him, get a switch if that is a patch panel and hook everything from the patch panel to the switch.

 

[Grandpaonfire]

Thank you kindly for the prompt and full feedback!

Thanks Kanewolf and Deadly Days for identifying that it is a Patch Panel, now knowing what the hell it is i've got is a great help in figuring how to set it up. The clueless BT engineer told me it was a Network Switch, so gives you another reason to be skeptical about BT's competency as an ISP!

Awesome I am beholden to you Solandri for your extensive interpretation of the problem. My apologies if I was unclear, I was referring to the "BT Home Hub Router" when i said "Hub", to the now apparent Patch Panel when i said "switch". From your feedback it sounds really easily to get things hooked up like they should be, I will buy a switch and install it and from the sounds of things, then I'm expecting I will be good to go.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out with this, hope I can pass on this newfound knowledge to someone else in need.



Thomas