Posted: 11/11/2009 12:38:25 PM EDT
| Anyone know how to wire this stuff? I had it put in instead of phone wire when I built my house. I have some questions on how I could get hardwired to my modem to hook up live on my xbox 360. Basically, my modem is in an upstairs office/bedroom. All the cat5 wire leads from the outlets in individual rooms to the subbasement, which is near my living room. But the ends in the basement are all hanging in one spot, not connected to anything, we never had phone service installed. So my question is, can I get that outlet in the office hooked into the modem, then wire the other end in the basement to the xbox? How would I know which one goes to which room? There are 7 or 8. Who would I hire to do that kind of work? |
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So...you had your house wired for cat 5, which is some really awesome geek-cred. But, then you didn't have them label the cables or put in a router or switch? So, that offsets the geek-cred and puts you back to Silly End User status.
Uh...well. without seeing it, it's hard to know what you need. But, it sounds like at the very least you need one of the niffty cat 5 cable testers, maybe a switch, and some ends. Where in MO are you? A lot of us are tech guys, hopefully one of us is nearby and can help you out. |
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South Lees Summit area. And yeah, I'm almost totally clueless when it comes to tech stuff. I did plug in my XBOX all by myself though. LOL
ETA- To the best of my knowledge, it's wired for phone now. So assume that each outlet only has like three of the wires connected to a phone jack, and those run to the basement, where they are all bare and just hanging in one massive clump. |
ArinKCMO is on the money. You'd need a toner to see which lines go where and which are what. If you're brave you can use a 9v battery and find out the hard way  . I do not recommend this method. Once you figure out what goes where you can then setup a router or switch. If all of your wires terminate in the basement you might want to think about moving the modem and router to where that is. Will be much easier although may not be as convenient if you have to reset your modem or router. Where are you in MO. I have CAT5 crimpers and you can buy the ends online or at Bestbuy. Definately buy the CAT5 wall plates online. They are much cheaper than what you will probably find locally. Hope this helps.
JestersHK |
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Home depot actually carries everything you need, locally you could also go to Electronics Supply down on Main (39th street & main I think). I assume your cable lines will come in the basement close to where all the Cat 5 cables are hanging, so disconnect the one that goes to the modem assuming it isn't split upstairs for a TV and run a short cable to the modem in the basement. Get a router (wireless or not is your call) but you need one with multiple ethernet ports most have 4 or 5 along with at least 4 cat5 or 6 cables (you likely won't see a benefit from the Cat6 cables but often are only a few cents difference). Also get a small patch panel for all those dangly wires in the basement.
So basically the shopping list will be router (assuming you don't have one) single port wall plates, patch panel, some jacks for those wall plates, and however many pre-made cables you need. Lots of the jacks come with a little tool and the color code to punch them down, you can spend some money but save your fingers by buying a spring loaded punch down tool which will also clip off the extra bit of wire when you punch down the jacks. |
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Quoted:
you could buy a router and a switch and have the whole house wired for internet for 100-150$$$. I'm assuming you have more than just an Xbox you want online, at lease without having to switch calbes constantly. Actually, my laptop is setup wirelessly. I was just thinking it would be better to have the xbox hardwired. So, conceivably, I could get the modem ran to the outlet in the office, then extend that line that ends in the basement to the living room? That way I'd only be dealing with one CAT5 line and no additional hardware. I'm thinking it would basically be the same as running a cord through the entire house, but I'd be using the one thats already inside the walls. |
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cyberguys.com is a great, cheap source for all that stuff. Wall plates, cat5, electronic tools, etc.
Like Harbor Freight, you can get a whole trunk full of stuff for under $100. EDIT: Make sure you google for coupon codes.....they always have some promotion going for disocunted shipping or "5 off 50" deals. |
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You guys are a lark. Need toners and what not.
1 go back and wire all jacks in rooms to have all 4 pairs on the jacks. 2 install plugs on all wires. 3 purchase your router. 4 move the modem down stairs next to new router. 5 install telephone jack near router and modem 6 plug the 8 cables from the different rooms into the router if it has enough jacks, or get a switch and plug into the switch, then switch into router and then from router wan jack to modem. 7. Take a laptop to each room with a straight cable. Go to router / switch and note and label the cable that is connected to the active port via the link LED. Now besides making a shelf for the modem, router and switch as needed. you will also need an outlet near by and a small power strip. WHO needs a stinking toner for an 8 run house? Now not saying that if I had a toner that I would not use it, but I dont. And if I had a cable tester I would. I have only furbarred one or two out of about 500 connections I have now made over the past what 10 yrs. To the op, I would love to help but we seem to be on different sides of the state.. sorry |
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Quoted:
You guys are a lark. Need toners and what not. 1 go back and wire all jacks in rooms to have all 4 pairs on the jacks. 2 install plugs on all wires. 3 purchase your router. 4 move the modem down stairs next to new router. 5 install telephone jack near router and modem 6 plug the 8 cables from the different rooms into the router if it has enough jacks, or get a switch and plug into the switch, then switch into router and then from router wan jack to modem. 7. Take a laptop to each room with a straight cable. Go to router / switch and note and label the cable that is connected to the active port via the link LED. Now besides making a shelf for the modem, router and switch as needed. you will also need an outlet near by and a small power strip. WHO needs a stinking toner for an 8 run house? Now not saying that if I had a toner that I would not use it, but I dont. And if I had a cable tester I would. I have only furbarred one or two out of about 500 connections I have now made over the past what 10 yrs. To the op, I would love to help but we seem to be on different sides of the state.. sorry Come on Max-Paul we all wanted to hear the SHOCKING stories of how he found which wire went where. Party pooper
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| There is a very inexpensive electric supply across from Home Depot on Hamblen called Kornis Electric supply. They are very nice and affordable(better than depot or lowes). If you need I live in Lee's Summit too, and can come over and tone it out for you. The best cheat sheet is to just look how the wires are inside an already made cable and copy it. If you have any more questions just ask, I hope this helped |
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Anyone know how to wire this stuff? I had it put in instead of phone wire when I built my house. I have some questions on how I could get hardwired to my modem to hook up live on my xbox 360. Basically, my modem is in an upstairs office/bedroom. All the cat5 wire leads from the outlets in individual rooms to the subbasement, which is near my living room. But the ends in the basement are all hanging in one spot, not connected to anything, we never had phone service installed. So my question is, can I get that outlet in the office hooked into the modem, then wire the other end in the basement to the xbox? How would I know which one goes to which room? There are 7 or 8. Who would I hire to do that kind of work? I would not hire anyone for this, between you everyone on here, we can get you going.... I completely wired my house and my parents house with Cat5 (runs for Phone, Data, Extra) and two co/oax to each room, home run to the basement, so I pretty much know what your dealing with... My suggestion would be to put a patch pannel on the wall in the basement to terminate all the runs on... Something like this (sold at Lowes, Homey D, and that electronics place across the street from Lowes that someone mentioned in one of the other posts below) 
Then go to Best Buy, get a ""Broadband Router" D-Link my pref, but you could also get Linksys... I think the D-links have better firmware on them... Plug in the router on a shelf or the wall, next to the patch pannel... Then the outlet on the patch pannel that goes to your modem, plug a short jumper in there, then to the uplink port on your new routers uplink port... Then plug a jumper from the port on the patch pannel that goes to your Xbox room, to a port on the router. If your PC is not wireless, run a jumper from port on the patch pannel to the router as well... A wireless router can be used above, where I said to put a "Broadband router"... I can whip up a pretty diagram picture if needed... I know visuals help me out alot, when I'm wiring stuff up.... I do tons of this at work... Let me know if that makes sense... p.S. Don't Buy any Cat 5 Jumpers... Retail stores all charge out the ass for them... I can make you a few for free, if they are only a few feet long each.... Just let me know the lengths needed... Several people on here have helped me out in the past, so I can surely return the favor... |
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I don't have my glasses on and don't feel like reading everyone elses posts, so here is how I would handle this: Setup a basic coms area (preferably moving the modem and current router to the basement, you mentioned you ahve a wireless laptop so you probably have a router already)
1) Tone and label all the wires 2) Reterminate to proper rj-45 in each room 3) Install a patch panel in the basement (this is optional honestly, it just makes it look cleaner, but it does mean you will need to make patch cables to go from the panel to the switch) 4) Buy a switch if your router doesn't have enough hardwired ports 5) Connect as follows: ..........................|->Switch->Patch Panel->Anything Wired (including Xbox) modem->router–| ..........................|->Wireless devices As far as terminating Cat5, you need an RJ45 connector and crimpers (10-15$ for a cheap set) which can be had a home depot, etc... The proper pattern is color coded with standard cat5e having 4pair: Orange, Green, Blue, and Brown I used the following pattern: Or, OrW,Gr,BlW,Bl,GrW,Br,BrW (crimp on with the clip facing away from you, as long as you follow that pattern though it doesn't matter which way you crimp as long as you do it the same on both ends) You shouldn't need any crossover cables for a setup like your looking out, so don't worry about it. If I lived closer I would offer to do this for you, but your a little far away for me. You could probably find someone to do this for you, Check with phone/electrician people before IT people, we tend to charge more. But the cost of a toner, cat5 tester, and other tools would make it cheaper to pay someone to do it for you. Edit: Also, I prefer having access points in the basement anyway, it tends to make it easier to get coverage of the entire house, and reduces the signal quality for the neighbors :P |
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So, did you ever get squared away??? Yeah, I spent $90 on the new Xbox 360 adapter! It's N rated, but I don't know if it will be any faster. But if someone wants to offer to get me hardwired, I could give you some .40 ammo or something.  Thanks for all the input. I'd do it myself, but knowing me, I'd get frustrated and break something.....on purpose.
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