Trying to figure out ethernet through the wall in new rental

[adgjk]

Hey everyone, 

 

I recently moved into a new apartment (rental, so I'm limited to pretty much keeping the same network setup), and was happy to see that they had RJ45 data ports in the wall. Unfortunately, when plugging in ethernet cables, nothing is recognized. 

 

I've done a bit of digging and some exploring since then, as I'd really like to get this to work. In the closet, there is some sort of a network panel, which looks like the first image below. I have checked all the jumpers, and made sure that they are jumping the "data" pins, and not "voice" pins. I have done the same with two wall jacks (second picture), and jumped the data pins, which the voice pins are left uncovered (there is white plastic covering the voice pins, but they are not jumped). 

 

Finally, I have plugged an ethernet cable from my router into one wall jack, and then tried to plug my computer into a second wall jack (both are jumped to data), but nothing gets picked up.... I have also tested each ethernet cable directly into the router with my laptop, and they work. 

 

This is really bugging me, as my modem can only sit in one place in this apartment, and it's not where my desktop is. I'm paying for 300mbps down, but at the moment I need to use a powerline adapter to reach my desktop (cannot have cables running over the floor here) and the fastest speed I'm getting from that is about 45mbps down. 

 

On a side note, I've never seen network panels like these before, either in the closet or in the wall jacks. Has anyone else. I also see that there are RJ45 ports labelled J1 - J6 in the closet (first picture). Do these need to go into some sort of switch?

 

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[Lurick]

You'll need an 8 port switch to connect up all 6 ports and to have one to run to the router (or router/modem combo). If you connect one side of the cable into your computer and the other side directly into the modem do you get internet? If so then that tells me everything works from a cable side and you just need a switch to pass internet to all of the ports.

 

The one thing that concerns me is that the back of the wall plate says 10/100 and I'd hazard a guess that the cable is Cat5 only and not Cat5e so you're almost certainly going to be limited to 100Mbps on each port unless the runs are really short.

[adgjk]

48 minutes ago, Lurick said:

You'll need an 8 port switch to connect up all 6 ports and to have one to run to the router (or router/modem combo). If you connect one side of the cable into your computer and the other side directly into the modem do you get internet? If so then that tells me everything works from a cable side and you just need a switch to pass internet to all of the ports.

 

So, basically I'd need to buy a cheap unmanaged switch, plug in J1 - J6, and then the rest of my setup is good? I'd just plug my router into one of the wall ports and it should pass through to all ports in the house? 

 

48 minutes ago, Lurick said:

The one thing that concerns me is that the back of the wall plate says 10/100 and I'd hazard a guess that the cable is Cat5 only and not Cat5e so you're almost certainly going to be limited to 100Mbps on each port unless the runs are really short.

Yeah, I noticed it said 10/100 on the back, but I think that's only for the phone line. On the front side of the wall ports, there is a phone jack and a data jack, and with the jumpers you can use just one of them at a time. Maybe it will turn out that it's still limited in speed, but I'd like to try and get this working if possible, as if it is gigabit speeds, then it would definitely be faster than powerline. 

 

Now, since only ports J1 - J5 are wired up (J6 is empty), could I get away with something like this, or would you recommend something else? https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Ethernet-Optimization-Unmanaged-TL-SG105/dp/B00A128S24/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1S21A58JVVAXE&keywords=gigabit+switch&qid=1556035647&s=gateway&sprefix=gigabit%2Caps%2C249&sr=8-3

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, adgjk said:

 

So, basically I'd need to buy a cheap unmanaged switch, plug in J1 - J6, and then the rest of my setup is good? I'd just plug my router into one of the wall ports and it should pass through to all ports in the house? 

 

Yeah, I noticed it said 10/100 on the back, but I think that's only for the phone line. On the front side of the wall ports, there is a phone jack and a data jack, and with the jumpers you can use just one of them at a time. Maybe it will turn out that it's still limited in speed, but I'd like to try and get this working if possible, as if it is gigabit speeds, then it would definitely be faster than powerline. 

 

Now, since only ports J1 - J5 are wired up (J6 is empty), could I get away with something like this, or would you recommend something else? https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Ethernet-Optimization-Unmanaged-TL-SG105/dp/B00A128S24/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1S21A58JVVAXE&keywords=gigabit+switch&qid=1556035647&s=gateway&sprefix=gigabit%2Caps%2C249&sr=8-3

You'll still need an 8 port switch since you need one link going to the router/modem, unless one of those J1-J5 ports connects to the modem, in which case a 5 port is perfect.

[adgjk]

1 hour ago, Lurick said:

You'll still need an 8 port switch since you need one link going to the router/modem, unless one of those J1-J5 ports connects to the modem, in which case a 5 port is perfect.

Ok makes sense, I just ordered an 8 port. What I think I'm going to do is have the modem and switch inside the closet, conntect J1-J5, and the modem to the switch (using 6 ports total), and then my router will be plugged into one of the available wall ports throughout the house, and my desktop into another. Should take a day or two for the Amazon order to go through, but I'll try and remember to come back and update.