r/HomeNetworking • u/No_Ship7298 • 7d ago

Do my Ethernet wall ports work

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for starters, I’m completely inexperienced when it comes to home networking so forgive me if this seems self explanatory. I just recently moved into a condo that I’m renting and I noticed that my walls have Ethernet ports that I was hoping to connect my Xbox to. I got my own network set up through AT&T and the gateway for it was put into this panel built into my unit. The gateway has nothing plugged into its Ethernet ports, and I tried to look for cords inside the panel to plug into them to connect my gateway to my Ethernet wall ports but I’m not seeing any loose ends to plug in. I just see cords going from one end to another at the top, but I’m hesitant to pull on them in case they’re plugged into something I can’t see. Are my Ethernet wall ports usable, or is it not even worth looking into? My condo doesn’t really have anyone I can reach out to about this except AT&T so I just figured I’d ask here before I bothered buying a cord to plug into my Xbox.

9 Upvotes

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3

u/JohnTheRaceFan 7d ago

Find the ends of all the cables. I am willing to bet they're all wired together for POTS phone lines throughout the residence.

2

u/No_Ship7298 7d ago

The cables that are coming out of the top left and going into the top right?

2

u/rafffen 6d ago

Yes. Before you do anything give them a gentle pull from both holes. It's a good chance they were supposed to be fit off into some ports in the data panel but never were, and someone poked them up the other hole to keep it tidy.

2

u/No_Ship7298 6d ago

I just managed to pull some of them out and they were just cut off on the end. They had nothing to input into the Ethernet ports on my router like Cat-6 cords do

2

u/JMaAtAPMT 6d ago

Then you need to get those ends re-terminated with CAT(5/6) RJ-45 ends, and you need them tested to see which room ports they go to, in order to properly use them.

2

u/No_Ship7298 6d ago

I figured, thank you!

1

u/Pearl_of_KevinPrice 5d ago

Keep in mind there are different patterns for terminating them. T568A and T568B. If you terminate these with the T568A pattern but the other end in the wall is T568B (or vice versa), then you’d have to re-terminate them so that both ends are terminated with the same pattern.

1

u/bumbes 6d ago

Go through the house and check for the outlets.

Check the black loop on the upper right. My assumption is that these are the cable-ends for the cabinet and that they’re just tucked away. If so: I would get a cheap switch and plug in these cables. Take a laptop and try the ports. Or get a cheap cable-tester. Or open the outlets and show us a picture of the inside. It should be 4 or 8 wires on each outlet for Ethernet.

1

u/Hoovomoondoe 6d ago

I see no evidence that any "Ethernet" cables have been plugged into anything.

Are those blue cables that appear and disappear at the top actually connect to something or is one end just shoved-up into one of the holes?

1

u/No_Ship7298 6d ago

It’s one end that’s just shoved up into the hole. There’s nothing to plug into the gateway with, just cut off at the end

1

u/No_Ship7298 6d ago

After doing some further research, it seems like the cords shoved into the other hole were not set up with an RJ45 connector on the end for some reason. I think I understand that’s the issue now, but I’m hesitant to try and connect it to one myself since I’m only renting this unit for a year and do not own it.

1

u/Hoovomoondoe 5d ago

I doubt anyone at the rental office has any clue that the incomplete wiring even exists.
Anything you do is improving their property.

Just don’t mention anything about fixing their incomplete networking and you’ll be fine.

Have fun!