Cat5 Wiring in Home- but no connection?

[eyal8r]

Hey guys-
I live in a home with Cat5 wiring throughout (4 rooms have Cat5 jacks). The Cat5 cable from each port on the wall goes into a central Leviton system Box in the laundry room. Each Cat5 cable in the box goes into a PCB w/ white connectors for each individual wire (see attached pic). The PCB appears to be a HUB, but doesn't have RJ45 Jacks/ports- just individual wires from each Cat5 cable that slides into the connector.

The problem is when I hook up my Router to the RJ45 port in one of the rooms- and a laptop in another room- I don't get a connection. I'm positive it's not the problem of the laptop as I've tried multiple computers and connecting cables.

Each cable in the Leviton box has a orange+orange/white, Blue+Blue/white, green+green/white, and brown+brown/white.

I have a cable modem connecting to the router. From the router ONE of the ports plugs into the wall port. I then plug a laptop into a wall port somewhere else in the house and get nothing. I know the Modem/Router are working as I get internet when I connect directly to the router (which is what I'm using to post this here). It's a cable modem and gigabit router.

Again, there's no ports inside the Leviton Box. Do I have to hook my router up to a certain port somehow?

What am I missing?
Thanks guys!

 

[stevech]

Guess #1: Your wiring in the junction box does not "patch" wires that come from a room to bridge over to a wire that goes directly or indirectly to your router. It's best to put an inexpensive Ethernet switch in that junction box. Wires from the rooms connect to ports on the switch. One port on the switch goes to a wire that leads to and connects to one port on your route.
Guess #2: One or the other RJ45 connector is miswired (colors)
Guess #3: Cat5 damaged in wall or does not route where you think.
You can use a common ohmmeter- on one end, connect the two wires of a pair of some color together, then at the other end, you should see nearly 0 ohms.

(or buy a cat5 tester/buzzer) - say, cyberguys.com

 

[eyal8r]

stevech-
Thanks for the reply. Question for you- if I don't need all the other rooms/ports connected- can I just wire a female Keystone on one room's wire, and a male RJ45 Connector on the other room's wire inside that box, connect the 2 together and I'll be up and running? At least I'll be able to hook my modem/router up in one room, and connect my computer in another, correct?

 

[raleighthings]

Maybe. But ugh. The CAT5 wiring is not made for plugs. Put a jack on each of these and use a short patch cable.

These Leviton boxes are nice but the default way they show to wire them up is to use the same wiring of jacks for phones or data. Which means they use the 568A standard. Which can cause trouble if you mix patch cables from 568B which is the default for all data these days. What I think you have in yours is all your jacks are wired to a block that ties them altogether mechanically. This is what you want for phones. But not for data.

Re-connect them all using the 568B standard if needed with jacks on each end. Then use a short patch cable in the panel if all you want to do is connect two of them together. If you need more jacks you can get Leviton Quick Port jacks at Home Depot. And later if you want more drops you can put a switch into the panel. But don't use the one Leviton sells. It is a way way way overpriced slow unit.

 

[eyal8r]

Thanks for the response. This makes sense. Question tho- if they are all connected inside the Leviton box by 568-A standard- what's the odds that they're connected the same way at the wall drop? Will I have to take that wall port off and re-wire them to 568B standard as well?

I know you can't see what's inside my walls- just curious if there's some common method for doing these things.
Thanks for the help!

 

[raleighthings]

Cat 5 wire is all color coded the same. And it would be a really bad installation if both ends of your wires were not done to the same standards.

It is very likely that you have Leviton Quick port jacks in your walls. If so they have color codes on them for both wiring standards. And if you buy them at Home Depot they come with a little plastic tool to allow you to push the wires down into the slots. Then you'd need a pair of side cutters to trim off the excess. This beats buying a tool for $50 to $100.

It's not hard to do if your time is free.