Help figuring out apartment patch panel

[drummer914]

I just moved into an apartment that has CAT 5e ports on a few walls. I found where they seem to be terminated at a patch panel in the closet, but I can't tell how everything hooks up. What's the point of having the ports terminate at this patch panel if there's no way to connect each port to a switch?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tga349kmo572770/IMG_1032.jpeg?dl=0

 

[dave14305]

Are Feeds V and D for Voice and Data?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Buy a small inexpensive continuity and pinning tester which will help and trace the cables.

If the cables all fail the pinning tests when tested to check if they are pinned 568B or 568A that means they probably were installed and pinned as phone cables using no more than six wires.

Then pull one of the jacks out of the wall and look at the number of wires. If you have eight conductors you can re pin the jacks and the plug ends with Ethernet fittings and they should handle gig speeds. With as few as four conductors you could have Fast Ethernet cables good for 100 Mbps.

 

[dosborne]

What's the point of having the ports terminate at this patch panel if there's no way to connect each port to a switch?

Primarily for phone use, that's why most are connected to just 2 wires (from what I can see in the pic).

No point for the telco or whoever put it in to use an expensive product when they have no idea what you want to use it for. Worst case, pull the wires off the BIX panel and put in something more useful.

 

[drummer914]

Thanks all. I got a cheap cat 5e cable tester + crimp kit, pulled everything out, crimped, and put a switch in. I’m guessing it was set up for AT&T DSL originally, but as I took things off it looked like it wasn’t all connected anymore anyways. Your welcome future renter.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ccyeih8nhrakc4/IMG_1051.jpeg?dl=0