What Am I Looking At? (New, to Me, Home On-Q Box)

[ChappyEight]

I moved into my current home roughly two years ago. In that time, I've begun creating my network (primarily Unifi products). I'm not ready to tackle the more difficult jobs of moving all the existing Cat5e cables away from the installed On-Q box and over to my Unifi switch. Secondarily, I need to learn how to best pull cable from the attic of my two story home down to the first floor for cameras, but that's a different discussion for a different time.

I've attached a few pictures of the On-Q box in an upstairs closet. I've not yet had the chance to get in the attic to spcificlaly look for where these cables enter (if they actually go all the way up to the attic to begin with) but, regardless, it's a hot mess in here. I'm seeing a couple punch down panels with both blue and gray Cat5e installed, a couple coax splitters, some sort of amplifier, 5 or so white Cat5e cables that have ends installed, and 6 fiber optic ONVF MM cables.

My first and primary goal is to get the currently wired (as in, the jacks throughout the house) Cat5e cables out of the On-Q box and into my server rack where my switch is located. At the outlets, there is a blue jack, an orange jack, and two coax jacks. I'm assuming the one coax is for antenna and one for cable/dish/etc. What i'm uncertain about is why an orange and blue outlet for the ethernet. I'd say one is voice and one is data, but they are both RJ45 keystones.

Your thoughts on both what these pictures are showing and/or the best way to start figuring out where all these cables lead would be greatly appreciated. I have a cable tester but, for instance, I have no clue where the 5 white Cat5e cables are currently running in order that I may even run tests. Secondarily, is it worth it to try to move the coax cables to the rack or should I just leave them be in the On-Q box?

Sincerest thanks for any advice you may have.

- Chappy

 

[MichaelCG]

1.) Ethernet Jacks - colors can "imply" a certain use case, but rarely are any different other than color. Check the the termination pattern to see if it matches phone wiring or Ethernet.

2.) Tracing cables - Go buy a toner kit. Hook toner up to one end and try to follow it through the walls with the sensor. This is not an easy task and there isn't really an easy button here.

 

[Greg72]

Phone and TV only setup. Pretty old one at that.

 

[coxhaus]

All those punch downs are phones. The white cable looks like the PO used them for a network since they have RJ45 connectors. I would shop around and see if you can find something to fit and convert all those blue CAT5e cables to network. Try to re-terminate the ends to CAT5e female jacks in the rooms. You need some kind of patch panel for inside the closet. I would remove the phone stuff out of the closet and use your new network connections if you need a phone.

You will need a switch in the closet. Plug your white RJ45 into the switch and plug your new converted blue CAT5e cable in the patch panel into the switch using patch cable jumpers from the patch panel. Your router can go where ever your ISP's demarc is or in the closet also.

 

[Greg72]

https://www.legrand.us/categories/n...duct&f=brand:521a937e1e03487eba1b28fab711d233