Any idea what these wires are?

fjon

Just bought a house and noticed these wires hanging in the understairs storage room. Is it possible to tell what they are just from the picture, and would it be safe to tuck them back into the hole in the wall?
https://imgur.com/a/SZj6qI7

banie01

Look like the house is wired for an alarm but that no panel is installed.

rob w

Looks more like CAT5/CAT6 cables, probably used for phone/ethernet points around the house. They are probably wired to RJ45 points around the house - most likely alongside sockets. Incoming line from phone provider is connected here to distribute around the house I would say.

You could probably tuck the slack into the wall, but I wouldnt recommend shoving them all in in case you need access in future. Buy a large junction box and mount it over the hole and keep the connections/cable ends in it for access. Just be careful not to bend the cables excessively when hiding slack as you may damage them.

Looks like there is already an alarm panel to the top left of picture.

Have you got an alarm installed OP?

fjon

Thanks a lot. There is an alarm panel near the front door and it seems to work - at least I can set it and unset it.
There are no RJ45 connections around the house that I've seen, but there are plenty of phone connections - could this be it? RJ45s would be much handier!
Good idea about the junction box, I will do that.

fjon

Inspected them a bit closer and they are indeed CAT5 cables. One has a label saying "To Eircom ETU" and another says "2042382 Res".
I don't suppose it's possible to change one or two of the phone points to a network point, or are they wired differently?

gctest50

You could get a nice little wall cabinet for them :





Tidier ones here with a door etc



https://www.cablemonkey.ie/391-excel-wall-cabinets


And go look for a patch panel


https://www.freetv.ie/24-port-patch-panel/

hufpc8w3adnk65

I have similar in my house with cat 6 back to attic and a network port box with them all terminated to RJ45s for smart TVs and Android boxs for my kids

The Mulk

The metal box to the left of the wires appears to be the alarm panel, where all your alarm cables, internal bell, battery and power supply are. (For when you need to change the battery etc,.)
If you take off a telephone plate in one the rooms it should have a Cat 5 cable. I used to wire one to each TV point too.

Tenshot

It looks like you have 11 CAT5E cables there; as mentioned above, it should be straightforward to replace your existing phone sockets in each room with proper CAT5E sockets.

If you don't want a full-size data cabinet hanging off your storage room wall, you might consider a smaller SOHO unit like this:

https://www.cablemonkey.ie/soho-cabinets/9509-10u-connectix-home-cabinet.html#/276-type-with_pdu

I put one of these in for my sister a few months ago and it's a nice neat solution. Each row can take 12 sockets:

fjon

After posting this I investigated it a bit more. The problem I found with setting something up is that the cable connection (I use Virgin Media as an ISP) is quite a distance from under the stairs, and also there is no power socket there. I presume I would need to place the modem/ router in that box?

Tenshot

You just need a CAT5 (phone) socket within reach of the Virgin Media point.

Once it's wired up, you can use that socket to route the network signal from the Virgin Media box to a network switch in the cable box, and from there, distribute it to your other rooms.

If there's no convenient phone point near the Virgin Media box, you could use a pair of powerline adapters to get the network signal from the box back to your patch panel, assuming there is a power socket nearby.

Dakotabigone

gctest50 wrote: »

You could get a nice little wall cabinet for them :





Tidier ones here with a door etc



https://www.cablemonkey.ie/391-excel-wall-cabinets


And go look for a patch panel


https://www.freetv.ie/24-port-patch-panel/

Patch panels are a thing of the past.

fjon

Fantastic, yes there is a phone socket right next to the VM connection. This looks like a do-able project, I just need to read up a bit more about it, would be nice if I found a tutorial or youtube video on how to do it, but if not I can probably figure it out.

fjon

Dakotabigone wrote: »

Patch panels are a thing of the past.

Why? What’s the alternative?

Tenshot

Fantastic, yes there is a phone socket right next to the VM connection. This looks like a do-able project, I just need to read up a bit more about it, would be nice if I found a tutorial or youtube video on how to do it, but if not I can probably figure it out.

There are plenty of YouTube vids demonstrating how to do it. I'd recommend getting a proper Krone punch-down tool; a decent one will set you back around €30+ but its a lot better than the cheap plastic inserter tools. CableMonkey will supply face plates and CAT5 inserts and they also have an okay-ish punchdown tool for about €15.

If possible, get some spare CAT5 cable from somewhere and practise a few punch-downs until you get the hang of it, before you start on your wall sockets -- if you mess it up, you'll probably need to shorten the cable and try again, and you won't have too much slack to play with coming from the wall.

Most CAT5 inserts designed for wall sockets will let you terminate the cable directly onto the insert, and once done, you can then slide the faceplate over it - this is easier to work with than installing it in the faceplate first and then connecting the cable.

You have plenty of slack on the cable coming into the storage area;leave a bit more slack than you need so that if you mess up or need to redo something later on, you're not caught on length.

Once you've done a couple of connectors, you get the hang of it very quickly. Check everything twice, and remember that over here, we use wiring standard T568B for CAT5; connectors will usually have both A and B markings, so go with the 'B' colour codes.

Ideally, identify all the cables ahead of time (which cable is from which room) so that you can assign them in a sensible order when wiring up the patch panel. However, if you don't have a convenient cable tester, you could just wire them all up and then identify them later by plugging them all into a network switch in the storage room, then connecting a laptop into each room in turn and seeing which port lights up.

Good luck! It's well within the scope of anyone comfortable doing a bit of DIY, and it's a very handy skill to have.

ted1

fjon wrote: »

After posting this I investigated it a bit more. The problem I found with setting something up is that the cable connection (I use Virgin Media as an ISP) is quite a distance from under the stairs, and also there is no power socket there. I presume I would need to place the modem/ router in that box?

No, you just need to connect it to the nearest cable , that cable will go back to the panel and connect everything

ted1

Tenshot wrote: »

You just need a CAT5 (phone) socket within reach of the Virgin Media point.

Once it's wired up, you can use that socket to route the network signal from the Virgin Media box to a network switch in the cable box, and from there, distribute it to your other rooms.

If there's no convenient phone point near the Virgin Media box, you could use a pair of powerline adapters to get the network signal from the box back to your patch panel, assuming there is a power socket nearby.

It’s a rj45 needed not a phone connection which is an rj11

fjon

Tenshot wrote: »

There are plenty of YouTube vids demonstrating how to do it. I'd recommend getting a proper Krone punch-down tool; a decent one will set you back around €30+ but its a lot better than the cheap plastic inserter tools. CableMonkey will supply face plates and CAT5 inserts and they also have an okay-ish punchdown tool for about €15.

If possible, get some spare CAT5 cable from somewhere and practise a few punch-downs until you get the hang of it, before you start on your wall sockets -- if you mess it up, you'll probably need to shorten the cable and try again, and you won't have too much slack to play with coming from the wall.

Most CAT5 inserts designed for wall sockets will let you terminate the cable directly onto the insert, and once done, you can then slide the faceplate over it - this is easier to work with than installing it in the faceplate first and then connecting the cable.

You have plenty of slack on the cable coming into the storage area;leave a bit more slack than you need so that if you mess up or need to redo something later on, you're not caught on length.

Once you've done a couple of connectors, you get the hang of it very quickly. Check everything twice, and remember that over here, we use wiring standard T568B for CAT5; connectors will usually have both A and B markings, so go with the 'B' colour codes.

Ideally, identify all the cables ahead of time (which cable is from which room) so that you can assign them in a sensible order when wiring up the patch panel. However, if you don't have a convenient cable tester, you could just wire them all up and then identify them later by plugging them all into a network switch in the storage room, then connecting a laptop into each room in turn and seeing which port lights up.

Good luck! It's well within the scope of anyone comfortable doing a bit of DIY, and it's a very handy skill to have.

Great, thanks for the excellent write up! I have some old network cables I’m work, I’ll take them home and practice a bit to see how it works!

5uspect

fjon wrote: »

Why? What’s the alternative?

You could use a switch, essentially a type of router that allows any of the cables to communicate with any other.

fjon

5uspect wrote: »

You could use a switch, essentially a type of router that allows any of the cables to communicate with any other.

Wouldn’t that require a power supply? As far as I can tell the other solution doesn’t need one.

ted1

fjon wrote: »

Wouldn’t that require a power supply? As far as I can tell the other solution doesn’t need one.

Patch panels are just where you terminate the cables into a female socket, usually about 24 of them in a row. From there short ethernet cables connect between them to a switch or router usually mounted or lying in the panel.

You are both half right

my3cents

OP you don't need to place the modem in a box with the terminated cables. The whole point of those cables is that you can have your devices, modem, computers, wireless access points, TV, phones and printers around the house and all the cables go back to one point where you have a switch and the incoming phone line terminated.

So you have a box on the wall like the pictures already posted with a patch panel for 12 or more cables the cables are punched down into the patch panel. At the other ends of the cables you put RJ45 sockets on the wall. You CAN use RJ45 sockets for both phones and computers but at the patch panel end the phone will go to the incoming phone line cable not the switch. If you use a 24 cable panel you can use one end (20-24) paralleled together to the incoming phone line so you can patch out to a phone on one of your RJ45 sockets.

It may be advantageous to use a Power over Ethernet Switch then you can add wireless access points and IP cameras around the house without having to use plug in mains power supplies.

My guess is you won't do any of that it is however well worth the effort and expense if those cables already run to useful points around the house.

fjon

Didn't know you could plug an RJ11 into an RJ45. Any, for now I'm using cable to get internet and in future might move to Siro so having the phone line isn't that important.
I read a bit about PoE but might leave that alone for now!
5 of the cables are already joined in a connector - see pic. Any idea why this was done? The other 5 are not connected

https://imgur.com/a/dVOFAP8

Yellow label - "To Eircom ETU" white label - "2042382 Res".

my3cents

fjon wrote: »

Didn't know you could plug an RJ11 into an RJ45. Any, for now I'm using cable to get internet and in future might move to Siro so having the phone line isn't that important.
I read a bit about PoE but might leave that alone for now!
5 of the cables are already joined in a connector - see pic. Any idea why this was done? The other 5 are not connected

https://imgur.com/a/dVOFAP8

Yellow label - "To Eircom ETU" white label - "2042382 Res".

The middle pair in an RJ45 socket are blue and blue/white strip. The lug on an RJ11 plug means it locates with the middle pair in an RJ45 socket. Back at the patch panel you can use a standard lead to patch the RJ45 socket to whatever terminations you have used for the phone. Its normal to use that blue/white stripe pair convention when wiring phones which some of the cable runs use in your picture (blue and a non standard grey?) but I can't really make much sense of what you have there you only need one pair and two terminations for multiple phones not 4. Eircom ETU is Eircom External Termination Unit - so it may go back to eircom termination in a box on an outside wall.

Commercially when I worked in networking we used to put run and terminate 2 CAT 5e cables in sockets RJ45 to each desk and use one of the terminations for a computer and the other for a phone.

Now it is possible for an idiot to to damage an RJ45 socket by somehow forcing the RJ11 plug in the wrong way, so some people don't like that practice. The fix is easy just terminate a new socket. At that patch panel end where replacing one socket is more difficult its sensible to use proper computer patch cables with RJ45 plugs on the phone connection.

More recently I sorted out a setup similar to yours for a neighbor. I put in a 24 port patch panel and a 16 port PoE switch which with 5 PoE wireless access points now allows complete internet coverage in a very large 5 bed house. The phones are also punched down to the patch panel so they can have a fixed line phone in most rooms if required. The TV's (4) are also hard wired and the Sonos sound system has one hard wired connection plus there are two networked printers. Quite an easy job, which would have been impossible if the previous owner hadn't run at least one cat 5e cable to each room.

ted1

fjon wrote: »

Didn't know you could plug an RJ11 into an RJ45. Any, for now I'm using cable to get internet and in future might move to Siro so having the phone line isn't that important.
I read a bit about PoE but might leave that alone for now!
5 of the cables are already joined in a connector - see pic. Any idea why this was done? The other 5 are not connected

https://imgur.com/a/dVOFAP8

Yellow label - "To Eircom ETU" white label - "2042382 Res".

2 cables would imply that it’s a phone line. Loooks like they are going off to phone points

ted1

fjon wrote: »

Didn't know you could plug an RJ11 into an RJ45. Any, for now I'm using cable to get internet and in future might move to Siro so having the phone line isn't that important.
I read a bit about PoE but might leave that alone for now!
5 of the cables are already joined in a connector - see pic. Any idea why this was done? The other 5 are not connected

https://imgur.com/a/dVOFAP8

Yellow label - "To Eircom ETU" white label - "2042382 Res".

2 cables would imply that it’s a phone line. Loooks like they are going off to phone points

EdgeCase

Certainly shouldn't be using 230V chocblock connectors to carry telephone or any other kind of low voltage signalling. They aren't designed to carry it and could be weird impedance or induce noise on voice or DSL.

It should be copper-to-copper with crimp on gel connectors. They're dirt cheap online. Little 3M things you just put the two or more wires you want to connect in. You squeeze with a pliers and they cut through the insulation making a perfect connection sealed in gel.

Ethernet needs to be very cleanly done. No weird joins or splices anywhere and make sure you use good quality sockets.