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How to activate cat5e for internet access from basic FIOS setup?

Have FIOS tv, phone, & internet installed in a new house. The Telephone Network Interface box is outside and runs one coax and one cat5e cable to my basement Leviton network box. The coax gets split and sent out to several TV coax outlets. The cat5e also appears to get split and sent to all of the phone jacks around the house. A Verizon-installed wireless modem is adjacent to the network box and receives a coax input (all current internet connectivity is via the wireless).

Here's my dilemma- want to convert several of my phone jacks to ethernet jacks and utilize for high-speed wired internet (tired of the slow wireless speed on desktop computers). How can I get internet connectivity (which is currently sent through the wireless router via coax cable) to my cat5e lines? Note- I only use one cat5e line for a phone jack- have several cordless phones from that outlet (this is the only cat5e plug I want to use for phone).

Hope this makes sense. Any suggestions/guidance? Thanks

Comments

eljefe2

I'm trying to visualize your layout.

Is there coax run to the room where the computer(s) are? Would it be easy to just relocate the Verizon router to that room, feed the router with coax there and then plug the computer(s) into a LAN port on the router via Ethernet?

If that would work, it would be the easiest solution. The router should perform OK connected to the coax anywhere in the house.

Anti-Phish1

@TimL wrote:
Have FIOS tv, phone, & internet installed in a new house. The Telephone Network Interface box is outside and runs one coax and one cat5e cable to my basement Leviton network box. The coax gets split and sent out to several TV coax outlets. The cat5e also appears to get split and sent to all of the phone jacks around the house. A Verizon-installed wireless modem is adjacent to the network box and receives a coax input (all current internet connectivity is via the wireless).
Here's my dilemma- want to convert several of my phone jacks to ethernet jacks and utilize for high-speed wired internet (tired of the slow wireless speed on desktop computers). How can I get internet connectivity (which is currently sent through the wireless router via coax cable) to my cat5e lines? Note- I only use one cat5e line for a phone jack- have several cordless phones from that outlet (this is the only cat5e plug I want to use for phone).
Hope this makes sense. Any suggestions/guidance? Thanks

I think I understand what you want to do. To be clear, the cat5 coming from the ONT is your phone service and does not connect to the VZ router.

Conceptually, what you want to do is crimp an RJ45 connector on to the end of each cat5 cable that you want to convert to ethernet.

You would then connect each of the RJ45 terminated ethernet cables to the 4 LAN ports on the VZ router. If you need more than 4 LAN ports, you would need to buy a switch.

I said conceptually, because I do not recommend crimping an RJ45 connector directly to the cat5, but that made it easier to visualize. I recommend that you terminate each cat5 ethernet cable on a punchdown block such as this and then connect the path panel to the router or switch using short cat5 jumper cables. You can leave the POTS feed from the ONT connected directly to the one telephone run, or you can connect through a phone patch panel such as this.

smith6612

Anti-Phish seems to have the solution, but it all depends how things are actually set up. Some pictures if possible might be a bit more useful.

TimL1

Thanks for the useful input- Anti-Phish makes sense with crimping an RJ45 connector on the end of four cat5e wires in the network panel then connecting those directly to the router (and at the other end swapping out the RJ11 ends for RJ45 wall jacks). This would allow a high-speed wired connection to four rooms in the house, while maintaining the wireless signal and the telephone service. And even better- I can actually understand this fix. However, given your recommendation not to use this setup, I'll try the punchdown block/patch panel setup (just need to figure out what exactly these things are using the links provided). Just out of curiousity- why is the direct cat5e to router setup not recommended?

Can provide a photo of the Leviton panel setup, but need to figure out how to upload a pic here (obviously dealing with a IT-challenged dude). Again, thanks for the suggestions....

Anti-Phish1

@TimL wrote:
However, given your recommendation not to use this setup, I'll try the punchdown block/patch panel setup (just need to figure out what exactly these things are using the links provided). Just out of curiousity- why is the direct cat5e to router setup not recommended?
The reason for recommending a patch panel over crimping RJ45 connectors is that it is much harder to get a good crimp than it is to use a punchdown block. There are two different type of RJ45 connectors depending on whether the wire is solid (long runs) or standed (patch cords). If you don't use the right one, you're likely to get a bad crimp. You don't have to worry about that with the punch down/patch cable approach.
You can find the Leviton panels at Home Depot. They come in various configurations, with and without mounting brackets, etc.

viafax999

Better make sure first that all those wall jacks with rj11 are really cat5 or better.

I have a home run setup like that and all the rj11 jacks are actually connected to cat3 cable. I have a parallel home run set up that is cat 5 that teminates in a cat5 patch panel in the wiring closet, then just have 1' jumper cat5 cables to connect any particular room to a switch that connects to the router.

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