New Member
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3 Messages
Can someone explain this wiring?
I'm trying to make sense of the networking wiring that was already in place when we bought our house. The previous tenants had cable internet but we had uverse installed. Coming out of the wall plate are 2 jacks, a green jack that connects to the modem/router and a white one that I think is for phone service (we don't have a home phone). From the bottom of that same faceplate are a brown, brown/white, green and green/white set of wires that go into a small box just beneath the faceplate. That small box (I don't know what to call it) has an rj45 jack that connects to the router. Inside the wall this small box connects to a panel in the basement where it is connected to a switch and splits off to security cameras, tv, etc. I've attached photos of the set up Sorry about the picture quality, but we have an enormous entertainment center in front of it that I can't move.
Here are my questions?
1) What are the brown, brown/white, green, green/white wires for and why do they go to that box below the faceplate?
2) Before the cat5 connects to the switch in the basement, it again separates out into blue/orange and brown/green (see picture). Why? The blue, blue/white, orange, orange/white split off into their own cat5 cable and go...... somewhere. I can't trace it once it goes into the ceiling. I don't have any phone or ethernet jacks anywhere in the house that I've found. Where might this go?
Thanks, this is driving me crazy and my wife is not going to be happy if I start putting holes in the walls to figure it out.
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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33.5K Messages
3 years ago
It looks to me like someone decided to "borrow" some unused pairs on your AT&T signal in cable from the NID to provide an Ethernet connection from the Netgear switch to the box at the baseboard below your outlet.
The Orange and Blue pair should be your VDSL2 (could be two pair) or VDSL2 (one pair) and POTS (1 pair) and should be wired to the Green VDSL2 jack and/or possibly the beige (maybe POTS) jack. You could remove the face plate to be sure. The Green cable should be going to the Green Jack on your Gateway.
At the other end, the Orange and Blue continue from this point back to your NID. The brown and green pair are split off to the NetGear Switch.
100baseTX only requires two pair, so the brown and green are sufficient for 100 Mbps Ethernet, but not sufficient for 1000baseTX (Gigabit Ethernet). It looks to me like someone decided to backhaul Ethernet from a yellow port (right?) on your Gateway to that Switch on the other end, and that switch connects to other various and sundry devices throughout the home via all those blue cables.
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my thoughts
Former Employee
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21.5K Messages
3 years ago
The wall plate is an ATT BRANDED JACK... the green jack is for the VDSL service signal coming from the NID or terminal which uses the Blue and Orange pairs to provide a BONDED PAIR service. BONDED PAIR is broadband 1 and broadband 2 lights on the 589, 599, 5268 gateways. A 210 can also support bonded pair installs but does not have separate indicators of each line on the gateway.
The Green and Brown pairs if connected at the branded jack would be for phone 1 (green) and phone 2 (brown) for UVERSE VOIP aka ATT PHONE.
As only have 1 cat5e line going to the jack, the previous installer at some point in the past is using the 2 pairs as a T100 connection back to the wiring panel to either feed a switch, or a computer, or a Uverse receiver. In your case the Netgear switch, likely a GS108... which means all other connections have a T100 feed thru the splitter.
Do you have a NID on the side to the home? If not the wiring is running to some protectors near the electrical circuit breaker panel. No need to open walls unless something needs to be replaced.
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topher63
New Member
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3 Messages
3 years ago
The wires in question do go in the general direction of the breaker box so I guess that makes sense.
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spoom2
Expert
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18.6K Messages
3 years ago
About the only other comment I can think of is that's a pretty sloppy install. Other than the green jack there's really no way to be certain what's going where, though we can guess. I pretty much agree with what's been stated. I hate crappy installs, it just doesn't take all that much time to do it right. Of course I guess the previous customer could have done it.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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33.5K Messages
3 years ago
I think this sloppy install was probably performed by the previous home owner after the AT&T technician left.
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spoom2
Expert
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18.6K Messages
3 years ago
@JefferMC Yes, said that in my last sentence and agree it probably was. Having been in "the business" for awhile I've seen my share of sloppy installs by so called techs and I'm not talking just phone company there's many interconnects out there that are pretty bad.
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topher63
New Member
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3 Messages
3 years ago
So I did some additional investigation. Thanks for your answers, you guys were correct. The blue and orange come in from the NID and go down to a structured enclosure in the basement. That was the mystery wire; it wasn't going anywhere, it was coming into the house. The blue and orange wires coming in on the blue cat5 cable in the 4th picture connect to the blue and orange on the white cat 5 cable. That cable goes upstairs to the at&t jack. A green cable comes out and goes to the uverse modem. From the the modem/router yellow jack a cable goes to the white box under the jack. The green and brown wires seen in the 2nd and 3rd pictures go from the white box up to the jack and then use the same cat5 cable that brought the signal up (on orange and blue) down again to the structured enclosure on the brown and green wires. In the 4th picture those 2 feed into the keystone and into the switch and then onto the rest of network. This was mostly the work of the at&t tech. The people who lived here before us had cable internet but already had the cat5 cable running to where the uverse modem/router is now. Now that I know where everything goes, I think it's a clever hack because no additional cables had to be run. However, if I ever want gigabit speeds I think I'll need to run another cable which would be difficult under the finished basement ceiling. Our max speed from the street is 25 mbps so I won't worry about it until we can get at&t fiber. Thank you to all who responded, you were very helpful.
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