FIOS Wiring Help
cpbiggs
Newbie

House is wired for cat5E, but the Fios technician has only one jack wired at the moment as doing the rest of the house would have been extra expense. I would like ot finish the job and have the ability to connect my computers and laptops into jacks vs. the crappy wifi I have at the moment. Four story town house where i occupy a garage on ground level, living room and bedrooms on 3-4 level. Cat5E runs into 7 wall outlets, although none are wired with RJ45 and faceplate. I have some sort of on-Q telecom splitter in the garage where AV wires and cables enter the unit. This was ignored by Fios technician.


Current setup - ONT in a storage space and shared by all town houses in my row. Ethernet cable travels into garage and links via two wires into NID, line in. From the NID modem connection two wires travel from garage to 3rd level and connect via wall jack to DSL 3600-V modem. Ethernet cable from DSL modem to Vs router along with COAX from same wall socket. Sorry no diagram. Basically utilizing a few on the router connections with xbox and ps3 close by, and wifi for all apple devices and phones.


My questions are these:


1. Do I need to bring the router and the dsl modem into the garage on bottom level in order to wire all rooms with RJ45 connections, or just the DSL modem?


2. I currently have no phone service so do I need the NID? If I do indeed have the Ethernet cable coming from ONT directly into my house I would prefer to connect that to on-Q telecom splitter and not go through the NID.


3. If I need the NID I could bring DSL modem to garage and connect the on-Q from the Ethernet cable coming out of DSL modem. This would mean the router stays on third floor and plugs into wall, but not sure from networking perspective is this is a good idea as all other wall outlets with RJ45 would be going directly to DSL modem and not through router.


If none of this makes any sense then I probably shouldn't be doing this on my own, but I thought I would give it a try as all that seems to need to happen to understand where the equipment should reside and then punch all connections.


Any advice helpful! Thanks in advance.

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Re: FIOS Wiring Help
weedeater1
Contributor - Level 3

Without actually seeing it, I am going to guess that the so-called Ethernet cable you have coming into your house is actually carrying DSL.

I would go to each room and put in a RJ45 at each wall plate I wanted.

1. The DSL modem most likely does not do routing, at least for no more than a single computer.  You need to keep the modem and router together.

2. Keep the NID. It doesn't belong to you.

3. I think you would connect the Cat 5 from the NID to the modem, the modem to the router (WAN), and the router to your panel (LAN).

My question about the panel is whether it is an Ethernet Hub or a Switch.  If it is neither, then I would go buy a cheap 8-port gigabit switch and connect a LAN port from the router to the switch and the other 7 ports as well.

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Re: FIOS Wiring Help
cpbiggs
Newbie
Ok thanks. I'll keep them together.

Not planning on selling the NID, just thought I had read not necessary if no phone service.

Looks like Ethernet, but just using the blue and blue white striped wires to go into NID. Coming out is a brown and brown white pair traveling through wall to jack. At jack brown and brown white to connect to jack and phone line to dsl.

Not sure if it's a hub or switch. Will research the device. Came with house and I'm assuming it's used to push network traffic through whole house.

Thanks for your help!!
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Re: FIOS Wiring Help
Anti-Phish1
Master - Level 1

@cpbiggs wrote:

I have some sort of on-Q telecom splitter in the garage where AV wires and cables enter the unit.


Chances are that is only a phone splitter.  You probably need an additional ONQ module to use as a cat5 patch panel for data.

http://www.legrand.us/onq/voice-data-communications/data-modules/363486-01.aspx


@cpbiggs wrote:


Current setup - ONT in a storage space and shared by all town houses in my row.


You have a shared MDU installation.  Internet distribution to each unit is over existing phone wiring using VDSL.


@cpbiggs wrote:

Ethernet cable travels into garage and links via two wires into NID, line in.


The installer used a cat5 cable, but it is not an ethernet connection.  Ethernet requires a minimum of 2 pair and usually all 4 pairs are connected.


@cpbiggs wrote:

From the NID modem connection


The NID is not a modem.  It is simply a connection point to your internal phone wiring.


@cpbiggs wrote:

two wires travel from garage to 3rd level and connect via wall jack to DSL 3600-V modem.


AFAIK, VZ does not use Motorola VDSL modems with FIOS.  Modems in use are Zyxel Prestige 861 (VDSL1) and Westell 9100VM (VDSL2).  Could that have been left over from a previous DSL installation?


@cpbiggs wrote:


My questions are these:


1)  You need to move both the DSL modem and the router to the garage.  If you need more than 4 LAN connections you will also need a switch.

2)  Yes, you need the NID.  It is being used as a connection point for your VDSL connection.

3)  You need the DSL modem connected directly to the WAN port of your router.  You then connect the LAN ports of the your router to the ONQ data patch panel.  As I mentioned above, you may or may not an existing ONQ networking (data) patch panel.  You can't use a ONQ phone patch panel for data.

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Re: FIOS Wiring Help
cpbiggs
Newbie

Ok, that could be very true.  Hard for me to tell what's for phone and what's for Ethernet as there is no paper work on this in my townhouse.  I'm thinking a cheap 8 port switch along with a possible access point for wifi as weedeater suggested and just move everything into the garage.  

My main concern is now the crimping, which I've never done and need to buy the tools for, and the effect the humidity will have on my electrical equipment once it's wall mounted into the garage.  Thanks for your help.    

The modem is a D-Link DSL-6300V.  This is a brand new townhouse and Fios is the only service I've had.  The problem was after the initial install my connection would reset after about an hour.  Another technician came to my house and told me I needed to disable all of my other phone connections except for the jack going into the DSL modem in order for internet to work.  I do not remember the equipment before that visit, but it could have been different.  

Thank you Anti-Phish for all of the very helpful feedback and answering all of my questions!

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Re: FIOS Wiring Help
weedeater1
Contributor - Level 3

I thought you said you had no phone service. (This is called a 'dry-loop', BTW) So I assumed that you had no phones connected.  If you do have phones connected, you need to have DSL filters at each phone (though I suppose the NID could be filtering this for you.  But from what the Tech stated, I don't think so.)

At the outlet end in each room, you can find CAT5e punch-down connectors at HD and Lowes. No crimping, just pushing wires with a special tool that comes with the outlet.

As for crimping, you'll need a crimp tool and some connectors. I used to get them by the 100-count bag, but not so much anymore.  BTW: trying to get Gigabit speeds with hand crimping can be problematic.

That connection module is more like a hub, not a switch. The difference between a hub and a switch is that all the traffic is shared across all the ports with a hub.  It is not shared with a switch. I saw a 4-port Gigabit hub for $25 at buy.com.  I'm sure you could find a 8-port unit for not a whole lot more.

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Re: FIOS Wiring Help
cpbiggs
Newbie

Thanks weedeater!  It's true, no phone service, but some phone jacks were already wired and ready to go incase we ever got the service is what I'm assuming.  The technician just told me he disconnected everything except for the one jack with the DSL connected,  and that it should solve the problem.  For the very few odd drops it has.

Assumed the NID was for cleaning the POTS from the network traffic, but with no phone it's the reason I thought it might no be needed.  I'll leave everything that's there in place and just move the router and modem down to garage.  I have a punch tool on loan from IT guy at work so I should try everything out in a week or so.  I'll be sure to report the progress in this topic.  If it all goes to hell probably just have to end up paying someone to come out and clean it all up.

Thanks again.

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