Advice on activating all Ethernet ports in apartment

  • 13 September 2020
  • 5 kommenttia
  • 224 katselukertaa

Hi all,

Please bear with me, my question will be horribly cretinous 🙂>

I moved into an apartment with 8 different ethernet ports around the house and a fancy fuse/network box by the entrance. (see picture)

If memory serves, before connecting the main RKT2/A24 cable to port 3 in the network box, all ethernet ports around the house were dead. I may be wrong about this, but I vaguely remember wrestling with the router and trying to get it to connect at port 3, nothing was happening. In a short-lived burst of brilliance, I ran to the box and connected the only cable available to Port 3 and lo and behold, the port came alive.

Now I want to use other ports around the house. And I suspect that I will need some piece of kit that allows the main RKT2 cable to activate the rest of those ports. Is that what a fabled 'switch box' is?

Do I even need it?

Any and all replies will be greatly appreciated 😁>


5 kommenttia

Käyttäjätaso 7
Kunniamerkki +16

You can either buy a router with sufficient number of Ethernet ports on it, or a separate router and an ethernet switch.

 

For example Ubiquiti EdgeRouter ER-12 and ER-10X have 10 Ethernet ports. You will need a total of 9 Ethernet ports, 1 for WAN and 8 for LAN.

 

Most users want to have wireless, too. The fancy fusebox is a terrible place for wlan/wifi access point. Those usually have metal doors, which hinder wireless networks.

 

Thus, another perfectly valid setup is to have a wireless router at a good location and hook it to the wall box with two Ethernet cables and then a plain Ethernet switch in the fancy fusebox.

 

Let's say that the socket labelled 3&4 is in a central location, where you can expect to have good wifi coverage around your apartment. Connect RKT2/A24 to 3 at the fancy network box. Buy a wireless router and set it up somewhere near socket 3&4.

 

Connect one Ethernet cable from wall box connector 3 to the wireless router's WAN port. Connect another Ethernet cable from router's LAN connector to the the wall box connector 4.

 

Buy an 8 port Ethernet switch and take it to the fancy fusebox. Connect short Ethernet patch cables from connectors 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 to the Ethernet switch.

 

Now all the Ethernet sockets will work in your apartment. If you need to connect something else close to the socket 3&4, use the LAN ports on your wireless router.

@irritus That's a fantastic and comprehensive reply, many thanks!

Now I have wi-fi router located centrally in my place, connected through WAN and LAN to Wall Port 3 (the one that is active in the fusebox). It provides good wi-fi to everything and it's all good.

Now I need to activate a single other ethernet port around the house. 

If I buy a simple ethernet switch, plug it in the fusebox and then run the main RKT2 cable directly into the switch (now it's in Port 3) and add two more RJ45 cables going from switch to Ports 3 & 8 respectively, will I retain functionality on port 3 whilst also activating port 8?

Thanks!

Käyttäjätaso 7
Kunniamerkki +16

@Rivereyes@  kirjoitti:

Now I have wi-fi router located centrally in my place, connected through WAN and LAN to Wall Port 3 (the one that is active in the fusebox). It provides good wi-fi to everything and it's all good.

So you have a cable going straight from RKT2/A24 to the WAN port on your wireless router, and another cable going from LAN to port 3 in the fusebox?

 

Yes, that will work fine, too. If you want to have both sockets 3 ja 8 active, just pull another cable from another LAN port on your router and connect it to port 8 in the fusebox.

 

Or, if the router is nearby socket 3, you can build your network like this:

 

  • connect RKT2/A24 – 3 at the fusebox
  • connect 4 – 8 at the fusebox
  • connect 3 – WAN at the wireless router
  • connect 4 – LAN at the wireless router
  • connect whatever device you want to socket 8

 


@Rivereyes@  kirjoitti:

If I buy a simple ethernet switch, plug it in the fusebox and then run the main RKT2 cable directly into the switch (now it's in Port 3) and add two more RJ45 cables going from switch to Ports 3 & 8 respectively, will I retain functionality on port 3 whilst also activating port 8?


Yes, but in this case bear in mind, that sockets 3 and 8 will be on two separate networks.

 

For example, if you have a NAS box or a printer at socket 3, no computer at socket 8 will see the NAS box nor the printer.

 

Of course, if you do not need to communicate between sockets 3 and 8, but just have internet at there, hooking an ethernet switch to RKT2/A24, 3 and 8 is all you need.

 

Please note that Telia fixed internet connections have a maximum of 5 public ip addresses. Thus, even if you have a 10 port Ethernet switch connected to RKT2/A24 and all the sockets around the apartment, you can only hook up a maximum of 5 devices simultaniously.

 

If you wish to be able to use all the sockets you have on the walls, you must hook RKT2/A24 to the WAN of your wireless router, and then an Ethernet switch to LAN of your wireless router and all the connections 1 to 8 in the fusebox.

Käyttäjätaso 4
Kunniamerkki +10

@Rivereyes@  kirjoitti:

@irritus That's a fantastic and comprehensive reply, many thanks!

Now I have wi-fi router located centrally in my place, connected through WAN and LAN to Wall Port 3 (the one that is active in the fusebox). It provides good wi-fi to everything and it's all good.

Now I need to activate a single other ethernet port around the house. 

If I buy a simple ethernet switch, plug it in the fusebox and then run the main RKT2 cable directly into the switch (now it's in Port 3) and add two more RJ45 cables going from switch to Ports 3 & 8 respectively, will I retain functionality on port 3 whilst also activating port 8?

Thanks!


If you only need one other port active around the house, you can do patch cabling this way:

[] = inside fuse/patch box

[RTK->3]->3->Router WAN

Router LAN->4->[4->8->]->8->Device

 

Edit. Just noticed this is exactly how @irritus explained it! 😅>

Th


@jessenic@  kirjoitti:

@Rivereyes@  kirjoitti:

@irritus That's a fantastic and comprehensive reply, many thanks!

Now I have wi-fi router located centrally in my place, connected through WAN and LAN to Wall Port 3 (the one that is active in the fusebox). It provides good wi-fi to everything and it's all good.

Now I need to activate a single other ethernet port around the house. 

If I buy a simple ethernet switch, plug it in the fusebox and then run the main RKT2 cable directly into the switch (now it's in Port 3) and add two more RJ45 cables going from switch to Ports 3 & 8 respectively, will I retain functionality on port 3 whilst also activating port 8?

Thanks!


If you only need one other port active around the house, you can do patch cabling this way:

[] = inside fuse/patch box

[RTK->3]->3->Router WAN

Router LAN->4->[4->8->]->8->Device

 

Edit. Just noticed this is exactly how @irritus explained it! 😅>


Thank you for taking the time to sketch it out, it's brilliant!


Vastaa