I recently moved into a new construction home that has all the rooms “pre-wired” for ethernet, except the connections haven’t been made at the central panel.

In the image above, the one wire with the arrow pointed to it is connected to an Eero 6 Pro, from the outside Verizon Fios box. I think the setup I need to enable the ethernet ports in all the pre-wired rooms is:

Verizon Fios --> Eero 6 Pro --> Unmanaged Switch --> Individual Ethernet connections

My questions are:

  • To enable all the other ethernet ports in the house, do I just need to cut/crimp the cables, add ends and follow the above setup?
  • If so, what materials do I need? I figure I need a cable cutter/crimper, some cat6 ends. Do I need a LAN cable tester? Any other items?
  • Can someone without networking experience do this, or should I realistically be hiring someone?

Couple notes:

  • I have no experience with home networking other than setting up a modem/router (have always lived in apartments before). But I’m generally pretty tech savvy (though not home repair savvy) and can figure things out.
  • Verizon tech said my ethernet cables were “A pattern”
  • At some point, I do want to set up a POE camera system. (Probably a couple months down the line) Does this mean, I should get a larger POE-enabled switch? Or should I have a unmanaged switch for the room connections, and another POE enabled switch for the POE system? (I guess that would result in a switch plugged into a switch… which doesn’t sound like the best way to go, but figured I’d ask)

Thanks for any help!

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  • cyb0rg1962@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Don’t take their word for it. Get a cheap continuity type cable checker. You’ll be glad you did. Sometimes, a punch down doesn’t go well or they mistakenly used B instead of A, etc. Really need a patch panel. Will save a lot of frustration. Don’t forget to get the tool to punch down. I’d buy some short ethernet cables to make the connections in the panel, too much trouble to make them and I’m prone to make errors. Personally, I’d go with a separate switch for the POE connections. This will enable a separate LAN for the cameras, if needed.