My step-sister and her husband recently moved into a house. They said the last owner was a computer guy. He had networked many rooms in the house with RJ-45 jacks. They want to know what they could be for and how they could use it. Should they be looking for a patch panel? They called their ISP Verizon (DSL) but they do not know what the RJ-45 jacks are for.
They could be wired to a patch panel, or directly jack to jack. There's no way to tell from what you've told us. Go through the house, checking in the basement, garage, closets etc. Any chance of contacting the vendor and asking him?
Verizon has really nothing to do with it. I would even imagine that they would normally ridicule a question like that. They don't really care what's installed behind the network interface device. I guess, you may want to take one of the outlets with the RJ45 jacks apart, look at the cable and find the other end of this same cable/kind of cable. It may end up at a patch panel, it may end up in a central place with plugs crimped on the cables instead, that would depend on how closely the guy followed the standards. This central place, once you've identified it, would be a natural choice for locating your router and DSL/cable modem.
RJ45 is the standard ethernet connector. If all goes well, they can use the wiring for their own home network, sharing files, printers and internet connectivity. It's worth some trouble if they have more than one computer.
They should be looking for a "head end" where all the cables come together. It may be a patch panel, a whole cluster of RJ45s in a double gang box, or a punchdown block. It could be in a central room, closet, attic or basement.
THey should look closely at the jacks for a Cat5 label, and at the cable for similar injet labelling. At least they didn't get RJ45 plugs (male) crimped on cables. More likely to get a decent job from someone who knows enough to use jacks.
'course not! They don't even know the stuff about their own system.
-- Robert
Would her husband be your step-brother in law? ;-)
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