Cat5 junction box question

[will6747]

Hello I just moved into a house with cat5 cabling. All the wires are connected to a little junction box. What is the purpose of this? Do I need to take it out and install a patch panel? Thanks.

Will

 

[seepy83]

Can you post a picture of what you have? Chances are that it's wired for phone (using cat5), in which case you would want a patch panel if you want to use it for ethernet, but we would need to see it to be sure.

You would also need to verify that all of your jacks have home-runs back to that location, and none of them are wired in series (which would work for phone, but not ethernet). To do that, count the jacks in your house and see if you have a matching number of cat5 cables...that should be good enough to assume they're home runs but you may also want to tone them out.

 

[Cabletek]

I am guessing you have a smart panel where the lines go to standard punch downs and have a RJ-45 port near them, this is a sort of patch panel or you are looking at phone and not Ethernet wiring [both use cat5e in the modern day, just depends on what/how you connect them, on the ends.

Pictures would help clarify this.