I bought a home a few months back and I know there is ethernet in the walls as there is a huge bundle of Ethernet cabling in an area of the unfinished basement. I can see the wires running along the ceiling and into the walls in that same area. Those cables are punched down into a block and then another series of cables come off the block with RJ45 ends.
There is a single Ethernet jack in the whole house that I can find, located in the office. I've plugged my laptop into it and it is not active. I've tried plugging the various RJ45 ends in the basement area into my switch and have never found what is needed for that jack to be hot.
I also have a surround sound system with speakers in various rooms - except they took a bunch of the speakers, jerks - and a similar bundle of wires in a closet. I'd like to sort out that bundle eventually but it is a lower priority. And yes, I can just plug each pair in and go through the various rooms to see which speaker is "on" but many locations do not currently have speakers installed so that's not a total solution.
Surely there is a tool (or more than one) that will help me:
1. find/trace the Ethernet wiring in my walls without literally tearing them all open
2. figure out which cable in that bundle corresponds to the jack in my office so I can make it active
3. sort out the bundle of speaker wires to determine what corresponds to which speaker
I asked for house plans when we bought it but they were not available and the builder is out of business. Other than 2 large spaces in the basement, the entire house is finished which means this is nontrivially difficult. And I really don't want to spend $100/hr or whatever to have someone come out and sort this out for me unless there are no other options.
Thanks for advice. I'm certain this is a pretty common experience!
There is a single Ethernet jack in the whole house that I can find, located in the office. I've plugged my laptop into it and it is not active. I've tried plugging the various RJ45 ends in the basement area into my switch and have never found what is needed for that jack to be hot.
I also have a surround sound system with speakers in various rooms - except they took a bunch of the speakers, jerks - and a similar bundle of wires in a closet. I'd like to sort out that bundle eventually but it is a lower priority. And yes, I can just plug each pair in and go through the various rooms to see which speaker is "on" but many locations do not currently have speakers installed so that's not a total solution.
Surely there is a tool (or more than one) that will help me:
1. find/trace the Ethernet wiring in my walls without literally tearing them all open
2. figure out which cable in that bundle corresponds to the jack in my office so I can make it active
3. sort out the bundle of speaker wires to determine what corresponds to which speaker
I asked for house plans when we bought it but they were not available and the builder is out of business. Other than 2 large spaces in the basement, the entire house is finished which means this is nontrivially difficult. And I really don't want to spend $100/hr or whatever to have someone come out and sort this out for me unless there are no other options.
Thanks for advice. I'm certain this is a pretty common experience!