House has LAN, but how to get FTP into it?

We've moved into a house that seems to have a LAN network installed. (It was a complete rebuild about 6 years ago and has a lot of mod cons). Yesterday Open Reach finally fitted our FTP Broadband. It seems to me that the BT hub could somehow feed its signal into the LAN but I don't have the technical knowledge to do what is necessary. I did try cabling the BT hub into the socket in the wall in the room where it sits (where fibre enters the house) and then cabling my PC (in a room on the other side of the house) into a LAN socket there but the PC didn't see anything. Does a LAN circuit need power? Could there be the power to it is hidden away somewhere in the house and needs switching on? Any help and hints greatly appreciated! Thanks.

John

Where do all the LAN sockets run back to ? A cupboard under the stairs maybe ?

Ah, that is the question! I don't know, I haven't seen anything looking like that. I will go and have a detailed hunt! Thanks.

John

Each cable needs to run from a device such as a TV or a desktop PC to a port on a switch.

The switch port could be one of the four switch ports that many routers have.

If a separate switch is used then one of the ports on the switch needs to connect to the router in order for devices attached to the other ports to have internet access.

The WAN port of the BT Hub should connect using an ethernet cable to the ONT that the BT engineer fitted, as well as one from a BT Hub LAN port to the pre-existing wall socket.

Is that how you have it set up?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The WAN port of the BT Hub should connect using an ethernet cable to the ONT that the BT engineer fitted, as well as one from a BT Hub LAN port to the pre-existing wall socket.

Is that how you have it set up?

The WAN port of the BT hub is connected to the white box where they brought the fibre into the house. There are no cables connected to the four ethernet out sockets of the BT hub.

I have just found on a high shelf in the loft 8 ethernet tails labelled to match the rooms in which there are RJ45 sockets. This loft area is above the study where the fibre comes into the house. I assume I now need to buy a switch*, connect all the tails to it, then find someone who can route a cable from the BT hub up through the ceiling to feed this switch. Internet will then be available on all the RJ45 sockets. Does that sound correct?

* Like this one: Netgear GS108 - 8 Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switch

It depends really ... do you need something connected on each ethernet port ?

Is there a tail that feeds to near the ONT ? You could patch the feed from the ONT up to the loft ... site the router there, and then feed three LAN ports from the router.

In reply to a post by Shiner_UK:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I have just found on a high shelf in the loft 8 ethernet tails labelled to match the rooms in which there are RJ45 sockets. This loft area is above the study where the fibre comes into the house. I assume I now need to buy a switch*, connect all the tails to it, then find someone who can route a cable from the BT hub up through the ceiling to feed this switch. Internet will then be available on all the RJ45 sockets. Does that sound correct?

That is correct. Use a CAT5e ethernet cable or cat6 but that might be overkill for your needs.
As for the switch I can't comment on as I don't have knowledge of them.

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I like Zarjaz's idea.

If you want to use wifi for phones and tablets, then if the Hub being in the loft doesn't give good coverage you could get a WAP, (or use any previous router you have and use it as one by turning off its DHCP), wherever in the living spaces it works well, connected to a wall socket/tail.

Some basics first, sorry if this is too basic...Oh BTW I should have refreshed the page, I see this has already been covered.

You can't parallel up LAN connections like you can telephone extensions, each cable runs from one location to another. In an office LAN there'll be a "central" patch panel where all the runs come together. This may be in a locked cabinet somewhere. In our B&Q you can see it on the wall near the checkouts.

In a domestic install a patch panel is usually OTT, so it is more likely that you'll have a multiway wallplate somewhere (or in your case tails running out of a wall). The trick will be finding where the cables go. If you don't have one of these https://cpc.farnell.com/tenma/72-8500/toneprobe-set/... then it may come down to working out whether the cables go up or down, cables in a loft space tend to be fairly visible, under floorboards not so much.

A small switch looks a lot like a router, and shouldn't be totally hidden away, for clarification I mean it shouldn't be hidden because it is electronic equipment that needs power, not just a passive junction, and at some point it probably will fail so loft space: OK, under floor-boards: not such a good idea.

Edited by obroad (Fri 20-Mar-20 15:21:13)