HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,238
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
I visited a new client today to do a walk-through of their building and overview of their equipment. They have a 2-story building. They have Verizon FIOS business service, the ONT is in the mechanicals room on the first floor and their server, firewall & switch are on the 2nd floor.
Now, normally with FIOS, there is a single Cat5 wire exiting the ONT, leading either to a FIOS modem/gateway or sometimes, directly to a third-part edge device. In this case, however, there are 2 Cat3 cables and a Cat5 cable coming from the ONT. Each Cat3 cable has 3 of the 4 pairs cut and wrapped back around the cable, with a single pair punched down on a 66-block. I wasn't aware that FIOS delivered phone service this way, but whatever I guess.
The Cat5 cable, though has 2 pairs cut and wrapped back around the cable, with 2 pairs punched down on a second 66-block. ?
On the second floor where the networking equipment is, a normal-looking Cat5 cable drops down from the ceiling, is terminated and plugged into the WAN port of the firewall. I can't tell where in the heck those two connections meet, but I've never seen network wiring connected this way. I assume that for this to work, there must be a 4-wire phone line that runs from the 66-block to a jack somewhere, into which plugs the other end of the WAN cable plugged into the firewall. BTW, I'm measuring 40Mb on my laptop when plugged into the switch. Not horrible, but not what I've come to expect from FIOS service.
The whole reason we were called was to upgrade their wifi and figure out what was necessary to make their internet connection better. Uh, I think I see the problem!
Now, normally with FIOS, there is a single Cat5 wire exiting the ONT, leading either to a FIOS modem/gateway or sometimes, directly to a third-part edge device. In this case, however, there are 2 Cat3 cables and a Cat5 cable coming from the ONT. Each Cat3 cable has 3 of the 4 pairs cut and wrapped back around the cable, with a single pair punched down on a 66-block. I wasn't aware that FIOS delivered phone service this way, but whatever I guess.
The Cat5 cable, though has 2 pairs cut and wrapped back around the cable, with 2 pairs punched down on a second 66-block. ?
On the second floor where the networking equipment is, a normal-looking Cat5 cable drops down from the ceiling, is terminated and plugged into the WAN port of the firewall. I can't tell where in the heck those two connections meet, but I've never seen network wiring connected this way. I assume that for this to work, there must be a 4-wire phone line that runs from the 66-block to a jack somewhere, into which plugs the other end of the WAN cable plugged into the firewall. BTW, I'm measuring 40Mb on my laptop when plugged into the switch. Not horrible, but not what I've come to expect from FIOS service.
The whole reason we were called was to upgrade their wifi and figure out what was necessary to make their internet connection better. Uh, I think I see the problem!
