Home Networking advice

[Sombeech]

Holy crap, I'm getting desperate when I start asking you people for networking advice! :lol8: :twisted:

Good hell, I just can't figure this out! I've ran Cat5e cable throughout my house. 12 runs. They all meet in the basement at a Networking Switch. We'll call the switch the "Start, or beginning of the cable". At the other end, I've got the cable coming to the Female RJ-45 jack, complete with wallplate.

Purpose? Xbox "gatherings". (and just in case the wife asks, it's for distributing internet to multiple rooms. :haha: )

What's wrong? No freaking connection!!! I know the switch works, because we end up putting it upstairs, and directly plugging into it from the Xboxes. (without going through the walls, just laying the cable on the floor)

Here's what I would like for each run. Beginning with the switch, running cable through the walls to the wall plates, going from the wall plates to the xbox.

The long runs have Female RJ45s on each end, and a small patch cable after that. I've wired them all straight following the 568B pattern, and I'm letting the switch do the crossover.

Any suggestions?
:ne_nau: :frustrated:

[rockgremlin]

Sit tight Sombeech. I've petitioned the assistance of the GRAND MASTER of all things computer and Xbox related.

Awaiting reply....

[price1869]

xbox live

[rockgremlin]

Is this for LAN parties, or are you looking to hook 12 guys up online?

[Ryebrye]

When you say "no connection" I assume that you mean "no internet connection". I haven't connected very many XBoxes together before - but I have connected hundreds of computers befofe.

If you have a broadband internet connection, you will need to have more than a switch to share it to that many different connections. A router is what you need. Connect a router to the broadband connection - then one of the ports on the back of the router to your switch. This will let your rooms all connect to the router and then to the outside world.

I have no idea if you can have multiple Xboxes on XBox live if you are behind the NAT of the router - but if you had a bunch of XBoxes around you would probably be doing a LAN thing anyway.

One good way to diagnose your switch problem is to use the lights on the actual switch. Even the cheapest switches I have seen have lights indicating when a connection is active - some have lights indicating if a connection is base 10 or base 100 - and some have activity lights.

Connect somthing that you know works - like a laptop or something - to the jack in the room... and then look at the light on your switch. If the laptop is on - the light on the switch should be on. If not - something got screwey with your cabling. If all 12 rooms are bad, then you probably have the worst luck in the world - or perhaps the wallplates have the wires switched.

For a lot of money, you can buy testing equipment that you can use to check your cable runs... For less money you can use two people and a simple test - just grab a some thin wires and short two of the pins on the RJ45 male jack at the switch side - and then have someone use a multimeters continuity tester (the thing that buzzes if there is a connection) to test the same two wires on the other side. Move on down the line to make sure that they are wired right.

If your wiring is right, you have your lights blinking, and you are still having problems - then you need to get a shotgun and start shooting your equipment. Perhaps the policeman who your neighbors call will know a thing or two about networking.

[price1869]

Sorry Sombeech, I think my reply may have thrown them off.

I was just trying to say that xbox live is cool.

Somebeech is hooking up a local network of Xboxes for at home LAN parties.

Sombeech, you have your cables run standard, and you're letting the switch do the crossover, correct? I would just recheck the wiring. Even if you have to set your own order with the pairs (verses the crazy order that everyone uses as standard) That may be your problem. It's easy to miss a wire or two. Is it all rooms that aren't connecting? It maybe your router/switch.

Price

[Sombeech]

Is this for LAN parties, or are you looking to hook 12 guys up online?

It's for LAN parties at my house.


xbox live
True, I know how great that is, but we love to meet up together with all the guys. (we're all married and we need a guys' night out)


If your wiring is right, you have your lights blinking, and you are still having problems - then you need to get a shotgun and start shooting your equipment.

:frustrated: :lol8: It's crossed my mind.

OK, I may have been a little vague, but if I explained everything in the first post, it would have been very long...

I'm experienced with networking, I do the same thing at work with the PCs. I own my own crimper, and I've probably crimped more than 100 cables. That's why this is so frustrating!!!!

What's worse, is I actually do get the lights on the switch. I'll use a crossover on one cable, the rest straight. That won't work, so I'll use ALL straight and let the switch cross it over. Still no luck. Maybe this diagram below will help...

Keep in mind, my switch DOES work, because we end up hauling it upstairs and plugging directly into it, meaning only 1 cable per Xbox.

[accadacca]

Wow! I am totally confused..... :crazy:

[live2ride]

Are your females Bi-sexual? :roflol:

[price1869]

the more connections you have, the higher probability of messing it up. try to cut back on connections.

[Ryebrye]

Crossovers should be unnecessary with the switch. You should be able to get it to work with all straight cables running to the switch, and no crossover buton. FWIR the crossover button on the switch usually just works on one port - and is used if you need to connect the switch to the uplink of another device - such as another switch or a cable modem... etc.

Of course - if Xboxes used auto-sensing ethernet jacks like any decent computer does these days - you wouldn't have to worry about the crossovers...

Strange that the lights turn on but you get no connections. I've never played around with XBox networking - but perhaps there is somewy to put a computer on the same switch and then try to ping the Xboxes? How do they assign IP addresses? Does one determine itself to be the host and run a DHCP server? :ne_nau:

Strange problems. Hope the magic "Oh duh!" turns on for you - otherwise I think slugs might be better than buckshot or grapeshot. It would help pinpoint your efforts on the cause of the frustration...

[rockgremlin]

Hey Dude -

The Grand Master says:

"he needs a router to hand out addresses or the xbox's will just wait and wait until it gets one."

Dunno if you have a router installed, but if not, that could be your problem.

[Sombeech]

the more connections you have, the higher probability of messing it up. try to cut back on connections.

True, and I've thought about just having one cable total per unit. This would mean I would have a little 5' section coiled up hanging on the outside of the wall, instead of terminating it at a wall plate. I would like to be clean though...


Hope the magic "Oh duh!" turns on for you
I'm sure it will. I expected it by now though...


Dunno if you have a router installed, but if not, that could be your problem
The strange thing is, we know the switch works. When we get frustrated with the current layout, we bring the switch upstairs and hook up to it directly. This means the cables are all strewn out over the floor making a mess, but it works.

I basically want to use this same strategy, but have the cables in the wall so we don't have to set up each time.

By the way, I've joined several hi-tech forums asking this same question, and you guys are proving more knowledgeable! :hail2thechief: :hail2thechief: Thanks a lot for the responses. I'm afraid I will just have to go around and recrimp all of my connections.