Fiber I'm stuck on trying to connect router to Ethernet Switch
- Thread starter wigster
- Start date
No - please don't connect the ONT into a switch.
You can however use the phone sockets, but it should be direct between the ONT and the Router with no other devices between
Ok thanks so that's not going to work, as I have other devices.
This will be the only way thanks, I was just trying to figure out a cheap quick way, I already have a swith in the bedroom that I use for my pc and laptop, I'm guessing it will be ok to connect the access point to the switch?
Yes. But no.
It's fine to connect the ONT to a switch if that switch is going to put the connection into a VLAN that is isolated and is then only used for transiting the connection to where you want then break it out to your router WAN. It's not ideal but it's not a taboo that you should never do.
Soldato
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I'm puzzled as to what you mean by you have converted your phone sockets to RJ45. You did rewire all the running cables to Cat5e or Cat6, yes?
My router is in a different room and I just ran a Cat6 cable to the ONT. I can't imagine why you would want a switch in the way. It offers no benefits since the first the only thing connected to the ONT should be the router.
My router is in a different room and I just ran a Cat6 cable to the ONT. I can't imagine why you would want a switch in the way. It offers no benefits since the first the only thing connected to the ONT should be the router.
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Soldato
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It makes sense if your home is wired for cat5e or better. I did exactly the same by using rj45 to rj11 adapters when I had an analogue line
As per the post above yours. You may want to have 2 or more routers for active passive failover so I too have my ONT plugged directly into a switch VLAN'ed off so that only the routers see the ONT
Also the switch gives you more bandwidth options if you're bottlenecked by a gigabit router
New builds tend to use cat5e or cat6 for internal phone cabling, but only terminate the required pairs. You can remove the RJ11 faceplate and replace it with RJ45, then terminate each end of the existing cable appropriately once you've figured out how they put it in. It's how I've got runs from the loft to my downstairs office and living room. Annoyingly they tend to be stapled in rather than run in any conduit so you can't use them to pull through fibre or better cabling (I doubt they'll install them 'nicely').
Whilst a direct physical connection from ONT to router WAN port is simplest you should be able to throw it over a switch using isolated ports/VLANS as suggested.
You will likely have to fiddle with MTU values and disable some protocols on the ports used (STP for example)
You will likely have to fiddle with MTU values and disable some protocols on the ports used (STP for example)
Newbuild with plenty of phone sockets that will never be used, popped off the faceplate and converted them as the wiring is cat5e.
I'm going with a TP-Link access point just for the room with poor WiFi.
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Mine wasn't even properly punched down it's like they knew the phone sockets weren't going to be used lolI did the same with our new build (2022), popped the faceplates off and found it was just cat5e with only 1 pair wired up.
Easy enough job rewiring them all with RJ45 modules instead and gained a few extra ports