Whole Home Ethernet

[pockyken007]

your set up should be sonic drop > modem / router > switch > devices

Judging from your set up picture I see sonic drop > into switch > into devices ( I assume one of the devices is the actual router ) , therefore there is nothing assigning dhcp / IP addresses to the devices so they will not work .

Put a router in front of the switch and right after the drop so that the router can assign IP's to all devices plugged into the switch ( since the switch appears to be managed set it as a dumb switch to just forward traffic unless you need some specific settings on some ports / devices )

[dane]

so

Dane has it right. Connect an ethernet cable between the ONT to your router's WAN port, and the yellow cable from your Netgear switch to one of your router's ports. If your Netgear has an IP it may also be doing something unexpected since it's a managed switch. You'd be responsible to fix that.

The Photo is the actual way sonic installed my whole home ethernet ... from what I understand, the yellow cable should go to the router first ONT? then from the router port connects back to the switch port 1 to make port 2-8 workable?
so you're saying the photo setup is wrong?

Yes, looks wrong to me. Should be:

ONT -> Pace RG -> Switch -> Other devices.

(Other devices can also be directly connected to the Pace)

Point is, whether we're talking about the four Ethernet ports out the Pace, or also a switch hung off one of them, or four switches hung off all four, or switches hung off switches off switches off any of the ports out of the Pace - all the flat, switching local area network happens behind the Pace router/residential gateway.

[miken]

Curious, is it company policy to install whole home ethernet cables to the main comm box, and have the main line go thru the switch rather than the router?

Thanks

That looks like it was installed incorrectly. Could you send me a private message with your username so that I can get this fixed for you?

[tkorjohpete1]

Thanks Mike, I did

[rhynojs]

I have to chime in here, we just had our FTTN installed about a month ago and love it. We opted to not have the whole home install done but our installer did go over it with me as I already had all the tools for tracing lines, crimp tools etc and thought I'd save some money by doing it myself. Well he too said the switch would be installed in the exterior panel so it would be ONT > Switch > RG.

I get that the switch should be behind the RG, but all the lines terminate in the exterior panel as shown in the OP's photo, so what's the trick? Somehow fish a line back from the RG (inside) back out to the panel (outside) and into the Switch?

[Guest]

Well he too said the switch would be installed in the exterior panel so it would be ONT > Switch > RG.

I get that the switch should be behind the RG, but all the lines terminate in the exterior panel as shown in the OP's photo, so what's the trick? Somehow fish a line back from the RG (inside) back out to the panel (outside) and into the Switch?

I've never done this but my guess is using a managed switch, the ONT-to-Switch yellow cable and the cable where the RG is connected is on the same segment/VLAN. Then the rest of the connections would be on another VLAN and the switch routes between the two. I could imagine a scenario like this would be attractive only due to physical layout of the internal wiring--kinda like how electricians use a switch-leg for situations where power arrives at a fixture before a switch. Most home networks follow the standard ISP->router->switch->devices. I could understand if the ONT and switch is at a garage in the far corner of the property it wouldn't make sense to have the RG there as WiFi performance will be impaired.

From that photo I didn't zoom into the picture (I always use NoScript and didn't bother to enable flicker's subdomains) and finally see that the switch was provided by Sonic. In this case, the switch's configuration, if any would need to be corrected by Sonic, not the subscriber.

Also the green cables are bordering on cablefail. Ports (counting from the left) 4, 5, and 6 aren't crimped very well. My parents' install had all supplied ethernet cables recrimped because they were cut to fit. Not the case here.

Personally I wouldn't do it that way. The yellow cable could be coupled to the cable on port 2 (again, counting from the left) terminating to the RG's WAN port and another cable from the RG's LAN segment can go to an open port on the switch. The way it's set up in the picture 3 ports are needed to connect the RG (one for the ONT, another for the WAN port, and another for the LAN). It's entirely possible there's some trick I don't know about.

[rhynojs]

Well he too said the switch would be installed in the exterior panel so it would be ONT > Switch > RG.

I get that the switch should be behind the RG, but all the lines terminate in the exterior panel as shown in the OP's photo, so what's the trick? Somehow fish a line back from the RG (inside) back out to the panel (outside) and into the Switch?

I've never done this but my guess is using a managed switch, the ONT-to-Switch yellow cable and the cable where the RG is connected is on the same segment/VLAN. Then the rest of the connections would be on another VLAN and the switch routes between the two. I could imagine a scenario like this would be attractive only due to physical layout of the internal wiring--kinda like how electricians use a switch-leg for situations where power arrives at a fixture before a switch. Most home networks follow the standard ISP->router->switch->devices. I could understand if the ONT and switch is at a garage in the far corner of the property it wouldn't make sense to have the RG there as WiFi performance will be impaired.

From that photo I didn't zoom into the picture (I always use NoScript and didn't bother to enable flicker's subdomains) and finally see that the switch was provided by Sonic. In this case, the switch's configuration, if any would need to be corrected by Sonic, not the subscriber.

Also the green cables are bordering on cablefail. Ports (counting from the left) 4, 5, and 6 aren't crimped very well. My parents' install had all supplied ethernet cables recrimped because they were cut to fit. Not the case here.

Personally I wouldn't do it that way. The yellow cable could be coupled to the cable on port 2 (again, counting from the left) terminating to the RG's WAN port and another cable from the RG's LAN segment can go to an open port on the switch. The way it's set up in the picture 3 ports are needed to connect the RG (one for the ONT, another for the WAN port, and another for the LAN). It's entirely possible there's some trick I don't know about.

Thank you for this! Until I actually looked up that model to see that it was a smart switch, it didn't make sense. Now that I know it is, it makes perfect sense that pairing the RG and ONT together on a VLAN, then re-routing all other connections that are terminated in the exterior box accordingly allows us to have this "unorthodox" setup.

[Guest]

this "unorthodox" setup.

It's also wasting 2 ports instead of using one.

[dane]

No, it's not a VLAN, nor would that make sense, as the RG cannot loop back two VLANs on the WAN port. It needs to be ONT -> RG -> Switch -> Devices. This was improperly wired - team is aware, and will reach out.

(It will, sorta, work: devices on the switch directly connected to the ONT will be allocated an IP via DHCP, up to the limit of 8 IPs, but you'll be connected without firewalling, which isn't a good idea, and you won't be able to access other LAN resources that might be on WiFi or behind the RG. Once 8 IPs are allocated, additional devices connected would fail to get an IP. It's not a proper setup.)

[Guest]

(It will, sorta, work: devices on the switch directly connected to the ONT will be allocated an IP via DHCP, up to the limit of 8 IPs, but you'll be connected without firewalling

Perfect for those who don't like censorship.