[jrref]

Originally Posted by Killarneytime

I am late to the game so sorry. Also brand new to this site so hopefully I am following protocol! I love the cleanliness of that setup! Here is my question - I had the TV/Cat6 wired in living room and to Lanai. (Down in Eastport area) When I moved in nothing was terminated in garage so I did that and put in a switch. Here is my question for any experts out there - I have four other unterminated (actually I terminated all of them in garage) Cat6 cables that all go into attic and run to center before spreading out. I just can't get into middle of attic to visually see what walls they spider into. I want hardwire EN into my office. I am assuming that those cables are somewhere behind walls. Any thoughts on how to find them? Toning it didn't work but then again I purchased a Klein tool (sub$100) to try it. Or do I take a guess on where the TV may have been terminated and start punching holes? I am not sure I want to pay over $200 to find a cable behind a wall. Open to thoughts. Thanks

For each blue wire in the white data cabinet in the garage there is a Rj45 (ethernet) jack on the other side in another room. Generally you will see a jack or two in the living room and on the Lanai. The rest should be in the bedrooms. If you don't see a jack, then there is no wire hidden in the wall. All of the blue wires should be terminated to Rj45 jacks in your home.

[ResQme]

Originally Posted by Killarneytime

I am late to the game so sorry. Also brand new to this site so hopefully I am following protocol! I love the cleanliness of that setup! Here is my question - I had the TV/Cat6 wired in living room and to Lanai. (Down in Eastport area) When I moved in nothing was terminated in garage so I did that and put in a switch. Here is my question for any experts out there - I have four other unterminated (actually I terminated all of them in garage) Cat6 cables that all go into attic and run to center before spreading out. I just can't get into middle of attic to visually see what walls they spider into. I want hardwire EN into my office. I am assuming that those cables are somewhere behind walls. Any thoughts on how to find them? Toning it didn't work but then again I purchased a Klein tool (sub$100) to try it. Or do I take a guess on where the TV may have been terminated and start punching holes? I am not sure I want to pay over $200 to find a cable behind a wall. Open to thoughts. Thanks

If I understand you correctly:
1. During Design Review, you only requested two runs: one to Living Room TV, second to Lanai. (Hindsight is 20/20, but why didn't you add a run to your "office"?)
2. You don't see any RJ45 data jack in your office. (are you sure about this?)
3. You then discovered there are 6 Cat-6 wires in your LVP (and you terminated all of them)
4. You went up to the attic to try and see where the six cables lead to, but you can only get so far, and can't determine exactly where the other four go to.

I believe your options are:
1. Hire a handyman or electrician to trace the wires. If you get the right guy, you'd be amazed at where they can get to up in the attic.
2. Hire a handyman or electrician to run a new cable to exactly where you want to put your office jack.
3. Use wireless/wireless mesh instead.

Sorry, this is a tough one, and I think you'll end up shelling out money if you really want hardwire. I know someone who may be able to help you with either option 1 or 2, and I don't think it'll cost you $200 or more, but I can't speak for him. Let me know if you want his name and number.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by ResQme

If I understand you correctly:
1. During Design Review, you only requested two runs: one to Living Room TV, second to Lanai. (Hindsight is 20/20, but why didn't you add a run to your "office"?)
2. You don't see any RJ45 data jack in your office. (are you sure about this?)
3. You then discovered there are 6 Cat-6 wires in your LVP (and you terminated all of them)
4. You went up to the attic to try and see where the six cables lead to, but you can only get so far, and can't determine exactly where the other four go to.

I believe your options are:
1. Hire a handyman or electrician to trace the wires. If you get the right guy, you'd be amazed at where they can get to up in the attic.
2. Hire a handyman or electrician to run a new cable to exactly where you want to put your office jack.
3. Use wireless/wireless mesh instead.

Sorry, this is a tough one, and I think you'll end up shelling out money if you really want hardwire. I know someone who may be able to help you with either option 1 or 2, and I don't think it'll cost you $200 or more, but I can't speak for him. Let me know if you want his name and number.

All good information.
Again, I don't believe it's legal or to code to leave wires unterminated in the wall so if you don't see any jacks, there are no wires hidden in the walls. The Villages used to put jacks in all the rooms but they don't do that now unless you specify it with the build or get the Smart Home package.

All that said, if I were you, if there is no ethernet jack in the rooms you want one, just get your own Mesh WiFi system. Amazon Eero, Netgear Orbi, and TP-Link Deco are recommended because they all have a ethernet switch on all the nodes that you can plug into and from past experience they all work well. If you have the money, get a WiFi-7 system so you future proof your home. If not, the Wifi 6E systems work well and will be cheaper.

Whatever system you purchase, you will need to plug it into the Centric Fiber router if you got that service and it should all work. But if you do that, call Centric and ask them to turn Off the Wifi on their device so you don't get WiFi interference from it with your new system. If you are DIYer, Google how to log into the Centric router yourself and you can do all that as well including putting the device in transparent bypass mode so you are not double routing.

In reality, with today's WiFi Mesh systems in homes here in the Villages, you don't need to spend money running ethernet cables to rooms to hardwire devices. If you happen to already have the ethernet runs and jacks, then use them. As far as hiring an electrician to run a wire, they generally get $175 for the first hour plus supplies and I don't think the charge will be only one hour. AND you really don't want someone running around your attic messing up all the blown-in insulation so just easier to get a Mesh system and call it a day.

Hope this helps.

[Killarneytime]

To close my inquiry out. First thank you to all who responded. It's a puzzle but perhaps one day I will get bold and get up in the attic to middle of house. I have 6 runs of cat5/6 (not sure what was used) from panel in garage up into attic along with 6 coax, all going into one dark spot in the middle of attic that I can't get to. I only requested two RJ45s really for two smart TV's. However I didn't anticipate the poor performance with WiFi. I have gone down Orbi trail before and it has it's own issues, so I wanted to hardwire. Since I saw unterminated Cat cables in garage going into attic, my feeling was they were going somewhere, but then again the point was made that they can't be unterminated behind a wall, but they can be in a box, and there are no extra boxes in rooms so where they go who knows. I am not going to go nuts over it and I wills save it for another day at this time.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Killarneytime

To close my inquiry out. First thank you to all who responded. It's a puzzle but perhaps one day I will get bold and get up in the attic to middle of house. I have 6 runs of cat5/6 (not sure what was used) from panel in garage up into attic along with 6 coax, all going into one dark spot in the middle of attic that I can't get to. I only requested two RJ45s really for two smart TV's. However I didn't anticipate the poor performance with WiFi. I have gone down Orbi trail before and it has it's own issues, so I wanted to hardwire. Since I saw unterminated Cat cables in garage going into attic, my feeling was they were going somewhere, but then again the point was made that they can't be unterminated behind a wall, but they can be in a box, and there are no extra boxes in rooms so where they go who knows. I am not going to go nuts over it and I wills save it for another day at this time.

OK so you say you have 6 runs of Cat 6 cables. It's hard to tell from your picture. I count 5 runs. The black cables should be coax cables. Anyway, looking at the data cabinet in the garage, a picture of that would be nice, you should have one Blue Cat 6 cable going to the top of your kitchen cabinet where the Centric router/wifi device is. If you get a ladder you should see the other end coming out of the wall on top of the kitchen cabinets. Two other Blue Cat 6 cables will go to the two RJ45 jacks that you ordered. There has to be one Cat 6 cable goint to the RJ45 jack in the Lanai. It might not be blue. Some are yellow and some may be black. Thats a total of four Cat 6 cables. That leaves one or two more. I'll bet if you look in all your bedrooms and maybe on the kitchen backsplash you will find the other two. Trust me all the Cat cables have to be terminated and I promise you they are not unterminated in some wall box. In some homes there is a desk by the laundry room. Look under the desk and you should see an RJ45 jack there as well. That might be one of the missing jacks.

I know you said you have some issues with the Orbi but the Centric router and WiFi device should work fine unless your house is very large. Remember, your new home is all on one floor which makes these mesh systems work very well. Can you tell us the size in sqft? From reports from some Villagers who had problems with the Centric device, their extenders don't work very well so after all is done if it works for you great, if not, order an Eero system from Amazon. It should work fine and if it doesn't, it's easily returned. The trick is if you install your own mesh system you have to turn Off the Wifi on the Centric device or you will get interference from it and your Wifi may not work optimally. Hope this all helps.

[Killarneytime]

Thanks good info. I will try Orbi however. 3000SqFt but you make a good point I used Orbi on a multi level, and I still have the router and 2 extenders. But to clarify. I am wondering if they didn't finish something during my build. In my cabinet I had fiber coming in, then going up to the router on the top of the cabinet. At the router was an RJ45 end not plugged in, and in the panel in garage were 6 cut ends. Nothing terminated. I knew I had two more that were supposed to go to Lanai and one going to LR. So you are right that makes 3 left. (and why you only saw 5 in attic) The thing is - I had to test out and terminate the cable to the router to get that connected, I then added a switch in the panel and toned out lanai and LR TV and they are now hardwired fine. So it's strange that they left it all cut unless that is standard at the panel box. And, no rooms have boxes with covers or RJ45 ports anywhere. In any case I think I am just going to use Orbi. I will send a picture once I clean up my panel. It's not as awesome as the one someone posted here - must have been an data center or cable guy! Thank You

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Killarneytime

Thanks good info. I will try Orbi however. 3000SqFt but you make a good point I used Orbi on a multi level, and I still have the router and 2 extenders. But to clarify. I am wondering if they didn't finish something during my build. In my cabinet I had fiber coming in, then going up to the router on the top of the cabinet. At the router was an RJ45 end not plugged in, and in the panel in garage were 6 cut ends. Nothing terminated. I knew I had two more that were supposed to go to Lanai and one going to LR. So you are right that makes 3 left. (and why you only saw 5 in attic) The thing is - I had to test out and terminate the cable to the router to get that connected, I then added a switch in the panel and toned out lanai and LR TV and they are now hardwired fine. So it's strange that they left it all cut unless that is standard at the panel box. And, no rooms have boxes with covers or RJ45 ports anywhere. In any case I think I am just going to use Orbi. I will send a picture once I clean up my panel. It's not as awesome as the one someone posted here - must have been an data center or cable guy! Thank You

It's standard to leave the Cat 6 cabling unterminated in the low voltage cabinet in the garage unless you get the "smart home" package when the house is built.
As far as leaving unterminated cabling in the wall, Licensed electricians install all the wiring including the low voltage wiring and I've never seen that done, mistake or not. That nice data cabinet you saw is mine. LOL

Since the home is new you can call the Villages and ask them where all the cables are terminated. In my home, I downloaded the plans from the Villages web site and found them that way. I also had a Cat cable I couldn't find and sure enough on the drawings it was under the desk in the laundry room.

Anyway, let us know how you make out.

[jrref]

Another Villager posted the following in the Quantum Fiber thread. I'm posting the link here because it will be helpful for the Centric Fiber customers.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...22-post50.html

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...66-post51.html