Activating CAT-5 Network Junction Box?

Question

My house is CAT-5 prewired. There are 6 RJ-45/phone outlets in the house and they all feed into a junction box. How do I activate the network in the house? I have a verizon DSL modem/router (a single unit). There is no where in the junction box where the modem/router can be plugged in. How on earth do I get this thing to work? I appreciate any help.

Answer 1

What, exactly, is in this "junction box"?  Is it simply a hub/switch which connects all of the RJ-45 outlets in the rest of the house to each other?

If that's the case, then it may be a simple matter of plugging the DSL router into the junction box just as you would any computer.

For example, when we wired our home office for Cat-5, we placed an 8-port switch in the storage room, where all of the cables were routed.  When broadband finally came to our area, we simply plugged the ISP's router into one of the spare RJ-45 sockets, and configured the computers on the network to use it as our gateway.

If the junction box has something else, I'll need more details.

Answer 2

Open the door of the junction box, inside there should be a switch\hub inside with all the wires plugged into it. All you have to do is to run a cable from one of the open ports on the switch to the router. If the switch is managed, then you may have to go to its interface either using ssh or a web browser.

If there is no switch in the junction box, then you will need to buy one.

If there are no free ports on the switch, then you will either need to buy a new switch with a sufficient ammount of port, nix one of the sockets and leave it unplugged so you can plug in the router or get one of those cheapo radio shack 2x1 and consolidate 2 of the ports into one. Yes, you can chain link switches.