Connect Network Expansion Board/Patch Panel to Router

Question

I am somewhat unfamiliar with home networking but trying to set up my home's ethernet pre-wiring which originates from a control panel box in my garage.

The control panel has a Leviton 1x6 Telephone/Ethernet expansion board (see first image; here is a link to the product https://www.leviton.com/en/products/47609-f6) with what I assume is a single feed connection at the top and an expansion jack at the bottom.

The feed wire into the expansion board did not have a RJ45 connector on it so I added one myself using 568A ordering (white/green, green, white/orange, blue, white/blue, orange, white/brown, brown). I used a wire tester and successfully confirmed that the wiring ordering was correct and routed into remote rooms in the house via pre-wiring.

Currently, my internet router receives internet from coax cable in another room of house (coax passes through this control panel), but I want to connect the router directly at this control panel and then connect to the expansion board via the feed wire into one of the router's LAN ports.

See images below for current Base Scenario set-up, a Test Scenario which connects LAN but requires splitter, and my Preferred Scenario where there are no Coax splitters at all and everything routes into the house via the ethernet expansion board.

Issues:

1. When I connect Coax directly into the router (no splitter), WAN light is ON but LAN light is OFF.

2. When I connect Coax into router after the splitter, the LAN and WAN lights are BOTH ON, and I can connect devices to LAN port, BUT the connection through the Expansion Board to the other rooms in the house does not work.

Questions:

1. Can this expansion board even handle LAN ethernet internet or is it for old style telephone?

2. Do I need a device between the router and this expansion board to connect the internet signal?

3. Could the wire ordering I'm using be the problem? I tested multiple different orderings when adding the connector, and the 568A order is the only one that had a successful test on the wire tester.

4. Is there a reason the router LAN doesn't work when the Coax from the ISP is connected directly into router (no splitter).

Here is a picture of control panel plus diagrams of the three scenarios to help explain. Any help is much appreciated.

Control panel w/ Expansion Board on left (blue RJ45 wire goes to Feed at top of Leviton expansion board)

Base Scenario diagram

Test Scenario - router LAN only works after Coax splitter

Preferred Scenario - Coax directly into router (but currently having issues with LAN)

Answer 1

I haven't reviewed all your options yet, but the "expansion board" is a non-starter. It's a TELEPHONE expansion board and will NOT work as you expect. You can't just connect computers in parallel like phones. What need there is a LAN SWITCH and all the appropriate re-wiring in your LV panel. Maybe I'll add to this later...just wanted to let you know now that what you have won't work.

EDIT: I just added a pic of my LV panel showing 2 small patch panels on the right and an 8 port switch on the left. It's a little sloppy, but it works.

Given the few number of connections in your home, you may not even need a switch if your router has enough ports on it. The benefits of a patch panel is flexibility.

Answer 2

To expand on the accepted answer - you can do this two ways.

Both depend on having AC power inside the cabinet, or nearby where you can run an extension cable.

1) Adding a local ethernet switch inside this cabinet will work. You'll use one port coming in from your router, and all the rest can go out to your ~6 sockets around the house.
To do this, you'll need to terminate all those loose wires with an RJ45 plug, which will require a crimping tool and the plugs, and probably a wire-stripper. The expansion module should be removed, its useless for ethernet.

2) Another option is to locate the router here inside this cabinet. Presumably it has about 4 LAN ports, so you can liven up 4 ports around your house.
Downsides, your Wireless (WLAN) signal strength may suffer. And this still requires removing the expansion board, and having access to a crimper/plugs to suit your cabling.

THIS also assumes that the far end of each run of structured cabling is wired to an RJ45 socket/jack already. It is not unknown for the far end to be wired to an RJ11/RJ12 or a BT socket in countries that use those. Upshot, you may need ~6 wall plates, RJ45 jacks, and a punchdown tool as well.

If you're buying tools anyway, an ethernet continuity tester can be very helpful as well, though not strictly required.

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If you really prefer a patch panel that suits your system, something more like this is required:

Notice how each RJ45 socket is associated with one punchdown strip of 8 positions (they alternate sides because of space constraints.) Also there is no "expansion" or continuation or daisy-chain connector.

I can't find a matching leviton part number, sorry.