Trying to connect Sony Blu Ray player to MI424WR router wired through in-wall connection, help!

Question

Maybe someone can help me. My house has some pre-wired cat5e plugs in the walls. I have my MI424WR router upstairs and my Sony blu ray player downstairs. I first connected the router and blu ray player to the wall with cat5e cables, no luck. I then tried using a cat5e crossover cable from the router to the wall, no luck. The Sony blu ray player has everything set to auto, but do I need to configure something? Can someone help me figure out what is not working? Thank you.

Answer 1

AEConfidential wrote:
Shouldn't the wiring in the wall act like a hub with the router plugged into one wall jack?
No.  cat5 wiring doesn't work that way.  Unlike phone wiring where all the wires are connected together, cat5 wiring connects point-to-point between two Ethernet devices.  You need a continuous cat5 path from the blu-ray player to the router.  The patch panel merely provides a termination point for each cable. 
The easiest thing to do to get this working is to take a cat5 patch cord and use it as a jumper from the jack going to the blu-ray player and the jack going to the Actiontec router.  That will give you a continuous connection between the two devices.
Longer term, if you want to add devices in other rooms that have a cat5 cable, you will need to add a switch as viafax999 suggested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_switch
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=30&Tpk=ethernet%20switch&Order=PRICE
You will need to connect the jack going to the Actiontec router as well as the jack going to each room where you want an Ethernet connection to the switch.  The number of rooms you want active will determine how many ports you need on the switch.