will unmanaged switches help me?

The first router has a good IP address and everything in that end of the house works whether wireless or hard wired except for a sony dvd player, it sometimes will work and sometimes not. (wireless)
The cables are all remade other than the one that was run from the wall plug in her cave thru the attic to my cave. It was made and run by an electrician and it has internet when I test it in my lap top.
I have 2 desktops a and a satellite receiver, sony dvd player and an Xbox one. the receiver has no wireless capability and neither does one of the desktops thus they will require hard wire.

And can get onery if you ask them to check it. As the correct pairs are on the web I don't duplicate this information but if you will tell me the wire pairs you used, I'll confirm it.

white/blue
white/orange
white/ green
white/brown


pin #1 white/orange
2 orange/white
3 white/green
4 blue/white
5 white blue
6 green/white
7white/brown
8 brown/white

The next test is to replace the run with a factory made cable for a test. Our techs carry 100 foot cables to do this test before we do any other work. Techs also carry a spare router and sometimes a switch to sniff out what it is.

If you paid an electrician, they may have to be called back in to find the error.

thank you for the double check of the pairings.

My question remains, should the feed from the current router adjacent to the cable modem be directly from that router or #1. a Y into the wall and thru the attic and dropping into the back or out of the router into a unmanaged switch??
Once that is clarified and done coming out of the wall would it work (assuming that all cabling and ends are 100% correct do I need a second router or an unmanaged switch that can carry ethernet cables to the hard wire devices?

I am NOT an IT person
I used to know a bit about computers (dos based)

"a Y into the wall"

Ethernet can not be Y'd. Well it can with some high wire circus act but that could be why it's not working.

There is no Y, that was brown out as a possible way to connect. so from modem into the router and then to the wall plug feeding the attic route and dropped into the back of the house, the question was about the better configuration at both ends now that we know the router is working well, and the cables are 100% good

I didn't read where you tried factory made cables to remove all doubt.

I'm still suspect of wiring but if you could sketch the wiring that would be nice.

But if the question is about adding some hub, that's normal after the router. I can't quite visualize the current scheme. Just one router?

I can't seem to figure out how to sketch the wiring here..... I have NOT tested using factory cable on the run from her wall up thru the attic and down into my room
I can connect that cable to my lap top and have an ethernet connection including internet.
I tried connecting to a second router and lost the internet out of it. so I then tried plugging the good internet into an 8 port unmanaged switch (given to me new by a friend but never used) and cannot get any internet
from that point.
The wireless signal in this part of the house is "decent" so it really is a question of supplying internet to devices requiring hard wire.

If you want to use a second router, you DO NOT USE the WAN port. It goes into the LAN port and you research the setup like this on google.

"How to use a router as a WAP?"

The switch should have worked but I don't see model numbers. Some didn't do Auto MDX and required the use of a crossover or the uplink port. Most of these have been discarded over the years as folk don't have the patience to deal with that.

We don't bother to run in the wall. Just plug in and walk the other end to the other side. But given the last post about the second router and no make/model on the switch I am thinking of other issues. The techs would still test the wiring with factory cables. AutoMDX could be in play or not.

Is pin #1 white/orange at both ends? Sometimes the electrician reverse that on each end.

The switch is a netgear prosafe 8 port.

I have a second router I can try to use if I need it.


I appreciate your time and patience.... and Merry Christmas to you and yours....

I will look up the set up for that and try the way, the box the nether prose came in said it was unmanaged but lots of stuff get labeled wrong.

At this point I think trying the way may be my only and best option.
Thanks ....
I will post whether it works or not. Again, many thanks for your time and expertise.

Of when the exact model numbers matter. I googled the Prosafe and the first PDF that came up was managed.