Purchased a home with IBM unit in basement

[Kaos]

I had a home inspection done today and I noticed this unit that was installed in the furnace room. From what I was told by the inspector, it's a prewired unit that has telephone and internet connections wired throughout the house. But is this really what it is?

I'm a little confused as I've never seen one before and need some clarification.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[hedge]

Is it called IBM home director? that's what I have. It's a glorified patch panel that lets you rewire which rooms have which services. Just open the catch and take a look.

I would have thought it would be more popular by now, my house was built in 2000 and I think our community was the first so-callled 'e-community' with this wiring required.

Each drop has 2 coax and 2 RJ45, the RJ45 can be used for networking or for phone connections.

[frozenrice]

You likely live in a Genstar E-community. I can't remember when it first came out, but it is basically required in all of their developments. In the beginning of e-communities, the IBM Home Director panel was the panel that Genstar specified. The brand of panel has changed numberous times over the years. I think GE and even Honeywell have been specified at one time or another.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

It allows you to hack the Gibson.

[rage2]

I'm surprised a lot of homes don't have this. I made sure when I bought my house (2001) that it was required. It makes setting up satellite, network, and HDTV distribution throughout the house sooooo much easier.

[1-Bar]

don't forget to double check your phone line.....they used cat5e for my phone line and forgot to hook up the "normal" hard line. Such a hassle, took like a week to get someone from telus to tell me something was wrong....

Congrats on the new house