Creating a home Ethernet out of installed but unused Cat 5

The phone company has installed, throughout the house, shielded Cat 5 cable with 4 sets of wires. One is used for phone service, while each of the other three is terminated with what looks like a plastic sleeve imprinted Dolphin (just in case it makes a difference...).

I have a wi-fi broadband router on the second floor (physically connected to two computers); I also have another computer in the ground floor den which is currently wirelessly networked with the others. The phone company's breakout box is in the basement, naturally.

For various reasons, I would like to physically network the first floor computer. Ideally, I would like to install in the router room a wall plate with an RJ45 jack, with a patch cord connecting to the router. Currently, the Cat 5 terminates in a standard RJ11 jack. The same would go for the ground floor den; there, however, the Cat 5 terminates in a wall plate with a coax F-type jack at the top and a standard RJ11 at the bottom.

So that's the question - how do I approach a project like this? In particular, how do I go about making sure that, while I go two floors down and then one floor up, I am still connecting the same set of wires to the appropriate terminals in the router room, the breakout box and the den? What type of tools would I need to accomplish this?

Thanks.

Reply to
Bruno
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IMO, the surest way, is to disconnect the wires from all equipment. Then go to one end of any cable and jumper out two wires of that cable. Then go to all the other ends and put an ohm meter on each cable until you find the one you jumpered. Then mark both ends of that cable.

Reply to
Bob

If you want something to ring out the cat 5 conductors, you need a LAN tester. You can buy one at HD

Reply to
RBM

Just to be clear, TELCO and ETHERNET in the same cable can be problematic. I have tried it and the results have been poor.

VERIFY the pairs everywhere. Especially at the outside terminal block.

The devil is in the terminations. I have seen poor terminations take a CAT 5 down so low it was worthless.

Black Box has an excellent catalog with lots of information on the types of connectors, tools and color codes.

I repeat myself I WOULD NOT run both services in the same cable. Your house your rules.

Plan on spending at least $200 bucks for tools and terminals. Just to get started.

Reply to
SQLit

Thanks, SQL, advice and warning both well taken. It sounds like it would be more effective (and maybe even cheaper) to have someone drop Cat 5 from the second floor to the first and just disregard the phone lines.

Reply to
Bruno

I agree. For most people, even if they've worked with LAN termination equipment for years, will find it's too easy to make a mistake in the wiring. You don't want to mix telco conductors with your computer conductors as the results can range from bizzare to catastrophic. Telephone wiring is not all low voltage. Do you really want a 90 V. ring voltage accidently in contact with your computer's LAN port?

Category 5, 5e, or even 6 wire is cheap. (You generally won't need the shielded version unless you are in a high RF environment). Buy a

500 ft box and cable up your house as you need it.

Beachcomber

Reply to
Beachcomber

While not optimum, I have to disagree. The best solution, of course, is to run a new cable. However, running a phone line and ethernet in the same cat5 jacket should present little or no problem IF DONE CORRECTLY. I've done it many times for the sake of expediency and have never had a problem. I've even added 12vdc on the 4th pair and still had no problems. Just make absolutely sure your connections are done properly.

As for tools,

formatting link
has a very extensive tool kit for $80 that has more than you will ever need for maintaining the wiring in your home
formatting link
. While I use better quality "pro" grade tools for regular use, I keep one of these kits at my second home and another in the trunk of my car "just in case." They do the job quite competently, are of decent quality and are ideally suited to occassional users.

What you need: For upstairs and downstairs buy 2 Cat5 RJ45 ethernet keystone jacks and 2 RJ12 keystone jacks (get 2 colors like blue for data and black for phone; i.e. MPJA #11082TT & 7182TT), one keystone F connector (Home Depot), & one 3 hole and one 2 hole keystone faceplate (MPJA 5944TT & 5943TT). You'll also want to get 4 Scotchlok connectors for the basement location (Home Depot).

How to do it (using only the tools in the kit): On the 1st flr look at the phone jack and determine which wires are used for your phone line - most likely the white/blue pair. The remaining 3 pairs should be just left loose. You can cut off the "Dolphin" connectors on the other pairs if you've determined that the wires aren't being used for any other purpose. Connect the tone generator to one of the orange/white pairs (if you have more than one pair after cutting the connectors) and turn it on. Use the wand to locate that pair at the basement phone box. If it's not loud and clear, go to the top floor location and see if it's loud and clear at the jack (you may have loop wiring). Now do the same thing but put the tone gen on the other white/orange pair. What we're trying to do is see where each end of the cable goes from the first floor location. If the cable goes to the second floor location then you don't need to do anything in the basement. If not, repeat the procedure on the second floor so you can identify the pairs from each location that go to the basement. In the basement, match the conductor colors of the white/orange pair and the white/green pairs and connect with the Scotchloks. Do your terminations with the new jacks at both locations upstairs and check it all with the cable tester in the kit.

From:SQLit snipped-for-privacy@qwest.net

Reply to
BruceR

You could do a simple continuity check with a 9 volt battery, a couple of leads with alligator clips on each end, and a cheap voltmeter - all available at Radio Shack. Connect the battery to a pair of leads downstairs and see whether you can read 9 volts upstairs.

But are you sure it is Cat 5? You said it's shielded - it seems very odd that the phone company would install a) Cat 5, and b) that it would be shielded. Could be but odd.

If the wire is > The phone company has installed, throughout the house, shielded Cat 5

Reply to
Bennett Price

The whole point of TIA-568B (and A) by AT&T was to allow the computer network and telephone to occupy the same sheath. It might be "iffy" with 100 Mb or

1000Mb LAN connections, but I'd say it's worth a try. If it's a problem (speed, etc.) just go wireless.

Just my 2 cents.

-- Herb snipped-for-privacy@herbstein.com

314 952-4601
Reply to
Herb Stein

You can share the cable for 10baseT or 100baseT, but 1000baseT uses all

4 pairs, so there are no pairs left to share.

If the cable is at least cat3, it will support 10baseT. 100baseT requires cat5.

Is this cable home run from each jack to the terminal, or is it daisy chained from one jack to another?

Reply to
Bob Vaughan

Actually I think it was for the PBX telephone system which I think is digit not the consumer telephone which is analog. It was also at a time of 1 M data networks with promise of 10M data networks.

Reply to
Neil Cherry

Back when the standard was established most phones, including those on a PBX, were still analog. The switches themselves were digital but phones were still analog. The digital cards and digital phones were showing up "as needed" because they were still very expensive.

From:Neil Cherry snipped-for-privacy@cookie.uucp

Reply to
BruceR

You just need a punchdown tool and some RJ45 plugs and some wall outlets, all cat5. If phone companies wiring is standard color, then you can look on the internet and wire it up. You can use 1 pair for phone, and 2 pair for ethernet. Be sure to pay close attention to the connections. I use a finger nail clipper to snip off the wires than hang beyond the connection point. It can be tricky to get 100Mb to behave itself if you are not dilligent.

Otherwise have at it, its not that hard once you get the color scheme down. I have had no problems with mixing signals either. In my last house I had 1 pair as ISDN going up stairs, 1 pair as phone line returning downstairs, and 2 pair as ethernet 100Mb. I did burn out a network card when i miswired it, but intel was nice enough to replace it anyway :)

Reply to
dnoyeB

It runs from each jack to the terminal. In what way does it make a difference?

Reply to
Bruno

"But are you sure it is Cat 5? You said it's shielded - it seems very odd that the phone company would install a) Cat 5, and b) that it would be shielded. Could be but odd. "

I can only go by what I read on the outside jacket of the cable. It does say "shielded" and it does say "Cat 5" (although not "5e" or "5ENH"). I don't know if it answers the question of oddness, but the last time the phone company (Verizon) was in the house, they installed their fiber optic service (FIOS), replacing the cable company's internet connction. (BTW, FIOS is excellent - rock solid 24/7; never had a problem).

Anyway, as part of that, they also moved the residential phone service coming into the house from the copper line to the fiber. They MAY have also rewired the inside lines and installed this odd cable. Just a guess.

Reply to
Bruno

Thanks, dnoyeB - I learned two things: first - nail clippers may actually be useful for Cat 5 installations! (Who would have thunked?) What's next - eggbeaters :}?

Second - you can actually BURN a network card by miswiring? What particular feature of th e miswiring causes that?

Reply to
Bruno

well phone company probably didnt install it anyway. The builder did. Especially if its in the wall...

Cat5e is as cheap as cat3. I havent seen cat3 in years.

If its CAT5 and he intends to put network on it, be sure not to make any splices at all.

Reply to
dnoyeB

Likely just an cheapo card on their part. most electronics protects itself from external miswirings to some degree. Might have been the oscilliscope I hooked up, I don't know. I never burned another one though, so it may have just been a sensitive card.

When you are punching down the wires into the connectors, you will see small pieces of wire extended beyond the edges of the terminals. 100Mb is pretty high frequency and those can act like antennas causing problems if you don't snip them off.

You can get plugs and stuff from belkin.com I think. I also order stuff from someone called cat5cableguy.com which is very cheap. either place should sell punchdown tool for a few bucks.

Once its closed up in the wall, and you plug in the wire, tap the outlet a few times with an eggbeater for good measure :P

Reply to
dnoyeB

If your cable is CAT5/5e/6 it will have the label every couple feet on the sleeve. No label; no CAT; no ethernet.

I've never seen shielded CAT-anything but I assume it's also properly labeled.

Reply to
Al Dykes

All ethernet interfaces are isolated from any voltage on the copper up to a couple thousand volts, either by a transformer or (ISTR) pairs of LED diodes and sensors, but the latter may have been in the 10Mb era. I can't see a cheap 100Mb optical sensor.

Reply to
Al Dykes

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