Question

Running your telephone over a CAT5 cable

Asked by: jbyrd1981

Hello experts!

I just bought a house with CAT5 cabling run to about ever room. The are wired up to run regular phones. I have successfully wired up some jacks that run the phones over two of the wires and networking through the rest. I have two questions...

1) Will this type of connection only support 100MBps speeds since two of the wires are used for phone?

2) Also, is there some type of box that I can buy that will run the traffic properly for this type of wire configuration.

The current box I have now came with the house and does not seem to support this type of wiring. Any information you can provide that would allow me to have telephone and network to the same room over a single wire would be great! Thanks!

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Asked On
2007-09-22 at 11:11:49ID22846287
Tags

phone

,

cat5

,

cable

,

telephone

,

over

Topics

Networking Cables

,

Network Cards & Adapters

,

Miscellaneous Networking

Participating Experts
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: tcicatelliPosted on 2007-09-22 at 11:14:22ID: 19942201

I have no problem running a 100mb network while still using a pair for phones.  I would recommend a 10/100 switch so if there are packet errors, it will auto-configure down to 10mb.  

Just pick up a 10/100 switch.

-Tom

 

by: RobWillPosted on 2007-09-22 at 11:26:21ID: 19942227

Splitting the connection to run phone and network does not meet CAT5/5E/6 specifications. It only meets CAT3. Doing doing so, for various reasons, induces cross-talk in the line such that in most cases only 10mbps can be achieved on a consistent basis. Though you will likely find it will work, there will be a percentage of lost packets and therefore re-transmissions and reduced performance.

 

by: skca54Posted on 2007-09-22 at 12:06:36ID: 19942339

1000Mbit requires more than two pairs so only 100Mbit max will work.

 

by: kode99Posted on 2007-09-22 at 12:12:33ID: 19942357

One point one you are correct.  There are 2 'free' pair on 100 Mbit networking but gigabit would use all the pairs.  Reduced performance is certainly likely as RobWill mentioned.  The phone line is not too bad when not in use,  pretty much that same as POE (power over ethernet) but when the phone rings or is in use you would see reduced performance on the network.  That said it would likely be pretty low impact, possibly not noticable for regular home use, browsing email etc.  The 10/100 switch is a good idea though.

There really is no 'box' to do this right short of actually using IP phone technology.    Probably easier to use a cordless phone if you need top performance on your networking.  Depending on the layout of the house putting in some extra cables for phones may not be that difficult either.

Often people are sold 'network ready' homes that are wired this way.  Rather frustrating as doing it properly with 2 cables costs almost nothing in the overall home construction.

 

by: RobWillPosted on 2007-09-22 at 12:58:11ID: 19942459

It's not just the phone that causes the problem. The only way to split the pairs is to cut back the jacket far more than acceptable, and un-twist the pairs more than acceptable, both of which also induce cross talk. The switch I am doubtful will help as it will not re-negotiate to 10mbps just due to lost packets. If it is necessary to do so, you will want to lock all devices on the network to 10mbps at 1/2 duplex.

For the record, there are cable splitters that will split a single CAT5 4 pair line to 2, 2 pair lines. However, in my experience having tested these with CAT5 Fluke certification meters, they induce more cross talk than "modifying" the cable as they have bare parallel connectors inside.

 

by: jbyrd1981Posted on 2007-09-22 at 13:00:45ID: 19942464

Ok so if I get the switch that will run the phone and data through it?? Speaking of IP phones, maybe that would be a better solution. Is there some type of adaptor I can get to convert my regular phones to IP ones. Would that have to be something I would have to work out with my phone provider? Thanks!

 

by: RobWillPosted on 2007-09-22 at 13:07:36ID: 19942486

The switch would allow for a VoIP (Voice over IP) phone and computer to run fine simultaneously. However you need a VoIP phone/system. I am only familiar with commercial systems (+ $10,000). Single phone options and residential "adapters" are available but I know nothing about them. I believe kode99 is much more familiar with VoIP options in general.

 

by: jbyrd1981Posted on 2007-09-22 at 16:28:23ID: 19942943

OK, so I did some looking around and found the Linksys SPA2002. What I am wondering now is can I get some of these or something similar to hook up to my analog house phones. Then they would be able to convert to IP based traffic. I am figuring that I need something else that would take the converted traffic from the phones and convert it back to analog so that it could communicate with my carriers connection. This would be the best way because then I could use the single wire and not have to split a pair off for the phone. Any hardware recommendations that could do this would be great! I am not sure if anything exists that could convert the IP traffic back over to go over my carriers line. Thanks!

 

by: tcicatelliPosted on 2007-09-22 at 17:22:39ID: 19943061

You have to also realize that your bottleneck is going to be your broadband connection, not your LAN speed.

 

by: jbyrd1981Posted on 2007-09-22 at 17:49:07ID: 19943118

I am not really worried about that. I have tested my connection and I have about a 15Mbps download speed. Although the most I have ever been able to download something was 2Mbps.

 

by: RobWillPosted on 2007-09-22 at 18:04:13ID: 19943134

Though there re VoIP solutions, you have to buy hardware, and subscribe to a monthly service. Would you not be simply better to switch to a wireless phone, wireless Internet, or run an extra cable if possible?

 

by: tcicatelliPosted on 2007-09-22 at 18:14:12ID: 19943152

I really wouldn't worry about trying to split pairs.  While it's not the most politically correct scenario, I'm sure it will meet your needs for the near future.  I have been successfully running a similar setup for about 7 years.  My home network consists of about 6 pcs, and I have split off telephone lines wherever necessary.  

-Tom

 

by: kode99Posted on 2007-09-24 at 22:49:52ID: 19953611

I agree, my first step would be to just try it out with the phone on the extra pairs.  It costs nothing and takes little effort but has a pretty good chance of working just fine.  Use a wall plate with jacks that are adjacent so you can keep the 'non-spec' impact to a minimum.

I would expect that even with some losses your networking would still outperform typical wireless networking by a large margin.  Thats assuming the wireless networking is actually working good.

If there is a noticable problem you really have not lost much and can go ahead with other options.  I would still probably run extra wires for either the phone or network or use cordless phones - whichever is easier or cheaper - rather that go with IP telephoney at home.

Voip or IP telephoney is just a lot more complex than a dialtone down a plain copper wire.  Running multiple extensions with IP equipment is not so simple as analog phones either.  

There are analog 'adapters' which provide FXO ports - which allow you to connect a phone line.  This converts the signal to IP but the one catch is that this is a point to point arrangement.  So a 1 FXO port adapater would allow for a single IP phone connection.  You can also use a FXS adapter which would take the IP phone signal back to analog to allow a regular old phone to be used.  Without a phone system or PBX you more or less just directly map the IP phone or FXS port directly to the FXO port.  

Cost is typically around $50-90 per port,  you can see a variety of different makes and models at the link below.  This requires no monthly service,  just the hardware.

http://www.voipsupply.com/index.php?cPath=96

There are also FXO/FXS gateways which are multiport versions - 2,4 or more ports.

To properly manage multiple phone sets and lines you would need a phone system.  Simple voip gateways dont have the abilty to manage call traffic.  So for example having all your phones ring on a incoming call would be a problem.    You might be able to trick a mult port FXO gateway by hooking all the ports to the same phone line.  Never tried it myself.

Though a PBX is more complex it is not necessarily all that expensive.   There are a few open source software PBX's that will run quite well on almost any old computer and are fairly simple to setup.  

http://www.trixbox.org/

http://www.asterisknow.org/

Any type of PBX is going to give you a ton of features, probably way more than you even want for home use.  If you actually want the extra features it can  be well worth the effort.  The downside is a computer is now needed to make or receive phone calls as compared to a simple copper wire with a dial tone.

Low end 'appliance' type IP PBX's are going to cost around $600 - 1200 range and up.  These have the benefit of being 'plug and play'.


 

by: jbyrd1981Posted on 2007-10-10 at 19:31:01ID: 20053792

Thanks guys!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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