drag0n
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prewired?
I think the telephone wires in my house are pre wired with CAT 5 e cables, but what do I do to actually put them to use? Do I have to go out and buy my own eithernet cables or can I somehow use those and also use the phone at the same time?
If the house was prewired with cat 5 or 5e, you can split the cable. You will need an additional wall jack for each connection. The phone jack should use the brown pair of wires and should use the middle pins of the jack-pins 4+5 for rj45, and pins 2+3 rj11. The pc jack should use the remaining 6 wires. Wire it this way starting with pin 1 on the left- white orange,orange, white green, blue, white blue, green. You can then use the pc and phone at the same time
ASKER
So I would split it? Right now my phone jacks, I just found out are only using some of the wires from the CAT5e cable, there are 2 wires left unused. If I were to split the cable, should I buy a jack for the ethernet port and then what? Could you explain better or give me a site? Thanks in advanced! =)
First, What makes you think you have Cat5/5e installed for phone cabling? That would be pretty unusual, even today. How old is the house?
If you can find a place where you can read a length of the cable, it'll say "Certified Category 5" right on the jacket.
Next, given that it IS Cat5/5e (I'd bet that it probably isn't), running phone and network in the same cable is out-of-spec (on the network side) - your performance will likely suffer.
It isn't enough to have a copper path between your network devices; the cabling is engineered for specific configurations ... if you don't follow the specifications, you may as well be sharing copper with the doorbell circuit.
Good Luck
Scott
If you can find a place where you can read a length of the cable, it'll say "Certified Category 5" right on the jacket.
Next, given that it IS Cat5/5e (I'd bet that it probably isn't), running phone and network in the same cable is out-of-spec (on the network side) - your performance will likely suffer.
It isn't enough to have a copper path between your network devices; the cabling is engineered for specific configurations ... if you don't follow the specifications, you may as well be sharing copper with the doorbell circuit.
Good Luck
Scott
ASKER
Yea, Im sure its CAT5, actually its CAT5e. Im sure of that
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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While it is physically possible to split the wires to make the connections for both phone and network as Beerman describes, it is the WORST possible method of cabling a network. Besides the connectors, you also need to look at how the cable was run throughout the house. The (single) phone cable is run in a daisy chain from the phone company's termination box and through the house to each outlet. Network cables are separate home runs from a central wiring closet to each wall outlet.
Here are the approved methods:
1. Use your existing phone wiring and jacks and buy special phone line network cards. Linksys has several models to choose from: http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=34&scid=33
2. Use wireless network cards. http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=33&scid=36
3. Install additional cables and use regular network cards. http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=34&scid=30
My links refer you to Linksys products but there are a number of other brands that are equally as good or even better.
Here are the approved methods:
1. Use your existing phone wiring and jacks and buy special phone line network cards. Linksys has several models to choose from: http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=34&scid=33
2. Use wireless network cards. http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=33&scid=36
3. Install additional cables and use regular network cards. http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=34&scid=30
My links refer you to Linksys products but there are a number of other brands that are equally as good or even better.