Turning telephone cat5 into network run - good idea?

[unseengundam101]

I have 2 story house which has wireless n reception issue. My main router is upstairs, while my master bedroom downstairs is protruding out (aka no upstairs on top). This means a straight line form my router will take signal outside of house through brick walls and then to my room. I barely get 15 Mb/s on N laptop. At first I though about running new cat5, but I would have to tear down walls, ceiling, and just such a pain. Through about Moca over cable and Home Plug powerline networks.

Then suddenly I realized I had phone jack in my master bedroom and they used Cat wiring (I think cat5) for telephone. Luckily, all telephone wires goes to attic right behind by main computer area! I have checked phone outlet in my master bedroom and it needs does have all cat wiring there. So my great idea is turn that telephone wire run into a Cat5 Ethernet cable for my gigabit network! I will probably just plug in my wireless N router in my bedroom and should get full signal strength. I already bough wire tracer for this. Do you guys think this is a good idea? Seem like the easiest solution.

[drebo]

If it is really CAT5 cable, then you should not have a problem. Buy a couple of keystones and punch each side down.

If it's something else, like unrated 8-conductor wire, then you may have problems.

[airdata]

Originally Posted by drebo

If it is really CAT5 cable, then you should not have a problem. Buy a couple of keystones and punch each side down.

If it's something else, like unrated 8-conductor wire, then you may have problems.

+1

There may have been improvements since I tried it... But when I tried powerline ethernet, it didn't work. House was built in 1975 so wiring was old, but the bottom line was that it didn't work.

[kevnich2]

As long as it's cat rated cable you'll be fine. But remember, if you want gigabit, it has to be atleast cat5e. Cat5 is only rated to 100mb. If it is cat5/5e, just put some keystones on it and plug one end into your switch and voila.

[unseengundam101]

I will probably try and get this done on Sunday. The hardest part will using the wire tracer/tone generator to figure which one is the right cat5 wire. All of telephone wire come together in the attic.

I will try read the wire to see what rating is. I think most wires do have rating on them.

[Emulex]

you realize you can plug an rj11 into a rj45 cat5 outlet perfectly. i had cat5 run for pbx phones that use 2 wires (nortel mics) - when i move to voip i have dedicated separate lan for voip punched out. just unplug the rj11's add a switch - plug in rj45 cat5 cable.

[unseengundam101]

Originally Posted by Emulex

you realize you can plug an rj11 into a rj45 cat5 outlet perfectly. i had cat5 run for pbx phones that use 2 wires (nortel mics) - when i move to voip i have dedicated separate lan for voip punched out. just unplug the rj11's add a switch - plug in rj45 cat5 cable.

Yeah I know you can plug in rj11 into rj45. However, I really have no use for phone line in my bedroom. I am currently actually using Ooma VOIP hooked up my main router and use on Ooma scout downstairs in the kitchen. I might actually get wireless phone set and put it into the Ooma Hub one of these days.

[Eug]

Are you sure it's not Cat3? Anyways give it a shot. If it's really cat5 then 100 Mbps may work well. Hell I've even got GigE running over a (short) run of cat5.

[unseengundam101]

Originally Posted by Eug

Are you sure it's not Cat3? Anyways give it a shot. If it's really cat5 then 100 Mbps may work well. Hell I've even got GigE running over a (short) run of cat5.

I already looked at the cable and it does have 4 twisted pairs (8 total). The house is build in 2003 so I am hoping it might be even gigabit. Anyhow, it should be faster that crappy 15 Mb/s wireless connection I am getting now.

[Arttemis]

How did it work out for you?

I'm curious because I'm considering doing this in my two-story condo this weekend.

[unseengundam101]

Originally Posted by Arttemis

How did it work out for you?

I'm curious because I'm considering doing this in my two-story condo this weekend.

It worked out just fine for me. I am good speed from it.

You need make sure you the right tools for the job though. I had to get wire tracer to figure out which of cat5 wires connected from my master bedroom to where all phone lines terminated.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by unseengundam101

I already looked at the cable and it does have 4 twisted pairs (8 total). The house is build in 2003 so I am hoping it might be even gigabit. Anyhow, it should be faster that crappy 15 Mb/s wireless connection I am getting now.

I will point out that Cat3 is 4 pair twisted as well.

What kind of speeds are you getting by the way?

[unseengundam101]

Originally Posted by Eug

I will point out that Cat3 is 4 pair twisted as well.

What kind of speeds are you getting by the way?

According the writing on Ethernet cable it is Cat5E. Which means it should be able to handle a 1 Gbps connection. However, my laptop only has a 100 Mbps jack and I seem to getting full 100 Mbps when connected with Ethernet jack.

I actually have the Ethernet now hooked up to a wireless N access point in my Master bedroom. I am getting about 60-70 Mbps through this set-up (Master bedroom Laptop Wireless N -> N Access Point in master Bedroom -> Ethernet wire -> Gigabit switch -> Media server/main computer/FIOS internet). Either way, more faster and stable connection than the 10-15 Mbps I was getting before. Definitely worth effort to change that phone line to an Ethernet line!

[monkey333]

I did this over the summer, it was a little work figuring out which line goes where but I love the fact that the builders ran cat 5...