Ok, here's the deal. Thanks in advance for all replies.
My boss' boss has just moved in to a new house that, from descriptions made by people who have seen it, is a cross between Xanadu and Tara. He wants to put in a LAN and has been asking for advice during the house's construction. He listens, but neither remembers well nor understands too much. Anyway...
He thinks he asked the builder for a Cat5e run to each room. Basic coax cable is in every room "double." I can't tell yet if that's one cable split into two at each room's terminal point or two separate cables running in tandem. Also in each room is a pair of wall jacks, one of which appears to be a RJ-11 and one a RJ-45 (I gave him two cables, one terminated with each, and told him to try to insert each into the jacks - he tells me it's one each).
Here's the question: he claims that earlier he put a RJ-11 phone plug into each jack (RJ-11 and RJ-45) and got a dial tone. He asked the builder for 2 phone lines and was originally going to use DSL as his internet connection. I pressed him on whether he really got two dial tones, especially using a RJ-11 plug in the "larger" outlet; he wasn't totally sure and was going to check again.
So....I guess it's possible that the electrician used Cat5e and terminated it for phone use -- 2 wires. (Note, the boss says the cable isn't marked as to what it is where he can see it around the phone panel in his basement.) Is phone wiring a subset of ethernet wiring? That is, could the room end of the cable be terminated for ethernet, use the phone panel end to connect 2 wires to the 2nd phone line, and have this work? (Let's skip for a minute why an electrician would do this...) I guess if you used the correct two wires it might, but I don't know if the configurations are different. It's also possible that it's just two wires on each end, but why would someone terminate 2 wires configured for phones into an RJ-45?
I'm thinking (hoping) that it's Cat5e in there, just weirdly terminated for phones. I should be able to have the room termination changed to ethernet standard (if it isn't already, hence my question), ditto on the end of the line now attached to the phone panel, and put the phone panel line-end into a router that the boss has already bought (he caught some grief from the electronics store when he referred to it as a grouter). Repeat for wherever he wants a LAN connection (and hope it's less than 100m from the router), split the cable modem off a feed near the router, hook him up, and have him in business.
Bonus question: Why would someone terminate a phone line as a RJ-45? Does DSL require this? I didn't think so, but I know nearly nothing about DSL. (Most would say I know nearly nothing at all, but that's a different post.) I thought a regular twisted pair (RJ-11) attached to a DSL modem and you could run an ethernet (RJ-45) LAN from there, assuming you have the DSL service on your service phone line.
Any comments?
Thanks.
My boss' boss has just moved in to a new house that, from descriptions made by people who have seen it, is a cross between Xanadu and Tara. He wants to put in a LAN and has been asking for advice during the house's construction. He listens, but neither remembers well nor understands too much. Anyway...
He thinks he asked the builder for a Cat5e run to each room. Basic coax cable is in every room "double." I can't tell yet if that's one cable split into two at each room's terminal point or two separate cables running in tandem. Also in each room is a pair of wall jacks, one of which appears to be a RJ-11 and one a RJ-45 (I gave him two cables, one terminated with each, and told him to try to insert each into the jacks - he tells me it's one each).
Here's the question: he claims that earlier he put a RJ-11 phone plug into each jack (RJ-11 and RJ-45) and got a dial tone. He asked the builder for 2 phone lines and was originally going to use DSL as his internet connection. I pressed him on whether he really got two dial tones, especially using a RJ-11 plug in the "larger" outlet; he wasn't totally sure and was going to check again.
So....I guess it's possible that the electrician used Cat5e and terminated it for phone use -- 2 wires. (Note, the boss says the cable isn't marked as to what it is where he can see it around the phone panel in his basement.) Is phone wiring a subset of ethernet wiring? That is, could the room end of the cable be terminated for ethernet, use the phone panel end to connect 2 wires to the 2nd phone line, and have this work? (Let's skip for a minute why an electrician would do this...) I guess if you used the correct two wires it might, but I don't know if the configurations are different. It's also possible that it's just two wires on each end, but why would someone terminate 2 wires configured for phones into an RJ-45?
I'm thinking (hoping) that it's Cat5e in there, just weirdly terminated for phones. I should be able to have the room termination changed to ethernet standard (if it isn't already, hence my question), ditto on the end of the line now attached to the phone panel, and put the phone panel line-end into a router that the boss has already bought (he caught some grief from the electronics store when he referred to it as a grouter). Repeat for wherever he wants a LAN connection (and hope it's less than 100m from the router), split the cable modem off a feed near the router, hook him up, and have him in business.
Bonus question: Why would someone terminate a phone line as a RJ-45? Does DSL require this? I didn't think so, but I know nearly nothing about DSL. (Most would say I know nearly nothing at all, but that's a different post.) I thought a regular twisted pair (RJ-11) attached to a DSL modem and you could run an ethernet (RJ-45) LAN from there, assuming you have the DSL service on your service phone line.
Any comments?
Thanks.
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