Can a phone line be pimped to work as a Ethernet cable?

[Devilishy]

I never dreamt that I would buy a desktop, so I got only 1 cable and 1 phone connection in my bedroom. Of course assumption is the mother of all Fvckvps and now I have a desktop.

Because I have dish network and comcast cable, I can get either TV in my bedroom or hook up the cable modem. The TV wins hands down, but that means that I will have to put a wireless PCI card in my desktop (last resort).

I will not be using the phone line since I have multiple handsets (I know... I should have just wired CAT5 instead). Is there ANY WAY to pimp up the phone line to act as a ethernet cable?

Thanks much!
P.S.: Rewiring the rooms is a pain I dont want to go through.

 

[phisrow]

As seen on http://www.incentre.net/incentre/frame/ethernet.html an ethernet cable only actually has four conductors connected. Assuming you used 4 conductor phone cable, which you probably did, you might have a chance.

Observe caution, however: Make Very, Very sure that the phone cable you are using is no longer connected to the telephone system in any way. Ethernet cards are unlikely to enjoy exposure to POTS ringer voltage, and I doubt that your phone will sound any better for having thousands of ethernet frames throwing themselves uselessly into its analog signal path.

You will probably also be restricted to 10 megabit speed. Cat5 is specifically designed to avoid crosstalk and whatnot, phone cables are made to a much less impressive spec. If they are decent quality, they may work anyway; but you probably will have to pin the connection speed to 10 megabits in order to get it to work.

Alternative option: Assuming the cable run is reasonably short, you could use the existing phone cable to do a fairly painless cable pull. Disconnect it at both ends, attach a CAT5e and phone cable to the far end, and then pull through. That isn't optimal; but it beats opening up the wall.

 

[BKLounger]

Well how about another option. If you only have one cable hook up why don't you just put a splitter on the line and have side go to the tv and the other to the cable modem. That is what i had to do in my last apartment. 1 cable line into the house to a 4 way splitter, going to 3 tv's and a cable modem. Hope this helps.

 

[Brazen]

As phisrow said, it theoretically can be done since ethernet only uses 2 pair. Your line speed will probably be less than that of wireless though. If you are going to live in this house for long though, hacking out small sections of drywall and then repairing it to run Cat5e is really not much of a chore. Other than following up with subsequent muddings, it could probably be done and over with in an hour or two.

 

[Devilishy]

Originally posted by: phisrow
As seen on http://www.incentre.net/incentre/frame/ethernet.html an ethernet cable only actually has four conductors connected. Assuming you used 4 conductor phone cable, which you probably did, you might have a chance.

Observe caution, however: Make Very, Very sure that the phone cable you are using is no longer connected to the telephone system in any way. Ethernet cards are unlikely to enjoy exposure to POTS ringer voltage, and I doubt that your phone will sound any better for having thousands of ethernet frames throwing themselves uselessly into its analog signal path.

You will probably also be restricted to 10 megabit speed. Cat5 is specifically designed to avoid crosstalk and whatnot, phone cables are made to a much less impressive spec. If they are decent quality, they may work anyway; but you probably will have to pin the connection speed to 10 megabits in order to get it to work.

Alternative option: Assuming the cable run is reasonably short, you could use the existing phone cable to do a fairly painless cable pull. Disconnect it at both ends, attach a CAT5e and phone cable to the far end, and then pull through. That isn't optimal; but it beats opening up the wall.

I opened up the wall jack and presto! The guys had actually instaleld CAT5e wiring and used only 4 wires to establish it as a phone connection!

So, all I need to do is get a crimp tool and add the ends. I love the guys who wired my home!

Thanks guys!

 

[Guild]

That is actually very common. Not sure why, though.

 

[Viperoni]

Originally posted by: Guild
That is actually very common. Not sure why, though.

Better quality than cat3 or regular phone cord, and not ridiculously more expensive.
Much better for something like a DSL modem as well.