Cat 5 wiring

[Kung Lau]

I'm fairly ignorant to networking so I'll ask these questions.

I'm having a house built and it comes with CAT 5 cabling standard.

The question I have is whether or not the CAT 5 cabling can be used simulaneously with the regular phone lines.

They will run the cable and hook it up to a phone jack. It is my understanding that phone jacks and the RJ-45
jacks are slightly different in size. Could I buy a receptacle that houses both the RJ-45 and the regular phone jack?
Will they both work independent of each other?
The other question I had was that they are wiring 3 rooms in the house with CAT 5 cabling. The way I see it, the cables
will have to tie into each other somewhere. I wanted to share two computers using my Linksys router, but if the router
has to hook up to a jack on the wall, how are the other two connections going to be attached to the router?

 

[JackMDS]

You should run Cat5 for Network, and Phone cable for phone.

You can run the cables in the same conduit.

You can put the Jacks on the same wall plate, but it has to be RJ-11 for Phone, and RJ-45 for Network.

Don?t mix Phone, and Network in the same physical cable.

The Router is connected to the Internet (DSL, or Cable), on the WAN side. All of the computers are connected to the Router Switch ports, via CAT5 cables.

You have to decide a central point, and bring all the CAT5 from the different location to that point.

At same location you need a Tel. line if you use DSL, or a cable line if you use Cable Internet.

 

[Lightening]

1) CAT 5 cable comes with 4 pairs of twisted wire. You will need 1 pair for each phone line and 2 pairs for and Ethernet connection. You cannot use the same pair of wires for phone and Ethernet services. However, you can have phone and Ethernet services in the same cable remembering that there are 4 pairs of twisted wire in the single cable.
2)The RJ-11 connectors are slightly more narrow than the RJ-45 connector. You can get a wallplate with places to snap in an RJ-11 female and a RJ-45 female. This will require special tools to perform the wire punching required to terminate the wire into the respective connector.
3)Yes, they have to be independant of each other. Otherwise you may cause failure of your computer or NIC possibly both because the voltage coming from the phone system is 48 volts!
4)All homes have a telephone demark where all of the phones are terminated. If I were you, I would have a second demark added for you network. This can pose a problem if you are not gong to have separte cables installed for ethernet and phone service. You may want to have them install separate cables for each. This will allow you to have a telephone demarc and a sort of ethernet demarc where you will need power for you linksys, possibly phone service for DSL, or a cable outlet for cable modem broadband services. The best place may be in the master bedroom closet or in an office or study closet. Depends on your home. I hope this helps!😀

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Lightening
Are you saying that you can actually run crimp an RJ-45 AND an RJ-11 on the same cable? If you did that, your wires would end up being untwisted like an inch. Won't that end up causing crosstalk?

 

[RagManX]

You *SHOULDN'T* put your network a phone line on the same cable, but I've done it successfully with no problems. I ran 2 phone lines and one 100 meg line on the same wire from my office in the basement to my wife's office on the 2nd floor of our last house. Total cable run was about 40 meters. We had no trouble with phone line quality or network throughput or errors. I simply pulled the 2 pair for the phone lines out and seperated about 3 feet of it to run to the phone block. Like I said, you shouldn't do it, and the specs are quiet clear about how you are supposed to pin-out your cable, but as long as you are willing to accept the potential errors or phone line quality drop, you can do it and likely not have problems.

RagManX

 

[Lightening]

TheOmegaCode,

In my last apartment all of the telephone outlets had 2 RJ-11 female connectors. I became quite tired of having cables going everywhere! So I went out and bought wallplates that would allow me to snap in the appropriate connector. I then went to the telephone demark and punched in the cable I need to terminate my network. I never experienced any issues with phone or network quality. I will admit that RagManX is correct the best solution is to run separate cables. In order for you to correctly terminate the wires, you have to untwist them a little.
On a final note, I had 5 computers on that network in a 1 bedroom appartment over the same cable along with the phone! I did not have any isues. I guess that I could have been lucky! 😀

 

[Kung Lau]

So based on these reponses, this is a gray area?

I mean, why would they install CAT 5 cabling in a house if the average house only has one or two telephone numbers?
There's surely a reason why the 8 wires are routed throughout the house and defined "Internet ready"

If there is a good reason not to split the wires at the receptacle to RJ-11 and RJ-45, other than what's been already posted, please state them.

What I mean is why "SHOULDN'T" you install them both at the same receptacle? Interference?

 

[Lightening]

Kung,

Yes, you could have interfierence (I need a spell checker BAD!). Since you are building a new home, the best solution is to run separate cables to 2 different locations. One potential problem could be regarding a bad cable. You call the phone company to come and fix it. They arrive and wont touch it because it does not comform to industry standard. I dont know that for sure but it is a possibility.
If I were you, I would definately run 2 separate cables. Reseaon: All homes that I am aware have a demarc which is usually located on the outside of the home. This wont work with your network because you will have to splice the cable (not good!) and run it to a place inside so that you a enviornmentally controlled area for you equipment. In case you dont know, the demarc is where the telephone company delivers your phone service to your home and from there it goes to each phone jack.
Yes, I used the telephone infrastructure for ethernet purposes without issue but it was in a apartment where the demark is located in the master bedroom closet.

 

[ScottMac]

As far as meeting a specification, there are no grey areas.

Cat 5 works just fine for telephone use, an RJ11 (phone plug) plugs very nicely into an RJ45 (data jack) socket, though it is kind of a schlocky way to do things. Since you can use Category-rated cable for phone, but you can't use phone-rated cable for data, cable everything with category-rated cable. Get at least two runs to every location. While you're at it, have the contractor run two runs of RG6 to the same place. There are outlets that will acommodate both type and still look nice (for the missus).

You absolutely should not use phone and data in the same cable

Have all the cables route back to a single room. The laundry/utility room/ corner of the basement is fine. Make sure there is also a power outlet (idealy a Quad) in that neighborhood, so you can plug in a hub/switch/cable modem/dsl modem, etc. Also make sure that a good ground is available (should tied to the same grounding point as the electrical service.

Also while they're at it, have them pull some RG6 from the most likely place to mount a satellite dish. If you really want to hedge your bets, have FIVE runs of RG6 installed to the possible dish location.

You might want a run or two of coax into the attic (indoor antennas (FM/VHF/UHF)).

All of the cables from all of the rooms come back to one place, one panel (per media type). Then you can cross-connect anything in the house to any other thing in the house....it's a wunnerful thing.

I have a townhouse. I had two Level-7, two RG6, and four strands of multimode fiber run to each location, two locations per room (opposite corners), and one room (the second bedroom/"computer room") got four. I have outlets (data and power) in some of the closets (in case I want to tuck a server out-of-the-way) and two UTP and two coax to the garage (phone and TV for the wood shop). I had a 20 AMP quad outlet split-wired (two different 20 amp circuits) in the utility room where my switches and stuff are located (on a 1.5KVA UPS). Shoot for ~24 as a magic number. Most panels come with at least 24 ports...might as well use 'em all.

Cable is cheap, the labor is cheapest when done on naked walls. It will add only a couple bucks per month to the mortgage.....GO for it! You may want to consider having cable pulled everywhere, but only terminated in the locations you're most likely to use in the near future. Listen to the voices in your head.....more cable is good cable......adn remember, it's good for more then data networking...I use some of mine to distribute A/V. If you're likely to use a multi-zone A/V amp, you can distribute the zone info over the same cable plant...

FWIW

Scott