Cat5e DSL cable -- How do I wire RJ11 jacks?

[Muse]

I'm hoping to install a "home run" from the connection box outside my house to my ADSL 2+ modem today and the Sonic.net tech support guy who I spoke with a couple of days ago told me that Cat3 or Cat5 would be way better than the telephone wire I currently have. I have a 100' length of Cat5e with RJ45 jacks on the ends, that I crimped myself a few years ago. I have no current need for that 100' ethernet cable, so I figure to cut about a 55' length from it to use as my home run DSL cable. I borrowed a crimper and bought a package of RJ11 jacks.

I need to know how to wire the jacks just prior to crimping them. Looking at the wires inserted in the jack from the opposite side of the little plastic release projection, with the end of the cable pointing up, what is the proper sequence left to right?

Also, is there any trick to preparing the cable end just prior to crimping? Can I just use a razor blade to carefully remove the outer plastic cover or should I use the system in the crimper (I'm unfamiliar with it and how to use it).

Thanks for any help.

MOD EDIT: Moved to networking. You guys know that we do have tech forums for these kind of posts, right? - Zap

 

[spidey07]

Blue pair in the middle pins, orange pair on the outside.


To remove the outer jacket, scissors are fine but make sure you have enough to the end crimps and holds the jacket as well. Also, home made cables are generally category nothing.

Also make sure the ends you got are for solid core cable and not stranded. There is a difference.

 

[Ichinisan]

Lots of advice online, but nothing beats practice.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Blue pair in the middle pins, orange pair on the outside.


To remove the outer jacket, scissors are fine but make sure you have enough to the end crimps and holds the jacket as well. Also, home made cables are generally category nothing.

Also make sure the ends you got are for solid core cable and not stranded. There is a difference.

Make sure you match the pinout on both sides. B/W to pin 2, B to pin 3 on a 4 pin RJ11. Pins 3/4 on a 6 pin RJ11.

 

[Muse]

Make sure you match the pinout on both sides. B/W to pin 2, B to pin 3 on a 4 pin RJ11. Pins 3/4 on a 6 pin RJ11.

B/W is blue/white? B is blue?

Blue pair in the middle pins, orange pair on the outside.


To remove the outer jacket, scissors are fine but make sure you have enough to the end crimps and holds the jacket as well. Also, home made cables are generally category nothing.

Also make sure the ends you got are for solid core cable and not stranded. There is a difference.

I'm not clear on any of this stuff. The package of plugs I got say:

4 cond. modular plugs
For Flat Cable

The Cat5e of course is round. Can I use these plugs or do I need something else?

The two phone cables supplied me by the Sonic.net ISP have plugs that have only two wires showing in the plug.

- - - -

Another thing I'm wondering about is if it matters how long the Cat5e cable is. The plan I had when I made the OP was a run of about 55', but to do that I have to make a hole through a wall on the second story. What I have now is a telephone cable that already has a hole in a wall of a different room on the 2nd story. I could remove the telephone cable and replace it with the Cat5e (with phone plugs on the ends), but that run includes routing through the attic (sometimes pretty hot up there, but I suppose that doesn't matter?) and the result would be what I estimate now to be 80-82 feet. Should I consider doing that, avoiding drilling another hole, or should I stick with the plan to use 55' and drill the new hole?

 

[zanejohnson]

lol just look up a diagram, did you really need to make a thread? ps. you dont need a patch cable.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

B/W is blue/white? B is blue?

Yup

I'm not clear on any of this stuff. The package of plugs I got say:

4 cond. modular plugs
For Flat Cable

The Cat5e of course is round. Can I use these plugs or do I need something else?

It doesn't really matter. A telephone line is pretty basic. Ideally you would crimp the jacket into the plug body but other than strain relief for the business end of the cable it won't affect performance.

The two phone cables supplied me by the Sonic.net ISP have plugs that have only two wires showing in the plug.

It's a single line cable. Don't worry about it. You only need the center pins for what you're trying to do.

- - - -

Another thing I'm wondering about is if it matters how long the Cat5e cable is.

If you were building an ethernet cable your max length would be 100m. You're not doing that. I'm not sure what the max length is on phone lines but you're not going to come close to bumping up against it in your house.

The plan I had when I made the OP was a run of about 55', but to do that I have to make a hole through a wall on the second story. What I have now is a telephone cable that already has a hole in a wall of a different room on the 2nd story. I could remove the telephone cable and replace it with the Cat5e (with phone plugs on the ends), but that run includes routing through the attic (sometimes pretty hot up there, but I suppose that doesn't matter?) and the result would be what I estimate now to be 80-82 feet. Should I consider doing that, avoiding drilling another hole, or should I stick with the plan to use 55' and drill the new hole?

You can chop up your house any way you see fit. It won't make any difference in the end unless you're running the phone wire parallel to power lines or near motors such as fans or central AC units.

Also, it's a Cat5e cable but for basic telephone it isn't really giving you any advantage over a normal Cat3 or basic phone cable. You might get some extra distance out of a long run but you're not even close to those lengths.

I'm not sure why the tech would tell you there is a HUGE difference. We're talking 50-60 feet of phone wire followed by MILES of whatever the phone company is using. Any advantage you get will be imperceptable. The homerun might help a bit since you won't be at the end of a daisy chain but I wouldn't get all worked up over using Cat5e. The category designation applies to data/ethernet performance, not phone performance.

 

[brblx]

is this all really that standardized? i've spliced network cables together by hand, and it was definately not as easy as matching colors- i had to match each randomly colored strand to its position on the connector.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Does he even need to wire the second pair up? The inner 2 pair should suffice in the RJ-11?

 

[spidey07]

is this all really that standardized? i've spliced network cables together by hand, and it was definately not as easy as matching colors- i had to match each randomly colored strand to its position on the connector.

Yes, it really is all standardized. The category ratings and pairs are specifically twisted to meet that spec and the colors matter. The whole reason why it all works is because it's standardized.

 

[Muse]

It may not matter at all for phone (the distance), but for DSL, the sonic.net tech I talked to yesterday said it matters a bunch whether I run the Cat5e 82 feet versus 55 feet, which is my shorter run. The house actually has two telephone boxes installed on the outside and the unused one is way closer to my ADSL 2+ modem and if that were the live box, I could reduce the home run Cat5e length to about 1/2 of the 55 foot run, I'm estimating 22 feet. I called sonic.net tech support and explained this and they said they'd look into making a request to AT&T, who provide everything up to the box, not after. The unused box is all hooked up and the drop from the telephone poles is already in place. It was just abandoned when one of my house mates moved. Maybe AT&T can make the switch right in their central office and won't have to come out. Sonic.net has facilities in AT&T's central office, evidently, which process and test signals, and they can make sundry adjustments including changing my DSL to interleave, which looks like a way of increasing my DL speeds by around 15%, according to the testing we tried a few days ago. At first they told me I'm about 6150 feet from the C.O. but a closer look appears to indicate that the length of cables between the C.O. and my house is actually 6828 feet.

Until it's determined which box will be used, I'll not be installing the home run Cat5e, and I'll run the cable before crimping on the plugs. They're telling me I might get speeds up to 8 mbps, which is less than the 10-15 mpgs they were talking about, but still around double the best speeds I was getting with AT&T, and the support is infinitely more personal.

Sonic.net is detecting some pretty crazy stuff with my internal wiring and it looks like I'll be having one of their technicians come over and do some rewiring, the cost being $75 for the first 1/2 hour and $25 for each additional 1/2 hour. I could maybe do that stuff, but when I look at the telephone boxes it's just indecipherable to me what's what.

 

[arcenite]

white-orange orange white-green blue white-blue green white-brown brown

 

[Muse]

white-orange orange white-green blue white-blue green white-brown brown

That's eight wires. I'm crimping on 4 wire telephone cable plugs (RJ11). What is the sequence left to right if I'm looking down at the plug with the release behind (not on top)?

 

[spidey07]

That's eight wires. I'm crimping on 4 wire telephone cable plugs (RJ11). What is the sequence left to right if I'm looking down at the plug with the release behind (not on top)?

white/green - blue - blue/white - green.

The middle pair stays together and the outer pins = one pair. For RJ11 color is really immaterial. The middle pair is phone line 1, outer pair is phone line 2.