crazy builder... he wired the whole house with Cat5

[robphelan]

but he didn't run phone cable. So, he used cat5 to carry phone signal (2 wires) and they all terminate in the attic instead of a closet or somewhere convenient.

anyway, i'm changing all the wallplates from standard phone jacks to RJ45 and am just going to leave all the connections terminated at a switch in the attic.

I'm going to need a 12 port switch - any recommendations?

i bought an 8 port switch from newegg ~2yrs ago for about $8 shipped. is there any good reason to buy a more expensive switch?

 

[EatSpam]

Its almost the same way with the house we're buying, except the phone/cat5e terminated in the basement in a convenient place.

 

[Cooky]

my sister bought a condo a few years ago and the phone wires were also cat5's...so that in case you need to run multiple lines through the same wire, it would be easier.

 

[CU]

Are most new homes build like this? If so it makes switching to VOIP very easy. How is the best way to check, just take phone wall jack off and look to see how many wires are inside the "phone wire"?

 

[MrControversial]

You can run phone through CAT5e with no issue. Even the wall jacks are compatible; the RJ-11's just snap into place. However, there's a potential for some problems if you try to run phones and computers on the same lines. When a phone rings, that's 90V over CAT5e. Phones love it, but it can be deadly for NICs. So you can use some for data and some for data/voice or you could go VOIP.

 

[RebateMonger]

Also, you won't be able to run Gigabit Ethernet over the same cable as phone. Gigabit uses all EIGHT wires for itself. 10/100 Ethernet only needs four wires.

If I was BUILDING a home, and had a choice, I'd run special wiring conduit. This allows you to easily upgrade wiring when the wiring standards change.

 

[spidey07]

To add to that, if I was building a home I would also pull that wire that has two cat6 cables, two pairs of fiber and two RG-6 coax in a single cable.

And it would be in conduit.

At least that's what I'm doing in my next one.

 

[nweaver]

want to talk crazy builder, I just bought a house. It has double 2x6 steel framing in the walls, R40 insulation in the outside walls (they are thick, almost 2 feet, with stucco outside, smoother stucco/adobe look inside). The entire house is wired through rigid EMT (metal) conduit, and all wiring terminates into a large 2x2 box in the attic, where it's all labled and tied in. Too bad he only ran a single phone line and no network. Oh, and to do anything in the attic sucks, because it's 2 layers of R13, and then a top layer of R30 insulation. It house sits on a 12" slab, with tiles throught (tiles remain a comfortable temp all year round). My wood burning stove is covered in 3" of cement/adobe, and once the fire dies, you close the flu and the stove stays warm for about 10-12 hours. primary heat is radiant hot water, electic powered. Last month (average temps between 15-40) power bill was $128. No gas bill.

 

[EatSpam]

Originally posted by: CU
Are most new homes build like this? If so it makes switching to VOIP very easy. How is the best way to check, just take phone wall jack off and look to see how many wires are inside the "phone wire"?

I saw some wires terminating in a box in the basement that looked familiar. I checked them and they were Cat 5e. But taking off the jack would work too, so long as you can see the label.

I already have VoIP with Nuvio... but they don't have BYOD access so Asterisk is out of the question without changing providers. Not a huge deal at the moment, as we'll just stick the Nuvio box on the switch with the HTPC in the bedroom and connect it to the cordless phone base. But in the future, it would be nice to set up Asterisk so that I could have it route 911 out over the DSL/Fax line and other calls over the VoIP.