New house with "smart" wiring. Running data and phone over cat5e?

[nobb]

I am a bit confused and was hoping someone could help clarify things a bit. I have a newer built house and they use cat5e sockets for where the phone plugs into. From my understanding, the central pins of cat5e are used for phone, while the outer pins can be used for ethernet networking. All the cat5e wires in the house go to a central distribution panel, a Honeywell MDX-88200:
http://www.security.honeywell....iring/qu/co/50083.html

I could not find any info on what this thing does.

What I want to do is keep the router and cable modem in the basement (next to the Honeywell) and be able to plug in computers to the cat5e plugs around the house for networking. How would I go about wiring this? Also, would there be some sort of splitter that would allow me to plug both ethernet and phone to a single cat5e terminal?

Maybe I am not using the right search terms, but I could not find anything useful on this subject.

Thanks.

 

[ScottMac]

It's exceptionally bad practice to combine POTS phone & data on the same cable.

First, if you have *any* plans to go to GigE, then you sholdn't, because GigE uses all four pair.

Next, the analog signals contribute significant crosstalk and kill your data.

Then there's the analog ring voltage, which is 90-105 VAC @ 20 Hz ... pulses (crosstalk) at that level can kill the Ethernet NIC.

Finally, not that anyone would care, the cable would be out of spec (i.e., Cat-nothing, less-than-barbed wire, crap).


Good Luck
Scott

 

[imagoon]

I would also point out that Honeywell does not wire it that way by default. Actually with those "quick" modules I recall it actually takes a lot more effort than normal to mis-wire it, because if you do it will affect all the other plugins.

 

[nobb]

Ok so change of plan. I would actually like to keep the router where it is right now and plug one of the router outputs to a cat5e socket upstairs in the house. Then I want to be able to house the server in the basement next to the Honeywell unit such that I am using the existing cat5e from the router output to go to the server in the basement. Anyone know where would I plug the ethernet from the server to the Honeywell (if that's even possible)?

And if anyone has ANY idea at all what this Honeywell MDX88200 thing is, please do tell.

 

[Colt45]

Looks like it's just a patch panel... (punchdown connectors on the back, for the hard (house) wiring, ports on the front for patchcords to... computers... phones... routers... etc.. Or you can loop from one hardline to another with a short patchcord, etc.)

like a mini-switchboard.