telephone line to ethernet

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jlining8

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Nov 6, 2013
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would like to know how to use exsisting telephone line & convert to ethernet,is it possible to plug a modem or router into telephone jack & get ethernet?
 

aigomorla

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Unless your talking about DSL and ADSL...

no.... not for a in home network.

cuz your missing a lot of wires in a rj12 vs rj45.

inspect it visually yourself, its a whole lot bigger.


Also a live phone jack has too much noise for a steady signal.
You'll be lucky to get DSL speeds, but thats about it, which is very dismal for a inhome network.

Your better option is a powerline adapter, and use existing house powerline.

Also this topic belongs in the networking section.
 

jlining8

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Nov 6, 2013
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yes,I am talking about DSL,what is a powerline adapter? & how is it used,also do i need to move this post to networking section & delete this one?
 

aigomorla

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A powerline adapter is used so u can connect multipul computers to a router though your power line.

A DSL / ADSL line is a internet access line that allows your inhome network to talk to the internet.

And you can PM: Anandtech Moderator with a link to your thread and ask for a request to move it to networking.
 

mindless1

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Aug 11, 2001
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Yes you could try for a 10Mb connection if you can find the equipment to do so or your current equipment allows this, IF that phone cable in the wall has 2 pairs of wires which many do. 10base-T was specified for use with telephone wire, merely terminating in a RJ45 jack.

You may get some re-sends since the cable won't be twisted or at least not to ethernet standards but all you've got to do is make sure your TX+/TX- and RX+/RX- are going to the right pins, which could mean making an adapter -OR- replacing and rewiring the phone socket on the wall to be RJ45.

Since this is much slower than wifi, I'd just do that instead if for some reason you aren't allowed or capable of pulling ethernet cable between the two points.
 
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glugglug

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Jun 9, 2002
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How old is the house?

Modern construction typically uses CAT5 for phone, which has 8 conductors. Only 2 are actually needed for the phone. There are 2 pins unused in 100Mb/s, so you could theoretically wire up both an RJ45 connector for ethernet and an RJ11 for phone using the same cable.

It won't support gigabit though, and is very risky, because the phone ringing is 90V AC which will fry your ethernet equipment if you wire it wrong.
 

Red Squirrel

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You may be able to multiplex the ethernet signal using something like Arduino. :p Or a DSLAM at one end and DSL modem on the other.

Short answer, no, though technically 10/100 only uses 4 wires I think, but I doubt you'd get a very good signal.
 

SecurityTheatre

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Aug 14, 2011
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You may be able to multiplex the ethernet signal using something like Arduino. :p Or a DSLAM at one end and DSL modem on the other.

Short answer, no, though technically 10/100 only uses 4 wires I think, but I doubt you'd get a very good signal.

Phone lines are generally Category 3 cabling. In theory, you might get 10Mbps over them, but the wiring isn't appropriate for Ethernet, so some adapter might do it.

Of course, the phone lines are hooked up to external sources of noise, so in practice, you won't eve get that, and other posters are correct, that some additional technology (besides Ethernet) must be used.
 

Cerb

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Aug 26, 2000
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While you would get very slow speeds, I don't see why you could use a modem to make a point to point dial-up connection. You could definitely do it in older versions of Windows (like NT 4 "old"), and I know that with some work, you can make Linux treat it as IP over serial (ironically, generally requiring the use of a serial modem, too). The cost would likely be fairly high, just to try it out, unless you have several of Linux-supported business-class modems hanging around (like the old black/red USR ones, or rack units from office modem banks that are being discarded, these days).

I wouldn't want to, since even crappy DSL is many times faster, but it is an idea that hasn't been mentioned, yet :).
 
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