Telephone over CAT5?

[Armitage]

Hi,
I'm in the process of building a large addition onto our house. I plan to wire the whole thing for ethernet.
What can you guys tell me about running the telephone service over CAT5 cable? Is there some sort of special adaptor to go from the RJ11 on the phone to the RJ45 in the wall (or do I have that backwards?)

I plan on running the CAT5 to anywhere I might need a network jack or a telephone, and then just configure it in the wiring closet when I plug stuff in.

I've also heard that you can run audio & video signal over CAT5 with some adaptors ... this could save me the trouble of pulling COAX & speaker wire. Has anybody heard of this/have links.

And finally ... CAT5/CAT5e/CAT6 ... What would you run? The price difference from CAT5 to CAT5e isn't that great, but CAT6 is a bit of a bump.
I plan to pull some fiber on key runs just to have it in the wall.

 

[skyking]

copper is copper-- you can use cat 5 cable instead of cat 3 phone cable, no problem.
My advice is to mark your runs very carefully, and leave plenty of spare at either end. you will be able to put a rj11 terminal at the wall plate, using 2 pair of the cat 5e. Leave plenty of slack in the equipment room, and test a run before using it.
Do not plan on running any significant speaker loads over this cable, it is not of sufficient gauge.
Do not parallel cat5 with power runs. you can cross it, but otherwise keep it 2 feet away.
I would not plan on using cat5 instead of coax video cable. The shielding effects and frequency are incompatible.
Cat 5e is rated for vertical runs, cat 5 is not. Up to you, but I would use the 5e for everything.

 

[IJump]

I have cat 5 everywhere at work. I can plug a computer into one end and patch to a hub and it works fine. I can unplug the computer and plug a phone in and switch the patch to one of my phone lines, and it works fine.


The moral of the story is that you can wire every jack as cat5 (I think using the "A" standard, but I would have to check to be 100% sure) and then have your phone lines running to a patch panel. Then you will be able to patch your phone lines around the house. Of course, if you only have one line, this might be silly...... But if you have a single line broken out into several ports on a patch panel, it would also let you move your phone jack around a room if you have more than one run of cable into that room....

Run whatever you can afford. That way you will be ready for technologies that pop up later that need the better wire......

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: IJump
I have cat 5 everywhere at work. I can plug a computer into one end and patch to a hub and it works fine. I can unplug the computer and plug a phone in and switch the patch to one of my phone lines, and it works fine.

Yes. This is what I want to do. I've worked in an office like this also, but where do you get phones with the right kind of connectors to plug into a network (RJ45) port? And which 4 wires from the cat5 would the phone expect to see connected to which of the 4 wires on the phone service wire.

The moral of the story is that you can wire every jack as cat5 (I think using the "A" standard, but I would have to check to be 100% sure) and then have your phone lines running to a patch panel. Then you will be able to patch your phone lines around the house. Of course, if you only have one line, this might be silly...... But if you have a single line broken out into several ports on a patch panel, it would also let you move your phone jack around a room if you have more than one run of cable into that room....

There is only one line right now. But there may be more in the future, and I'd like to control what rings where easily.

Run whatever you can afford. That way you will be ready for technologies that pop up later that need the better wire......

Yea, I think I'll spend a few extra bucks for the solid CAT6 plenum as insurance against future technologies.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: skyking
copper is copper-- you can use cat 5 cable instead of cat 3 phone cable, no problem.
My advice is to mark your runs very carefully, and leave plenty of spare at either end. you will be able to put a rj11 terminal at the wall plate, using 2 pair of the cat 5e.

That's one of my points. I'm hoping to put RJ45 everywhere, and then find an adaptor that can plug the rj11 on the phone into the rj45 in the wall, and have the wire pairs sorted out. I suppose I could just make a few patch cords to do this, but it seams like there would already be a market for this.

Leave plenty of slack in the equipment room, and test a run before using it.

And test the runs before closing the walls!

Do not plan on running any significant speaker loads over this cable, it is not of sufficient gauge.
Do not parallel cat5 with power runs. you can cross it, but otherwise keep it 2 feet away.

I have to run some 220V power to part of the house. Does the 2' limit hold here, or do I have to increase it?

I would not plan on using cat5 instead of coax video cable. The shielding effects and frequency are incompatible.
Cat 5e is rated for vertical runs, cat 5 is not. Up to you, but I would use the 5e for everything.

vertical runs? I guess I'm not following you here, as I don't think that you are refering to vertical as in up-down vs. across, right???

 

[ScottMac]

An RJ11/14 will clip and mate with an RJ45-style jack. The phones use pins 4&5 for line one, and pins 3&6 for line two, which are the middle pairs in an RJ45-style jack (in the US anyway).

Your best goal is to keep the data cabling as far away from the electrical cabling & other noise sources as practically possible. It's much less critical these days because of the nature of the cable, and the evolution of Ethernet transceivers which do an excellent job of reducing/negating common mode noise (like power field "hum"). Your worse enemy is severe impulse noise, like from an older motor (worn brushes) or flourescent lighting ballasts (they get pretty noisy as they age). Proximity to a standing power line is less of a concern, but avoid it as it as much as practical for the situation.

The "vertical" mentioned a few posts back relates to a variant of UTP ("riser cable") designed for vertical commercial runs (like, up an elevator shaft). Someone figured out that some thing burn differently in a vertical position than in a horizontal position. The result was cable with different jacketing qualities (i.e., better stretch characteristics, a better support member / strain relief, and better burn control). For domestic use, it's not likely to be required or desired. Most riser cable I'm familiar with is 25 Pair.

FWIW

Scott

 

[skyking]

Hi Scott!
The "E" in cat 5e stands for "enhanced", and vertical runs were one of the requirements that was addressed under the spec. I would use the enhanced cable myself. If you are concerned about getting caught with the wrong stuff in a finished wall, you could plan a conduit design with junction boxes. you cold pull anything you like through the conduit, except power cable. this would let you put in a junction box scheme that would address speaker placement, and other things that might change in your house.
I will be installing conduit runs in my next house, it is the only way to effectively hide all the cable runs, while allowing you to change "content".
Cheers,
Kelly