[Rasher]

I have an electrician rewiring my house. He has recommended that I run Cat5 to all the phone points for 'future proofing'. I've got no problem with that as it costs pretty much the same. However i don't understand how I can share the termination point (i.e. phone point) between networking PCs (for music etc and) still keep my phones plugged in.
Is there some sort of adaptor I'll need? or should I insist he runs 2 lines to each point? Any help would be greatly appreciated. As you can see i'm not very techie so feel free to dumb down answers! :o

[wansingct]

as far as "future proofing" I know that it is mandatory in most new buildings (by law) that electricians and their like plan for future expansion. Also it is much easier for these guys to just run a bunch of cat5 and then figure out what is phones and what is computer later. Cat 5 can be used for phones or computers. for phones, you just get 2 phone plugs for every run of cat5. Phones only need 4 (ok, really 2, but they usually use 4) of the eight wires in the single cat5 run. Technically computers only need 4 wires, the other 4 are grounds for bettersignaling, so you might want to make sure he's not short changing you and running one wire but making it for a computer AND a phone. If you have a very long run in your house it could really affect your signal quality, especially if he runs them near power wires.

Speaking of power wires, if you happen to see him running signaling wires (cat5) parallel to power wires closer than about 18 inches you should say something. The electromagnetics will again worsen your signaling and what should have been a 100base network now transfers at like 2 megs. Hope this helps.

[Rasher]

wansingct.. that was very helpful. thanks.

I believe that he IS running one wire but making it for a computer AND a phone. He explained that there would be one outlet in each of the rooms concerned and I could plug either phone or network cable into these.

My original question was how will I do this when the jacks are different sizes/ widths? That question still stands, but following your answer I'm now also worried about the feasability of the entire set up???

Could you give any more detailed assessment of these 2 issues?

[wansingct]

feasability shouldn't be a problem. the cable isn't big and crossing power cables at right angles will keep any interference out, and if he's certified for home and commercial cabling (like he should be) then he should know all about this.

As far as the jacks go it'll just be a faceplate with the female sides of the two jacks on it. he'll separate out four wires and run them to the smaller port meant for the phone, and then use the remaining four for your network connection. The phone port will be the smaller one and use the typical phone rj-11 phone plug while the network port will be the larger and use the rj-45 standard ethernet standard plug. I really would ask how much extra it would be to run two cables instead of one, one for the phone and one for network. It's not really any more work for him as he can run both cables at the same time, but it could give you the oppotunity for even more expansion in the future. something to look into anyways.

[Rasher]

thanks again.. your description of the cable makes things a lot clearer.

He seemed to be suggesting there would only be one jack (rj45) in each faceplate.. but that there would be some way of sticking the mail end of the phone cable into this also.. maybe an adapter???

i may have picked him up entirely wrong as I was lost in the jargon at the time. Does this make any sense to you?

(I promise this is my last question!!)

[wansingct]

hehehe about the question, not a problem at all.....

i guess it could be possible to have them both in the same jack, but that would involve running everything to either a splitter or a really intelligent pbx phone switch.......and since it seemed this was for your house, I kind of doubt that.

For a house the most common way is to run one or two cables to a two port wall jack. the best thing is to make sure he CLEARLY shows you just what's going on. Information is power and how can you get things done ho you want them without him doing it three or four times if you don't know what he's doing in the first place. Just ask him for a sample of the face plates he plans on using and have him explain if he's running one line or two and why he thinks that may be better. If he can't do that, maybe someone else should be doing the job......

[HoLoCroN]

These are all valid concerns and I would definitely take advantage of the situation and install the Cat5 cabling right now since you have the walls opened up already. As far as the cabling/plugs are concerned, you CAN use a RJ-11 cable (typical phone plug) on a RJ-45 connector. It will work so if you see two drops (Plugs on the wall) that are same in size, and neither is small like the phone cable, that is ok, it will work.

Like wansingct said, you want to make sure he labels the drops correctly so you would know which of the two is for phone and network.

I am working on a similar project at home, I am running two Cat5 cables and a RB-6 Coax cables to the drops on the walls. 1 Cat5 is for voice, the other is for data and the coax is for satellite/cable tv access.

Plus, having this taken care of will definitely add value to your home.

[mitch]

You can use 1 wire for your computer and phone, but if you plan to extend your number of pc, better have a good network plan...

[ChaosBlizzard]

Originally posted by wansingct
as far as "future proofing" I know that it is mandatory in most new buildings (by law) that electricians and their like plan for future expansion. Also it is much easier for these guys to just run a bunch of cat5 and then figure out what is phones and what is computer later. Cat 5 can be used for phones or computers. for phones, you just get 2 phone plugs for every run of cat5. Phones only need 4 (ok, really 2, but they usually use 4) of the eight wires in the single cat5 run. Technically computers only need 4 wires, the other 4 are grounds for bettersignaling, so you might want to make sure he's not short changing you and running one wire but making it for a computer AND a phone. If you have a very long run in your house it could really affect your signal quality, especially if he runs them near power wires.

Speaking of power wires, if you happen to see him running signaling wires (cat5) parallel to power wires closer than about 18 inches you should say something. The electromagnetics will again worsen your signaling and what should have been a 100base network now transfers at like 2 megs. Hope this helps.

In my experience computers only use two of the total 8 cat5 wires, one for recieve, the other for sending. What would the other pair be used for? Just grounding most likely.

[harrysiii]

ok, i know this is an old thread. sorry to re-open it. but, this is how i found this forum (yahoo search on this topic), so i would like to add a question to it and see what i can come up with.

I know you can do this. if anyone still has questions on it, you can technically use one RJ-45 cable for Data and phone. 2 twisted pairs are for data, and each of the other 2 pairs can be for phone. you want to use the orange and green pairs for data though, since they are usually twisted tighter and allow better transfer rates and signal. (so, it does matter what order the wires go into the connector).

I am getting ready to wire my new house, and I will more than likely run a cat5 for data and a cat5 for phone just to make it easier and more reliable but the question still makes me wonder.


ok, here's my question,

if I used 1 cable for both data and phone, would the phone signal cause problems with the data transmission on the other wires? i ask this because I know that phones get their power from the wires and basically only work off of a power signal, so will this current affect the data pairs in a different way than normal?

Hope some one knows, 'cause I cant find this exact question on the net.

Thanks!!