I need to run about 100-120 feet of cat5e cable to connect our bedroom to the utility room where the network switch, DSL router etc is. I ALSO need to run a phone cable, from utility room to the same bedroom. I am wondering if all 8 wires on a cat5e cable are used for Ethernet purposes, and if that is not the case, is there a couple I could use for phone. That way I could save $$ and time by running one cable instead of two.
i
No all 8 wires are not used. An Ethernet patch cable has only 4 conductors - there should be a hint in that.
You mention a router... are you using only one port on the router? Not sure what your plans are.
Rich
Cat5 only needs two pairs of wires, but make sure you reserve color pairs. If you strip back enough of the outer sheath, you'll find that wire pairs are visible. Each color pair, like blue and white/blue is twisted and this is important for the cat5 spec. bill
CAT5e cable is usually used for 100Mbit connections which require only four wires. However this cable has also been used for 1000Mbit connections which do require all eight conductors. If you don't plan on using Gigabit then you should be okay.
thanks.
The intended topology of our home network is as follows:
Wall -> DSL Jack -> DSL Modem -> Network Switch -> Linux box -> Windows XP box -> LinkSys wireless router -> Laptop 1 -> Laptop 2
DSL modem and network switch are in the basement utility room, and Windows XP box has been relocated to our bedroom on the opposite side of the house. That necessitates a 120 ft cable run.
i
That's cool, I have no gigabit plans at the moment. Question of the day is, then, which wires are used. I understand that I could pick any wires as long as I connect them to the jack properly. I use Leviton jacks from Home Depot.
i
I'd choose one of two options:
- Go wireless for both the phone (800mhz/2Ghz) and network (with encryption)
- Run two separate cables (one being cat6) and be done with it
Cat 5 is fine for phone and Cat 5 is fine for Ethernet, but it is bad practice to mix the two on the same cable. If at any time you have phone or Ethernet connection problems, you will need to know what arcane way the system was wired and it can make testing difficult unless you have good diagrams. The problem becomes more severe as the complexity of your system grows.
I'm not saying it won't work and it may be the cheapest way to go, but a Wiring Pro wouldn't do it that way.
Beachcomber
Thanks. I found another page, which explains everything perfectly:
Thanks. We already have wireless phones. (2 bases with many receivers). I wanted to put a simple wired phone on the desk or next to the bed.
Maybe I will end up doing that. One advantage to dedicating a cable to ethernet is that it could run two parallel ethernet connections.
i
Thanks, that makes sense. I am still deciding...
i
I concur. Pull two cat 5 cables while you are at it and use one of them for phone and the other for computer. The cable is very cheap now.
A lot of times there is more to Ethernet than meets the eye. It's very easy to mess up the connectors and put the wrong colored wire in the wrong crimp slot. Often more is needed than just a simple continuity check. Running the cable too close to electric conduits or fluourescent lamps can cause problems. The mere act of stretching the cable with >25 lbs of force during installation can dramatically degrade the performance permanantly.
That's why they have guys going around with 5-10 thousand dollar Fluke meters going around certifying that the cable installation as meeting the performance standards for Cat 5, 5e, or 6. Many businesses require this.
For a home installation, you may not have (or even need) the big bucks fancy meter, but it pays to take extra care in doing the installation correctly and not mix it with phone wiring, doorbell circuits, etc.
Beachcomber
Thanks. I do not understand what's wrong with putting cat5e cables next to electrical conduits (we have metallic conduits), but the rest makes sense to me.
i
Here's a tutorial that perhaps might explain some of the restrictions. If you tied your cables to electrical conduits for any significant length, it might still work but it could fail certification.
From a physics standpoint, what you are concerned with is electromagnetic shielding. A grounded conduit provides nearly 100% electrostatic shielding, but the currents in the electrical conductors within produce a dynamic magnetic field that leaves the boundary of the conduit and is almost impossible to shield or contain.
A few years ago, everyone was concerned about these low frequency magnetic fields but if was difficult to prove that they caused any health hazards.
They can and do interfere with communications circuits, though, and this is why there is a specific prohibition about attatching cat5 to conduit.
Beachcomber
[about using a pair of wires in an Ethernet Cat 5 cable for phone]
It would likely work, but at what quality? Even with twisted pairs, there will be some cross talk between them and the question becomes, "How much can you tolerate"?
For phone users, this cross talk will show up as hiss and other noise in the call. Depending on how much is introduced, this may not even be noticable, or it might be downright annoying.
For data, the cross talk will show up as data errors which will only be noticable as a slow-down in network traffic (as packets with errors are resent).
We did some real life testing a few years ago at a large company that sells Business Machines Internationally. It is the ringing current that spikes the LAN and that is more pronounced if it is an old style magnetic ringer. We could not detect any problems with the phone. If you actually had some physical contact the ringing current would certainly smoke the LAN card.
It is common practice to terminate both an ethernet jack and phone line using one cat5 cable.
You can use the center pair of wires (I'm not sure what the color code is) for telephone. That's why a RJ45 ethernet connector uses pins
1,2,3,6. 4 and 5 were reserved by the old "Starnet" (Xerox?) standard for telephone. You can plug an RJ11 telephone line into a RJ45 socket wired this way to get a telephone signal. I have one jack in my basement wired like that, but I generally run a seperate CAT3 cable for telephone.Bob
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