I need to remake my internal phone wiring - the wiring I have is old
and damaged, and also very byzantine with redundant junction boxen and
sockets (I think there used to be two or more lines incoming) and
extension cables running over almost every architrave in the house.
What I want to do in this age of ADSL and DECT is simplify to a single
master socket by the PC with the phone base station & ADSL modem/router
plugged in.
I understand the connections well enough - I'm going to tear everything
out from the initial junction box onwards and start again. My question
is this: is there any reason I shouldn't use Cat5e cable for this?
I'm not going for structured cabling (tempting but I can't really
justify the effort and cost of retrofitting it), but I just happen to
have a lot of Cat5e cable. AFAIK it's far superior to bell wire, but
is there any problem I haven't thought of?
No problems apart from it being slightly thicker over all than 'phone wire,
and a bit lumpier in appearance - if it's going to be out of sight, no
problem. I think the purple LSF variant's quite pretty, too... for fixed
wiring, make sure it's solid core, IDCs don't take stranded reliably.
Dave H.
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)
Thanks Dave. I do have some phone wire I bought some time ago, but
it's very, very thin. I've heard mention of "ADSL compatible phone
wire". Do you know if it really makes a difference?
I can't imagine that it would be that significant compared to the 4
miles of copper between my house and the exchange, but I could be
wrong.
The existing wiring is surface, and I think my new stuff will be too,
and I had considered that Cat5 is a bit more visible.
Precicely...
It does not make that much difference really. If needs be you can get
four lines down one cat5, so you also won't need another cable if you
ever added a line.
John,
Something I've done which might be interesting for you too, is to have
the adsl cable only connected to BT using the device described below in
place of your current modem/router
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware/reviews/2005/q2/zoom-x5v.asp
The master DECT station plugs into the back of the Zoom device and you
have no telephone cable at all, but you do have VOIP on every handset
in your home and garden.
The handsets switch into VOIP mode at the press of a key and should the
router power fail or be switched off, then the telephone reverts to
standard BT connection mode.
It comes ready configured for a VOIP service called Global Village,
which is SIP compliant and able to talk to other SIP compliant services
at no charge, though you can reconfigure for another supplier. I use
Sipgate.
What it won't do is get you connected to non SIP compliant services
such as Skype.
Jeff
John Carlyle-Clarke wrote:
Thanks Jeff -
I work from home, and use Skype for all business calls - Skype to Skype
where possible, or Skype Out where not, to make it easier to itemise.
I also use Skype In to keep business calls separate completely.
I use one of these at the moment:
http://www.yealink.com/SkypeMate/prodetail_b2k.htm
The DECT base station is connected to this device. Works pretty well,
and the same deal.. press "*" to switch to Skype.
Nice thinking though - thanks for the suggestion.
I would put the master socket (Linebox) as near to where the external
cable converts to internal, given BT's approach of charging for internal
faults. Then run separate filtered (for phone, 2 pairs) and unfiltered
(for ADSL, 1 pair) connections to where you want your PC and DECT. Cat5
has 4 pairs so one cable will do nicely.
Better to do 'star' wiring back to a central point as it does offer more
flexibility and easier faultfinding.
Owain
The proper cable to use is to the BT CW13308 specification. Cat5E is usually
OK because they are both twisted pair cables which is the crucial thing. You
need to start at the BT socket. Is the master socket an NTE5 or the older
Plan 1?
Peter Crosland
Assuming it really is genuine CW1308 specification and not somebody passing
something else off as CW1308, it is what BT use and therefore one has to
assume it is fit for purpose! Likewise if the cable you have is genuine
Cat5e specification that will do as well. Using anything but a proper
twisted pair cable can potentially cause problems. Bell wire is definitely a
no no.
Peter Crosland
The reel of CW108 I have has no twists (or at least the were none
present in the 1m and then 2m sections I stripped back to check).
Is there a spec that says CW1308 must be twisted? When I looked some
years back I couldn't find one, lots of other specs for CW1308, but
couldn't find anything about twists.
--
Due to the very painful lack of quoting Google promotes, all Usenet
posts originating from Google users are now deleted unseen, this means
Yes, CW 1308 _is_ the BT specification.
Go to the RS web site (http://rswww.com ) and do a simple search for
"cw1308", which will bring up a list of all the '1308 cables they sell.
Click on the PDF icon against any product and you can download a copy
of the actual BT spec. - CW 1308 Issue 8. Note the requirements for lay
length (section 4.2) and reference to twists in section 5.
Thanks, looks like I've got a non conforming spool then, if there is any
twisting it's in many metres lay length no way it's 100mm or less. It
works fine for phone, but I found the problem when I used it to wire
some short (<5m) runs of 100baseT, which I was expecting to work.
To get back to the original post I now use Cat5e for phone and data
wiring.
--
Due to the very painful lack of quoting Google promotes, all Usenet
posts originating from Google users are now deleted unseen, this means
On 13 Jun 2006 09:15:03 GMT someone who may be "John Carlyle-Clarke"
Assuming you have an NTE5 master socket...
Do remember that only BT are supposed to touch the bottom half of
the master socket (and the external wiring that connects to it). As
a result it is likely to remain where it is at the moment.
From that point you can do what you like. Personally I would get a
filter from http://www.clarity.it/acatalog/ADSL_Installation.html
and put that on the master socket. From there I would wire the
filtered terminals to the telephone extension sockets and take an
unfiltered pair to a suitable socket for the ADSL router.
If I didn't have any cable I would probably get a reel of telephone
cable and use that for the extensions. If I was putting a telephone
socket beside the ADSL socket this needs two and a half pairs, say
three pairs. If my telephone cable was only two pair then I might
use Cat 5, simply for the extra pairs. Alternatively three pair
telephone cable should be fine. Avoid sharp bends and don't staple
the cable.
It all depends on what cable you have in and what is available to
you. As you have a lot of Cat 5 I would use that. Do stick to the
standard telephone colour scheme. I would use the brown pair for the
unfiltered ADSL signal, as it is not in the standard one line
telephone wiring scheme.
http://www.clarity.it/telecoms/adsl_faceplate.htm and
http://www.clarity.it/telecoms/extensions.htm have further
information.
--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
Do you mean all these pairs are needed just for the phone, or something
else? The UK phone system uses 3 wires, with a lot of equipment working
on only 2 wires. If desired its elementary to run a 2 wire system and
add a capacitor at the end to give a standard 3 wire outlet.
NT
If you intend moving your master socket, you might want to think twice about
using cable that was obviously not provided by BT.
uk.telecom might be a better ng.
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