Rewiring Phone Jacks for Ethernet?

[EpOxY]

I'm buying a new house and I don't know why, but the builder only put in phone jacks in and no RJ45 jacks in the rooms...

We're going to be using just our cellphones and so we don't really need those jacks.

I'm curious if it's possible to convert those jacks to RJ45 jacks without suffering too much in speed/quality. I don't know what kind of cabling he used (I haven't moved in yet), but I'm assuming it's not going to be the best.

Is it worth it (or even possible) to try to use the current wiring? Or will I need to bite the bullet and pay someone else to install new wiring? (or do it myself if it's easy.....)

 

[spidey07]

You'll have to know what kind of cabling was used. Category 3 is required for 10 meg ethernet, category 5 for 100 meg ethernet. It will say on the jacket of the cable if it is category rated.

If it is indeed category rated cabling then you could wire it according to 568b standards and be OK. Google eia/tia 568b.

Depending on what the builder did you could replace just the jack, or the faceplate and the jack.

 

[p0lar]

+1 What Spidey says, and also write down everything on the cable from what you can pull from the wire and paste it here. There are some odd-ball type cabling that can be used for ethernet that I've yanked out of the walls before, and some houses now are running futureproof [sic] bundles that have some mysterious cappings on them from specialized pulls or runs, sometimes quite confusing to the average joe who's not familiar with what they're looking at.

 

[EpOxY]

we close on the house on monday (crosses fingers) i'll pull out one of them and see what it says... any warnings about just... pulling on cabling after taking off the faceplate?

 

[nweaver]

don't pull too hard, who knows how much slack there is.

Usually there is extra wire near the termination point, or the termination is in a utility/basement/unfinished area, where you can see the wires going up into the wall.

 

[JackMDS]

If it is Car5e (or Cat6). Replace the RJ-11 with Keystone RJ-45 jacks put matching plates, and use commertial made patches to connect from the wall to the Network devices.

If it is Cat3 you can try to tie Cat6 cables and fish the cat3 from the other side. If they did not staple it in the middle the Cat3 would come out dragging with it the Cat6.

Installing Network Cables, http://www.ezlan.net/CAT.html

 

[p0lar]

Originally posted by: EpOxY
we close on the house on monday (crosses fingers) i'll pull out one of them and see what it says... any warnings about just... pulling on cabling after taking off the faceplate?

Heh, a modicum of common sense should suffice. If you're heaving backwards with your feet planted against the wall to read the cable as it tears a vertical hole through the drywall, it's time to hire a professional.

 

[Lemieux66]

On a similar note I recently bought a townhouse and the builder ran cat 5e out to the nid on the exterior of the house for each room. I have DSL, but no phone service, so naturally I'd like to use the existing cable for data.

My idea is to pull the cables back inside and terminate them on a patch panel. The nid is on an exterior wall in the garage so it's only a few feet. Then I'll just run a new cable out to the nid from the patch panel so DSL and future telco services work.

My problem is that there is no power on that wall in the garage and plus I don't want to expose my networking equipment to extreme temperatures. So I'd like to extend the existing cat 5e to a nearby closet. I'm unsure how I should extend the cables though. Should I punch them down on a patch panel in the garage and then run patch cables to the equipment in the closet or should I splice the cat 5e together and then punch it down at the closet. Any help and considerations are appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: Lemieux66
On a similar note I recently bought a townhouse and the builder ran cat 5e out to the nid on the exterior of the house for each room. I have DSL, but no phone service, so naturally I'd like to use the existing cable for data.

My idea is to pull the cables back inside and terminate them on a patch panel. The nid is on an exterior wall in the garage so it's only a few feet. Then I'll just run a new cable out to the nid from the patch panel so DSL and future telco services work.

My problem is that there is no power on that wall in the garage and plus I don't want to expose my networking equipment to extreme temperatures. So I'd like to extend the existing cat 5e to a nearby closet. I'm unsure how I should extend the cables though. Should I punch them down on a patch panel in the garage and then run patch cables to the equipment in the closet or should I splice the cat 5e together and then punch it down at the closet. Any help and considerations are appreciated.

Thanks!

patch panel in the garage, run a cable to the new spot. splicing or wire nutting network cable doesnt work too well. i know, the general contractor that built the addon offices here at my work (one of our own PMs lol) cut one of my exiting and spliced it without telling anyone. it worked, but i had major issues. i finally traced the cable (pulled it out of the wall) and found that splice. replaced the run and it worked fine.

 

[ScottMac]

Usually not. Even if you have the best Cat-{anything} cable, phones are generally wired as drops from a cable ... as in the cable enters the house, goes to the kitchen, then goes to the livingroom, then goes upstairs to teh bedroom, then the next bedroom ....

Ethernet is wired as a "star" (aka "Home Runs") where each location is a separate run of cable back to a central location (where you'd connect them to your panel, then a switch or phoneline, or whatever you have....

[phone]--------[phone]--------[phone]-----[and so on] (Doesn't work for 'puters)

Even if you only used one drop of the cable, all the other connections would FUBAR the data.

You need:

[computer]
| [computer]
| | [computer]
| | |
| | |
--------------------------------------
[-------------- Switch ------------]
--------------------------------------


You'll probably need to re-cable.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: ScottMac
Usually not. Even if you have the best Cat-{anything} cable, phones are generally wired as drops from a cable ... as in the cable enters the house, goes to the kitchen, then goes to the livingroom, then goes upstairs to teh bedroom, then the next bedroom ....

Ethernet is wired as a "star" (aka "Home Runs") where each location is a separate run of cable back to a central location (where you'd connect them to your panel, then a switch or phoneline, or whatever you have....

[phone]--------[phone]--------[phone]-----[and so on] (Doesn't work for 'puters)

Even if you only used one drop of the cable, all the other connections would FUBAR the data.

You need:

[computer]
| [computer]
| | [computer]
| | |
| | |
--------------------------------------
[-------------- Switch ------------]
--------------------------------------


You'll probably need to re-cable.

Good Luck

Scott

or go wireless.

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: ScottMac
Usually not. Even if you have the best Cat-{anything} cable, phones are generally wired as drops from a cable ... as in the cable enters the house, goes to the kitchen, then goes to the livingroom, then goes upstairs to teh bedroom, then the next bedroom ....

Ethernet is wired as a "star" (aka "Home Runs") where each location is a separate run of cable back to a central location (where you'd connect them to your panel, then a switch or phoneline, or whatever you have....

[phone]--------[phone]--------[phone]-----[and so on] (Doesn't work for 'puters)

Even if you only used one drop of the cable, all the other connections would FUBAR the data.

You need:

[computer]
| [computer]
| | [computer]
| | |
| | |
--------------------------------------
[-------------- Switch ------------]
--------------------------------------


You'll probably need to re-cable.

Good Luck

Scott

That was what I was thinking as a read the OP. Good luck!
If they did make "home runs" to each jack, you will have a common point in the house with a large number of wires at it, all wired together. If you find that bundle, you are in luck and can possibly tone it out and terminate it properly without rewiring.

 

[EpOxY]

Yeah, nothing like that... sucks... anybody know a cheap/easy way to wire around walls without too much trouble?

I doubt it, but maybe there's a secret out there...

The wiring ended up being Cat3 anyways, so that wouldn't have helped...