[Don_S]

I was not sure where to put this but I guessed that if anyone could answer my question it would be here.

I am looking at new homes.  One builder's literature advertised "Prewired for telephone (category 5 compliant)".  They had jacks in every bedroom and in the living room. There was furniture in the way so I could not accurately determine the jack size but they appeared to be telephone-sized.

What does that mean as far as setting up computer equipment in various rooms?  Would it be possible to set up an ethernet system instead of going wireless?  If I use DSL would it be possible to have a dedicated DSL outlet instead of a phone outlet at one location? That would avoid the requirement for filters on each phone.

Thanks for any help.

[mrhyfy]

Telephone lines strictly speaking are not cat 5.  Unless the cat 5 wires are terminated on cat 5 jacks (rj45) they cannot be used for lan applications.    I would recommend installing a "pot splitter"  (not a large knife) and installing your dsl router where your lan wires terminate.  This eliminates any need for filters.  Get your dsl from your local telco,,,they're nice people!!

[Don_S]

Ok, now I am more confused than ever.  I knew telephones are not CAT5-so far, so good. That is why I asked the original question.

How do I install a splitter at the end of my LAN?  My thoughts are the splitter would be the start of my LAN, not the end.  The splitter would have to go on the telephone line just before my DSL modem and router. Never heard of a DSL router, just DSL modem vs cable modem.

My current home has a splitter that divides telephone from DSL.  I have one dedicated DSL jack where I connect my modem. Before the splitter was installed I had a filter on every phone jack.  That is my frame of reference and total sum of my knowledge. 

Telephone lines strictly speaking are not cat 5.  Unless the cat 5 wires are terminated on cat 5 jacks (rj45) they cannot be used for lan applications.    I would recommend installing a "pot splitter"  (not a large knife) and installing your dsl router where your lan wires terminate.  This eliminates any need for filters.  Get your dsl from your local telco,,,they're nice people!!

[evsentry3]

Traditional phone lines used a loose twist.  Cat 5 uses similar wire but much more tightly controls the twist.  So Cat 5 can be used as a phone line but traditional phone wire cannot be used as computer networking.

The connectors for traditional phone has less pins and the connector is narrower.  The jack used for computer networking has more pins and is wider.  But the phone plug will snap into a jack used for ocmputer networking and work just fine.

So you can wire a house to the higher grade Cat 5 cabling standard and use the bigger jacks (RJ-45) and they are still backwards compatible to use the wiring and jacks for a standard phone.  For instance I built my house and personally installed all the wiring and only installed the highest grade Cat 6 standard that existed at that time.  It all runs to a common jack field at one point.  So I can use any wiring for either a phone or for a computer network connection.  But the same wire is not simultaneously used for both.

So it sounds like this house has been built much the same.  You would likely have the capability to split the incoming line, run the computer feed to it's DSL device and filter the phone line to remove the DSL carrier and then split it out to run to where ever you're going to place phones.

Hope this gets you to your answers!

EV3

[weitrhino]

If there's going to be much going on within  your computer network, or there will be a lot of devices wired into the service, you'd be much better off using a cable modem instead of DSL.  Wire each location with CAT5 in a 'home run' fashion so everything branches from a single point.  Place your modem and router at that point.  If you use a cable modem and get your dial tone from the cable company as well, you can use the modem to distribute dial tone to any location within the house.  However, if you will use ethernet and phone in the same location, you will need to have CAT5 and CAT3 (standard phone twisted pair) installed.  Both can be run into dual gang wallplates.

[Don_S]

Thanks for the information.  That makes sense.  I know there is a control panel in the master bedroom walk-in closet. So I guess it depends on whether or not they ran a separate run to each phone jack from a common point-i.e. the control panel. If so, and if I can identify the runs, I could split and send DSL to the "office" bedroom where the modem and router and bluetooth printer would be.  Rest of the house could be wireless.  And all but one of my phones will be cordless.

If they used CAT5 cable I could replace the phone jacks with rj45 CAT 5 jacks and maybe run an ethernet hub in the closet.   Will a phone jack fit into an rj45 jack and work if the wires are connected correctly?  I still don't know what size jacks are used in the new homes I looked at. 

[srb]

Will a phone jack fit into an rj45 jack and work if the wires are connected correctly?

Yes, an RJ11 phone plug will physically fit and lock into an RJ45 jack, but it's possible for the outer edges of the RJ11 plug to damage pins in the RJ45 jack.  And although the center pin will lock, there is too much side to side sloppiness.
 
If you were to retain the RJ45 wall jack, I would use an RJ45 male to RJ11 female adapter.
 

 
Steve

[Chromisdesigns]

Thanks for the information.  That makes sense.  I know there is a control panel in the master bedroom walk-in closet. So I guess it depends on whether or not they ran a separate run to each phone jack from a common point-i.e. the control panel. If so, and if I can identify the runs, I could split and send DSL to the "office" bedroom where the modem and router and bluetooth printer would be.  Rest of the house could be wireless.  And all but one of my phones will be cordless.

If they used CAT5 cable I could replace the phone jacks with rj45 CAT 5 jacks and maybe run an ethernet hub in the closet.   Will a phone jack fit into an rj45 jack and work if the wires are connected correctly?  I still don't know what size jacks are used in the new homes I looked at.

I did something similar back in the early days of DSL with my DC house.  Most pre-wired phone jacks have two pairs, to provide for the possibility of two separate lines.  I got a splitter and installed it at the line entry point, then put the DSL signal on the spare (unused) pair.  Then I made an adapter cable so I could plug the DSL modem in anywhere in the house.  It worked fine.

As others have noted, with respect to running ethernet over twisted pair, it has to be both Cat-5 or higher wire and devices, as well as all home runs.  The older style daisy chaining from one jack to the next won't work with data.

[weitrhino]

If they used CAT5 cable I could replace the phone jacks with rj45 CAT 5 jacks and maybe run an ethernet hub in the closet.   Will a phone jack fit into an rj45 jack and work if the wires are connected correctly?  I still don't know what size jacks are used in the new homes I looked at.

No need to replace anything.  Flat satin wire, terminated with RJ11 connectors, will snap into the center of an RJ45 outlet perfectly. That's why they share the same locking mechanism and detent.  Tip and Ring will be found on the center pair of the eight individual conductors, but again, you cannot use dial tone and ethernet simultaneously.  However, from your description above this should present no issue.

[riffer]

Okay, I thought you could use Telephone and tbase100 at the same time, telephone using two and ethernet using 4 pairs and  Gigabit ethernet requires all eight pairs?

Regardless, there are adaptors that will split an RJ45 connector into an RJ45 + RJ11 connector. Assuming your not using Gigabit internet you should be okay.