[xACiD]

CB is one of the more active forums I'm a part of, so I thought I'd try here..

First, some background.. Recently got a new house that was pre-wired with ethernet throughout the house. I purchased a network tester with a tone generator and probe to try to see what goes where without making it a whole day event. I'm not sure that I'm using that right but that's not my question, at least not yet.

In the basement, there's a panel where it seems all the ethernet cables go. Half of them are plugged into ports labeled 'telephone' and the rest aren't connected to anything. I figure I'd connect a router/switch to these to get the network portion going, I've tried a few at a time and it seems to work. I only have 4 ports in my router right now, will order an ethernet switch to support the additional ports.

From what I've seen so far it looks like the rooms with 2 jacks, the left one is for telephone, and the right goes to the router/switch. The rooms with only 1 jack is for telephone only.

Q1: Are the telephone cables basically the same as network cables just used for different things? The plug at the end is the same as RJ45, as far as wire order, I'm not sure. Lets say I have a room that doesn't seem to have a network jack but it looks like it's one of the telephone hookups instead (guessing, due to single jack only), would i be able to plug a computer into there, and in the patch panel in the basement, remove it from a telephone port and plug it into the router instead?

I also noticed, with nothing plugged into the router, when I go around the house with the network tester, if i plug it into one of the jacks, it just cycles through pins 1-8. This leads me to believe nothing is connected to it, which is correct because the router isn't connected. Some of them, the network tester flashes pins 1 and 4, 2, 3, 5 and 8, 6, and 7. If i'm not mistaken it looks like these are connected to the telephone ports, and that all 8 pins are wired up, which is a good sign that I can use these for network connectivity?

Q2: Aren't phone connection supposed to use the smaller plugs, I think they're RJ11?. Are new phones now using RJ45? Are these IP phones? Are these not really for phones and i'm understanding something wrong?

[dslocumb]

Most newer cable runs and done using Cat-5 or Cat-6 cable. It can be used for phone, Ethernet or otherwise. If run for Ethernet, then it is typically run using one of two specifications (EIA/TIA 568A or EIA/TIA 568B - 568B being the most widely used standard). Ethernet cables are run as "straight-through" cables and would show up on the tester as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 on both ends. Your network tester probably has "loop back" connectors to connect to the other end of the cable run for testing.

[Anonymous94587689]

I second 'dslocumb' and want to add these links as extra information

How To Wire Your House with Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet Cable

Hack your House: Run both ethernet and phone over existing Cat-5 cable

[xACiD]

So if my ethernet cables connected to the telephone ports were flashing the way they were: 1 and 4 together, 2, 3, 5 and 8 together, 6, and 7, is it safe to assume that it is wired up using all 8 wires and should be good to use as network ports?

When I was doing the "testing" above I didn't have any router/switch plugged in, so the other ports not connected to anythere were just cycling through 1-8, which I'm guessing is normal.

[dslocumb]

So if my ethernet cables connected to the telephone ports were flashing the way they were: 1 and 4 together, 2, 3, 5 and 8 together, 6, and 7, is it safe to assume that it is wired up using all 8 wires and should be good to use as network ports?

When I was doing the "testing" above I didn't have any router/switch plugged in, so the other ports not connected to anythere were just cycling through 1-8, which I'm guessing is normal.

Most likely, yes - but there is no way to tell without the loopback on the other end of the cable run. Technically speaking (and no one would ever run cable this way), but if the cable is punched down the same way on both ends, then it would be a "straight through" cable and it would still work for ethernet. The reason for the standards is so that you can replace jacks, etc. and punch it down without having to know where the other end of the cable is and how it is punched down. Like I mention earlier, TIA/EIA 568B is the most widely used standard.