Running phone and Ethernet over same Cat-5 cable

[gottabekd]

My sister just bought a new house and while touring it I noticed all the phone jacks were RJ-45 (which also accept an RJ-9 phone). Being a techy, I thought "Cool, it is all wired up for a home network!" but that doesn't exactly work if all the jacks are used up by phones.

So I read up a bit about Category-5 cable and found that an 100 Mbit Ethernet only uses 4/8 wires, and the phone uses just 2/8 wires. Which means the same physical cable can carry an Ethernet signal as well as a voice signal at the same time (provided the wires are split properly at both ends).

My question isn't how to do this. I've got that down. But has anyone done this? I'd be worried about the data signal causing interference on the phone line. If you have done this, did you notice any interference?

[HotHotHeat]

I found my parents 'wired' house was nothing but a hassle. The internet signal sucked through the builder installed wires. Just my experience I can't say I'm an expert.

The idea seems cool, but a wireless 802.11n router is a much better option IMO.

[ken0042]

It has to be able to be done- I just don't know the specifics.

I say this because for a while I was using a pair of 3com cards that ran a 10mbps signal over the standard phone line with no interference on the phone.

[Rathji]

My brother did this for a while, installing low voltage wiring in new houses for projector TV, Audio, etc. Pretty much you just do your pull of cat5 and then connect the 4(or 2) wires to the jack ( I think he called them TVTel boxes? ) and then plug in your rj45 (or RJ_whatever the phone one is). It allows you to run 4 phone lines to a single location, 2 wired internet connections.or 2 phone/1 net.

The only real advantage I ever saw from it was his wireless in his house sucked badly, so he rewired his phone jack (they we all ran with cat5) and put in a rj45 connector to run his hardwire downstairs.

Another thing which is related, but I don't understand, they would do a pull of like 6 or 8 cat5 cables inbetween where the TV and all the components would be. He said that with them that could handle all the different types of connections you could use for HDTV. At the time I didn't know a HDMI cable from a peice of black licorice so it didn't mean much to me but I am guessing that HDMI, DVI, Component, Composite cables can all be ran through cat5.

If you really really want to know specifics, the company he worked for was Smart Space. I am sure you could call them up and get them to explain what they are capable of and the costs. I know they did do pulls in existing houses as well as new builds.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I found my parents 'wired' house was nothing but a hassle. The internet signal sucked through the builder installed wires. Just my experience I can't say I'm an expert.

The idea seems cool, but a wireless 802.11n router is a much better option IMO.

Wow thats funky, a wireless system will never give you the performance of a properly wired system. Atleast not year.

[ken0042]

OK, found it. (isn't google great)

About 3/4 of the way down the page there is a wiring diagram for how to use one run of Cat5 for 2 data runs. I'm sure you could use the extra wires for the phone run. (Edit- reading further it actually talks about running for data a phone with one line.)
http://www.derose.net/steve/guides/wiring/

So connect the green pair and the brown pair for your internet, and use the orange and blue pairs for your phone.

[gottabekd]

Thanks. As I said I can figure out the wiring, I was just curious if anyone has done it and if they noticed interference. This would all be to supplement a wireless connection, but those can sometimes be troublesome. If there is stationary equipment, you might as well run a wire if it is convenient.