[TriLUG] Phone/DSL wiring

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006, Rodent of Unusual Size wrote:

> Pretty much all Cat-5 stuff appears to be 4-pair and
> RJ45.  As long as I can mesh that with the 2-pair RJ11
> connector coming from the wall, it's just a matter of
> getting the right parts.

Not sure if you're going to do this, but it's not a great
idea to mix plugs and jacks with different numbers of pins.
(I seem to remember you can put an RJ-11 plug into an RJ45 
jack - the lands at the side of the RJ11 plug bend back
the extra wires in the jack).

> Unfortunately, I think it's
> still going to be messy:
>
> wall ]=====[coupler]======[ Dual ]==[house phone]
>     ]=====[       ]======[ jack |
>                                 ]==x==//==> (xover cable)
>
>> ==//==[coupler]==[ Dual ]==[DSL modem]
>                    jack ]
>                         ]==[filter]==[fax]==[work phone]

sorry can't tell what you're doing here.

There are continuity testers available for RJ11, RJ45. They 
only measure continuity at DC, but thats good enough. Make 
sure your cables are multicore wire (which you can bend many 
times) rather than the default, of single core (which is 
cheaper and for plenums and is not meant to be bent or 
connected/disconnected multiple times).

I have a set which I bought for about $80 which is a pair of 
units that clip together. You put one on each end of the 
line. I couldn't find it with google, but I found this with 
google just now.

http://www.dataaccessories.com/t3016.html

It looks like you plug both ends into the same unit (it 
requires that both ends of the cable can be brought to the 
same place, which you can probably do).

> Does that look reasonable?  If so, I need to know whether
> a 4-pair crossover Cat-5 will work (I assume all the pairs
> are reversed individually?) and whether an RJ11 plug going
> into an RJ45 jack will Do The Right Thing.

ooh, dont do that.

> I don't like two couplers and two dual-jacks, but I don't
> see how else to do it.  Maybe I'm stupid or just too
> tired.
>
> If the crossover will work,

current ethernet hardware detects if you have a crossover 
and will handle it for you -y ou may not need a crossover 
cable. My crossover cables all are a color not used anywhere 
else in my setup and I tie a figure-8 knot in the wire, so 
it's obvious to anyone else that there's something different 
about this wire and they'll come and ask me "what's with the 
knot?".

> I'll still
> need RJ11 connectors on whatever I use between the dual-jack
> and the house phone, the filter and the fax, and the fax and the
> work phone.

isn't your DSL modem RJ45 on one side and RJ11 on the other?
Keep all your phone/fax on the RJ11 side and your ethernet 
on the RJ45 side

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
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