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my Cable company is providing a land line phone capability, but my home is not wired for telephone. it is wired with Cat 5 wiring for internet however. is there a convertor that will convert the telephone signal so it will operate on the cat 5 wiring in parallel with the internet traffic?
Dave
Posted 2013-07-29T15:14:14.027
Reputation: 11
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It's possible to do what you want but so complicated it's probably not worth it and you are limited to 10/100 speeds on your LAN.
100Mbit Ethernet only uses 4 of the 8 wires in a Cat5 cable. They make "splitters" that give you two RJ45 ("Ethernet") jacks - one jack uses the first 4 wires, the other jack uses the second 4 wires. Put one on the other side of the jack and you can use one Cat5 cable for 2 10/100 Mbit connections.
You can plug an RJ11 ("phone") cable into most RJ45 ("Ethernet") jacks and it will work.
So with some elaborate combination of splitters and possible rewiring of your patch panel you might be able to get something to work.
LawrenceC
Posted 2013-07-29T15:14:14.027
Reputation: 63 487
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CAT5 is phone wiring... and ethernet was adapted to use it.
If you're running 100MBit ethernet, which only uses 2 of the 4 pairs, yes, you can use one of the unused pairs for analog phone service.
What you're looking for is an RJ45/RJ11 Cable Sharing Kit
Fiasco Labs
Posted 2013-07-29T15:14:14.027
Reputation: 6 368
1
Normally if the house is wired with Cat5 for ethernet it all comes back to a patch panel/switch in the basement. If this is also where your cable company's phone connection is, you should be able to unplug one unused jack from the ethernet switch and use that for a phone. (an RJ-11 phone cord will plug into an RJ-45 jack)
The phone uses only the 2 middle pins (usually red and green on the RJ-11 cord) this will likely correspond with blue and white-blue on the RJ-45.
Edit for clarification: Don't plug the phone or phone line into the ethernet switch, patch the phone line through to an unused "ethernet" jack.
Rod MacPherson
Posted 2013-07-29T15:14:14.027
Reputation: 405
3Isn't it the company's job to wire homes properly so that they can use their services? – Ariane – 2013-07-29T15:15:46.983
@Ariane usually for a fee...probably cost a couple hundred to wire up phone jacks, but if there's a solution that costs under $50, why not use that? – Kruug – 2013-07-29T15:16:58.397
2A decent cordless phone and a single phone jack where the landline comes in costs less than $50. – EBGreen – 2013-07-29T15:18:25.713
Go wireless with DECT phones. Or use a modem/router that can handle voip phones. – SPRBRN – 2013-07-29T15:20:10.380
@Kruug Dunno about you, but here installation fees are always 50-60 dollars for Internet, TV and phone combined, with up to 5 (?) jacks of each for no extra cost. That is, IF they charge you, because personally I've always been given the installation for free. You say "probably". You didn't ask, did you? – Ariane – 2013-07-29T15:39:48.020
You can always drop analog phone service and go to VoIP – Keltari – 2013-07-29T15:48:51.400
@Ariane ok, just looked at the terms on the back of my bill. $50 for initial connect (1 outlet). $10/additional outlet. Probably gonna need a wall fish, so $50 there (not sure if per outlet, so maybe $100+ if 2 or more outlets). This may count as inside wire service (not sure, as there are no existing wires). If so, that's an additional $45. – Kruug – 2013-07-29T15:53:39.123
@Kruug Ask. Maybe yours won't, but I know that many, many companies will offer installation for free or for a reduced rate so that customers aren't afraid of getting a new service from them because of the installation fees. Actually over time I've come to believe that those stated fees are just a legal maximum that they allow themselves to charge, even though they will rarely do it. – Ariane – 2013-07-29T16:20:42.613
ISPs and phone companies are only responsible for wiring outside of the home. Inside of the home is typically the customer's responsibility. – LawrenceC – 2013-07-29T20:18:22.927