Phone lines question

[Hagbard Celine]

I want to install phone-lines in my house so that I can get AT&T to hook me up with their stand-alone DSL service.
My question is: If I'm installing four jacks (basically one in each bedroom plus one in the kitchen and one in the living room) do I attach all four wires from the four jacks at a distribution block and then have a single wire leading outside to the phone-company box?
Can I get a distribution block at like radio shack or something?

[Hagbard Celine]

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[Hagbard Celine]

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[glockmail]

It's called a "home run" box and yes you can get a cheap one at Radio Shack. Tie them all togeter as you described with a short branch to ATT's future box mounted outside. All you need is a twisted pair 24 ga wire to each phone, but spend another buck or so and use Cat5 cable, which is four twisted pairs with a foil shield, that way you use the wire for ethernet or for up to 4 phone lines.

It sounds like you are talking about bare stud walls here. If that's the case then I suggest that you run two Cat5 plus a coax (TV) cable to each point in the house. Use those cheap nail-on plastic outlet boxes and buy a snap in modular connectors to get telephone, ethernet, and cable all in each outlet. Then go to Lowes or Home Depot and for about 100 bucks get a network connections box that will be the "home run" for all three systems, and mount it between the studs in a basement or utility room wall. Also run a 120V circuit to the box to power a future network adapter. That way when you sell the house you'll be able to advertise it as pre-wired for all that stuff and you'll more than get your money back on your small investment.

[Hagbard Celine]

I just got a spool of 250 of "Philips" telephone wire. I don't know if it's Cat5. Will it matter if I get dsl service? I know the modem just uses a regular phone line that hooks into a phone jack.
I don't have bare stud walls. I'm cutting the outlet holes out of the sheetrock and threading the wire up through the wall from the basement.

[glockmail]

DSL runs on a single twisted pair just like a phone. That's why it's so slow compared to cable and ethernet. The wire you bought is probably two twisted pair, and a standard phone jack has spots for all four wires, so hook them up that way, even though only one pair will used.

[Hagbard Celine]

DSL runs on a single twisted pair just like a phone. That's why it's so slow compared to cable and ethernet. The wire you bought is probably two twisted pair, and a standard phone jack has spots for all four wires, so hook them up that way, even though only one pair will used.

I've got a couple of buds coming over tonight to hang-out/eat bratwurst/drink beer/help me with running these lines so I think I'll go ahead and go by Lowe's on my way home to get a spool of Cat-5 wire and a homerun unit. May as well. Me likey fast Internets.

[glockmail]

I hard-wired my house a few years ago with Cat5 back when the wireless routers were expensive. It was a pain in the ass because its a two story house with a finished basement. I replaced my old router a few months ago with a wired/ wireless, and use a wireless modem card on a laptop once in a while so I can sit on my ass anywere in the house or backyard. It works fine but doesn't have the speed that the wired ethernet has.

[Hagbard Celine]

I hard-wired my house a few years ago with Cat5 back when the wireless routers were expensive. It was a pain in the ass because its a two story house with a finished basement. I replaced my old router a few months ago with a wired/ wireless, and use a wireless modem card on a laptop once in a while so I can sit on my ass anywere in the house or backyard. It works fine but doesn't have the speed that the wired ethernet has.

My house is pretty easy to work on since the basement isn't finished. I plan to get a Linksys wireless router and use my laptop around the house once I get my stand-alone DSL hooked up.

[Hagbard Celine]

If I run Cat5 wire and get DSL service, will it be faster than if I used regular phone line?

[glockmail]

I'm not sure, but probably. Plus Cat5 is about the same price. But the Cat5 will give you the option of using ethernet, which is always faster than wireless.

[Hagbard Celine]

I'm not sure, but probably. Plus Cat5 is about the same price. But the Cat5 will give you the option of using ethernet, which is always faster than wireless.

I ran the wire last night. Can I hook the cat-5 up to modular phone jacks or should I get the ethernet jacks? Would I rue the day if I didn't get the ethernet jacks? I don't know how the wires match up to modular jacks. My cat-5 has eight wires and a modular jack only has four connections and a different color scheme.
Also, I did not get a homerun. I ran the wires so that I can butterfly the connections. What is your opinion of this method?
Also, in some instances I ran the cat-5 wire through the same hole as a power wire. I've seen that you're not supposed to run cat-5 parallel to power wires, but me and my friend considered it and I figured it wouldn't matter. Will having the cat-5 wire in close proximity (basically touching since they're fed through the same hole) interfere with the cat-5 signal? Should I re-run these wires if they are touching or close to power wires?

[glockmail]

I ran the wire last night. Can I hook the cat-5 up to modular phone jacks or should I get the ethernet jacks? Would I rue the day if I didn't get the ethernet jacks? I don't know how the wires match up to modular jacks. My cat-5 has eight wires and a modular jack only has four connections and a different color scheme.
Also, I did not get a homerun. I ran the wires so that I can butterfly the connections. What is your opinion of this method?
Also, in some instances I ran the cat-5 wire through the same hole as a power wire. I've seen that you're not supposed to run cat-5 parallel to power wires, but me and my friend considered it and I figured it wouldn't matter. Will having the cat-5 wire in close proximity (basically touching since they're fed through the same hole) interfere with the cat-5 signal? Should I re-run these wires if they are touching or close to power wires?

If you are going to use the Cat5 for telephone than use the phone jacks. (Although the male end of the phone jack fits in the center of the female end of the Ethernet receptacle I'm not sure that this will work reliably.) Phones only use one twisted pair out of the four available. The jacks have spots for four wires in case you want to use a two line phone. Just pick a pair and be consistent in the whole house.

Butterfly connections are usually fine they just don't look professional. I would suggest them as a temporary measure only to make sure everything works. When you sell the house it may cause a loss in value far exceeding the cost of the equipment. The box also ensures a solid electrical connection. When I do a "butterfly" for a wire splice I like to twist the wires, then solder, then tape each connection, then tape the whole mess to protect everything and make it neat. If you’ve got a bunch of these connected together and need to make a change later it won’t be easy.

You shouldn't run Cat5, or any signal wire, parallel to a power wire for any significant length. I've never had a problem using the same stud hole once in a while. If you get a buzz in the phone line (or slow computer connection) then you know you went too far.

[Hagbard Celine]

I think if I'm hooking cat-5 up to modular jacks, I'll only use two pairs of the four pairs of wires. I'll use the blue and orange pairs to hook to the four green, red, black and yellow connections on the modular phone jacks.
I set-up to daisy-chain my four jacks instead of opting for the homerun unit. I'll just connect my jacks directly to the Network Interface Device via the cat-5.
I'll put the call into the phone co. and have them bring me a spiffy new NID and hook me up with da Internets!

I wasn't planning to solder anything. I was just going to strip the wires and connect them to their respective screws on the phone jacks. I haven't spent much on "equipment" either. I'm out about $60 for this whole thing. All I'm interested in is wiring the house for phones and Internet. I don't really care about achieving astronomical speeds or anything with a complicated network. DSL will be just fine for me as long as it's relatively fast and I get decent download/video speeds.
I can get decent speeds out of the two-pair wire connections I've described right? As I understand it, I don't need fancy ethernet ports with all eight cat-5 wires connected for basic dsl service. Is that correct?

[glockmail]

I think if I'm hooking cat-5 up to modular jacks, I'll only use two pairs of the four pairs of wires. I'll use the blue and orange pairs to hook to the four green, red, black and yellow connections on the modular phone jacks.
I set-up to daisy-chain my four jacks instead of opting for the homerun unit. I'll just connect my jacks directly to the Network Interface Device via the cat-5.
I'll put the call into the phone co. and have them bring me a spiffy new NID and hook me up with da Internets!

I wasn't planning to solder anything. I was just going to strip the wires and connect them to their respective screws on the phone jacks. I haven't spent much on "equipment" either. I'm out about $60 for this whole thing. All I'm interested in is wiring the house for phones and Internet. I don't really care about achieving astronomical speeds or anything with a complicated network. DSL will be just fine for me as long as it's relatively fast and I get decent download/video speeds.
I can get decent speeds out of the two-pair wire connections I've described right? As I understand it, I don't need fancy ethernet ports with all eight cat-5 wires connected for basic dsl service. Is that correct?

You shouldn't solder onto screwed connections. The whole idea behind those is to make a change easier for yourself in the future. As long as our twisted bare wire to bare wire connections are tight, clean and insulated you shouldn't have a problem. I just use solder cuz I'm a picky bastard.

DSL only uses two wies- a single twisted pair. At the female phone receptacle find out which connections lead to the center two gold pins and use those. Again be consistent with the colors. You can hook up a second pair to the two outside pins just in case you want to use a two line phone anywhere.

You'll only need the ethernet jacks/ receptacles if you split the DSL modem signal with a router to serve other computers. You can use the CAT5 wiring, but it needs to be a separate sytem from the phone system.

[Hagbard Celine]

You shouldn't solder onto screwed connections. The whole idea behind those is to make a change easier for yourself in the future. As long as our twisted bare wire to bare wire connections are tight, clean and insulated you shouldn't have a problem. I just use solder cuz I'm a picky bastard.

DSL only uses two wies- a single twisted pair. At the female phone receptacle find out which connections lead to the center two gold pins and use those. Again be consistent with the colors. You can hook up a second pair to the two outside pins just in case you want to use a two line phone anywhere.

You'll only need the ethernet jacks/ receptacles if you split the DSL modem signal with a router to serve other computers. You can use the CAT5 wiring, but it needs to be a separate sytem from the phone system.

It's good to be fastidious man.
I will be using a wireless router. I'll plug the hi-speed dsl modem into the phone line and plug the modem into a wireless router. It should work using the orange and blue connections with the modular jacks.

[glockmail]

It's good to be fastidious man.
I will be using a wireless router. I'll plug the hi-speed dsl modem into the phone line and plug the modem into a wireless router. It should work using the orange and blue connections with the modular jacks. The speed of the DSL is probably about the same as the wireless router. It will probably be a decent set-up. You'll be able to download internet porn from anywhere in the house as well as out back by the hot tub. Now all you'll need is a waterproof laptop. :laugh2:

[Hagbard Celine]

The speed of the DSL is probably about the same as the wireless router. It will probably be a decent set-up. You'll be able to download internet porn from anywhere in the house as well as out back by the hot tub. Now all you'll need is a waterproof laptop. :laugh2:

And thus it was written. In the year Twenty O'Eight, the Prongate was opened and the armies of pron marched all over the face of my house. :dance:

Hasn't it been proven that everything mankind has accomplished has been done so in the quest for p*ssy, food and pron?