RE: Help on CAT 5 Voice and Data

[nigel@xxxxxxx]

On 04-Jan-2001 Steve Gordon wrote:
> My understanding is that if all my Cat 5 ports are wired back to a
> patch panel somewhere I can use such devices as mod taps on the
> phone appliance end to allow standard phones to connect in to the
> RJ45's. How do I connect at the patch panel end? My guess is that
> I need to dedicate one patch panel
> to Phone/Voice and daisy chain the line connection across and
> simply patch
> to a hub for data connections.
>
> Does this sound correct?

The short answer is 'yes'.

The long answer is that it doesn't _have_ to be a dedicated patch
panel, but it would be better if it is.  If there is a socket on the
ethernet patch panel which you'd like to use for phones instead, you
could patch it in as required.

And the line doesn't have to be daisy-chained- you could have a row
of sockets connected to the phone line, and take a patch from any of
them to the required socket, whichever is easier.  Domestic phone
wiring is usually daisy-chained as it's easier to clag on an extra
extension, but the actual phones are always connected in parallel
across the line.

The 3rd part of the long answer (!) is that I don't use mod-taps
myself, as I don't forsee the need to regularly change what different
cables do, so everything is wired on Krone terminals, except
ethernet, as Keith D pointed out Krone are too widely spaced to meet
the cat5 standard, so I'll plug them straight into the hub (when I
get the ethernet wired up!).  So any or all of what I said above
could be complete rubbish :-)

Nigel
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