Re: Creating a home Ethernet out of installed but unused Cat 5

[Bennett Price <bjpriceNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You could do a simple continuity check with a 9 volt battery, a couple
of leads with alligator clips on each end, and a cheap voltmeter - all
available at Radio Shack.  Connect the battery to a pair of leads
downstairs and see whether you can read 9 volts upstairs.

But are you sure it is Cat 5?  You said it's shielded - it seems very
odd that the phone company would install a) Cat 5, and b) that it would
be shielded.  Could be but odd.

If the wire is indeed Cat5, be sure to make the splices as short as can
be, untwisting as little of the pairs as possible.  The twist in Cat 5
pairs is important.  And remember that pins 1 & 2 use one twisted pair,
pins 3 & 6 another, simple continuity with any old pair of wires is not
enough.

Bruno wrote:
> The phone company has installed, throughout the house, shielded Cat 5
> cable with 4 sets of wires. One is used for phone service, while each
> of the other three is terminated with what looks like a plastic sleeve
> imprinted Dolphin (just in case it makes a difference...).
>
> I have a wi-fi broadband router on the second floor (physically
> connected to two computers); I also have another computer in the ground
> floor den which is currently wirelessly networked with the others. The
> phone company's breakout box is in the basement, naturally.
>
> For various reasons, I would like to physically network the first floor
> computer.  Ideally, I would like to install in the router room a wall
> plate with an RJ45 jack, with a patch cord connecting to the router.
> Currently, the Cat 5 terminates in a standard RJ11 jack.  The same
> would go for the ground floor den; there, however, the Cat 5 terminates
> in a wall plate with a coax F-type jack at the top and a standard RJ11
> at the bottom.
>
> So that's the question - how do I approach a project like this? In
> particular, how do I go about making sure that, while I go two floors
> down and then one floor up, I am still connecting  the same set of
> wires to the appropriate terminals in the router room, the breakout box
> and the den? What type of tools would I need to accomplish this?
>
> Thanks.
>