Question Adding PC to network in a different room

[Alan101010]

I have a PC which has to be in a different room (call it room B) to the one the router is in (room A). There is a telephone socket in room B. Can I use this to wire the PC to the network? This is with the thought that a wired connection may be better than the present wi-fi connection.

I assume I could do it by adding another router or perhaps with just a modem, but I know zilch.

 

[cruisetung]

In most cases, no. Unless you have a new home built in maybe in less than 20 years that already use ethernet cable cat5e for wiring everything including phone jacks.

Ethernet cable uses 8 internal wires and old phone cord probably have only 6 or 4 (for 3 or 2 phone lines) and they are not twisted, which is required by ethernet standard.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Adding PC to network in a different room.

What's the distance between rooms A and B ?
Just connect rooms with ethernet cable.

If router has only a single lan port, then also additional ethernet switch will be necessary.

 

[Alan101010]

In most cases, no. Unless you have a new home maybe in 20 years that already use ethernet cable cat5e for wiring everything including phone jacks.

Ethernet cable uses 8 internal wired and phone cord probably have only 4 (for 2 phone lines)

Right. Are you saying that if I connected a new router to the telephone point, then an ethernet cable from the new router to the PC, that it wouldn't work?

 

[cruisetung]

The jacks are not even the same. You can't plug in an ethernet cable (with RJ45 head) into a phone jack (RJ11) at all.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp6GQzJTqK4

 

[Alan101010]

What's the distance between rooms A and B ?
Just connect rooms with ethernet cable.

If router has only a single lan port, then also additional ethernet switch will be necessary.

Fair enough, but I was looking to avoid taking I don't know how many metres of cable along skirting boards and round door frames.

 

[Alan101010]

The jacks are not even the same. You can't plug in an ethernet cable (with RJ45 head) into a phone jack (RJ11) at all.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp6GQzJTqK4

I know, that's why I thought I could do it with a modem (or router) - modem connects to telephone jack and ethernet from modem to PC

 

[cruisetung]

DSL WAN side is RJ11, LAN side is RJ45. Computer devices always use RJ45 except DSL modem WAN port.

Tape / ethernet cable is cheap. or use your bed length as reference.

 

[alceryes]

I have a PC which has to be in a different room (call it room B) to the one the router is in (room A). There is a telephone socket in room B. Can I use this to wire the PC to the network? This is with the thought that a wired connection may be better than the present wi-fi connection.

I assume I could do it by adding another router or perhaps with just a modem, but I know zilch.

Best option, for fastest network connection, would be to run a network cable between the two locations. This is assuming that both the computer and your router have an open RJ45 port.
If you get a good cable, with manufacturer-terminated ends, you can go up to 100 meters with it, so you can stick it around door jams and along walls so it's somewhat out of sight.

 

[Alan101010]

Thank you all for the input.. It sounds as though I should stick with the wireless connection. 😏

 

[Eximo]

Theoretically, you can terminate an RJ11 to RJ45 as the old 100 Mbps only used four wires. Assuming your internet speed is around that fast or slower, it would be fine. As long as your phone wiring carries all 4 wires. You would need to confirm that the single cable actually runs between the rooms on the same wires.

Might not be worth the expense of the tools needed to do it, vs just using the phone wiring to pull through some CAT 6/CAT 7 cabling and getting a two RJ45 panels.

In one of my old houses they actually ran multiple telephone lines through a CAT 4 cable and just spliced it at each RJ11 port to run it out to a central point. I only know this because at the time I had to join a few lines together to get a dial up modem working in another room. That was UTP, so it would have easily worked for ethernet had we bothered.

 

[bill001g]

This is where you take the phone jacks apart and look at the wires to see if you have any options.

If it is very old cable that uses the black/red/yellow/green wires you pretty much have no chance.

Houses that are not say over 30 years old likely are using either ethernet cables or maybe cat3 phone cable.

If you are lucky and the cable has 8 wire you just swap out the wall plates with rj45 keystones. If it only has 4 wires you likely can still try the swap but you will be limited to 100mbps. The only gotcha is phone wires many times daisy chain though multiple rooms. You would have to remove any other jacks in the path and splice the wires.