Convert Telephone cable into ethernet cable

[adifadipe]

Hi, I have a 5 pair * 0.5mm telephone cable which run through concealed wiring between my master bedroom and my bedroom. 2 wires out of 5 pairs are used for telephone connection so I crimped RJ45 connector to rest of 4 pairs on both sides so that I can connect one end of it in my bedroom router ethernet lan port and second end to the computer in master bedroom. I have a wifi router in my bedroom but it's signal is very week in master bedroom, I had changed a couple or routers but still the same signal strength so i thought the wired solution would be best. I had asked the electrician if he can replace the old 5 pair telephone cable concealed in wall with a ethernet cable, to which he said it will take lot of effort since the cable was concealed long back in the wall and due to multiple cables running through a small concealed wiring pipe it's going to be very difficult to replace the cable and if i still want it then he will have to run a new cable through new concealed pipe which would be time consuming and very expensive too.

So I thought I could simply use the existing 5 pair telephone wire as ethernet cable but after crimping the RJ45 connector and connecting one end to the lan ethernet port on my bedroom router and another end to the computer lan port in the master bedroom, I tried to check the lan connection on the master bedroom computer it doesn't work and it shows no lan connection.

Now in order to check if the wire is properly crimped and there is no breakage in the wire in the wall, i thought of testing it through a different way .i.e. I used a RJ45 to VGA adapter and connected the vga port of my bedroom computer CPU to the monitor in the master bedroom and guess what I was able to view the content played on my bedroom cpu on the master bedroom monitor, this means the cable is working fine to carry a video signal from my bedroom computer to master bedroom computer monitor but somehow it is unable to send the internet signal from one end to another end. I believe i can use some converter on both ends which could resolve this issue. Can you please advise if there is any converter in the market which could help resolve this problem.

 

[WyomingKnott]

I have no idea what your phone cable looks like, but there are strict standards for twisted pairs in ethernet cable and simply having four pairs is nowhere near enough. Unless those other four pairs meet the requirements for lan, it's unlikely that they will carry an Ethernet signal far.

You can use something like an "ethernet expander over single pair." I suspect that they will be expensive.

 

[King_V]

I don't really know much about it, but are you trying to use the telephone wire more or less as if it were CAT 3 cable?

 

[adifadipe]

I have no idea what your phone cable looks like, but there are strict standards for twisted pairs in ethernet cable and simply having four pairs is nowhere near enough. Unless those other four pairs meet the requirements for lan, it's unlikely that they will carry an Ethernet signal far.

You can use something like an "ethernet expander over single pair." I suspect that they will be expensive.

I don't really know much about it, but are you trying to use the telephone wire more or less as if it were CAT 3 cable?

I have 5 pairs in the cable and only one pair is used for telephone so rest of 4 pairs is used as ethernet.

 

[adifadipe]

I have no idea what your phone cable looks like, but there are strict standards for twisted pairs in ethernet cable and simply having four pairs is nowhere near enough. Unless those other four pairs meet the requirements for lan, it's unlikely that they will carry an Ethernet signal far.

You can use something like an "ethernet expander over single pair." I suspect that they will be expensive.

Below is the image of my telephone wire...

Telephone wire image

 

[King_V]

If they are not twisted throughout the entire length of the cable (and I believe there is a standard for how many twists per inch), then they cannot be reliably used as ethernet.

It's also hard to tell from the picture, but they appear to be solid-wire, which, I *think* requires a slightly different type of RJ45 connector at the end (I think the staggered Cat6 and Cat6A type), but I am very uncertain on this particular point.

Still, the primary issue is the twisting along the entire length of the pairs.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Can't run ethernet over that. Need a converter on each end to something that can send ethernet over solid phone wire.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Can't run ethernet over that. Need a converter on each end to something that can send ethernet over solid phone wire.

What, why? Solid vs stranded wire wouldn't make a difference in being suitable for ethernet, stranded is just more flexible. Pretty sure all the cat5 cable I've seen has been solid.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Can't run ethernet over that. Need a converter on each end to something that can send ethernet over solid phone wire.

What, why? Solid vs stranded wire wouldn't make a difference in being suitable for ethernet, stranded is just more flexible. Pretty sure all the cat5 cable I've seen has been solid.

Take a real close look at the provided photo. That's NOT Cat5.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Yes, I know that's not cat5. It just sounded like @WyomingKnott was saying that it was unusable for ethernet specifically because it was solid wire, which doesn't make sense. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what he said.

 

[nigelivey]

Yes, I know that's not cat5. It just sounded like @WyomingKnott was saying that it was unusable for ethernet specifically because it was solid wire, which doesn't make sense. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what he said.

You are correct, structured cabling will normally use solid cable, patch leads will use braided, the connectors are no different. That being said you will not reliably run ethernet over that cable. could you pull through Cat5/6 between the two rooms using the telephone cable as a pull wire? Whilst there you might as well pull through a second for the telephone and use all 4 pair for ethernet. The only other solution on that cable would be VDSL boxes but that is going to be expensive for what you are trying to achieve. Maybe look at powerline adapters.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Powerline adapters will be your cheapest option, ignoring the existing wire.