Trying to use Cat5e cable for phone and data

[avnerd]

I recently moved into an apartment and ordered Verizon Fios. My speeds are 150Mbps down and 65Mbps up. I installed a wireless AC router, but because of the size of the apartment and obstructions, my speeds diminish as I get further away from the router.

I have to keep the AC wireless router in the front bedroom, because of Verizon, and the location of their equipment and plugs. Sadly, it cannot be moved to the center of the apartment.

I recently discovered that the apartment is wired with Cat5e cable at every phone jack. However, there are no RJ45 jacks, just a standard phone jack. I can easily replace the jacks to have both phone and data ports though.

My confusion is this:

My Cat5e cable has 6 twisted pairs inside the cable itself, the colors are:

Blue solid and Blue/white striped
Orange solid and Orange/white striped
Green solid and Green/white striped
Brown solid and Brown/white striped
-----------------------------------------------(also....)
Grey solid and Grey/white striped
Red solid and Red/Blue striped

That gives me a total of 12 individual colored wires or 6 twisted pairs... However you look at it.

The Blue solid and blue/white striped are being used for the home phone lines. Sadly, I still have home phone service.

The remaining colors have been twisted and rubber-banded at the telephone patch panel. I do not have a data patch panel yet, but I will buy one.

The Verizon Router and my AC Wireless router are located right above the phone patch panel. So I can easily connect cables from the data patch panel to the router.

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My question is this:

(1) If I want to use the current cat5e cable for both data and phone, which colors should be used for the data patch panel and wall jacks? (The blue and blue/white are currently used for phone)

(2) And should I replace the blue and blue/white twisted pair being used for the phone line, with another color, to free up the blue lines for data?

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Things to consider:

The cat5e cable is solid cable, NOT stranded.

The cat5e cable is NOT daisy chained.

I only have 9 jacks, so a small 12 port data patch panel is suffice, even though only 3 jacks will be wired for Ethernet.

 

[bill001g]

That is interesting cable. I have seen 6 pair cable used for voice use but not with those colors. Then again the cable I saw was definitely not cat5e.

The color of the plastic makes little difference. The equipment does not know anything about the color. Most cat5e cable all the pairs are exactly the same. Some cat5 cable to save money made the orange and green pair have more twist than the other 2 pair.



Really all you can do is try this. You will have to make your own standard for the wire colors. The key is to be very sure you keep the pairs matched. The most likely one to mess up is the pair that is on pin 3&6. Still since you are likely going to have to rip it all apart you might as well use the standard colors and move your voice over to one of the other color pairs.

one note you could cable all the jack the same and just plug the rj11 phone lines into the rj45 jacks both at the main patch panel and in the rooms with the phones. The phones will just use the middle pair of wires. You could then use any jack for phone or for data just by re patching.

 

[boosted1g]

You are on the right track, you just need to understand how cat5 is wired in a normal installation.

The standard used in the industry (T568B) goes from left to right (with plug facing right side up meaning the plastic latch is facing up):
brown
brown-stripe
green
blue-stripe
blue
green-strip
orange
orange-stripe

Now for 10/100 connection only the green and orange pairs are used. For 1000mbps connection you use all 4 pairs of wires.

If you only need 100mbps then you could put your phone on the blue pairs and still be fine, and put your other phone pair on a different color to substitute for brown.

With that said the important part is that it uses the same standard on both ends.

 

[avnerd]

That is interesting cable. I have seen 6 pair cable used for voice use but not with those colors. Then again the cable I saw was definitely not cat5e.

The color of the plastic makes little difference. The equipment does not know anything about the color. Most cat5e cable all the pairs are exactly the same. Some cat5 cable to save money made the orange and green pair have more twist than the other 2 pair.



Really all you can do is try this. You will have to make your own standard for the wire colors. The key is to be very sure you keep the pairs matched. The most likely one to mess up is the pair that is on pin 3&6. Still since you are likely going to have to rip it all apart you might as well use the standard colors and move your voice over to one of the other color pairs.

one note you could cable all the jack the same and just plug the rj11 phone lines into the rj45 jacks both at the main patch panel and in the rooms with the phones. The phones will just use the middle pair of wires. You could then use any jack for phone or for data just by re patching.

I'll most likely take your advice and rewire all the phone jacks using a different color. I am thinking the grey and grey/white strands for the phone lines. Test them, to make sure they work.

Then I'll take the primary colors used for 568B and wire them as specified.

@bill001g - Is there any way you can provide a photo of how the data patch panel and RJ45 jack should be wired.

It would be most helpful. Thanks for your support and advice. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

 

[bill001g]

There are many better than I could ever do on the internet.

In most cases you buy patch panels and keystones/wallplates with 568b or568a..most are 568b... You pretty much just match the colors on the back and punch the wire in. There are some that have markings for a or b and those are a little confusing at first.

 

[boosted1g]

If I were to do this I would go with a patch panel like this one, you can attach it with screws so that way it is easy to repair.
http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-N050-012-Cat5e-Mount/dp/B000067SC6

You will need a 110 punch down tool for the data.
Tool w/110 blade: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=105&cp_id=10509&cs_id=1050903&p_id=7041&seq=1&format=2

If you remove the wires from the phone patch panel you will also need this:
66 Blade: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=105&cp_id=10509&cs_id=1050903&p_id=7045&seq=1&format=2

You can get a tester like this one to make sure your connections are good.
This kind gives you a pass fail notificaiton, cheaper ones go in seuquence and you neeed to check both sides.
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=105&cp_id=10524&cs_id=1052401&p_id=8130&seq=1&format=2

A tone generator is the easiest way to trace the wires but A decent tone probe and generator will run you $60 or more. You can measure resistance or use a 9v battery and measure voltage accross the wire pair to find your wire.

Updated:
Most likely you room wall plate jackes will not use modular keystone jacks. So you will need to buy a wall plate, an ethernet jack for data and then you can either wire another ethernet jack for phone or a phone jack.

Keystone Wallplates; http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=105&cp_id=10517

Get the slim Cat5e rj45 keystone form here in the color you want:
http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=105&cp_id=10513

If your current phone jack uses only 4 wires (2 pairs) then get RJ11 jack and if it uses 6wires then get rj12 (you will check this by removing a wallplate and counting the individual wires terminated into the jack).
http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=105&cp_id=10513

 

[boosted1g]

It would be best to not strip the cat5 outer jacket until right before the punch down, but the phone installer already striped a few feet of the jacket off.

You should still be fine though, just dont untwist any of the pairs until right before the patch panel jack that you are punching it onto.

Since the blue and orange pairs are already punched down for phone connections I would just leave those alone, that way you dont risk messing up a phone jack and it will be that much easier to undo your install when you move out of that apartment.

Come up with a wiring standard that makes the most sense for your install and then wire it according to the t568b with your modified wire colors.

Right now the wires are seperated into color, you will need to sperate out the wires for your data jacks and organize those wires by what jack they go to. Once seperated it by jack I would put a piece or two of electric tape aorund it just to keep it neater and more organized; leave a good 4" of wire past the tape.

Once you have the wire seperated and organized then just punch down one jack at a time until you have them all done, and then the patch panel will have ziptie hole to zip tie the wires down (tight but not super tight since you dont have the protective pvc jacket around it anymore).

Then just go to each wall plate jack, take your new ethernet jack and punch the appropriate wires to that jack and then you can test it.

 

[avnerd]

Thank you both, for your great advice.

I was able to wire each RJ45 jack with 4 twisted pairs and I am getting nice network speeds of 150Mbps down and 65Mbps up. I haven't tested a network file transfer, but I am sure it will work just fine. I went ahead and wired the jacks using the 568B method and kept the original colors that most use. Blue, Orange, Green & Brown variants.

For the phone lines, I used the twisted pair of grey and white variants. I even printed up a color code cheat sheet and placed it on the phone/data patch panels, for any future residents who may move in, after I move out. (Apartment)

The entire set-up looks professional, clean, and well wired. It was a learning experience and I'd like to do another wired set-up when I build my own home in a few years.

If any user on here ever needs some advice, please message me. Again, to the two users who posted on this thread, thank you. Your advice and expertise was greatly utilized and appreciated.