Two separate CAT3 cables to run a single RJ-11 jack?!?! HELP!!

[kaaaab]

Hello,

My home was built in early 2000s. I have recently decided to survey the existing cabling infrastructure, and I noticed that my phone lines are ran with two separate CAT 3 UTP cables.

Can anyone explain the reason behind this? What options would I have to switch to Cat5?

Thank you

 

[Someone Somewhere]

This is daisy-chaining - the cable runs from one phone jack to the next.

If you wanted to run Ethernet down it, you would need to rerun the cabling as a star network, where all the cables go to a central hub.

 

[kaaaab]

thank you!

 

[Pinhedd]

It's exactly what SS said. It's what allows two phones in a house to talk to each other simply by picking up the receivers