How do you wire ethernet jacks in a house?

Question

I would like to convert all the phone jacks in my house into ethernet jacks since I use VoIP with wireless phones. I plan to do this by attaching ethernet wires to the existing phone wires and pulling them down to my unfinished basement.

What wires should I use and how do I connect them together in my basement? Also, should I use Cat5 or Cat6, or both?

Answer 1

http://www.9thtee.com/networkingts.htm

Its a little elaborate but this website should take care of it.

No need for Cat6. You'll reap the benefits only if you have a gigabit network. Unless you are designing a call center at you home its up surd.

Answer 2

Use Cat6. Don't combine cat6 and cat5, or you'll be bottlenecked by the cat5 speeds, making the cat6 cable useless.

Have you looked into Powerline Ethernet? It lets you turn an existing electrical line into an ethernet connection. The adapters are fairly inexpensive compared to the price of laying cable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...

Keep in mind that if you take all the phone wiring out of your home, it makes it much less attractive to buy if you ever choose to sell. Very few people use VOIP as a replacement for a landline phone, even though it is gaining traction.

Answer 3

Cat5e are stranded cables and tend to be more flexible.  They are rated up to 100Mb whereas Cat6e uses solid-core wires and are rated up to 1000Mb (and is more expensive).

The previous poster rightly says that using Cat5e will limit the whole network to 100Mb, but as your internet speed will be less than a fifth of that, it should make no difference.

For attaching the cables to the Ethernet jack plates, Cat6e is slightly easier.  You'll need an IDC (Insulation Displacement Connector) tool, which you can get in Maplins for a couple of pounds.

You can look up the correct wiring for the jack plates on the web: see the link below for example.