Network cabling, FTTP and telephone wiring

Associate
Joined
21 May 2021
Posts
5
Location
London
Hi All

Looking for a bit of advice on network cabling in my home.

We moved houses last September and the new house appears to have some existing network cabling, as well as telephone wiring. The house is a 1930s build but had an extension done in 2012, which I believe is when the electrics were re-done, and I think this is when the network cabling was installed.

The telephone line appears to come in via overhead cable to a room on the first floor at the front of the house. That socket is connected to a BT Master socket in the kitchen/open plan living room on the ground floor. There are two rj45 sockets in the kitchen (which say they are cat5e keystone modules on the back), one goes to a loft bedroom on the top floor and another to an outbuilding in the garden. The cable that connects the kitchen socket to the top bedroom runs through an understairs cupboard, as does the cable for the telephone going from the front of the house to the master socket in the kitchen. There is a third cable which I think goes from the master socket (also through the understairs cupboard) to a telephone socket in the top bedroom.

When we moved in, I had FTTP installed and that line comes in to the house via overhead cable, also at the front on the first floor.

My plan is to have an electrician come and run a cat6 cable from the location the fibre enters to the understairs cupboard, where I will house a UDM SE. I can then cut the cable running in the cupboard between the RJ45 port in the kitchen and the bedroom and plug those into the UDM. The telephone wiring appears to be the same cable as that used for the RJ45 sockets, just with only two pairs used, instead of the full four. I think these are also Cat5e but the only writing on the cables is "System Cable UTP 4 Pairs 24AWG 293M" (see here: https://imgur.com/a/QlYMOzc). Every cable I've seen for sale seems to come in 305m boxes, so I have no idea what the quality of this cable is. When I moved in, I did test the connection from the kitchen to the top bedroom and I appeared to be getting gigabit speeds. So far so good.

Question for you all is whether there is anyway to verify if this cabling is actually cat5e without a tester? If it is, then I'm planning to just change the faceplates on the telephone sockets and terminate the cables with an rj45 keystone module so i get some additional ports around the house. Does that sound like it would work?

Appreciate any help you guys can provide!
 
Thanks. The only text I have been able to identify on the cables is "System Cable UTP 4 Pairs 24AWG 293M". I'll check tonight with a different port to see if there is anything else.
 
OK, that is a fairly common printing format for cables for installation in buildings so doesn't narrow it down specifically to an exact cable part number. However:

Having re-read your original post it looks like your cable must be cat 5e type based on the test speeds you got as cat 5 stops at 100Mb. The only way to ever be 100% certain for an installed cable is with a test kit (there are several types) as the installation is the thing that is certified as compliant, not the raw cable. Also 5e cable type started to displace 5 in the early 2000's so 2012 would further support the probability it is 5e type cable.

Given you got gigabit through it your plan should be fine.

There's always the risk they are Copper Clad Aluminium which isn't as per the cat 5e spec but figuring that out isn't easy or really worth the effort if it is already running OK.

Apologies for not fully taking your post in earlier, clearly I needed more coffee...
No worries. Appreciate all the advice.

I have done some further inspection and sadly, even though this is probably cat5e cable, it is CCA rather than pure copper. I was hoping to use some of it to power POE devices, but I suspect that is probably not such a good idea now.
 
Back
Top Bottom