Repurpose phone point as network point

sparkymark75

sparkymark75

sparkymark75

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I recently moved into a new build house. I believe they tend to use Cat5 cable for phone lines in houses these days? I'll be able to confirm I guess once I remove one of the wall plates.

My master socket is on a wall in the lounge next to the point where the phone line enters the house. I have another phone socket in a wall across the other side of the lounge and another phone socket in the bedroom above the lounge.

How are these likely to be wired? Will it be the master socket to living room phone socket and then living room phone socket to the bedroom one? Or will the living room phone socket and the bedroom one both connect directly to the master socket. I'm hoping I could possibly "convert" these to network points and provide a wired link between the upstairs and downstairs.
 
No way to know without looking.

You'd expect phone extensions to be daisy-chained rather than all wiring back to the master socket in a star configuration.

If you're lucky and they have used network cable (not sure why they would) then there's a reasonable chance you could do what you describe.

Remove all of the wall plates and post clear pictures with descriptions and you'll get the advice you need.
 
Okay, I've taken the faceplates off and taken some pics.

Bedroom Faceplate



Master Socket in the Living Room





Socket in the Living Room Media Panel



The cable thats wired into the front of the master socket goes back into the wall on the right. I'm guessing this is the one that goes up stairs to the bedroom socket? And then one from the bedroom goes to the lounge plate on the other side of the living room? If so, how do I figure out which cable in the bedroom goes to the master socket?
 
sparkymark75 said:
how do I figure out which cable in the bedroom goes to the master socket?
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Disconnect one of the cables and see which extension sockets still work with a phone.

It does appear to be network cable.

While you're in there disconnect those orange wires. They aren't required and can cause issues with your broadband connection. Google 'phone ring wire' for an explanation.
 
bremen1874 said:
Disconnect one of the cables and see which extension sockets still work with a phone.
Click to expand...

Thanks, just need to find a phone in my garage (I don't use a house phone and don't even have a phone number).

bremen1874 said:
While you're in there disconnect those orange wires. They aren't required and can cause issues with your broadband connection. Google 'phone ring wire' for an explanation.
Click to expand...

So do you think my assumption is correct and the wires going to the front of the master socket are the extension to the bedroom?

My speed is only 1.6Mb so I need all the help I can get so I'll look into the "phone ring wire" you refer to.
 
Having always had broadband via cable, I'm new to ADSL having just moved house. I have a Draytek Vigor 120 modem plugged into my master socket and my router plugged into the Draytek. I've just realised I don't have a microfilter between the master socket and the Draytek. My internet still works (albeit slowly) . Should I have one? I don't have a house phone.
 
You don't need a filter for the modem.

Any other device plugged into the line would need the to be filtered.

You should have had a speed estimate when you ordered the broadband. If it was significantly more than the speed you're seeing start looking for problems. You can also get the estimated speed for your connection at https://www.dslchecker.bt.com.
 
Test using the master socket's test port (so that all of the extension wiring is disconnected).

You could also have a look and see what line stats the modem is reporting.
 
Judging by that 321311_A ADSL firmware version that modem hasn't had it's firmware updated in quite a while.

Did you get an ISP provided router you can use for comparison?
 
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bremen1874 said:
Judging by that 321311_A ADSL firmware version that modem hasn't had it's firmware updated in quite a while.

Did you get an ISP provided router you can use for comparison?
Click to expand...

Okay, I've upgraded to the latest version from the Draytek website.



I did yeah, an Asus DSL-N14U. I thought the Draytek Vigor modem was highly regarded? I'm using Google Wi-fi with the Draytek as a modem. Would the Asus be able to function just as a modem with the Google Wifi still working as before?
 
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They are well regarded (and have some pretty unique features), but aren't famed for getting the absolute best out of longer lines/slower connections.

Is this a new connection that's likely to be still in its training phase? If it is then leave it alone for a while and see where the speed ends up. You don't want continual unplugging/plugging to upset things.

Once things have settled I'd try the Asus and see if it manages to get a better connection. With a connection as slow as your's even relatively small improvements would be welcome.
 
Nah, it's a new line but it's been in for 3 weeks so I'm assuming it's past the training phase.

I've just tried the Asus and a speed test wasn't really any better/different. Line stats are..



When I do the wiring for the Cat 5 in the next couple of days, I'll see if removing the ring wire makes much difference. Thanks for all your help/advice.
 
Okay so I spent a couple of hours tonight turning all the phone extensions into network points. So I took the cable from the master socket, fitted a dry lining back box and network module. I removed the phone point in the bedroom and swapped it out for two network points. And finally I took the phone point from the lounge media plate and put in a network point.

So the wiring goes; Master Socket -> Vigor 120 Modem -> Google Wifi -> New network point -> Bedroom network point -> Google Wifi

When I told the Google Wifi to test its connection, it reported it was Ok (great is the best rating). I plugged a Windows laptop in and it reported the link speed as 100Mb. At first I was thinking was there something wrong with my crimping but the basic tester i used seemed to indicate it was all okay. It then twigged that the builder may have used Cat5 and not Cat5e for the internal phone cables. Is this likely to be the case?
 
Possible, but I'd be looking at your terminations before blaming the cable.

Cat5e has been the standard for so long now that you'd have to try quite hard to actually buy Cat5.

Also most of the Cat5 I've worked with handled Gigabit just fine, often over quite long distances.
 
bremen1874 said:
Possible, but I'd be looking at your terminations before blaming the cable.

Cat5e has been the standard for so long now that you'd have to try quite hard to actually buy Cat5.

Also most of the Cat5 I've worked with handled Gigabit just fine, often over quite long distances.
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I wouldn't be surprised if it is my terminations as its the first time I've terminated network cable into a wall plate.
 
sparkymark75 said:
I wouldn't be surprised if it is my terminations as its the first time I've terminated network cable into a wall plate.
Click to expand...

Re-tested it and wire 6 (green) was showing up as disconnected. I re-crimped it at both ends (twice on one end) but it's still coming up as disconnected. Maybe a break somewhere along the cable? Will this one cable prevent me getting gigabit?
 
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