Perhaps a little side note from the current discussion, but the type of cable is determining the speed at which data is being transferred.

I have a couple of cables lying around. Some are Cat5 cable meant for Internet use. One such cable is supposed to come through the wall from outside your flat or room and goes to the DSL modem. Right now I have switched my Internet provider to cable TV, so the intake is different than earlier.

It rests on the floor after the two men from the cable company drilled through the wall from the main room and into this room. Next a short cable goes another 2 metres from the modem to the PC. This cable is a Cat 5 network cable.

Assumedly this cable is being called twisted pair or something like that.

But compare with the cable for a telephone. Remember it can not be used for the web because of the slower speed, but it is only slightly thinner and may be either white or blueish/grayish in color.

Unlike the connector for a Cat 5 cable, the RJ-11 connectors on a telephone cable are just that slightly different in size in each of the endpoints.

A small point which I caught and should be an important one to remember.

Edited for correct wire type...

NOTE: RJ-45 is Ethernet for computers/networking. RJ-11 is Telephone wire.

IF RJ-45 connectors are used for a new home telephone installation panel; then, that panel, and cable type, are called RJ-31. I know, because I had RJ-31 in a new home built in 2004.

Typically, though, telephone wire is RJ-11.


TL

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TimeLord04
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Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

Hi, TimeLord04.

I had to make a short break, so I am therefore unable to edit my previous post.

Of course you are right here. I happened to confuse the different names against each other.

But it only comes to show that the cabling for telephone systems are still being available in more different types than similar cabling for specific network topologies, making the connections and plug types more difficult to keep track of.

Still there is something different when it comes to those thick ethernet plugs which goes straight into television sets. These thick, white cables ends in roundish plugs which in fact are male in one end and female in the other. Right now I do not remember which way it goes.

One end is plugged into the television set. The other end is plugged into the wall, or possibly the Internet cable-TV modem. Again it is up to the protocols being used, like TCP/IP to manage the traffic through the cable, but in the end the protocols which are being used for the transmission of data are more or less independent of the type of cable which is being used.

Only the physical characteristics of the cable as well as the speed it may provide becomes important factors here.

Also I should mention that the largest connector for a telephone cable also goes into a ordinary network card or the similar outlet on the modem (not those thick cable-TV plugs, of course).

Again the two separate cable types are meant for a different purpose. Because of their physical resemblance, making a separation between these two types of cabling sometimes leads to confusion.

Perhaps a little side note from the current discussion, but the type of cable is determining the speed at which data is being transferred.

I have a couple of cables lying around. Some are Cat5 cable meant for Internet use. One such cable is supposed to come through the wall from outside your flat or room and goes to the DSL modem. Right now I have switched my Internet provider to cable TV, so the intake is different than earlier.

It rests on the floor after the two men from the cable company drilled through the wall from the main room and into this room. Next a short cable goes another 2 metres from the modem to the PC. This cable is a Cat 5 network cable.

Assumedly this cable is being called twisted pair or something like that.

But compare with the cable for a telephone. Remember it can not be used for the web because of the slower speed, but it is only slightly thinner and may be either white or blueish/grayish in color.

Unlike the connector for a Cat 5 cable, the RJ-11 connectors on a telephone cable are just that slightly different in size in each of the endpoints.

A small point which I caught and should be an important one to remember.

Edited for correct wire type...

NOTE: RJ-45 is Ethernet for computers/networking. RJ-11 is Telephone wire.

IF RJ-45 connectors are used for a new home telephone installation panel; then, that panel, and cable type, are called RJ-31. I know, because I had RJ-31 in a new home built in 2004.

Typically, though, telephone wire is RJ-11.


TL

My house was built in 2007 and they pulled ethernet cable into all the rooms but didn't pull any telephone lines. Some rooms have more than one cable so the intent was to run ethernet and phone information over the ethernet cable. A trick I didn't know about was ethernet is 4 pair and telephone is two pair but a telephone cable would fit in the 4 pair ethernet jack giving you two of the 4 pair. Devices are available to split all the lines into 4 separate telephone lines if you want to do something like telemarketing in your home.
RJ 45 is ethernet
RJ 11 telephone
RJ 31 Alarm jack, don't ask me to explain the difference but it is a two pair connection,

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Perhaps a little side note from the current discussion, but the type of cable is determining the speed at which data is being transferred.

I have a couple of cables lying around. Some are Cat5 cable meant for Internet use. One such cable is supposed to come through the wall from outside your flat or room and goes to the DSL modem. Right now I have switched my Internet provider to cable TV, so the intake is different than earlier.

It rests on the floor after the two men from the cable company drilled through the wall from the main room and into this room. Next a short cable goes another 2 metres from the modem to the PC. This cable is a Cat 5 network cable.

Assumedly this cable is being called twisted pair or something like that.

But compare with the cable for a telephone. Remember it can not be used for the web because of the slower speed, but it is only slightly thinner and may be either white or blueish/grayish in color.

Unlike the connector for a Cat 5 cable, the RJ-11 connectors on a telephone cable are just that slightly different in size in each of the endpoints.

A small point which I caught and should be an important one to remember.

Edited for correct wire type...

NOTE: RJ-45 is Ethernet for computers/networking. RJ-11 is Telephone wire.

IF RJ-45 connectors are used for a new home telephone installation panel; then, that panel, and cable type, are called RJ-31. I know, because I had RJ-31 in a new home built in 2004.

Typically, though, telephone wire is RJ-11.


TL

My house was built in 2007 and they pulled ethernet cable into all the rooms but didn't pull any telephone lines. Some rooms have more than one cable so the intent was to run ethernet and phone information over the ethernet cable. A trick I didn't know about was ethernet is 4 pair and telephone is two pair but a telephone cable would fit in the 4 pair ethernet jack giving you two of the 4 pair. Devices are available to split all the lines into 4 separate telephone lines if you want to do something like telemarketing in your home.
RJ 45 is ethernet
RJ 11 telephone
RJ 31 Alarm jack, don't ask me to explain the difference but it is a two pair connection,

And then there's RJ-12, a 6-pin connector just slightly larger than RJ-11, originally intended for phones with two lines. It became the defacto standard for connecting throttles to command stations in model railroad Digital Command Control (DCC) systems. (Even though DCC uses a 6-pin connector, it only uses four wires.)

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

My house was built in 2007 and they pulled ethernet cable into all the rooms but didn't pull any telephone lines. Some rooms have more than one cable so the intent was to run ethernet and phone information over the ethernet cable. A trick I didn't know about was ethernet is 4 pair and telephone is two pair but a telephone cable would fit in the 4 pair ethernet jack giving you two of the 4 pair. Devices are available to split all the lines into 4 separate telephone lines if you want to do something like telemarketing in your home.
RJ 45 is ethernet
RJ 11 telephone
RJ 31 Alarm jack, don't ask me to explain the difference but it is a two pair connection,

And then there's RJ-12, a 6-pin connector just slightly larger than RJ-11, originally intended for phones with two lines. It became the defacto standard for connecting throttles to command stations in model railroad Digital Command Control (DCC) systems. (Even though DCC uses a 6-pin connector, it only uses four wires.)

Technically, the RJ number describes the plug and socket, not the wiring. Apparently it's short for Registered Jack, although I didn't know that before I started writing this post.

The typical clear plastic plugs come in a number of widths, with space for a different number of connectors - 4, 6, 8, 10 and up. The narrower plugs will fit into a wider socket (not vice-versa, obviously), but it messes with you head when you try to work out the pin numbering when you do that.

Many plugs are made and used with fewer connectors than the moulded housing could potentially carry. The ethernet RJ45 which started this conversation off is an 8P8C (eight positions, fully populated with eight connectors). Apparently an RJ11 (telephone) jack is 6P2C, and looking around my desk here I can find a range from 4P4C (telephone handset) to 10P10C (barcode scanner to USB cable).

Quite a lot are covered in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_jack, but manufacturers who want a quick, cheap, easy connector will grab something from the range for practically anything.

Looks like a normal phone line splitter Chris so you can run 2 phones off one jack , 4t you would of known that working for BT mate

I think this diagram explains it best, and the clue is you need TWO

one at each end.



It is for using two computers down one cat 5 cable, you still need two ports on the router/switch.

Cat5e has 4 pairs, so in normal use half the cable is redundant, these splitters make use of that.

This is only for speeds up to 100meg, 1GB uses all pairs.

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Bernie's diagram makes complete sense to me now that I look at it, so thanks for that. Ok, so to make these things work you need two of 'em! But I 'spose you wouldn't expect to get that sort of tech advice on Ebay .....

@Mark - yep - slap on wrist time :-)

Anyway if this little episode has helped anyone else I am more then happy :-)

So if they have to be used in pairs, why aren't they sold in pairs? Or at least, why doesn't the seller warn you that you need a pair?

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

So of course that begs the question ....

Why are these things sold and what are they used for? Blowed if I know!

This allows you to put two phones on the same line. If you have DSL you can filter one side and put a phone there with a landline phone with your modem on the other and all will work just fine. (I even have one that looks like this, basically, that separates the four wires in a phone line.) I used to have two different wired phones and used a single wire for both.

Edit: Sorry Mark, I did not see your post.

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

So of course that begs the question ....

Why are these things sold and what are they used for? Blowed if I know!

This allows you to put two phones on the same line. If you have DSL you can filter one side and put a phone there with a landline phone with your modem on the other and all will work just fine. (I even have one that looks like this, basically, that separates the four wires in a phone line.) I used to have two different wired phones and used a single wire for both.

Edit: Sorry Mark, I did not see your post.

It all depends on the internal wiring diagram - that same housing can cover a multitude of sins. Only way to be sure is with an ohm-meter or continuity tester.

So of course that begs the question ....

Why are these things sold and what are they used for? Blowed if I know!

This allows you to put two phones on the same line. If you have DSL you can filter one side and put a phone there with a landline phone with your modem on the other and all will work just fine. (I even have one that looks like this, basically, that separates the four wires in a phone line.) I used to have two different wired phones and used a single wire for both.

Edit: Sorry Mark, I did not see your post.

Not the one Chris is talking about, his has absolutly nothing to do with phones. His has an RJ45 plug on one side and two RJ45 sockets on the other. Not sure how it is in the US but you can't plug a phone into an RJ45 as in the UK our phone plugs and sockets look like this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_telephone_sockets

Chris's splitter uses the fact that cat5 has 8 wires but only uses 4 so a second LAN connection can be run over the spare wires. However that needs two splitters and two sockets on router or switch.

The other type has all 8 wires connected straight through and allows 2 pieces of equipment to share a LAN connection, just NOT AT THE SAME TIME.

If you read the description on several retailers websites it explains the difference and how they are to be used.

Now there is a splitter made for phones in the US that looks similar to that but would not work here as we use the 431a plug not and RJ11

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That's the wonderful thing about standards- there are so many of them. And so many different versions of each one.

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Grant
Darwin NT

So of course that begs the question ....

Why are these things sold and what are they used for? Blowed if I know!

This allows you to put two phones on the same line. If you have DSL you can filter one side and put a phone there with a landline phone with your modem on the other and all will work just fine. (I even have one that looks like this, basically, that separates the four wires in a phone line.) I used to have two different wired phones and used a single wire for both.

Edit: Sorry Mark, I did not see your post.

Not the one Chris is talking about, his has absolutly nothing to do with phones. His has an RJ45 plug on one side and two RJ45 sockets on the other. Not sure how it is in the US but you can't plug a phone into an RJ45 as in the UK our phone plugs and sockets look like this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_telephone_sockets

Chris's splitter uses the fact that cat5 has 8 wires but only uses 4 so a second LAN connection can be run over the spare wires. However that needs two splitters and two sockets on router or switch.

The other type has all 8 wires connected straight through and allows 2 pieces of equipment to share a LAN connection, just NOT AT THE SAME TIME.

If you read the description on several retailers websites it explains the difference and how they are to be used.

Now there is a splitter made for phones in the US that looks similar to that but would not work here as we use the 431a plug not and RJ11

Prior to digital office phones. The use of RJ45 connections for POTS lines was not unheard of in the US. Such as with 4 line phones.
There are RJ45 jacks designed to accommodate RJ12/RJ11 connections. Anymore they are the more common type I see.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

OK, lets rename thread to internet/telephone wiring 100 :)

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Err...

Didn't I answer this thread back on Message 1644917 with all the main detail?...

Or was my brevity too brief?!


As variously explained along the thread:

Those two-way adapters (all pins duplicated) "can" be ok if you only ever have one of two devices switched on at any one time. However, still not good electrically for ethernet due to unwanted reflections likely causing data errors. Simply not worth wasting time with!


The "Y-adapters" that split an 8-core ethernet cable into 2x 4-core cables are fine for 100Mbit/s and 10Mbit/s ethernet provided you are using a physical 8-core ethernet cable to connect between the two "Y-adapters"... (Note that no powerline adapters that I know of can support the use of "Y-adapters"...)


In short: Simply use a desktop ethernet switch!


Hope that recaps ok...

Happy crunchin',
Martin

(And two bad puns included for free! ;-) )

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Err...

Didn't I answer this thread back on Message 1644917 with all the main detail?...

Or was my brevity too brief?!.....

Ahh but you didn't include a pretty picture. :-)

Also confusion as to what an "internet feed" might mean, phone or LAN (for those who might still be confused the title of this thread should have really been "Using a Y adapter on a LAN")

Now what else can we talk about ;-)

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(for those who might still be confused the title of this thread should have really been "Using a Y adapter on a LAN")

More than happy to have it changed :-)

Whatever the title, many thanks for all the input.

Chris, if you have your answer, you can always ask for a lock and you can change the title if that is your desire.

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