Splitting a cat5 cable

[heartspains88]

So in my house I have a pretty hefty network, 24port switch, over 100mbps connection etc etc..

When I ran hard line ethernet throughout the entire house, I only ran one cable into my room. (not thinking for the future at all)

We have a wireless access point, but the connection is garbage for gaming, it's mainly for the girls to use their phones and laptops, and the big boys use the real connection.

That being said, I really dont want to crawl in the attic again, at least not right away.

So obviously, I know enough about networking, I'm also aware that your cat5 cable technically only uses 2 of the pairs, and theoretically you can split one cable into two, so long as it's done on both ends (switch and wall plate).

That being said, I went the lazy route, I purchased a t-splitter, which is basically a male and dual female plug that does the same thing as splitting the cable yourself, and a pair for both ends. (switch and wall plate)

So my question.. has anyone else done this? Does it work as it should? To my knowledge you can still get a perfectly fine 10/100mbps network connection by splitting the pairs.

I've seen several threads of people who have done this and says it works great, but I really only trust the gold folks here.

So if you have, or know anyone who has done this let me know, and let me know how it worked for them.

 

[Xochielt]

It is possible to split a CAT5-cable up to two ( w/o 'opening'

the cable - simply using the pairs ) and use one cable for

2x100MBit/s.

But. It is only possible, if you use a CAT5-cable, and not a

CAT5e-cable which is already called CAT5, because 'real'

100MBit/s-CAT5-cables are quite rare nowadays.

I do not know if there is a buyable splitter, but you can

do it by yourself. I already did it and it operated at 2x100MBit/s.

So it is possibly to use a std. CAT5-cable for 2x100MBit/s, but

not for 1000MBit/s ( although there are all needed pairs ),

because of 'new' quality characteristics like powesum & co.

You just have to avoid 'untwisting' ( is that the English word? )

the pairs too much. IIRC you shouldn't go further than 1cm.

I hope it helped

-Xoh

 

[heartspains88]

Thanks for the reply! I actually ended up just cancelling the orders I had, and shelled out for a decent gig-e switch I can throw on the end of the wallplate in my room.

Not much more overall really, and will give me more room for expansion in the future, with less headache overall.

This should work as well, since there is a central switch, and this one wont cause a circle.

 

[Xochielt]

And for all the other readers of this topic:

When building a home - do not forget the network!

WLAN is still a toy

 

[hmmblah]

And for all the other readers of this topic:

When building a home - do not forget the network!

WLAN is still a toy

Excellent tip!

I started my home wiring this past weekend. Got the patch panel mounted as well as some of the wiring in the den done. I did a separate breaker and new wiring to the den, but I tied into the old wiring a few months back. So this weekend I also started redoing that wiring as well. It's all old cloth covered 14gauge with no ground. It is being replaced with 12 gauge PVC covered, with a ground of course. I've had a 32" inch LCD sitting brand new in a box now for almost 3 months, so I'm actually getting around to putting that in too. This was all after finally finishing up the trim work around the window (sill and casing).

Wow, talk about going off in a tangent. It's times like the above I wish I rented instead of owned my home

.

 

[chudley]

My mate just bought a house and stripped teh whole lot out to redo all teh cabling and plumbing, he still had lead cased cable running throughout the building - only about 105 years old. He seemed fairly happy though as teh price from teh scrap dealer has paid for all the new cable he needed.

Unfortunatley I am still renting but a fully installed home network will be one of the things required / installed when I buy.

 

[Deceit]

I've networked my house with cat6 and its brilliant especially for video streaming so family can watch movies without bothering to go near my pc's, only one thing will mention to people is make sure you put enough ports in all rooms. I put 6-8 in every room bar a room which only put 2 in that wasnt used for pc's now am staying in it along with my daily pc gear which usually fills 8, have to climb up into the attic myself tomorrow too sort it out. Luckily I havent put it in the walls yet as their just temporary at the moment.

 

[GavX]

You don't know how green with envy I am over people adding network points to their house. I sadly rent this place so can't add Cat6 to every room, stupid inferior wireless for me