Phone Jack to Ethernet

[Dimka 2]

Hey Forum,

I am moving into a new house with some friends and only yesterday when building my desk and setting up my PC did I realize all of the outlets in the house consist of a Coax and phone jack. I have no compatible cords since I have always had an ethernet tap. 

There is a CAT 5-E cable running from behind the wall, two wires are split off (spliced?) and the other four are connected to the phone jack plug. I have been using CAT 5 and CAT 6 cables into my desktop and since the wire in the wall is a CAT 5-E, is there a way I can get an ethernet outlet and connect all of the wires to it? I know nothing about wiring this is my basic research.

Thank you. 

[Bob Scott 7,715]

Sure.  You should be able to find an ethernet wall plate with a RJ45 keystone jack at a big box hardware store or on Amazon. 

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/BOPLAT-Ethernet-Punch-Plate-Female/dp/B08Y7TNWY3/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=ethernet+wall+jack&qid=1626358415&sr=8-14

The hard part will be determining where the other end of the cable is.  If it's part of a daisy chained series of phone outlets, having an ethernet jack at the outlet won't do you much good.  If it runs to a central distribution box where cables running to the various outlets are all tied together, then you can separate the one in question and put an ethernet connector on it.  You'll have to determine which cable is the one running to your room.  That can be done by shorting a couple of the unused wires together at the outlet in your room and then looking for the short with a continuity or ohm meter at the distribution box.

[enright 496]

56 minutes ago, Dimka said:

There is a CAT 5-E cable running from behind the wall, two wires are split off (spliced?) and the other four are connected to the phone jack plug. I have been using CAT 5 and CAT 6 cables into my desktop and since the wire in the wall is a CAT 5-E, is there a way I can get an ethernet outlet and connect all of the wires to it? I know nothing about wiring this is my basic research.

Sure. You'll need to rewire the cable at both ends, and you'll probably need a few basic ethernet tools (a crimper, a tester, etc...). Amazon has a bunch of ethernet tool kits that include everything you'd need for $20 - $30. The tester will be handy in the event you mess up the wire connection order at either end - which is easy to do and maddening to diagnose without a tester. You can use "keystone" jacks that will accept the individual wires directly, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Cat5e-Ethernet-Keystone-Punch-Down-Network/dp/B07F378M7L (although you'll probably want one with a wall plate) - and you'd just need a "punchdown" tool to jam the wires into the color-coded receptacles. 

Including the jacks, you're probably looking at 40 bucks or so. You can always just hire someone, but you can save $$$ and learn something if you try it yourself.

Finally, there are also a zillion youtube videos about ethernet cabling - like this: 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2021 by enright

[charliearon 3,017]

My question is what is at the other end of that CAT5-E cable.  Is it plugged into a router or modem?