Phone Wires

[joecool169]

I am setting up a network at my shop, and I am going to run all the cat6 cables to a patch panel upstairs. If I run new phone wires (also cat6 if I do) should they or can they run to the same patch panel?

[twwabw]

Yes you can, and in fact can even terminate them on both ends with RJ45 jacks. Phone only uses one pair (center 2 pins 4 & 5 on RJ45) and if you wire for 2 lines, it uses additional pins 3&6. Soooo..... if you've wired an RJ45 jack to the 568B standard, you can plug conventional RJ11 4-wire jacks into it and they'll work fine. You can then use different color RJ45 wall jacks to denote data vs. phone, but then also use the phone jack as a data jack in the future if you need to.

[joecool169]

Ok, so I have two lines that will come from the nid to my central location upstairs. The two phone lines will need to be split and go out to 6-8 jacks. What is the best way to split the phone lines? Do I need to get a punchdown block? I want to get ordered the patch panel wall plates and other things I need to complete this job.

[koldchillah]

A 66-block wouldn't be a bad idea, especially if all your main lines run into the same place. Punch the lines coming from the dmarc to one side of the block and then all your outlets to the other.

This site has some useful tips w/ diagrams:

http://www.homephonewiring.com/