Running a CAT5e cable

[Gibraltar]

Hi, I apologise if this is a really simple question

 

I want to run an ethernet cable from my router to another room and I'd like to run it in the walls. My router is connected through the only phone jack in the house, if that makes sense. The distance is only about 20 meters or so including going up and down walls and I don't want a cable just sticking out of the wall, my question is, would I need a female ethernet jack on the wall at the router position alongside the phone jack or is it possible to splice into the phone line that goes to the jack and use that?

 

If anything is unclear please tell me and I'll try my best to explain it in more detail, I was kind of vague.

 

Thank you

[RobFRaschke]

You will need to run a new wire, you can not piggy back on the phone line bringing your dsl in to the router.

 

As to whether you just run the cable out a hole in the wall in a hidden location, or actually install old work low voltage boxes with face plates, that's up to you boss. 

[Spotty]

29 minutes ago, Gibraltar said:

my question is, would I need a female ethernet jack on the wall at the router position alongside the phone jack or is it possible to splice into the phone line that goes to the jack and use that?

You can't splice in to the existing wire in the wall. You will need another jack in the wall and run the new wire direct from your router.
You don't need to cut out another hole in the wall for it though. Replace the existing wall plate which has 1 port in it with a wall plate which has 2 ports in it. They either should unclip from the wall or will have screws on the sides holding them in place. Fairly easy to remove and replace. Benefit of doing it this way is you don't have to make any mess cutting a new hole in the wall for the new cable.

You should be able to unclip the existing keystone from the current wall plate (for the line in) and reuse it in the new wall plate, but you will also need an additional RJ45 keystone (see pic below) to put in the wall plate port for the new cable. Looks like this and it should pop out of the wall plate if you push firmly (check if there's any little plastic clips on the side holding it in place). Depending where you buy it from, you can often get them packaged together with the wall plates, if not they're really cheap separately. You'll also need another keystone for the wall in the destination room, meaning you will need at least 2 keystones. You'll also need a single port wall plate for the destination room, but if you replace the one near the modem you can just re-use that. If the room doesn't already have a data wall plate you will need to cut a hole and install it properly.

 

Edit: Since you're running new cable, go Cat6 not Cat5e. It's a bitch getting up in the ceiling and running cables through the walls, so do it right the first time.

Depending on your house design, you may run in to a fire block half way down the wall. Do the old knock test on your walls to find if there are any solid horizontal beams where you want to run the new cable in the other room. If there is, it may be 1-1.5m from the ceiling, so you will need extendible drill bits to reach it in order to drill a hole through. Otherwise you will only be able to drop the cable in half way down the wall. If you need to use extendible drill bits, try and borrow from a friend, they are really expensive.

If you do have a fire block you need to drill a hole through, you may also need some cable rods to be able to guide the cable through the hole you drilled.

Also get a ethernet wire crimper tool. They start at about $10-$15 and often come in kits which include the RJ45 connectors, so you'll be able to terminate/make your own ethernet cables so it will pay for itself.

[Yosef]

Gibralter,

 

First off.  There seems to be some confusion as to whether the phone jack you refer to is really a phone jack or an RJ45 Ethernet port.  But either way it doesn't really matter because you do not want to take the data stream going to your router and split it off to another place in your house pre-router processing.  i.e. the router handles routing all of your ethernet traffic. If you are running an ethernet cable to another location in your house to provide wired ethernet at that location you must run it from the router.  Not from the cable going to your router.  The connection between your modem or service to your router should not be spliced off of or messed with.

 

That being said it is possible as Spotty mentioned to acquire a 2-Hole face plate and keep all the wiring constrained to the one box in the wall.  i.e. save yourself from cutting a 2nd hole in the wall.  Just be careful when you disassemble the existing wall plate.  Take pictures and make sure you do not change their original wiring to the one port.  As Spotty correctly points out it probably has an RJ45 Keystone modular piece in there. But if you are getting DSL then it could be different.  Once you get the 2-Hole plate back on with your wire running off the 2nd port you can just hook a short patch cable from one of your spare router ports to it.

 

I agree with Spotty on running Cat6.  If you're going to go to the effort of running the cable through the walls by all means run the latest specification for it.  The cost is negligible for Cat6 versus Cat5e. Maximum runs are 100 meters to stay within compliance so your 20 meter run is no problem!

 

Good luck!

 

Yosef

[Gibraltar]

On 6/17/2018 at 8:19 PM, Spotty said:

You can't splice in to the existing wire in the wall. You will need another jack in the wall and run the new wire direct from your router.
You don't need to cut out another hole in the wall for it though. Replace the existing wall plate which has 1 port in it with a wall plate which has 2 ports in it. They either should unclip from the wall or will have screws on the sides holding them in place. Fairly easy to remove and replace. Benefit of doing it this way is you don't have to make any mess cutting a new hole in the wall for the new cable.

You should be able to unclip the existing keystone from the current wall plate (for the line in) and reuse it in the new wall plate, but you will also need an additional RJ45 keystone (see pic below) to put in the wall plate port for the new cable. Looks like this and it should pop out of the wall plate if you push firmly (check if there's any little plastic clips on the side holding it in place). Depending where you buy it from, you can often get them packaged together with the wall plates, if not they're really cheap separately. You'll also need another keystone for the wall in the destination room, meaning you will need at least 2 keystones. You'll also need a single port wall plate for the destination room, but if you replace the one near the modem you can just re-use that. If the room doesn't already have a data wall plate you will need to cut a hole and install it properly.

 

Edit: Since you're running new cable, go Cat6 not Cat5e. It's a bitch getting up in the ceiling and running cables through the walls, so do it right the first time.

Depending on your house design, you may run in to a fire block half way down the wall. Do the old knock test on your walls to find if there are any solid horizontal beams where you want to run the new cable in the other room. If there is, it may be 1-1.5m from the ceiling, so you will need extendible drill bits to reach it in order to drill a hole through. Otherwise you will only be able to drop the cable in half way down the wall. If you need to use extendible drill bits, try and borrow from a friend, they are really expensive.

If you do have a fire block you need to drill a hole through, you may also need some cable rods to be able to guide the cable through the hole you drilled.

Also get a ethernet wire crimper tool. They start at about $10-$15 and often come in kits which include the RJ45 connectors, so you'll be able to terminate/make your own ethernet cables so it will pay for itself.

Wow, thank you so much, I kind of just expected someone to say I shouldn't do it because it's clear I don't understand what I'm doing or something along those lines. In regards to the phone jack confusion I did only call it that because it has a little phone symbol above the top of it, pretty simple reason as to why I called it that.

 

I really do appreciate the time and effort you put into explaining this to me as simply as possible, The Cat6 advice wouldn't have even been considered because I assume with Cat5 being older style wire it would be cheaper, But I see your point in do it right the first time, as well as the double wall plate, instead of two wall sockets which wouldn't look pretty.

 

[Guest]

I think this video has some relevant information though my knowledge on networking is limited. 

Spoiler