Wire a cat 5E cable?

[bgibbz]

So I have my entire network setup in a utility closet in my basement. I want to wire a cat5e Ethernet cable to a room directly above it. I noticed that there already is a cat 5E cable running directly to where I need it, but the wire terminates at a telephone line jack, with two of the 4 twisted pairs not in use. How could I trace the cable into the utility closet so I can rewire it into an Ethernet cable? is there like some multimeter trick or something?

[Enderman]

Use a tone generator and probe?

[79wjd]

They sell ethernet/phone line test kits that you can use. Or you can do it the old fashion way of tugging on it. You could also plug a phone into the jack, and then just unplug one telephone line at a time from the panel until the phone goes out. 

[themctipers]

5v on one side

check if its 5v?

[bgibbz]

5 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Use a tone generator and probe?

 

5 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

They sell ethernet/phone line test kits that you can use. Or you can do it the old fashion way of tugging on it. You could also plug a phone into the jack, and then just unplug one telephone line at a time from the panel until the phone goes out. 

 

4 minutes ago, themctipers said:

5v on one side

check if its 5v?

 

Thanks all, I just stuck my phones camera in the wall, and saw that it joined with a cable tv cable, and there was only one of these conjoined cables in the basement, so I think I found it. Thanks!

[mariushm]

The easiest method would be to inspect the cable jacket, most network cables have a "counter" every meter so if you see something like "29103" near the jack, about one meter further on the cable you should see either "29102" or "29104" ... once you know if it goes up or down, you can go to the closet and find the cable which has the number closest to the last number plus or minus the meters you estimate the total length of the cable would be.

 

Once you're fairly sure you found the cable, you could short two of the wires in that jack that aren't in use and then with a multimeter in continuity mode or resistance mode, you could probe the jack with the probes on those two wires you chose to short on the other end. You should get continuity (since you shorted the pair at other end) or.. if the cable is too long the resistance may be high enough that the meter won't beep in continuity mode but will show some resistance in resistance mode (most multimeter consider continuity something like any resistance below 10 ohm)

So now you definitely know the cable and you can install two new network jacks... configure the wires in both jacks the same way, choose one of the arrangements below:

 

 

I prefer to use the one on the right, but both work exactly the same.