sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring How many Cat3 pairs?

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Master Ed is however the guru on the subject without a doubt. I yield to his mastery of the art of telecom.

I'd use an rj25 and land the brown on an rj11 or two rj11s; two pr. each. If you add more co lines or stuff like door phones then a ksu is probably a logical choice. The extra rj11 could be used with a balun for a camera feed or anything like that. Wise staying away from the structured trash cans !

An RJ11 is a 6P6C jack with one pair connected.

There is no such thing as an RJ11 with two pairs connected. Those configurations would be RJ12C through RJ14C, depending upon the application.

A single four-pair cable could be terminated on two 6P6C jacks, each wired in the nominal "RJ14" configuration if desired.

Doesn't the suffix "c" in rjxxc indicate a ceiling mount plate?

Edit: nm. Ed covered this. Major brain fart on my part. I was thinking about W for wall, and C somehow became ceiling, which is an odd place to mount a jack. Anyway...

Like Wrichey wrote, I'd go with 6p6c on the phone lines (same color as the wallplate) and 8p8c on data (any different color) for ease of identification. If you go 8p8c on all jacks/keystones, buy the inserts that don't allow an 8p plug to go into a phone line.

I know I'll catch flack for this, but if this isn't a big job and you haven't already bought the materials, I'd go with cat6 for data. If you're only talking about one or two boxes of wire, the additional cost over cat5e isn't too much to handle. And if you ever sell the home to a data guru, he might pay a few extra grand for it. Needless to say, all wire runs should be home run.

Welcome to the boards!

I'm just gonna echo what others have said...cat3 for voice, cat5e or 6 for data. Run extra just in case you might need more later on.

Thanks everybody. I think I'll go with 6p6c jacks for the phones. Having both phone and network jacks the same just gives me the willies for some reason, even though I'd like to think _I'd_ never make that mistake. :scratch:
Am I right to assume that I should punch down all four pairs on the block, though, in case something changes in the future?

-Douglass

Yes always terminate all four pairs. Good luck on your project.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to a fun-filled weekend with the Black Widows under the house!

Better than the brown recluse in the attic.

And, at the jack end, neatly wrap the white/brown pair around the cable jacket, rather than wad it up, or worse, cut it off! John C.