My home was prewired for voice and data using Cat5e for every drop. The voice drops were terminated to RJ11 jacks and data to RJ45 in the walls. I would like to have the jacks switch between voice and data and have already purchased the Leviton 18-port structured media panel for the wiring closet end. I was wondering if it would be possible to convert the existing voice drops to data drops by removing the wallplate, cutting the cable, and terminating it to an RJ45 keystone? Any input is appreciated. Thanks.
Converting a phone jack to a data jack
- Thread starter htrieu
- Start date
I'm in the process of a new home build and plan on doing the same - cat6 with RJ45 jacks will be used throughout the whole house. However, I offer up one piece of advice; clearly mark the ports that are plugged into your phone network. If you or anyone in your household accidentally plugs a PC into one of the phone ports, it could fry the Ethernet port on your PC. The voltage sent over the wire for ringing phones is much higher than what an Ethernet port was designed to handle.
Although it'll work, I wouldn't recommend doing such for a period of time since it's very likely you'll damage the pins on 1/8 or 2/7 since the plug pushes the pins further than an actual jack does, so the bends tend to become permanent.
For the last poster, honestly, it's a poor design and execution that would allow there to be different services terminated using the same keystones in the field, since most residential telephony services and hardware do not need nor require a full 8 pairs at the wall jack. Given the cost of cabling, especially during the build out stage, running a pair of cables to each outlet won't break the bank, then terminate each cable appropriately so the possibility of damage to equipment by yourself or an unaware guest is a non-issue.
If cable cost is the issue, while I wouldn't recommend doing such for a critical service or device, but a pair can always be pulled off the ethernet and used for voice.
I've never once had an issue damaging the pins (maybe luck). I've been in the same office space for 12+ years and we have all RJ45 for both data and phone. The phones use RJ11 (using all 4 conductors) and there appears to be no systemic issues in our office of 120+ employees. With that said, there is a convention to avoid confusion over jacks; blue jacks for data, white jacks for phone. I do understand that in a business there may be a future need for the phones to use RJ45 jacks, i.e. VoIP phones. That's less of issue in a residence that typically uses only one or two lines. However, I don't rule out the possibility that IP phone systems may become affordable for residential applications.
For me, it isn't a cost issue. I prefer the flexibility of running all cat6 and configuring it for my needs later. I also don't want to order and run two different kinds of cat cable. If pin damage is a concern, then I think using an RJ11 jack and peeling off a pair or two is a good idea. It's easy enough to convert that to an RJ45 later on, if needed.
tmbrown97
Senior Member
I too have to strongly disagree with DEL's advice on this one... I've been doing it this way for 10+ years now - one of the first in my area to start doing this with large commercial spaces, and have never had an issue. And that was before VOIP when we really did use a lot of RJ11 plugs in the ports for analog and fax lines. Later all my offices were upgraded to VOIP and we repurposed those jacks as LAN jacks - gigabit mostly, and literally - not one single failure - ever.
For residential applications I think it's even more of a no-brainer. How many phones are you likely to have in your house? 1? 2? (like Steve said, generally just the cordless base!) And will you be inserting/reinserting that jack often? No... but if you waste time/space on an RJ11 jack it'll just be an irritation or an abandoned jack in the future. There's a reason all these structured wiring systems are basically built around the idea of everything being run as Cat5/6 and terminated the same and split out at the cabinet end - it's what everyone is doing these days, and if offers maximum flexibility with every single wire run.
****IF***** you have a jack failure as a result of doing this, then what's $4.50 on a jack from Home Depot on that .0001% chance it happens?
As for the comment about proper labeling - it came out in another thread somewhere that Ethernet jacks are extremely well insulated against this type of potential damage across every wire; In 20 years, I've only seen 2-3 issues from plugging into the wrong port, and that was when people plugged a modem into a digital phone port. Never had a fried NIC from plugging into a phone port, digital or analog. And believe me - with the user base I dealt with, if it could happen, it did.
For residential applications I think it's even more of a no-brainer. How many phones are you likely to have in your house? 1? 2? (like Steve said, generally just the cordless base!) And will you be inserting/reinserting that jack often? No... but if you waste time/space on an RJ11 jack it'll just be an irritation or an abandoned jack in the future. There's a reason all these structured wiring systems are basically built around the idea of everything being run as Cat5/6 and terminated the same and split out at the cabinet end - it's what everyone is doing these days, and if offers maximum flexibility with every single wire run.
****IF***** you have a jack failure as a result of doing this, then what's $4.50 on a jack from Home Depot on that .0001% chance it happens?
As for the comment about proper labeling - it came out in another thread somewhere that Ethernet jacks are extremely well insulated against this type of potential damage across every wire; In 20 years, I've only seen 2-3 issues from plugging into the wrong port, and that was when people plugged a modem into a digital phone port. Never had a fried NIC from plugging into a phone port, digital or analog. And believe me - with the user base I dealt with, if it could happen, it did.
I'd call what you two have experienced as being luck with not seeing damaged pins, as I've had to contend with them in both residential and commercial applications, unfortunately more often than I would hope.
I can't say that an RJ-11 would likely be abandoned within our lifetime, as there's far too many devices out there that have this connection compared to the predecessor of the 4 pin jack.
I don't agree with the whole shoving a RJ11 into a 45 jack, might as well take the butter knife for the screws to hold the plate on the box and use your shoe to nail a box up. Prudent would be to install the proper keystone for the application at hand and should there be an abandoned cable or end, reterminate and replace or blank off that part of the plate. Planning would entail installing a box with a mud ring instead of the normal single gang's so bend radius is maintained as well as providing additional space to work with.
Maybe you guys see a lot different in your areas of the country than what I do.
I can't say that an RJ-11 would likely be abandoned within our lifetime, as there's far too many devices out there that have this connection compared to the predecessor of the 4 pin jack.
I don't agree with the whole shoving a RJ11 into a 45 jack, might as well take the butter knife for the screws to hold the plate on the box and use your shoe to nail a box up. Prudent would be to install the proper keystone for the application at hand and should there be an abandoned cable or end, reterminate and replace or blank off that part of the plate. Planning would entail installing a box with a mud ring instead of the normal single gang's so bend radius is maintained as well as providing additional space to work with.
Maybe you guys see a lot different in your areas of the country than what I do.
tmbrown97
Senior Member
I do wonder if it has anything to do with the brand installed. Out here it's leviton in all residential applications. For commercial I used to spec Siemon because of some unique features of their jacks, though in an all VOIP world I find those prior advantages to be moot.
I do think though that I'd much rather have limitless flexibility and only replace a damaged jack *if* it happens, rather than run everything on a type of jack I'll barely need anywhere, knowing I'll have to replace them all someday (I always need more LAN ports than phone jacks). I don't think it's as crude as the analogies you've used. It's common enough that all the homebuilders in my area have been doing it for a good 5-6 years now, and it's a selling point not a detractor.
I do think though that I'd much rather have limitless flexibility and only replace a damaged jack *if* it happens, rather than run everything on a type of jack I'll barely need anywhere, knowing I'll have to replace them all someday (I always need more LAN ports than phone jacks). I don't think it's as crude as the analogies you've used. It's common enough that all the homebuilders in my area have been doing it for a good 5-6 years now, and it's a selling point not a detractor.
BraveSirRobbin
Moderator
Really?!?! :rofl:
Frunple
Active Member
There's nothing wrong with plugging a RJ11 into a RJ45. The ends of the contacts aren't connected to anything so they move freely and will spring back to their proper place when unplugged. Think about the distance we're talking about here, not much at all.
The one problem I see with this all the time is the user will eventually pull the cord a little and then the RJ11 moves in the RJ45 and it ends up shorting pins 4 and 5 killing the phone service. Easily fixed by unplugging and reinserting it centered but most users can't figure that out.
The one problem I see with this all the time is the user will eventually pull the cord a little and then the RJ11 moves in the RJ45 and it ends up shorting pins 4 and 5 killing the phone service. Easily fixed by unplugging and reinserting it centered but most users can't figure that out.
pete_c
Guru
I "rewired" my originally terminated RJ-12 to Cat5E to telco box junction when I first moved it to a new house in Illinois. It wasn't daisy chained telco wiring as I have seen done multiple times in the area. I do recall an "argument" in Florida during new construction around 2000 or so with the XX Bell guy where he insisted on daisy chaining the telephone wires. I asked him to just leave the source from the outside lines to the punch panel and basically not to touch anything else; which he did.
That said I went to a different copper only telco patch panel that still utilized standard 8 pin punch downs. So one side was an RJ-11 Keystone jack with the "extra" wires left un punched down and the other side to a standard 8 wire punch down. I have a mixture of analogue and VOIP lines plus wired multiple line phones plus wireless multiple line phones. I've needed the old telco Cat5E lines (like for example behind the nightstands for networking devices) so I just jumpered the cat5E and put in RJ-45 keystone jacks and used a different color keystone jack to differentiate the two. Thinking about it though the keystone analogue jacks were RJ-12 with 3 pairs for two lines versus RJ-11 with just two pairs.
I have though historically used "in a bind" RJ-11 phone to RJ-45 jacks; but never liked the "loosy goosy" fit so it was always temporary; but it never meanwhile in use damaged anything.
That said I went to a different copper only telco patch panel that still utilized standard 8 pin punch downs. So one side was an RJ-11 Keystone jack with the "extra" wires left un punched down and the other side to a standard 8 wire punch down. I have a mixture of analogue and VOIP lines plus wired multiple line phones plus wireless multiple line phones. I've needed the old telco Cat5E lines (like for example behind the nightstands for networking devices) so I just jumpered the cat5E and put in RJ-45 keystone jacks and used a different color keystone jack to differentiate the two. Thinking about it though the keystone analogue jacks were RJ-12 with 3 pairs for two lines versus RJ-11 with just two pairs.
I have though historically used "in a bind" RJ-11 phone to RJ-45 jacks; but never liked the "loosy goosy" fit so it was always temporary; but it never meanwhile in use damaged anything.
