replacing phone wiring with cat5/6

rymus

Just moved into a house where all the phone cabling seems to be of the 3 pair variety. The eircom master socket is in the hall, feeding 3 (possibly more) sockets around the house. Ideally, i'd like to replace the 3 pair with probably shielded cat 5 or 6 and replace all the faceplates with RJ45 type. Won't be getting a landline into the house so I'm not pushed about keeping the eircom master socket in place.

Wondering if anyone can offer any advice about swapping the cabling without having to knock whopping great holes in the walls. Cheers.

themole

rymus wrote:

Just moved into a house where all the phone cabling seems to be of the 3 pair variety. The eircom master socket is in the hall, feeding 3 (possibly more) sockets around the house. Ideally, i'd like to replace the 3 pair with probably shielded cat 5 or 6 and replace all the faceplates with RJ45 type. Won't be getting a landline into the house so I'm not pushed about keeping the eircom master socket in place.

Wondering if anyone can offer any advice about swapping the cabling without having to knock whopping great holes in the walls. Cheers.

So, you just want to put in ethernet cable. How is the current cable installed? Clips to wall, stuck onm, conduit ...

rymus

conduit I presume... it's all running inside the walls all over the house. Going to get the wiring diagram for the house after the weekend so maybe that'll reveal a few secrets

themole

rymus wrote:

conduit I presume... it's all running inside the walls all over the house. Going to get the wiring diagram for the house after the weekend so maybe that'll reveal a few secrets

Hmm, they probably used conduit in the walls all right, but the wires might run under the floors. Take the socket off the wall and you should see if there is conduit behind it. The problem you may have is that ethernet cable is much thicker and less flexible than phone cable.

rymus

I was thinking that alright, about the flexibility. Was gonna stick the end of a length of cat5 to the 3 pair and drag it into the wall gently as I pull out the phone cable, but that my screw up my situation even more. Took off a few sockets yesterday, can't be too sure if there is a conduit. I guess I'll just hold tough until I get the diagrams.

DublinDilbert

rymus wrote:

I was thinking that alright, about the flexibility. Was gonna stick the end of a length of cat5 to the 3 pair and drag it into the wall gently as I pull out the phone cable, but that my screw up my situation even more. Took off a few sockets yesterday, can't be too sure if there is a conduit. I guess I'll just hold tough until I get the diagrams.

If i was you i would secure some twine/strong string onto the 3 core wire, u usually do this by wrapping the string around aprox 12 inches of the wire and neatly covering it in tape... then pull the string through using the 3 core... Once the string is pulled fully through then attach the CAT5 to the string in a similar manor and pull through...

It can be fiddly and the slightest little thing can snag it... the benefit is that the string will be much stronger (hopefully) than the old cable.. Also if the cat5 gets detached from the string you can simply pull it back and re-attach it...

rymus

genius!