Electrician Cat5 wiring issue

Merrion1968

Hello all,
An electrician wired my house with Cat5e ethernet last year as part of a total rewiring job and there has been numerous issues along the way. Currently there are two issues:

1. When I use the landline phone the internet fails. I suggested to the electrician that a microfilter might resolve it. He assured me that its not a wiring problem and he suggested I contact Eircom.

2. The WAN wire run into the house by Eircom has numerous multicoloured wires. However only two of these wires are being used for the 3 functions/systems of landline, internet, and alarm system. All three of these systems are split from these two wires (one white wire and one blue wire), albeit split to each function using a couple of wire connectors. Is this correct? I would have thought that the landline and the internet would use different wires. (The landline was wired in the house using Cat 5e cables and this cable is not connected to the router).

Can anyone please give me some advice on these two issues?

ED E

Ireland has a 2 wire phone system, so while the drop will be 4 or 8 core only two will be used unless you have a second number. The ADSL signal and PSTN phone service travel the same line, but on different frequencies. Thats why you have splitters.

If this was done recently he really should have used a filtered master socket, but lots of electricians dont take phones wiring too seriously.

Put filters on all your phone handsets, sky boxes if connected to the line, fax if you happen to have one but not the modem itself. Thatll stop the sync dropping every time the phone rings.

KCross

Merrion1968 wrote: »

Hello all,
An electrician wired my house with Cat5e ethernet last year as part of a total rewiring job and there has been numerous issues along the way. Currently there are two issues:

1. When I use the landline phone the internet fails. I suggested to the electrician that a microfilter might resolve it. He assured me that its not a wiring problem and he suggested I contact Eircom.

2. The WAN wire run into the house by Eircom has numerous multicoloured wires. However only two of these wires are being used for the 3 functions/systems of landline, internet, and alarm system. All three of these systems are split from these two wires (one white wire and one blue wire), albeit split to each function using a couple of wire connectors. Is this correct? I would have thought that the landline and the internet would use different wires. (The landline was wired in the house using Cat 5e cables and this cable is not connected to the router).

Can anyone please give me some advice on these two issues?

The landline and broadband need to use a broadband filter/splitter before it gets "sent" out to the rest of the house. I dont think it will be enough to add splitters in each room.

So, where the eircom cable rises in the house, add the filter/splitter there(the one you get from eircom in the broadband box)... that filter has 2 outputs.... one output feeds any landlines and your alarm system(presumably thats just an SMS system?) and the other output goes to your broadband modem and then from the modem you feed your broadband via Cat5e to your rooms.

Doing a split of the eircom cable using just basic connectors will not work and will cause the exact issue you are talking about, i.e. internet drops when you make/receive a landline call.

ED E

KCross wrote: »

The landline and broadband need to use a broadband filter/splitter before it gets "sent" out to the rest of the house. I dont think it will be enough to add splitters in each room.

So, where the eircom cable rises in the house, add the filter/splitter there(the one you get from eircom in the broadband box)... that filter has 2 outputs.... one output feeds any landlines and your alarm system(presumably thats just an SMS system?) and the other output goes to your broadband modem and then from the modem you feed your broadband via Cat5e to your rooms.

Doing a split of the eircom cable using just basic connectors will not work and will cause the exact issue you are talking about, i.e. internet drops when you make/receive a landline call.

A main filter at the NTU is the superior option, but filtering each piece of kit will do almost as well. Its been that way for years before the introduced the new NTUs.

Alun

Also bear in mind that the alarm panel should be wired in series before any phones to prevent the possibility of stopping the alarm from dialling out by simply lifting a phone off hook which is possible if they are all simply wired in parallel.

EDIT: See here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66899116&postcount=2 for how to wire an alarm correctly via the eircom NTU.

Merrion1968

Thanks fellas, I think I'm beginning to understand the issues.

KCross wrote: »

Doing a split of the eircom cable using just basic connectors will not work and will cause the exact issue you are talking about, i.e. internet drops when you make/receive a landline call.

I have a connector like the one linked below. Is this the basic connector you refer to?

armacostlighting.com/store/shop/euro-style-wire-connectors/

When in fact I should be using this type of filter?

eircom.net/accessories/broadband/broadbandtab/filterssplitters/

KCross

Merrion1968 wrote: »

Thanks fellas, I think I'm beginning to understand the issues.



I have a connector like the one linked below. Is this the basic connector you refer to?

armacostlighting.com/store/shop/euro-style-wire-connectors/

When in fact I should be using this type of filter?

eircom.net/accessories/broadband/broadbandtab/filterssplitters/

Yes, you got it.

If it is just a plain old plastic connector he used to split them then you will have the issue you describe and calling Eircom(like your electrician told you to) will be of no use.

So, you need to decide if you can/want to split them where the eircom cable rises or whether you want filters on each device around the house.

Merrion1968

OK KCross, I'll look further into it tonight when I get back home; a filter connected at the NTU sounds like the ideal solution, if possible in my situation.

Thanks very much for your help.

Thanks also to Alun and ED E for your input

Merrion1968

So I opened the NTU and followed the wires through the various connectors/systems. This is the current set-up:

The two wires from the DNT cable go into a basic connector and on the same side of this connector two other wires within a cable go into the Eircom socket (the socket fitted by Eircom for my fiber broadband).

On the other side of this connector two wires go into the alarm system cat5 cable. Within this cat5 cable 1 orange wire leads into another basic connector.

On the same side of this connector two other wires go into the phones cat5 cable.

How does this sound? Is the problem the 1st basic connector?

Merrion1968

Can anyone comment on my post above?

My suspicion is that the first basic connector on the phone line at the house entry point is the issue (the issue being that when I use the landline phone the internet fails). And that to resolve this issue I have to connect a filter to the main phone line and have the phone/alarm go in one socket of the filter, and the internet go into the other side. Would you agree?

ED E

Yeah, thats exactly what an official eircom NTU would do. Essentially the modem is the only thing that ever gets an unfiltered connection to the line, everything else is limited down to the voice band.

Merrion1968

Thanks ED_E.

I'll get onto the electrician and put forward my argument. Wish me luck!