[ltp] [OT]: using cat5 for a telephone cable extension - success!

[Richard Neill]

Dear All,

Just experimentally discovered this, and thought it might be useful to 
someone else here.

Problem: setting up line-bonding for ADSL, where the two master sockets 
are at different ends of the house (and the household wiring kills the 
signal).

Original solution: put two ADSL routers next to the master sockets, run 
cat5 to server. But for full line-bonding (multilink ppp), must have PCI 
ADSL modems, both in the same computer; thus we had to extend the phone 
line.

Discovery: one can make a decent extension phone line out of:

   2x modem leads (RJ11 4-pin plugs on both ends)
   2x cat-5 media couplers (back-to-back RJ45/8P8C sockets)
   40m of cat5 (twisted pair) ethernet cable.

The RJ11s will fit into the RJ45 sockets just fine. It isn't perfect, 
but cat5 works a lot better than flat pair, and it was already nailed to 
the wall! It would also work as a modem-cable extension. Hope that's 
useful to someone.

Best wishes,

Richard