ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Voice - Data - Video Discussion outside Cat 5

Tripp,
Please be careful how you word things here.
BTW, we can only give advice on the information tendered to us.
And also, I'm reminded of the phrase "If you haven't got anything nice to say.........".

"To the contrary there are CAT5 rated 66 blocks though I don't think any are rated CAT5e or higher. The termination method I described is what is required to maintain the CAT 5 rating.
-Hal "

I have not seen a 66 block to be rated for cat 5.
What would be a possible need for a 66 block to be cat 5 ?

You can always tell because they are thinner. They will be marked CAT5 on the sides. As for the use, keep in mind that there is 25 pair CAT5.

-Hal

Hal, that is new to me, but I have been out of the data biz since 97. They told me there were no 66 blocks OK for > 16mz.
Live and learn ... Thanks.

Let's try to keep it civil please folks.

I'm looking at this from two sides.

Would I run CAT5, or even CAT3 just for voice circuits? No. It's overkill, and I can see the point about making off dozens of pairs soon becoming tiring. When I think back to terminating 100-pair or more cables on the MDF of a telephone exchange, it would certainly have made the task very much harder and longer if every pair in the cable was twisted up like CAT5.

Would I use a pair in CAT5 for voice if that cable was already in use or to be installed for data? Quite probably. If you have 4-pairs with only two in use running to the right location, why not make use of the spare pairs?

I think it comes down to a matter of balance.

I know that there is 25 and even 300 pair cat 5.
But what is the use for it ??

To consolidate multiple 4 pair network cables by running the 25 pair and then using the cat 5 66 block to branch out to 4 pair cables that end up at the user location ???
Seems like more trouble than it is worth.

As for using a spare pair from a network cable to run a voice circuit to a location, I would be careful of that to make sure the network isn't 1000base-t which uses all 4 pairs.

To consolidate multiple 4 pair network cables by running the 25 pair and then using the cat 5 66 block to branch out to 4 pair cables that end up at the user location ???

That's pretty much it though I have never had to do it or use a 66 block for CAT5.

I agree with you about using the two spare pairs- only in desperation.

-Hal

Not even in desperation Hal, the right thing to do is run another cable and keep the voice and data on seperate cables, talk about convergence, this is coming from a guy who doesn't like VOIP because "it is designed to put voice guys out of business".
You don't want to use the TCP\IP protocol to transmit voice so why would you use their cable to transmit voice ???

They always told us not to put POTS on the same cable as data. The ringing current was supposed to cause data errors. I imagine that depends on if you have inductive ringers and how often the phone rings in a day. You would probably never notice it in a home network but if you had a bunch of users banging the LAN and the phone never stops ringing it could be an issue.