CAT5e Splitters

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Hello, I have been quoted by a company quite a lot of money for a job, and I am trying to figure it out.

"we need to run a new Overhead Cable to serve the Straw Bale Building

It will be based on supplying and installing “Splitters” on the Cat5 Cables in the Building, as there are not enough Outlets to provide dedicated ones for Voice and Data
so they will have to share a Cable"​

We have a small remote building linked to our Comms Room via CAT5 (just two cables go back to the Comms Room) In the small building, these two cables (one is in case of failure) plug in to a 24-port switch and network several computers - this works fine.

We want to add telephones to this small building and the company are proposing using CAT5e splitters, presumably to split the cables to allow telephone and internet. But surely this would not work on the single cable that goes back to the Comms Room, as these would need to be patched in to the correct sockets in the Comms Room in to the Telephone Patch Panel?

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense.

 

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Steer clear of CAT5 Splitters!

They're crap. Just saying.

Will be even worse if you're planning on running VOIP and data.

 

How? We use them in locations similar to the above and have never had any issues....just uses the spare wires to split the cable into two...

 

we've used them, they're OK as long as you wire them up nice and tight

I presume running more cable is out of the question? What's the cost compared to having more outlet? It may take more work but its safer for the future.

 

100Base-TX (10/100 half duplex) uses only 2 pairs

100Base-T4 (10/100 full duplex) requires all 4 pairs

1000Base-T (Gigabit ethernet) requires all 4 pairs*

*Or so I beleive.

If you're wanting to use VOIP then you're going to want all of the bandwidth.

EDIT - Why not make use of Mini Switches?

 

Yep so if you only deliver 100Mbps to your desktops why not use splitters? Just because using them doesn't support gE doesn't make them crap. Also, a 100Mbps link is more than enough to support a desktop plus IP Phone.

 

Ok, so you may only deliver 100Mbps to your desktops, which would be fine if you are running two pc's at the end. What happens when you have this type of setup though is that you increase the amount of noise on the line, reducing the signal quality, and as phones are involved (we're all assuming we're talking VOIP here, as the OP hasn't actually said) it means that the call quality will be less reliable than dedicated cabling or switches which have the ability to VLAN and dedicate traffic.

 

Thanks for all your replies.

The phones run through a Toshiba CTX100 system, they are not VOIP Phones, a mix of SLT (analogue) and DKT (digital) phones.

I'm thinking it would be easier to just lay some CAT5 from the Comms Room, patched in to the correct patch panel , and then over to the new building, with some face plates and back boxes, and plug the phones in there, that should work fine. Only trouble is distance. I believe it is around 100m+.

On discussion with the company yesterday, they are suggesting distribution amplifiers, is this required?

Cheers for the help!

 

I can only assume you have experienced dodgy splitters. I have never seen any errors on the switch ports that we have end devices connect to using the splitters. This proves any increase in crosstalk has no effect (since GigEth uses all pairs, i'm not sure there is any more crosstalk in a splitter config than on GigEth, which would also add weight to the suggestion of there being no impacting increase in crosstalk).

Having a dedicated switch across in the smaller building would obviously be ideal, but using a splitter leads you back to a switch, which will be doing VLANs anyway.

 

Never used them.

Refuse to. why do something on the cheap when it can be done properly!

 

Yep do it properly is always solution number 1 !

They are definately not crap though, and definately have their place

 

The labor of running new cable over time once more expansion occurs will strongly outweigh the small increase in budget to run regular cables.

 

Not sure what I'm talking about, so please bare with me as I'm going to ask some questions on this thread as it looks relevant to my query.

My daughter in is uni digs, and her room has a single RJ45 outlet which gives her internet access direct to her laptop.

I want to supply her with a VoIP phone that also requires a RJ45 connection. Yes she could simply unplug the one to plug in the other and so on, or she could use Skye via the laptop, but we wish to avoid this. Now from reading the above I understand using the VoIP will limit her bandwidth for her laptop. However I don't think she'll want to do much on the laptop whilst using the VoIP phone.

I understand I could supply her with a non-wireless router to join up the supply RJ45 socket, the VoIP phone and laptop, however that's getting messy. Could she use something like this on ebay - item number 250956270787 (sorry I can't post any URL's as I'm obviously new here) which seems to be a flying male RJ45 in to a double female RJ45 socket module?

Thanks in advance for any help

JAG

 

You would need one at the other end, and i'm presuming you dont have access to that end.

 

Correct, we have no access to the other end.

Now I have seen splitters sold as pairs so that one is used each end of the cable to create a separate line, where as the one I tried to link to, seems not to create a separate line, but seems to piggyback two sockets on to one plug, but I may be wrong. Hence seeking advice here.

 

It looks to me it is just a splitter.

Package Contents:
• 2-Cat5 RJ45 Ethernet Network Splitter Adapters with cable.
• Also see the above image showing the Package contents

it seems you get two of them.

What you could possible do is buy a small switch and connect that, this will allow extra ports. What i will say is this may not work if the switch at the other end is configured with security allowing only one MAC address on the port.

 

Having read it more thoroughly, you are correct as there are two units supplied, I thought it was too simple.

You could also be correct on the security issue, so testing is the only way to find out.

Rather than a switch unit, could I use a router with a cross over cable or is a cross over cable not required?

Thanks

 

When you say router do you mean one of the ISP provided types? If so the 4 ports on that back of them are actually switch ports. You may need a crossover cable but most new devices can use either.