Wiring for broadband

delos

Hi,
I'm looking for a bit of help/advice with regard to the type of wiring I should use for my ADSL2 broadband.

At the moment I have my broadband splitter plugged into my master socket and run two cables (one to the router and one to the phone) from this to a couple of rooms. I want to move the phone and the router to the same location in the house and hopefully run one cable from the master socket to a new phone socket and plug the splitter into the new phone socket - I only intend to have one phone.

Is this advisable as I've been told I should only plug the splitter into the master socket? If I go ahead with the new phone socket is there a special type of cable that I should use or would the standard phone extension cable be OK?

Any advice / help would be greatly appreciated!

delly

Moved from G/DIY

Solair

The best advice I could offer is to use a good quality CAT5 cable. You'll pick this up at Maplins (Dublin, Cork, Galway) or many other computer / electronics shops.

It's pretty cheap compared to the price you'll pay for phone extension cord!

On newer eircom sockets (white [same colour as light switches]) you simply remove the two screws on the front of the socket. A small front plate will come off.

You'll find a few terminals on the back of this plate. The extension wiring should be connected to empty screw down terminals marked "L1" and "L2", you can ignore the "R" terminals which are unnecesary unless you want to wire up an old dial telephone.

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The "S1" and "S2" terminals are for a second line, so ignore those too.
Also, ignore any push-down IDE terminals which are for use for passing through monitored alarms, and connecting to eircom ISDN boxes etc.

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http://www.reci.ie/technicalinfo/eircominterface.pdf (Explains the entire modern eircom interface in detail with photos)

There is a slot at the bottom of the socket just behind the front plate, where the cable can exit. You shouldn't have to remove the second plate (another 2 screws) to access the box mounted on the well. However, if you wish, you can do this and knock your cable out the side.

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If it's an older beige type eircom phone socket simply connect your two cables to L1 and L2 on the opposite side of the socket from where the line is connected. Again, you can ignore the "R" terminals.
The older sockets use push-down connectors. You to use these, you should ideally pick up an IDE tool from Maplins (they cost about a euro). You do not need to strip the cable, if it's proper CAT5. Just loop it and push it down into the slot. The terminals have a little blade inside that will slice into the insulation making the connection.

I wouldn't suggest using any other type of cable with these sockets in particular as you'll only end up damaging the terminals or making a bad connection.

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Regarding the DSL filters:

All phones are filtered while your DSL modem gets the raw line.
The splitter just has a pass-through for the modem and a filter for the phone.

If you should connect a phone to the master socket later on, just make sure that you connect it via microfilter or your DSL will be messed up.

Also, regarding extension sockets:

Make sure you get decent ones. Most are OK, but I have come across some really poorly constructed flat paltes that actually cause shorts.
The best type are the US-style little square surface mounted beige boxes.



Colour code standards:
CAT5 to Old flat phone cable colours.



The phone line's carried on Red and Green in RJ11 systems like Ireland.
Black and yellow are ignored (unless you've a second line)
eircom cabling will usually carry the line on a blue and blue with white band pair (as per CAT5 standard)

Irish L1 = US T1 (Tip)
Irish L2 = US R2 (Ring)

Polarity shouldn't matter at all. So, don't get too worried about it.

Sparky

Excellent post solair.

Oracle

I think it would be beneficial for all to sticky this thread.

delos

Thanks for the info Solair. I would have been delighted with the first couple of sentences!