CAT 3 verus CAT 5 1

[dawg2]

Does any one know if you can use CAT 3 cable for internet connection? I have a client that is buying a house and they only installed CAT 3 6 pair. I would need to split this to run a phone system and data. Is this possible? I know ideal is CAT 5 and 2 seperate cable 1 for phone and 1 for network. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am not sure how easy it would be to repull everything.

Thanks,
Susan

 

[ArchibaldJCox]

For the LAN side of things, 10baseT only "needs" two pair of wires. From what I recall you should just be able to connect pins 1,2,3 and 6 straight through as long as you're using a hub/switch. That leaves you four more pair for phones, faxes, etc. Usually phones will use only one pair unless it's an older digital phone.

As for will it work, yes. I once had a whole college campus wired up with one 4-pair cat3 drop in each dorm room. We used Blue and Orange pairs for phones and Green and Brown for LAN with no problems. I believe if can affect speed and you may not be able to get a full 100Mbps connection, but it will work at 10Mbps.

Hope that helps.

Arch

 

[dawg2]

Thank You for your helpful answer. This is 6 pair CAT 3 so if I connected my data jack with pairs blue, green, orange, brown, and use the other pairs for what I would need as far a phone from the system and faxes, modem etc. should that work? My phone switch only needs one pair.

Thank you again for your help.
Susan

 

[joelunchpail]

arch is correct
you only need 2 pr for your lan
in a normal 4 pr config only the orange and green pairs are used

 

[senk1s]

cat3 10Mb max
cat5/ 5e 100mb max
cat6 1g max

 

[ArchibaldJCox]

Senk1s:

That's the info I was looking for! I knew there were definite limitations! Thank you.

Arch