Sharing a telephone line?

[JayE]

Hi,

At work, we have 2 rows of telehone lines into which are plugged CAP5 cables which link them to one of about 80 sockets on "patch panels". These sockets can also have computers or printers plugged into them by linking them to the network switches/hubs.

Are you familiar with this setup?

If so, can you tell me if it's possible to plug a cable into one of the telephone line socket which can be plugged into 2 of the sockets on the patch panels at the same time (kind of like a splitter?). This is to enable 2 sockets (located in different areas of the building) to both be able to access a telephone line, though obviously not at the same time ! At the moment, you see, I'm having to switch the cable from one socket to another when the other user wants to access the line !!

In case you're wondering, we only have a limited number of lines available, and this particular line is only needed about 50% of the time by one socket user (a PC user for a modem) and about 1% of the time by another socket user (a franking machine to occasionally re-credit the machine).

Can you assist me?

Regards,
Jay/UK

 

[wmdowns]

Do you have access to a 66 block and an octopus connector?

You could bridge lines in the 66 block and then use the octopus cords into each jack.

It might be good to use a V-1 Viking bridge lifter so the line share doesn't knock people off when someone else has the line.

 

[PERRYPJ]

USE A REGULAR TELCO SPLITTER MADE FOR A TELEPHONE AND ANSWERING DEVICE, JUST MAKE SURE THE TIP AND RING ARE ON PINS 4-5. THEN YOU CAN USE 4 PAIR LINE CORDS OFF THE SPLITTER TO THE OTHER PATCH PANEL OLD ROLMEN WORKING ON NORTELS

 

[Mongo5150]

Perrypj has a cheap alternative. If you do it that way you would definitely want to get "eliminator" cables for each line. That would prevent someone from interrupting a call in progress.
Matt

 

[Arr]

There is also a line isolator product known as the Polar Bear. It is a couple of switching diodes on a circuit board. It is made by Imcom Ltd. You can find their site at

http://www.imcomltd.com

Williams Telecom also distributes these. Each Polar Bear has a circuit for the incomming line and shares out to two other lines. These units can be daisy chained to as many as the load will bear (pun intended). The Polar Bear is designed for punch down.

Cheers
PhM

 

[Gareth1978]

It's possible to by a CAT5/RJ45 splitter this would plug into the point where the patch panel and you can then use two cat5 cables to the two datapoints that you want the line to come out at. We've used them and they work fine. Not sure which country you are in but in the UK you can buy them for about £11.

 

[Gareth1978]

Something like

http://www.netshop.co.uk/ce45.htm

?

 

[Arr]

Hubbell also makes an RJ45 splitter straight through both sides.

PhM

 

[Bobg1]

If its for an analog phone you don't need an 8 conductor splitter. A regular telco splitter will work just fine.
A 6 position (rj11, rj14, rj25, etc) will plug into a 8 position jack with no problems.