How do I wire cat5 to rj11?

Category: technology and computing computer peripherals
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CAT5 connectors (RJ45) have 8 contacts (4 wire pairs); standard telephone jacks (RJ11) have 4 contacts (2 wire pairs). When using Cat5 use the center pair (Blue/Blue-white) in the CAT5 cable. Connect the CAT5 pair to the Red and Green on the standard phone jack.



Correspondingly, can you use Cat 5 cable for telephone?

This is made possible because of the wasteful (some may say "spare") wires in cat-5 cable. Cat 5 cable and RJ-45 jacks have eight wires. Ethernet uses two pairs (four wires), one for send and one for receive. Therefore, you can run both ethernet and telephone over the same wire, and still have two wires left over.

One may also ask, what color wires are used for DSL? The back plate of dsl jack has appropriate markings for wire colours (R)- Red; (B)-Black; (Y)-Yellow and (G)-Green. Replace red conductor with yellow and green with black. If you need to strip a wire, use a good quality wire strippers. Try not to "short" the wires when doing this work.

Beside this, what is the color code for telephone wires?

Telephone Cabling using Cat5 or UTP

White with Blue Green Tip
Blue with White Red Ring
White with Orange Black Tip
Orange with White Yellow Ring

What wires are used in a phone line?

Most telephone wires are one or more twisted pairs of copper wire. The most common type is the 4-strand (2 twisted pair). This consists of red and green wires, which make a pair, and yellow and black wires, which make the other pair. One telephone line needs only 2 wires.

35 Related Question Answers Found

What do the different colors on telephone wires mean?

Telephone wiring is color-coded
red, green, yellow and black. They are used in pairs for each phone line you have. LINE 1 uses the red-green pair. Line 2 uses the yellow-black pair. The cable is very small, as are the wires inside, and should not be confused with electrical wires, which are much larger.

Will a phone cable work as an Ethernet cable?

No, it has 4 wires, 2 pairs. An ethernet cable has 8 wires / 4 pairs. Additionally the wires in a phone cable are not twisted to prevent cross-talk.

Can you convert phone jack to Ethernet?

Re: Possible to convert phone lines to ethernet jacks? As long as you don't try to use anything past 100Mbps ethernet, it might work. 100Mbps ethernet and below only use 4 out of the 8 wires in a typical cat5 cable. The issue is going to be the quality and construction of the existing phone cable.

What is the difference between cat5 and telephone cable?

Network cables are usually thicker and rounder than a telephone cable. Network cables, including Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, etc., are twisted pair cables for carrying signals in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet. While phone cables are narrower and flat, and are made up of four wires.

Is there a difference between an Ethernet cable and a telephone cable?


Ethernet cables have a larger bandwidth than phone cables. Users can send and receive more data, at quicker speeds, via Ethernet cables. Phone cables have a smaller bandwidth and data takes longer to move across a network.

Can I use cat6 cable for telephone line?

Cat 6 for telephone? AFAIK you can use it just fine. You wouldn't pay the extra JUST for POTS, but if you have extra, no reason not to. As GG said, Cat6 is better then you need for voice so it would work just fine.

Can you plug an rj11 into rj45?

RJ11 plugs can permanently damage your RJ45 socket. Data cabling systems normally use RJ45 connectors. It's easy to insert an RJ11 plug into an RJ45 socket and it will probably work for a voice connection if the other end of the link has the right wiring or the correct adapter.

Which 4 wires are used in cat5?

The four wire pairs in a CAT-5 cable are distinguished by the color of their insulation. The four colors are (in order) blue, orange, green and brown. Thus, when refering to the "second pair" of wires, it is the orange pair.

Can you run Internet through a phone line?

DSL is a very high-speed connection that uses the same wires as a regular telephone line. You can leave your Internet connection open and still use the phone line for voice calls. DSL doesn't necessarily require new wiring; it can use the phone line you already have.

What is the name of telephone cable?


The wiring scheme for a single line phone was identified as "RJ11", and the name stuck to describe the connector used on a phone cord. Today, RJ-11 is widely used in the connectivity industry to denote a 6-position, 4-conductor modular connector or jack.

Can I use rj11 for Ethernet?

It is possible to physically fit an RJ11 connector into an RJ45 receptacle, however this will never function for an actual Ethernet connection. The reason is that the RJ45 connector has 8 pins, while the RJ11 has only at most 6. Most common Ethernet cabling today is either Cat5E or Cat6.

What is a cat5 cable used for?

Category 5 cable (Cat 5) is a twisted pair cable for computer networks. The cable standard provides performance of up to 100 MHz and is suitable for most varieties of Ethernet over twisted pair up to 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet). Cat 5 is also used to carry other signals such as telephony and video.

Are rj9 and rj11 the same size?

RJ11 is an older version of RJ12, and they are the same size. RJ12 is backwards compatible with RJ11, but RJ11 will not work with RJ12. Coiled handset cords use a smaller connector called RJ9 or RJ22 (both names refer to the same thing). These are physically smaller than RJ11/RJ12 and use four conductors.

What is the difference between rj9 and rj11?

Originally Answered: What is the difference RJ9 and RJ11 connector? RJ11: 6P4C = 6 Position 4 Conductor – used for ADSL, telephone, and modem cables etc. RJ9 / RJ10 / RJ22: 4P4C = 4 Position 4 Conductor – used for Telephone Handset cables.

What is an rj11 connector?


RJ11 stands for “registered jack” and was originally designed by phone companies in the 70's and is used for analog voice lines. It is a single pair jack, a jack with 2 wires. It is typical to find RJ11s with 6 positions, which are the metallic pins on the underside of a phone jack.

Where is rj11 used?

RJ11 is used for connecting single phone lines and uses a 6P2C or 6P4C configuration. With only 2 of the 6 available connection points, the RJ11 plug supports limited-bandwidth applications. This includes phone lines and ADSL connections.

Which wires go where in a BT phone socket?

The BT Drop Cable (The cable coming from the outside world)
This often has Orange, White, Green and Black wires. Usually (but not always) Orange and White are the active pair and go to connections 2 and 5. In some master boxes (such as the type with a removable front section) they go to two connectors marked A and B.