Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Ethernet and intra-networking for cohousing communities

[Howard Landman (howard]

> We are doing something similar. A couple of fine point questions...
> 1. Can or cant you share the 4 pairs in CAT5 for data AND voice,
> ie 2 pr for data, 1 for voice?

Ethernet uses 3 pairs, I think (1 through 6).  I suppose in theory you
could wedge a phone signal onto the other pair.  But then you'd have to
put 2 male plug ends and 2 female outlets onto the same cable!  Probably
not worth the pain.  (Male plugs cost about $1, female outlets cost about
$5, raw cat5 cable is about $0.10/ft.)  Also, I think phone can run on
lower quality (and therefore cheaper) cable.

> 2. How critical is the 100 m length limitation? Would say 120m be OK?

Maybe.  There is some margin in the standard.  It depends on your exact
equipment, quality of termination, etc.  We chose not to press our luck.

Note that 3 levels of hub are allowed, so you can use one level solely
to break long runs.  If you need longer than 200m you have a huge site
and I'm jealous!  :-)

> 3. How critical is the the cable routing avoiding power cables etc?.
> In some places we have them together.

I'm not competent to answer that.  But note that cat5 is by definition
unshielded.

        Howard Landman
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