Broadband forum: Use of abandoned phone wiring for Ethernet connections

It's never supportable as it is what it is. What's stopping you?

If I'm right and 100 meters is the max, you'd be over on that aspect for starters. Every foot of distance adds a nanosecond to delay time; that may or might not be much of a problem. An extra 100 feet would be .1 milliseconds which wouldn't seem like that big a deal, but then I'm no expert. Then there's the shielding to consider. Usually phone wires aren't shielded, so you could have a noise and crosstalk problem I'd think. Best case you wouldn't get anywhere near gigabit rates. With 6 pair of wires you're OK on that count, but you'd need to be absolutely sure you got them matched up correctly. Hopefully the colors would be distinct enough so that wouldn't be a problem. It certainly wouldn't be that expensive to get a couple of connector plugs and a crimping tool to give it a try it. If you do, set the transfer rate to 10 mbps to start and see if you could get that to work. Obviously you'd be on your own with this experiment, but it certainly would be the cheapest alternative.
If you do try it, I for one would be most interested to hear the results.

Good luck.

There's no reason why you can't give it a try. Fairly easy and inexpensive to add a couple of RJ45 jacks to the end of the cable. Be aware that you would be exceeding the design limitations of distance for Ethernet, so I wouldn't expect this to work well, if at all.

If this is important and you don't mind spending some money, a very good solution is this VDSL ethernet extender kit. The kit requires only a single pair of wires.

There are HomePNA solutions for phoneline but they are much more difficult to find.

Thanks for all of the replies! I have since learned that the cable in question is just a four conductor cable instead of my original thought that it was 6 pairs. In any event, I am encouraged that no one raised any significant technical reasons why it won't work and I will give it a try. Knowing about the VDSL extender kit gives me confidence that a solution is available at a reasonable price even if it turns out I can't simply hook up to the wires.

It may work but your speed will drop significantly. Reason being is the number of twists per foot of each pair. Ethernet cable has more twists to keep down self induction and mutual induction of the pairs of wires. Telephone wire only carries low frequency signals and do not need many twists. High speed data has what is called "apparent frequency" which is in the mega-Hertz range. The higher the frequency the more twists are needed to combat induction which causes signal loss and therefore data speed drop.

Give it a shot. It'll either work or it won't.

I am of course interested in the detailed technical reasons why pots lines are not good for data transmission and conversely why ethernet cables are engineered the way they are but this is not going to get your phone and laptop to work. It is a trip down the rabbit hole. I suggest that you work around this old phone line. As it turns out voice communications are low bandwidth (11khz sample rate equivalent) and POTS lines are not over-engineered.

What strikes me about your needs as reported is that you are not looking to eliminate wireless latency. You are planning to use an AP on the other end. There could be good uses for an ethernet connection in your workshop but if you are planning to use Wifi anyway I'd try an AP in a second floor or attic window for example. I'd go with N-300 capable N-600's are priced too high imho.If you don't get good coverage over the whole shop but do in a window or corner you could add another access point there as a bridge or extender. I prefer to use APs with WDS (wireless distribution system). This allows them to be paired together to work as a network both bridging and extending service wirelessly. This will allow the connections to be seamless from your home and workshop.
Finally, I've found power line adapters surprisingly easy and fast. I am pretty sure mine are working over breakers and a breakout box. Just don't put in any sort of power cleaning or surge protection between them. I am also not sure what interference your shop equipment may create. I'd position it away from any motors.



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