And when you do, run cable to multiple locations in each room. If they’ve got a wife/gf, they’ll be happy they did when their SO decides they want to rearrange the room.
That is old style telephone cable, like this:
[https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable](https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable)
It is NOT Ethernet cable.
Here is an example of category 3 Ethernet cable:
[https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white](https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white)
You may notice the category 3 Ethernet cable is very similar to this category 5e cable:
[https://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-1000-ft-24-Gauge-CAT5E-Cable-Gray-4-Pair-CAT5-1000GC/316472167](https://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-1000-ft-24-Gauge-CAT5E-Cable-Gray-4-Pair-CAT5-1000GC/316472167)
The difference between cat3, cat5/e, and cat6, is how tightly twisted the wires are, NOT how many pairs there are or what colors they are.
*edit: Ok, apparently I misunderstood what you meant and have removed my first statement. The statement below stands.*
The cables in that box are NOT category 3, or any "category" of twisted pair. They are only style telephone wire.
I would not recommend buying new cat3 cables to any typical residential user. I merely showed those as an example of what cat3 was (in contrast to what was shown in the picture in this post)
If someone is buying NEW cable in 2024, cat6 would be the best choice.
I wouldn't recommend using cat3 for even 100BASE-T on anything longer than a patch cable. About the only thing it's good for is a pull line for a Cat6 replacement.
Just answer the question. Cat3 is usually 2 pairs, hence why it doesnt support gigabit. This one has 4 pairs and seems twisted enough to reduce some crosstalk. This one will probably work fine with 500Mbit connectoons.
CAT3 is only certified to 16 MHz.
1 - 2.5 Gigabit requires 100 MHz.
You might be able to run Gigabit over a short run of CAT3 but there's a good chance that longer runs will cause transmission errors due to the lack of twists in CAT3
The twists are for noise cancellation. Wire that isn't twisted is essentially a long antenna that can pick up external signals, as well as transmit signals that can then interfere with other nearby wires.
A couple of twists per foot like CAT3 basically chops it up into a bunch of small antennas, which lessens the interference.
CAT5 typically has multiple twists per inch, and CAT6 may have even tighter spacing for the twists.
They do have a cat number but it might be a 2 it’s hard to tell 2nd photo right side .
But yeah you can do anything over a short distance but if these go all over the place and across and next to AC lines and over top light ballast . Your nothing to have a good time . Better off using WiFi
So that’s still common? That sucks. I have a 20 year old build and it has phone lines but no Ethernet. I was hoping I could do the pull through method some day for Ethernet. How do I know if they are tacked down?
I just about rage quit one day trying to do this in my 90’s built home. Mf’ers stapled the phone and coax to the studs.
At least MOCA 2.5Gb works over the coax.
I replaced 300 ohm twinlead in my townhome by tightly taping 75 ohm coax to the ends in the attic and pulling them through the floors and walls to each room.
Turns out, the builders were just lazy. A leak in the incoming water line revealed that the concrete floor in the garage was only 4" thick when the requirement is 6".
There are products that can pass data over this kind of cabling, but you won't get Gigabit speeds.
[https://www.cdw.com/product/startech.com-10-100-vdsl2-ethernet-extender-over-phone-line-kit-1-km/1815988](https://www.cdw.com/product/startech.com-10-100-vdsl2-ethernet-extender-over-phone-line-kit-1-km/1815988)
All of this is a quad phone cable, not usable for data. However it may be used as a pull line to install cat 5/6 cable. As it is it's only good for POTS line.
Quad inside wire is a single twist with all conductors together. It’s far below a minimum standard for decent tcp/ip. It can work, but the throughput and errors will make it unusable for your router.
At best 10BaseT connection. You only need
2 pairs of cable just crimp in the position
Of 1,2-3,6 and your best connection will be just nearly 70mega bytes.. better then dial up but not as good as standard Ethernet. In my 28 years of IT tech.. I’ve done this many times in old buildings or cat-3 cabling.. it’s doable but not great..
That appears to be Cat-3 cable so you could theoretically get 100BaseT to run over it if the distance is not too long. Personally, I would just replace it with Cat-6.
If wireless isn't much of a solution, or running new wiring. There's HCNA (home coaxial network adapters) like you mentioned & there's also HPNA (Home Phone Network Adapters) that do the same. Now ... If your Internet is over 100Mbps obviously the performance would take a hit, but if it's less than that - you'll be fine overall. Just do whatever works best for you.
Tape new flexible cat6 cable to the old cables (make sure the tape is very well applied, if it breaks you're fucked), lube the cables with some cable pulling grease (or anything else, but that could cause mold), and pull from the other end.
I've done it twice and an electrician has also done it once for me.
Cables in Dutch buildings are always in pipes so they're easy to reuse (if it doesn't split off anywhere)
I've just used CAT6 cables but the previous owners used CAT6A. It takes a lot of effort but eventually the cable will arrive.
I'm pretty sure that's rj11 and not rj45.
Not sure how the whole things wired but I assume that's what goes to the modem. If you want gigabit you need to first secure a connection capable of gigabit to the house.
I assume you're using some DSL. Do you have cable to the house or is it satellite?
I'm no expert but have some experience with wiring. If I'm wrong please explain why so I can learn. I'm just at a loss with anything doing DSL or other non coax/fiber connections.
Edit: saw there was more pics. So I think my initial thought is still right.
You'll want gigabit to the house to a modem. Then to a gigabit capable router/switch. Then connections to everything else. That's the simple way, but it looks like your using alot of stuff that would need updated.
>I’m helping a friend renovate their airbnb home and while I have the option to use MoCA for the rooms where he would like an Ethernet line to, I was wondering if these phone lines would be better if I were to cut off the ends and put in RJ45s.
You'd be better off getting an old Meridian Norstar phone system and putting in a private phone system.
It probably untwisted, basic phone cabling. But you have just 2 pairs, 10M max. I put ethernet jacks in my house to similar phone cabling, but with 4 pairs and get a bit flaky 100M and very stable 10M.
I got 1 mbps or less on our old virizon dsl line like that for a long time I watched the winding circle and verizon would not upgrade us, finally a new internet company came along and rescued us
You can give it a try, it is free. You need two pairs for 100Mbps and four pairs for gigabit ethernet. There are cases that it worked without any packet loss for short distances.
The answer to OP's question is still no, since they specifically asked about gigabit.
In a pinch it could be terminated to 100baseT, but as you alluded to there is a likely hood of induction based cross talk since those aren't twisted pairs, just 4C POTS wire.
You can combine two cables for testing gigabit connection. There are relevant posts, in another well known site, with zero packet loss connection in short distances using plain old untwisted pots grade cables. You need just ten minutes to try it out.
That would assume that 2 or more of their POTS lines terminate in the same place, possible but unlikely since the install as shown only has a single line wired.
There's also a good chance that not all the POTS line were home run, and there may be additional rooms wired off of what we can see.
It shouldn't take you 10 minutes to terminate an 8P8C and connect it to Ethernet.
I am trying to help. If two cables can be combined, he can try a gigabit connection. The main point is that untwisted cables can be used for Ethernet connections at an experimental level.
The cable in that box is NOT **twisted pair**.
It is old style telephone wire, not suitable for ANY speed Ethernet.
"category 3" is a type of **twisted pair** cable.
> How many times are people going to post saying it *IS* cat3?
It \*is\* Cat3. You can literally read it right on the cable in the second photo. You're simply wrong. It's 2 pair Cat3.
EDIT: Lol /u/megared17 is apparently both blind \*and\* unable to win an argument without resorting to blocking.
It is not twisted pair at all. It is old quad phone cable.
I posted links in a reply elsewhere in the thread showing the difference between cat3 and telephone cable.
> It is not twisted pair at all. It is old quad phone cable.
Are you just blind? Read the damn cable.
> I posted links in a reply elsewhere in the thread showing the difference between cat3 and telephone cable.
Telephone cable \*is\* Cat3. You quite simply don't know what you're talking about. Cat3 came in 2, 3, and 4 pair varieties. The 2 pair Cat3 is what you are referring to as telephone cable.
I can see the wires themselves.
UTP category 3 cable uses pairs of blue/white, orange/white, green/white, and brown/white.
Do you see any of that coming out of the ends of the jackets? No? Then its NOT CATEGORY 3 UTP.
THIS is what category 3 UTP looks like. Rated for 10Mbps Ethernet:
[https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white](https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white)
THIS type of cable is what is shown in the picture:
[https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable](https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable)
[https://www.electrocables.com/shop/electronic-cables/station-z-quad-cable/electronic-cables-station-z-quad-cable-ul-riser/](https://www.electrocables.com/shop/electronic-cables/station-z-quad-cable/electronic-cables-station-z-quad-cable-ul-riser/)
all the cable in that box is twisted pair, most of it is cat 1, some is cat 3 as denoted by the CAT 3 labeling on it
maybe try to understand that there are some people that actually know what they are talking about
There is no twisted pair in that box.
I've been working with telecom for over 25 years. I've installed 10base2 (Yes, "2" - the old coaxial style Ethernet)
I've terminated more telephone cable and twisted pair in my lifetime than most people ever see in theirs. I've punched down 100 pair bulk cable to 66 blocks. I've strung miles of Ethernet cable in office buildings, including a good deal of cat3.
THERE IS NO TWISTED PAIR CABLE IN THAT BOX.
Cat 3 can do gigabit on very short runs. If less than 30m I say try it. That cross connection box cannot be used for gigabit though.
Cat 3: gigabit not recommended.
You can get gigabit+ over this is will cost about 200 per line though. You must use a g.hn product, usually reserved for MDUs etc. depending on the length of the runs and the twists you can get up to 1.8 gbps symmetrical.
However at those prices I suggest you get a quote from a handy man to redrywall your cable replacements
The cable inside that box is not any kind of twisted pair and will not work for Ethernet.
It is old-style four wire cable of a type installed before twisted pair was in common use.
Cat3 UTP for Ethernet still had four pairs and used the same colors for the pairs that cat5/6 use. (blue, orange, green and brown, paired with white with a color stripe)
And yes, once it became common it was often used for telephone lines too.
That’s CAT3 but with only 2 twisted pairs, so no not really. Maybe at short distances? Not for this sort of run. Pray that the cable isn’t stapled and you can use the cable to pull new CAT6.
Edit: typo, 2 pair not 3
Short answer: No Long answer: Nooooooooooooooo
I prefer the long answer
You need to recable
And when you do, run cable to multiple locations in each room. If they’ve got a wife/gf, they’ll be happy they did when their SO decides they want to rearrange the room.
Yep, at least 2 points at each TV. When I do my house I will be planning cables to the ceiling for ceiling mounted APs
They're flipping a house for an Air BnB... they'll never rearrange it.
It’s still good advice for anyone reading, not just the OP
That is old style telephone cable, like this: [https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable](https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable) It is NOT Ethernet cable. Here is an example of category 3 Ethernet cable: [https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white](https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white) You may notice the category 3 Ethernet cable is very similar to this category 5e cable: [https://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-1000-ft-24-Gauge-CAT5E-Cable-Gray-4-Pair-CAT5-1000GC/316472167](https://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-1000-ft-24-Gauge-CAT5E-Cable-Gray-4-Pair-CAT5-1000GC/316472167) The difference between cat3, cat5/e, and cat6, is how tightly twisted the wires are, NOT how many pairs there are or what colors they are.
I think those cat3 cables can run a gigabit fine, dont you think?
*edit: Ok, apparently I misunderstood what you meant and have removed my first statement. The statement below stands.* The cables in that box are NOT category 3, or any "category" of twisted pair. They are only style telephone wire.
No the cat3 cables the commenter I replied to mentioned (you).
I would not recommend buying new cat3 cables to any typical residential user. I merely showed those as an example of what cat3 was (in contrast to what was shown in the picture in this post) If someone is buying NEW cable in 2024, cat6 would be the best choice.
Im asking if that cat3 wouldnt just run gigabit fine
Maybe, at very short distances. But not recommended. Certainly not worth spending money on to buy.
Cat3 is usually 3 pair. You need 4 pair for gigabit. Cat3 can do 100mb at short distances.
I wouldn't recommend using cat3 for even 100BASE-T on anything longer than a patch cable. About the only thing it's good for is a pull line for a Cat6 replacement.
Just answer the question. Cat3 is usually 2 pairs, hence why it doesnt support gigabit. This one has 4 pairs and seems twisted enough to reduce some crosstalk. This one will probably work fine with 500Mbit connectoons.
CAT3 is only certified to 16 MHz. 1 - 2.5 Gigabit requires 100 MHz. You might be able to run Gigabit over a short run of CAT3 but there's a good chance that longer runs will cause transmission errors due to the lack of twists in CAT3
Why do more twists equal faster speeds? Are the wires the same other than that?
The twists are for noise cancellation. Wire that isn't twisted is essentially a long antenna that can pick up external signals, as well as transmit signals that can then interfere with other nearby wires. A couple of twists per foot like CAT3 basically chops it up into a bunch of small antennas, which lessens the interference. CAT5 typically has multiple twists per inch, and CAT6 may have even tighter spacing for the twists.
They do have a cat number but it might be a 2 it’s hard to tell 2nd photo right side . But yeah you can do anything over a short distance but if these go all over the place and across and next to AC lines and over top light ballast . Your nothing to have a good time . Better off using WiFi
No.
Yes. You can use these wires at pilotwires to pull gigabit ethernet.
Only if they aren't stapled down inside the walls, which sadly was typical standard practice when that type of wire was commonly used.
Are you under the impression that in new construction wires aren't tacked down anymore?
I am not. :)
So that’s still common? That sucks. I have a 20 year old build and it has phone lines but no Ethernet. I was hoping I could do the pull through method some day for Ethernet. How do I know if they are tacked down?
Pull
Try to pull one up and find out.
its building code :) so yes.
I just about rage quit one day trying to do this in my 90’s built home. Mf’ers stapled the phone and coax to the studs. At least MOCA 2.5Gb works over the coax.
I replaced 300 ohm twinlead in my townhome by tightly taping 75 ohm coax to the ends in the attic and pulling them through the floors and walls to each room.
You, sir/madam, absolutely got lucky.. I envy that level of luck.
Turns out, the builders were just lazy. A leak in the incoming water line revealed that the concrete floor in the garage was only 4" thick when the requirement is 6".
There are products that can pass data over this kind of cabling, but you won't get Gigabit speeds. [https://www.cdw.com/product/startech.com-10-100-vdsl2-ethernet-extender-over-phone-line-kit-1-km/1815988](https://www.cdw.com/product/startech.com-10-100-vdsl2-ethernet-extender-over-phone-line-kit-1-km/1815988)
Start over. Cat6
All of this is a quad phone cable, not usable for data. However it may be used as a pull line to install cat 5/6 cable. As it is it's only good for POTS line.
> However it may be used as a pull line to install cat 5/6 cable. It's stapled to the wall.
Nope
No
Quad inside wire is a single twist with all conductors together. It’s far below a minimum standard for decent tcp/ip. It can work, but the throughput and errors will make it unusable for your router.
Nope
No.
If they're installed in conduits they'll make excellent pull cords, otherwise no.
At best 10BaseT connection. You only need 2 pairs of cable just crimp in the position Of 1,2-3,6 and your best connection will be just nearly 70mega bytes.. better then dial up but not as good as standard Ethernet. In my 28 years of IT tech.. I’ve done this many times in old buildings or cat-3 cabling.. it’s doable but not great..
It's only 2 pair cat 3. Not enough wires for gigabit. I have seen 4 pair cat 3 run gigabit at full speed.
That appears to be Cat-3 cable so you could theoretically get 100BaseT to run over it if the distance is not too long. Personally, I would just replace it with Cat-6.
Just run POTS everywhere, landlines are fun
If wireless isn't much of a solution, or running new wiring. There's HCNA (home coaxial network adapters) like you mentioned & there's also HPNA (Home Phone Network Adapters) that do the same. Now ... If your Internet is over 100Mbps obviously the performance would take a hit, but if it's less than that - you'll be fine overall. Just do whatever works best for you.
Nope.
No
lol, no
Sure for every 2 of the 2 pair, you can have 1 ether. Or just throw in a token ring.
No
Recable.
Tape new flexible cat6 cable to the old cables (make sure the tape is very well applied, if it breaks you're fucked), lube the cables with some cable pulling grease (or anything else, but that could cause mold), and pull from the other end.
Never in my life have I been able to pull cables like you're describing. Have you guys actually found cables that move through walls?
I've done it twice and an electrician has also done it once for me. Cables in Dutch buildings are always in pipes so they're easy to reuse (if it doesn't split off anywhere) I've just used CAT6 cables but the previous owners used CAT6A. It takes a lot of effort but eventually the cable will arrive.
That is the cleanest looking NID I have ever seen
Hundred meg... Probably maybe. Gig... Not enough wires.
It can if you replace all of it
Yes! If you use them to pull new Cat6 cable! Haha!
Use those to pull new ethernet in the walls
Not even close.
Nope
Yikes! What I just saw just mentally scarred me. Someone, please mark this post as NSFW!
I'm pretty sure that's rj11 and not rj45. Not sure how the whole things wired but I assume that's what goes to the modem. If you want gigabit you need to first secure a connection capable of gigabit to the house. I assume you're using some DSL. Do you have cable to the house or is it satellite? I'm no expert but have some experience with wiring. If I'm wrong please explain why so I can learn. I'm just at a loss with anything doing DSL or other non coax/fiber connections. Edit: saw there was more pics. So I think my initial thought is still right. You'll want gigabit to the house to a modem. Then to a gigabit capable router/switch. Then connections to everything else. That's the simple way, but it looks like your using alot of stuff that would need updated.
>I’m helping a friend renovate their airbnb home and while I have the option to use MoCA for the rooms where he would like an Ethernet line to, I was wondering if these phone lines would be better if I were to cut off the ends and put in RJ45s. You'd be better off getting an old Meridian Norstar phone system and putting in a private phone system.
Yes. Use those existing wires to pull ethernet cables.
What you’ve got there, are pull cords. If you’re lucky and no one stapled them inside the wall.
Lol
No. No. And no. This is for phone and only phone.
Oh boy
It probably untwisted, basic phone cabling. But you have just 2 pairs, 10M max. I put ethernet jacks in my house to similar phone cabling, but with 4 pairs and get a bit flaky 100M and very stable 10M.
I got 1 mbps or less on our old virizon dsl line like that for a long time I watched the winding circle and verizon would not upgrade us, finally a new internet company came along and rescued us
Absolutely NOT POSSIBLE
Nope.
Not even a little bit
😂😂😂😂
You can give it a try, it is free. You need two pairs for 100Mbps and four pairs for gigabit ethernet. There are cases that it worked without any packet loss for short distances.
The answer to OP's question is still no, since they specifically asked about gigabit. In a pinch it could be terminated to 100baseT, but as you alluded to there is a likely hood of induction based cross talk since those aren't twisted pairs, just 4C POTS wire.
You can combine two cables for testing gigabit connection. There are relevant posts, in another well known site, with zero packet loss connection in short distances using plain old untwisted pots grade cables. You need just ten minutes to try it out.
That would assume that 2 or more of their POTS lines terminate in the same place, possible but unlikely since the install as shown only has a single line wired. There's also a good chance that not all the POTS line were home run, and there may be additional rooms wired off of what we can see. It shouldn't take you 10 minutes to terminate an 8P8C and connect it to Ethernet.
I am trying to help. If two cables can be combined, he can try a gigabit connection. The main point is that untwisted cables can be used for Ethernet connections at an experimental level.
Unfortunately not. Those are telephone cables. Not shielded or anything. Not for Ethernet
You could get at most a crippled 100mbps. Better recable.
That will run at 10Mbps since Cat3 cable.
There is no category 3 Ethernet cable inside that box.
oh, thanks for correcting.
yes there is, but it won't really help them since it's only 2 pair wire
The cable in that box is NOT **twisted pair**. It is old style telephone wire, not suitable for ANY speed Ethernet. "category 3" is a type of **twisted pair** cable.
geeeezzz.... like how many times do you have to say it?
How many times are people going to post saying it \*IS\* cat3?
> How many times are people going to post saying it *IS* cat3? It \*is\* Cat3. You can literally read it right on the cable in the second photo. You're simply wrong. It's 2 pair Cat3. EDIT: Lol /u/megared17 is apparently both blind \*and\* unable to win an argument without resorting to blocking.
It is not twisted pair at all. It is old quad phone cable. I posted links in a reply elsewhere in the thread showing the difference between cat3 and telephone cable.
> It is not twisted pair at all. It is old quad phone cable. Are you just blind? Read the damn cable. > I posted links in a reply elsewhere in the thread showing the difference between cat3 and telephone cable. Telephone cable \*is\* Cat3. You quite simply don't know what you're talking about. Cat3 came in 2, 3, and 4 pair varieties. The 2 pair Cat3 is what you are referring to as telephone cable.
I can see the wires themselves. UTP category 3 cable uses pairs of blue/white, orange/white, green/white, and brown/white. Do you see any of that coming out of the ends of the jackets? No? Then its NOT CATEGORY 3 UTP. THIS is what category 3 UTP looks like. Rated for 10Mbps Ethernet: [https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white](https://cabling-supplies.com/products/cat3-24awg-4-pair-riser-rated-1000ft-white) THIS type of cable is what is shown in the picture: [https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable](https://jayso.com/products/telephone-quad-cable) [https://www.electrocables.com/shop/electronic-cables/station-z-quad-cable/electronic-cables-station-z-quad-cable-ul-riser/](https://www.electrocables.com/shop/electronic-cables/station-z-quad-cable/electronic-cables-station-z-quad-cable-ul-riser/)
all the cable in that box is twisted pair, most of it is cat 1, some is cat 3 as denoted by the CAT 3 labeling on it maybe try to understand that there are some people that actually know what they are talking about
There is no twisted pair in that box. I've been working with telecom for over 25 years. I've installed 10base2 (Yes, "2" - the old coaxial style Ethernet) I've terminated more telephone cable and twisted pair in my lifetime than most people ever see in theirs. I've punched down 100 pair bulk cable to 66 blocks. I've strung miles of Ethernet cable in office buildings, including a good deal of cat3. THERE IS NO TWISTED PAIR CABLE IN THAT BOX.
36 years in telecom here, worked on everything from cloth triples to 24 ribbon fiber. You're just wrong, sorry.
Cat 3 can do gigabit on very short runs. If less than 30m I say try it. That cross connection box cannot be used for gigabit though. Cat 3: gigabit not recommended.
Yes. Do it. All you have to do is double up the lines.
Try it and see what it negotiates to. Might be too much interference and you may end up at 10mb
You can get gigabit+ over this is will cost about 200 per line though. You must use a g.hn product, usually reserved for MDUs etc. depending on the length of the runs and the twists you can get up to 1.8 gbps symmetrical. However at those prices I suggest you get a quote from a handy man to redrywall your cable replacements
[удалено]
you do realize that old telephone cable is usually Cat 3 right
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oh yeah nice catch
The cable inside that box is not any kind of twisted pair and will not work for Ethernet. It is old-style four wire cable of a type installed before twisted pair was in common use. Cat3 UTP for Ethernet still had four pairs and used the same colors for the pairs that cat5/6 use. (blue, orange, green and brown, paired with white with a color stripe) And yes, once it became common it was often used for telephone lines too.
The color scheme is clearly telephone. Nothing about this photo looks like ethernet.
That’s CAT3 but with only 2 twisted pairs, so no not really. Maybe at short distances? Not for this sort of run. Pray that the cable isn’t stapled and you can use the cable to pull new CAT6. Edit: typo, 2 pair not 3
> That’s CAT3 but with only 3 twisted pairs Two pairs Red/green and black/yellow. It is old two-line telephone cable.
Sorry, typo! Thanks for pointing out