Random Orbital Bob
Established Member
Hi Folks
Looking for some telco help this morning.
10 years ago we built our own home and ran cat 5 all over. Regrettably we failed miserably to install it in the one room we now need fast wifi...the lounge because instead Sky advised us their technology at the time required a BT socket installed next to their box, as well as the co-ax to the dish. You simply connected a 4 wire BT plug in the wall via an RJ11 to the Sky box and that downloaded various services to the box.
Sky upgraded us to a more modern version of their box last year which I think is called Sky HD and it no longer uses that BT socket, instead it connects to the home wifi for services....which due to our lack of cat 5 in that room has no wireless access point anywhere near, so a rubbish wifi signal since the router is miles away and through several walls.
My question is, can I repurpose that BT socket and use it to plumb in a wireless access point to get wifi right next to the sky box. I've no idea where it terminates but is it reasonable to assume it's simply a regular phone extension off the incoming primary BT box?
Matters are further complicated by the fact I have a wacking great patch panel at the point my BT box enters the house because that's where all the motorway of Cat5 terminates to distribute phone and internet to the rooms where we did remember to install RJ45 sockets. That makes it very difficult to trace the route of any given cable from its terminus to its origin.
So my lack of kowledge about telco is almost complete. I know that internet only uses 4 of the cables in an 8 cable cat 5 setup and phone uses 2. So, given the socket in the wall in question has a 4 pin style BT connector (not RJ11, nor RJ45 and I dont know the name of the plug other than a 4 pin style BT connector). Do I conclude from that it has 4 cables to it?
If thats true then, I could trace it right through the roof space and down to the BT socket end and then simply wack an RJ45 on the other end and plug it into one of the spare ports in the router. Would that work or am I over complicating this?
My plan B is to take an existing and known to be working cat5 run to our bedroom, split the cable in the loft, install RJ45's on the split and then plug both into a 2 way splitter, then spur off the 2nd channel of that into the lounge which has accessible conduit inside the wall leading to the floor behind the sky box.
I'll do virtually anything to avoid running a fresh cable right through the loft as its enormous and riddled with truss roof thats nigh on impossible to navigate.
Looking for some telco help this morning.
10 years ago we built our own home and ran cat 5 all over. Regrettably we failed miserably to install it in the one room we now need fast wifi...the lounge because instead Sky advised us their technology at the time required a BT socket installed next to their box, as well as the co-ax to the dish. You simply connected a 4 wire BT plug in the wall via an RJ11 to the Sky box and that downloaded various services to the box.
Sky upgraded us to a more modern version of their box last year which I think is called Sky HD and it no longer uses that BT socket, instead it connects to the home wifi for services....which due to our lack of cat 5 in that room has no wireless access point anywhere near, so a rubbish wifi signal since the router is miles away and through several walls.
My question is, can I repurpose that BT socket and use it to plumb in a wireless access point to get wifi right next to the sky box. I've no idea where it terminates but is it reasonable to assume it's simply a regular phone extension off the incoming primary BT box?
Matters are further complicated by the fact I have a wacking great patch panel at the point my BT box enters the house because that's where all the motorway of Cat5 terminates to distribute phone and internet to the rooms where we did remember to install RJ45 sockets. That makes it very difficult to trace the route of any given cable from its terminus to its origin.
So my lack of kowledge about telco is almost complete. I know that internet only uses 4 of the cables in an 8 cable cat 5 setup and phone uses 2. So, given the socket in the wall in question has a 4 pin style BT connector (not RJ11, nor RJ45 and I dont know the name of the plug other than a 4 pin style BT connector). Do I conclude from that it has 4 cables to it?
If thats true then, I could trace it right through the roof space and down to the BT socket end and then simply wack an RJ45 on the other end and plug it into one of the spare ports in the router. Would that work or am I over complicating this?
My plan B is to take an existing and known to be working cat5 run to our bedroom, split the cable in the loft, install RJ45's on the split and then plug both into a 2 way splitter, then spur off the 2nd channel of that into the lounge which has accessible conduit inside the wall leading to the floor behind the sky box.
I'll do virtually anything to avoid running a fresh cable right through the loft as its enormous and riddled with truss roof thats nigh on impossible to navigate.
