Is ethernet the same as 8-conductor phone?
 

The title says it all, really. Are they the same thing?

I had some customers come into RadioShack today asking for "regular business phone." I was under the impression that 8 conductor phone line used the same connection, and there were only more connections packed into it. When I looked, however, I realized there was really only room for 6. I asked someone, and they pointed me to the ethernet cable. The guy said it looked right for his phone, and they didn't come back in later to return it, so I guess it must be right... but can anyone confirm this? Is there any difference between them?

No, they aren't the same.

The cable should be stamped with an identifier. Look for Cat(something). Lots of telephone cable is Cat3. Current network cable will be 5(maybe e) or 6, and while the 8-pin modular connector may fit it may also only have 4 pins connected.

Google kicked this little primer on pinout differences:

http://www.zytrax.com/tech/layer_1/c...bles_jacks.htm

Chart shows RJ45:
Used in telephone wiring (ISDN and T1), LAN (10baseT and 100BaseT) and RS232 (RS232D) wiring

So I'm thinking if the Radio Shack RJ45 cable uses all 8 lines then the cable can be used for "business phone" or LAN.

However, I've never seen an 8 line RJ45 cable.

Just to clear up some of the nomenclature used so far.

RJ-11 and RJ-45 are connector types. 11 can handle up to 2 pair (4 wires) and 45 can terminate 4 pair (8 wires). RJ-12 is a 3 pair (6 wires) connector.

Ethernet is a layer 2 internetworking protcol. It specifies the use of cat 5 cable at a minimun and rj-45 connectors at each junction point...I think.

Cat 5 is a cable specification, defining the number of pairs in the cable (4 pairs or 8 wires) the number of twists per inch of each pair and the twists of each pair per inch of the 4 pair in the cable. There are also some EMI, impedence, and gauge specifications also, which must be adhered to in order to qualify for the Cat 5 designation.

"regular business phone." is a laymens term which could mean anything. Each phone line requires a single pair, therefore three lines will require 3 pair, one line one pair, 4 lines 4 pair...etc...

Essentially you could run one phone line on cat5 terminated with rj-45s at the wall and an rj-11 at the phone (leaving two of the four pair unexposed and unterminated.)

Something else interesting with cable terminations are the 568 A and B standards. Check them out if your interested.

FYI,

-bear

PS..To answer the question presented. Yes, ethernet cable would qualify as 8 conductor phone cable, however...8 conductor phone cable is not necc ethernet.

OK, that's the answer I was looking for. I thought that would be the case. So is 8 conductor phone generally cat 3 or cat 4?

Cat 3 typically but the standard has changed to Cat 5 for new installs of any residential/commercial inside phone wiring.

Either would work, but neither is generally what you'd find.

I think that generally for voice service only, cat one is the common cable used.

Now however almost all new installs will use cat 6 throughout the entire installation.

-bear

In my experience, on new installs cat5e is still more common than 6.

What I was trying to say way above was there's no guarantee TX spec cabling will have more than two pair. Being that copper is expensive... Sure, we hope they're wired for poe or whatever, but many networks would never notice the difference. Wouldn't work well for 8-conductor telephone duty.