How to Use a Phone Line to Network Your House
Phone lines not only bring phone service into your house, they also function as Digital Subscriber Line or DSL. DSL is used to provide Internet access and operates over standard copper telephone lines, but it does not affect phone service in any way. Phone lines with DSL service connect to a modem that acts as a signal modulator between your computer and the telephone company. Connecting a modem to a network router and connecting several computers to the router will create a computer network inside your house.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- RJ45 keystone jacks
- Cat-6 cable
- Cable staples
- RJ45 wall plates
- Telephone outlet box
- Network Router
- Tape measure
- Cat-6 patch cables
- Modem
Instructions
-
-
1
Walk around your house and pinpoint the exact spots where you would like to place each computer. Find a good area where you would like to place your network router, but make sure that the area is free from excessive humidity.
-
2
Map the route that you will use to wire each line from the network router to the exact spot where each computer will be located. You can run the cables along baseboards of walls or through the ceiling if there is enough room there to maneuver and install the cables. Do not plan to run any cable alongside electrical wires to avoid interference from magnetic fields.
-
-
3
Measure the distance that each route will take, add three feet to each route, and add all the measurements together to get the total length of Cat-6 cable that you will need. Buy the Cat-6 cable, and include two RJ-45 keystone jacks and one RJ-45 jack faceplate for each line that you will run. Add one more RJ-45 jack faceplate and one more wall outlet box for the connection on the router's side.
-
4
Mount the telephone outlet boxes on each wall where you will attach an RJ-45 network jack. Slide a Cat-6 cable into the outlet box, and run it neatly along the routes you have mapped earlier. Leave at least two feet of cable allowance on one end for the router, and a foot for the RJ-45 jack on the other end. Fasten the cable securely using cable staple, and perform the same procedure on all the lines that you have to run.
-
5
Strip an inch off the outer cover of the Cat-6 cable using diagonal pliers, and straighten out the eight twisted inner wires. Pry off the snap-on cover of the RJ-45 keystone jack, and look at the two small color-coded wiring chart printed on top or at the side of the jack. Choose a wiring scheme of your choice, but make sure that the same scheme is used on all the wiring that you will make for this LAN.
-
6
Place the wires on top of the keystone jack with the jack opening facing away from the wires. Divert each colored wire to its matching color-coded slot using the color scheme of your choice slot, and punch down each wire using the punch-down tool that came with the keystone jack.
-
7
Trim any excess wires along both sides of the jack, using diagonal pliers. Replace the jack's snap-on cover, and attach the keystone jack to its faceplate. Install the faceplate onto the outlet box on the wall, using a screwdriver. Perform procedures from step 5 up to this step on all ends of the Cat-6 cable, but use only a single faceplate with multiple slots to hold all the RJ-45 keystone jacks on the router's side.
-
8
Connect the computers to the network by plugging the computer's patch cable into its corresponding RJ-45 wall jack. Connect the router to the network cables by plugging one end of a computer patch cable into each RJ-45 wall jack and the other end into an Ethernet port at the back of the router.
-
9
Connect your router to your DSL modem by plugging one end of an Ethernet patch cord into the network jack at the back of your modem, and plugging the other end to the "WAN" or Internet port at the back of your router.
-
10
Connect your modem to the telephone line by plugging one end of a phone cord into the wall jack and plugging the other end into the telephone jack marked "DSL" or "Line" at the back of the modem.
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit network connection image by stresskiller from Fotolia.com
