[Asterisk-Users] asterisk home wiring question

Thu Apr 21 10:25:56 MST 2005

Even if you choose not to use his other suggestions, I strongly agree with
Wiley's idea of using cat-5 instead of cat-3.  The difference in cost is
minimal, and it will give you much more flexibility down the road.  You
could even terminate the cat-5 with an RJ-45, and plug your RJ-11 phone cord
into it.  It will work fine, and that way you don't have to re-do the jacks
later when you decide to go all IP. 

Back at the distribution point, you can terminate everything on an
inexpensive cat-5 patch panel, and then cross-connect to whatever you like -
ATA, Asterisk box, Ethernet switch, whatever.

Brian Leyton
IT Manager
Commercial Petroleum Equipment

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wiley Siler [mailto:wsiler at education2020.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 10:03 AM
> To: Dylan VanHerpen; Asterisk Users Mailing List - 
> Non-Commercial Discussion; snacktime
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk home wiring question
> 
> Just for grins....  A few thoughts.
> 
> Run Cat5 exclusively and just pull pairs for phone.  Cheaper 
> and better solution that CAT3 and CAT5 mixed together. 
> It allows you to change the end points at will.  Who knows if 
> you may want to change over to RJ45 ports and go total IP at 
> some point.
> You would not be able to do that with CAT3.  You would need 
> some CAT5 and have to redo the pulls.
> You also get enough pairs on CAT5 to put two phone jacks per 
> strand instead of just one.  
> Even if you ignore the rest of my email, I would consider 
> this seriously.
> 
> For ideas on how to wire the house, look at the Vonage 
> website for a graph on how Vonage suggests to wire the Vonage 
> ATA into the house.  I know you do not have a Vonage adapter 
> but the same essentual configuration for wiring should apply 
> to your situation.  Essentually, you disconnect the house 
> form the PSTN then connect your * machines FXS
> to any wall jack to provide tone.   This should distribute tone to all
> the jacks.  Limit is around 5 analog phones if memory serves.
> 
> If your intention is to provide tone to the house with 
> switching between Asterisk with VoiP service (SIP or IAX from 
> some ITSP) and a standard PSTN line from the local telco, 
> then you would do as described above.
> Isolate your internal phone system, then pull a new jack from 
> the PSTN to the room where your * sits.  Plug the FXO card in 
> your * into the new isolated phone jack and * now has a POTS 
> line to work with.
> 
> Voilla.  Some good dial plan management and you have an 
> internal PBX system that has VoIP service over your internet 
> connection and a connection to a POTS line.  Your internal 
> phones will be isolated correctly so you don't get contention 
> issues with the external analog link.  
> 
> However, one final question.  If you are rewiring the whole 
> house and pulling CAT5 (right?), why not just provision each 
> wall plates with 2
> RJ45 network ports and pull two strands of CAT5 per location. 
>  Then you can buy a good Gigabit switch for around $300 and 
> setup your whole house on Gigabit.  Throw some cheap (or 
> expensive) SIP phones on the network and you have a really 
> nice internal phone system.  Want to use your old phones?  
> Get ATAs or IAXy devices.  That being said, I know that is a 
> more expensive way to go but it really does offer you a long 
> term solution with many benefits. 
> 
> Just some thoughts!!
> 
> Cheers,
> Wiley
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
> Dylan VanHerpen
> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 9:21 AM
> To: snacktime; Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] asterisk home wiring question
> 
> Chris,
> 
> If you are looking to run your second line through *, you 
> will need to run the line from the demarc to an FXO port on 
> your Asterisk machine, and then run a line from an FXS card 
> to the jack location where you will be using an analog phone.
> 
> You cannot connect an incoming line from your telco to an FXS port.
> 
> Dylan.
> 
> On 4/20/05, snacktime <snacktime at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I was thinking about the best way to hook up the second line in my 
> > house to an * fxs port.  Would I just wire the fxs to the incoming 
> > side of a line at my demarc?
> 
> By 2nd line you mean a phone line from your telco, or an 
> unused pair of wire?
> 
> > Or should I splice it in after that?
> If you splice the FXS port into an existing phone line, you 
> will be putting 2 dialtones on the line (one from *, one from 
> your telco). The end result will be no dialtone at all ;)
> 
> > 
> > I need to rewire the whole house anyways.  What I had 
> imagined was new
> > cat3 for the phones, and then running a cat5 also while I'm 
> at it for 
> > housewide internet access.
> > 
> > Now my computer room where the internet switch and my * box are 
> > located is at the opposite end of the house from the 
> demarc.  That is 
> > where the fxs port would be.  The house has a huge crawl space so 
> > running the wire will be easy.
> > 
> > Any thoughts?
> > 
> > Chris
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