I hate CATs!

[merwin]

I also hate RJ.

Wiring up someone's house with CAT-5 ethernet (cabling and jacks for computer networking), and also for a telephone jack from one location to another.

Computer networking I can do pretty much with my eyes closed. I haven't had much experience with telephone jacks and cabling. I had to pick up some jacks and wire to run along the house from Radio Shack, as it was the closest place and bought the necessary parts.

Low and behold, the jack i got had Punchdowns for 6 wires, and the phone cabling had only 4 (which is what i was expecting). And did I mention that the punchdown instructions only told you which colors went where for 6 wires... not the 4 I had in the cable. After about 2 hours of looking like a complete idiot I finally gave up on it for the day.

I get home and look it up and as it turns out that what people normally refer to as RJ-11 actually is not really used anymore. There are three of them. RJ-11, RJ-14, and RJ-25 (4, 6, and 8 wires respectively). The standard for jacks is CAT-3 with 6 punchdowns meant for RJ-14 cabling. It is perfectly able to be used with an RJ-11 cable, but the third line won't work (who cares), and the color coding is different. If it sounds confusing, it is.

Long story short, I printed a matrix of what goes where when using a different style plug from the cable and am going to try to redeem myself in the morning, but it kind of pisses me off that the ultra-confident sales guy at Radio Shack didn't think that I might want to match up the cabling to the plug... most likely he was as clueless as I was.

Oh well, today is a new day and I will (hopefully) make myself look competent again.

[rpannier]

1. You are soooooooooo lucky

For a sec there I thought you meant the furry kind that said "Meow"

But you are right about the different cat cables. They can be a royal PitA (Pain in the A*S)

Good luck tomorrow

[merwin]

5. My meow CATs are on my bed with me.

one snuggling up to one side of me (butt towards me for quick escape if i roll over), one on the end of the bed, my wife and our 2 year old who just woke up a bit ago next to me.

[Cobalt-60]

2. Try Greybar

they're got the good stuff.

[liberalla]

3. I'm so glad you weren't talking about cats!

Sorry to read of your difficulties - and best wishes for a successful conclusion on your next attempt! :)

[rpannier]

4. All Cats go to heaven

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. There is a wealth of good how to on the web

Current smarthome "standard" is to wire RJ45 for everything, using either the A or B standard with CAT 5. The jack will work for up to 2 line voice comms or Ethernet, depending on what you patch it to at the head end

[Occam Bandage]

7. I thought you meant computer-assisted tomography, and was confused. nt