Question : Problem: Running telephone cable over Cat5e cable to the central wiring closet

I am wiring a new office for a client and while I know how to handle the networking cable for the computers, the telephone connection is a bit different.

The electrician has run Cat5e cable but decided he didn't want to add the jacks or patch panels, so I am having to do it myself. No other contractors in the area will take the time for such a "small job".

The outlets I have (female ends) are 6 pin, and standard analogue phones will be used (with 4 pin male ends) if this makes any difference.

The outlets are colour coded so punching the Cat5e cable into them is no problem (the Brown and White-Brown wires appear to be unused). My problem is going to be the back end in the wiring closet. The office will have 2 incoming lines (may be increased to 4 lines in the future).

What do I have to do in the wiring closet? I don't think I would use the same type of patch panel that I use for Ethernet, as the outlets are too large for phone cables.

We are not planning on combining the ethernet and phone lines on 1 cable, they will be separated.

I've found good stuff on ethernet cabling, just not for telephone work.

Answer : Problem: Running telephone cable over Cat5e cable to the central wiring closet

Depending on the size of the office - you can pick up a small telephone punchdown pannel - intended for structured wiring for homes- which will take one or two lines and distribute to 8-12 locations.  All terminations are 110.  You can pick them up from smarthome.com or Lowes or Home Depot in the US.

For a larger installation, you could terminate on 66 or 110 blocks your station cables (the ones to the jacks).  Your signal will run across the blue pair.  The other pair can be used for extensions, fax, etc - with a splitter.  But your main phone signal will travel the blue pair, remember that - it's going to be on pins 3 and 4.  For distributing one or two lines to all jacks - you could reverse your punchdown so it doesn't cut, and then snake a line between all blue terminations.

Hope this helps.