Wiring a Small Business Network

[CallumA]

Hi all,

So I've taken a job of setting up a network for a small business. Cat6 cable has already been run to each outlet in the shop (there's many rooms) and they all fall into a central location where I plan to have them all going into a patch panel.

That's all good, however the customer has requested that not all of these points be ethernet sockets. She wants each room to have access to the shared phone line (just a normal landline phone).

Now I understand it is achievable with a switch for internet (Modem -> switch -> patch panel) my question is is there a way of something similar for the phone line (Line -> ?? -> patch panel)

Hopefully I've explained this well enough!

Also, my understanding is this isn't a great way to go, ive mentioned VoIP packages with BT as an alternative but she's adamant she wants the phone line to go into each room.

 

[Danny091]

I read somewhere about a guy who did this in his house.
Essentially wire it to the patch panel like normal.
Then on another unused section of the patch panel use the punch down connectors at the back to "daisy chain" the ports for the two? cables required for telephone. Connect the normal patch ports to these for phone.

You'd have to check which pins are used for phone. ( I believe its 4&5 but check) But e.g. using the end of the panel for phone connection to socket. Then daisy them inwards. If 20 is connected to a socket somewhere in the building needing phone then you plug it into 22 for example which is part of the chain. OFC this isnt ideal.

(IMG Is example of what i mean, the cabling is wrong but gives you the picture)

 

[bledd]

If you have to do what this last wants (and not use VoIP), then have a separate patch panel for the daisy chain bodge.

Or use something like this..

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/m.aliexpress.com/item/32828138064.html?source=images#ampf=undefined

They exist in more ports, usually used for things like rj45 printers for till systems.

 

[neil_g]

If its standard bt style telephone socket then any reason he couldn't use pbx master modules at the device end.

Then bridge the patch side connections (just cut a plug off a patch lead) into the main line using a punchdown junction box circa £10. As above just find out which 2 pins you need to use.

How many rooms are we talking op?

 

[CallumA]

Off the top of my head, there's around 9 rooms.
And there's 4 cat6's into each room (2 pairs) so my plan was to have one pair was two RJ45 sockets connected to the switch and then the other pair one RJ45 and one RJ11 for telephone. So my plan is to have 9 telephone sockets stemming from the same line.

But obviously have the cleanest looking solution. The customer wants to have an easy way to be able to disable certain access points (for internet and telephone).

I imagined there would be *something* like this:

Excuse my bad drawing but wires from the pp going up to the switch and then wires going from pp to some kind of telephone hub where each socket on that hub is a live line coming from some socket.

 

[bremen1874]

No point having different sockets. A RJ11 will work in a RJ45 socket.

If you’re going to have dedicated phone ports then you may as well hard wire them.

 

[Danny091]

Off the top of my head, there's around 9 rooms.
And there's 4 cat6's into each room (2 pairs) so my plan was to have one pair was two RJ45 sockets connected to the switch and then the other pair one RJ45 and one RJ11 for telephone. So my plan is to have 9 telephone sockets stemming from the same line.

But obviously have the cleanest looking solution. The customer wants to have an easy way to be able to disable certain access points (for internet and telephone).

I imagined there would be *something* like this:

Excuse my bad drawing but wires from the pp going up to the switch and then wires going from pp to some kind of telephone hub where each socket on that hub is a live line coming from some socket.

I guess it would work fine yeh, just daisy chain the ports at the back of the telephone hub patch panel.

Its worth keeping in mind there is most likely a limit with the sheer amount of cable length and telephones your going to be adding which could start to degrade the signal quality, if this is also used for the broadband connection it could cause weird issues on that too. I'm not completely sure how this works as i've never experienced anything like this but its worth keeping in mind.

You don't need different sockets you should be fine using RJ11 in a RJ45 port as brenmen says. Most phones have rj11 connectors on the bottom, you might need to get some rj11 to rj11 and replace the standard cable on the phone which most likely have standard phone connectors on the end.

 

[bremen1874]

Your unlikely to hit a line limit on a phone connection. They can run for miles before that get to you. The internal extensions aren’t going to add anything significant.

 

[Danny091]

Fair enough, i was thinking more of it interfering if something like FTTC was being used.

 

[bremen1874]

I’d agree that running data over it wouldn’t be a good idea. Hopefully these extensions are all connected back to the filtered side of the master socket.

 

[CallumA]

Just for the record, decided on getting a small patch panel, I've got the phone line coming in the front (much like you would on a switch) and have just chained it on the back.

Think the customer will plan on getting a VoIP service soon in which I will just make all sockets internet rather than mixed with telephone. Cheers for the help!

(Picture is just a rough idea, I haven't yet done it but will chain all 8 cables even though only 4&5 will be used - more or less what Danny up above suggested)

 

[bledd]

Welcome to the forums too