Can you split patch leads?
 

I have one CAT 5 cable running to a room upstairs and ideally need to spilt it because I cant be bothered to run another one up there :D

Do such things exist? need to run a PC and one of the Xbox's from it.

Thanks in advance

Chris

Well, yes you could (as 10/100mb only needs 2 pairs).

But just buy a 5-port switch or two. Much better way.

Yes of course

To run Cat5 you only need 4 wires. Just pare back and use the other 4 in another plug. Take it you have plugs and crimps?

I hard wired a house just using one wire for both phone and IT as I was feeling lazy at the time... :D

As per jowl, you can buy a switch for a tenner upwards and run multiple PCs, web-cams, wireless access points etc. (think of the future)!

mb

Woah... ok it can be done it seems :)

I don't have crimps and plugs, nor does my experience run to splitting CAT 5 cable. I am ok with wiring up your standard CAT 5 patch leads but splitting them is another thing.

So, from my router downstairs I could in theory run one single cable to say, a 5 port switch in one room upstairs and then run multiple cables from that to the other rooms?.

Im on 100mbs network, which I think it more than sufficent for a home network?

The annyoing thing about all this, i have just finished complely refurbishing my house and if i had realised sooner just how pants wireless is, would have put a cable into every room :cry:

It can be done. Maplin used to do some adaptors which did the splitting.

Ethernet uses pins 1,2,3 & 6. So use oranges and greens on one link and then browns and blues in the same positions on the other if you want to do it that way. Gets messy and unreliable though as the sleeve isn't crimped properly.

As mentioned before, a cheap hub/switch upstairs would do it.

Cheap switch is probably the best option or alternatively to save having to do even short cable runs, you could put a cheap wireless access point in upstairs aswell (you don't need routing functionality on it). Configure the unit with the same essid as your one downstairs and use the same encryption key / pass-phrase but ensure it's set to a different frequency channel. Voila, roaming wireless network. Your devices will default to the strongest signal of their own accord. That said, the reason for the cheap switch instead is because you mentioned the xbox - you should get better ping times via the switch. :)

Thanks for all the replies :)

Just ordered a splitter and two 3m patch leads from ebay for the shocking cost of £3 all in :D

Chris

My house is held up by Cat5 cables. Everytime we decorate a room, the wall gets channeled out for Cat5 :D

Hmmm.. somehow didn't think it would be as simple as plugging a splitter in and everything works!

It seems the PC cannot find an IP address. I suspect this is because you cannot run 2 devices from on one IP address?

Any help would be appreciated.

Chris

LOL :lol1:

Think I know what he's done. Ethernet switch would have been your best option ;)

You do have a splitter on both ends don't you?

;)

Quote:
Originally Posted by JackClark
You do have a splitter on both ends don't you?

Errrr.. NO :Suspiciou

How does that help what i am trying to do?

1 cable downstairs from router, split into 2 upstairs. One plugged into the Xbox and one into the PC. The very reason I asked in the first place was because I thought it couldn't be done!

I'm glad it amused you, but your post isn't all that helpful is it DODGER?

You need a splitter on both ends, two ethernet plugs into the router then two into the devices of your choice on the other end.

Thanks Jack!

So in effect you are channelling 2 ports down one wire and then opening them up at the other side again?

Might be a problem, since i may not have enough ports spare on the downstairs router. However, I do have another router. Presumably if I connected this to the single cable upstairs it will act as a switch and another DHCP server?

Exactly.

On the router front, just plug it in and it'll most likely work without any changes, well worth a try.

You might want to turn off DHCP on the second router as it may conflict with the router accessing the internet. You don't want your Xbox taking an address from the upstairs router that gives a different internet gateway than the one downstairs!

Simple rule is simple networks only need 1 DHCP server

Ideally you should do what I will be wiring up for a mate of mine

100Mb wireless router to the internet connected to gigabit switch for downstairs connections. One cat 5e lead going upstairs to another gigabit switch with a wireless repeater hanging off it.

So you have hard-wired wherever you want it and strong wireless anywhere in the house.