Trying to understand my phone and network wiring

My flat is partially wired with Cat 5e. The BT Master Socket has been moved to a cupboard where there is a 12-port patch panel, a gigabit switch, a VDSL modem, and a router.

There are 10 ethernet sockets spread between various rooms, and two sockets labelled "BT", both in the same room.

There are 10 Cat 5e cables wired in to the patch panel. There are 3 Cat 5e cables stuffed in to the back of the Master Socket.

I get the feeling this must imply that the 2 sockets labelled BT must somehow be wired directly in to the Master Socket.

My problem is I would prefer to have a BT socket in a different room, because I have a fax machine in that room, and I would like to be able to send faxes from it without physically moving the device near to a BT socket.

Also, to my mind, this seems an odd way of wiring things up. Isn't there a way of wiring up the sockets that would allow me to select which ones I want to use as phone outlets just by plugging the cable differently on a patch panel?

I would need to use some sort of adapter at the socket, presumably, but what needs to happen in the patch panel cupboard that would allow me to switch sockets around between phone and ethernet?

How can I manage things so that I don't do any damage by plugging things in to the wrong place?

My existing patch panel is a Connectix 10-inch 12-port model: http://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/soho-cabinets/266-12-po... .

I have seen this sort of setup before....there are a few things you need to get straight...

1) Plug in a phone into every rj45 on the patch panel to see if you have a dial tone (you will need an adapter rj45/11 male to bt female).
The set up i saw ports 12-16 had a dial tone.

2) You can then "patch" these ports to any other of the ports with a patch cable. Hopefully you can trace (if they were labled properly) where these network ports are in the property.

Hope you can follow that..

Ian

I think this is what I need:

http://tinypic.com/r/fdfy0x/8

In other words, a "telephone host panel", a patch panel that will accept a phone line "input", and allow several "outputs" per line. The one pictured in the link allows three separate phone lines, with four attached ports per line. For most phones, a Line Adapter Unit (LAU) is required to convert RJ45 at the wall plate to a conventional RJ11 socket.

In my current setup, I think I just have two BT sockets hard-wired to the Master socket so there is no possibility that I could get dial tone on any of my RJ45 wall sockets.

However, I think I will need to hire someone to do the wiring for me.

If the link is dead, try http://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/soho-cabinets/1319-cat5... and look for a pdf labelled "Home Networking Installation Guide".

Edited by deleted (Mon 26-May-14 14:24:40)

telephone host panel

Not really no wireing required...look at page 4 (page 2 on the pdf) the picture at the top of the page; this shows exactly what you require.http://1drv.ms/1nMcPbv

Ian