Cat5 Help Please

[billyace]

My house was wired with cat5 wiring when it was built. When I remove the phone jack face plates, I see a total of 8 wires (4 pairs): 4 wires go to the phone jack and 4 wires are not attached to anything. I now want to create a wired home network. I would like each faceplate to have jacks for ethernet and telephone (2 line phone). Is this possible with the 8 wires total that I have? Someone told me that having internet and phone running thru the same cat5 wires would create possible connection losses for the internet and/or phone. Is this true? Thanks in advance for your reply.
BA

 

[setishock]

Um...

How is the cable ran? Is it one loop going around from jack to jack or is it homerun from each jack back to a central point?

 

[billyace]

Not Sure

I don't know whether the jacks are daisy chained or homerun. I was planning to hire a specialist to cap the wires and I assume that he will be able to tell. If, however, neither daisy chained or homerun will allow for a reliable network connection with my setup (4 wires to phone jack and 4 wires unused), then I will need a different solution rather than use my cat5 line. My network is presently a Linksys WIFI setup, but that is giving a very poor connection to my wife's computer on the other side of the house. Will either daisy chained or homerun allow for a reliable ethernet connection along with 2-line telephone?

 

[setishock]

Well...

To give you a simple answer, hardwire is always the way to go. Wireless is subject to weather, terrain, and your neibours kid tapping in to your network. Besides it's a whole lot faster on wire that radio.