I am running new cable from my second floor to my first using wall jacks. I'm not getting a connection through them and I don't have a tester on me. The cables going into the upstairs from the modem are cat6. In the wall is cat6. And the data jacks are cat6 but the ethernet coming out of the wall downstairs in cat5e. Would that make it not work?
Wiring – Running cat6 through a wall
data-wiringwiring
Related Solutions
Yes, with it being cat-5e cable, you could repurpose it as network cable by installing rj-45 jacks. Early Ethernet (10mBit & 100mBit) used two pairs (4 wires) and Gigabit typically uses all 4 pairs (all 8). Your Cat-5 link is referring to 10/100 Ethernet, so only two pairs are used. The other two pairs could carry a phone line each or another Ethernet connection (we used this on IP phones, the computer was on one half and the VOIP on the other half, figure out the color diagrams yourself for your RJ-45s on the second half). My preference is to not muck around with this as the first time you plug in a Gigabit equipped computer, you face getting full ring voltage into its RX/TX for the second set of pairs. Wire it for Gigabit using all pairs and be done with it.
In the good old days of 25 wire straight cable, daisy chain was common installation technique, with the advent of CAT-4 and above phone installations I have worked with have all been star to a central patch panel.
There are various types of cable clips that use adhesive to hold them in place, such as these
If you are concerned about damaging the finish when they are taken off, some brands have pull strips that claim to avoid paint damage.
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Best Answer
For typical use up to 1 Gig., CAT 5e or CAT 6 will work fine, and they can be mixed together without any problem.
Use the right tools for the job!
Get a Tester
It is incredibly easy to miss a wire or get two wires swapped. It happens to the best of us. A tester is worth every penny. When I started with Ethernet twisted pair networks many years ago, my first tester cost a few hundred $ and was worth every penny. The good news is that now they have gotten dirt cheap, so that they can make sense even for occasional use. I currently have a Klein tester:
and I've also got some cheap almost throwaway testers like this:
Almost any of them will do a reasonable job of telling you if things are wired correctly or not (and if not, what wires are wrong). The more expensive models can catch other types of errors, mains voltage on the line (ouch!), and more.
And while we're at it, if you don't already have one, get a
Punch Tool:
As with the tester, if you get a better quality tool it will last longer and might be a little easier to use. But for once-in-a-while usage, a cheap one will do just fine and will be a lot easier and a lot more reliable than trying to get wires onto a jack using a screwdriver or some other not-designed-for-the-job tool.