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I need help. I'm not really good at networking. I have this telephone line that's connected to my router. It's a 22/4c as it is labeled on the wire. Now my pet hamsters escaped and was chewing off the cover of of my telephone wire and now I got no internet connection. I have a spare cat5e cable, now my question is can I connect a 22/4c wire to a cat5e utp cable?

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  • Although you can splice it with any old copper, you will be introducing much noise into the line. Replace it as soon as you can.
    – JoshP
    Oct 30, 2012 at 12:25
  • @Josh -- The Cat5 is better than the original phone cable, in terms of noise rejection. It's often used for new phone installations, so that only one type of cable is needed. Oct 30, 2012 at 12:31
  • @DanielRHicks of course, my point is that the instant you interrupt the twist, you have yourself an antennae. Splice, yes, but replace asap.
    – JoshP
    Oct 30, 2012 at 12:36
  • @Josh -- Actually, standard phone company cable isn't twisted, or is twisted very "lazily". The Cat5 is intensely twisted, but untwisting it to splice will not make it any worse than standard phone cable. Oct 30, 2012 at 12:42
  • @DanielRHicks- there is no standard. 50 different houses will have 25 different "standards". All I'm saying is that in my experience, anything other than an unblemished cable is asking for it. Cut it up, splice it, that's fine, and it likely won't even make a difference with voice, but I would not want a bare copper splice in the source of my internet connection. Worse than standard phone cable is a low bar imho.
    – JoshP
    Oct 30, 2012 at 12:49

2 Answers 2

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Splice the wires, making sure that whatever wire in the new piece is connected to a color on one end is connected to the same color on the other end. Leave plenty of slack.

How you splice is up to you -- for short term you can just twist the "stripped" (insulation removed) wires together tightly and wrap with some sort of tape (but such a splice will pull apart easily). For a robust connection you should use a connection block or crimp connectors and anchor the cables on either side so they won't be pulled loose.

(Cat 5 is used in place of phone cable all the time, so the cable is up to the task.)

(PS: With no internet connection, how did you post the above and how will you read this?)

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  • thats a good question actually. Maybe its different here but wouldn't the connectors be different?
    – Journeyman Geek
    Oct 30, 2012 at 12:23
  • @JourneymanGeek -- Well, if you're splicing you don't care about the connectors. But you can, if you wish, get a RJ-45 to screw terminal connector block so you can use the connector on the Cat5. Oct 30, 2012 at 12:30
  • yes thank you, this is exactly what i did and now it works better than the old telephone line..i connected the orange and brown wire in the cat5e cable to the adsl splitter and it worked. :-)
    – clydewinux
    Oct 31, 2012 at 10:24
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maybe you could just patch up your old cable?

some soldering or a luster terminal could solve your issue for now, until you get this cable replaced.

luster terminal

Just remove some of the isolation and connect the wires by color.

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  • What's a 'luster terminal'?
    – Journeyman Geek
    Oct 30, 2012 at 12:23
  • these thingies: stockpodium.com/stock-photo-8851754/luster-terminal-image.jpg
    – Jook
    Oct 30, 2012 at 12:26
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    That'd be a screw terminal block. Probably better/simpler are crimp connectors. Oct 30, 2012 at 12:28
  • sorry, dict.cc failed me ^^ - however, I don't like crimp connectors that much in these cases, because: you need the right sice and preferably the right tool to crimp them, otherwise its a bit messy and unreliable - a screw terminal would be easier to find & to handle
    – Jook
    Oct 30, 2012 at 12:31
  • There are rather nice little crimp connectors for phone lines that only require pliers and are about as secure and reliable as one could want. After all, the phone company has used them for about 40 years. Screw terminals are in my (considerable) experience less reliable -- the wires (unless field tinned) often go "haywire" and short out or pull loose. Oct 30, 2012 at 12:39

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