The cable you describe is fairly standard these days for connecting phones to cat 5 because, as Shay says, a lot of cable installations simply put cat 5 everywhere and don't use separate phone cables - especially with the advent of IP phone systems that run over Ethernet.
You don't actually need these cables to plug phones into cat 5, the RJ11 (6 pin for phones) will fit into the middle of a RJ45 (8 pin) jack. Purists don't like to do this because, after a time, it creates a difference in the tension of the 6 middle pins and the 2 outer but it isn't that significant. Your alternative of course is to simply put a hub or switch in the senior room and "uplink" to the Airport over the LAN seeing as you have a cable to the room. Or, if you don't have the senior room cabled, connect one Mac using the cable and use software base station to create another Airport network. I'm not sure of the impact of this with the overlapping network coverage as the Airport isn't, to my knowledge, cell based like it's big brother Lucent's WaveLAN. But, perhaps, if you create a different network on a separate channel it will work. I hope this give you a few ideas. Cheers Greg on 21/10/02 2:02 PM, Shay Telfer at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> I have ethernet cabling to all rooms, with a spare cable connection to >> the senior room. I have one short Telstra phone cable with a wide >> ethernet type plug at one end and a standard small phone plug at the >> other. Presumably it's for when I get connected to adsl at home! > > Where did the cable come from? What is it *meant* to be used for? > Without knowing that it's difficult to hazard a guess as to how it is > wired. If it's designed for connecting telephones to the school's > CAT-5 wiring, then it's a pretty safe bet. > >> If I had another identical one, could I use them, plus the >> already-installed ethernet cable from classroom to library, shift the >> AirPort Base station to the senior room, and still have it connected to >> Telstra phone point in the library. >> >> ie AirPort Base Station in classroom - telephone to ethernet adaptor >> cable - 10BaseT ethernet cable through ceiling to library - ethernet to >> phone cable to phone plug. >> >> Is the cable configuration the same? Would it work? > > Typically phone connections are run over ethernet cabling in many > institutions without any problems, to allow for cabling flexibility. > You just have to make sure they're plugged into the correct things at > both ends. > > Otherwise, just try it. You're unlikely to be able to blow up the > Airport or destroy the phone system. However you may be in breach of > various telecommunications legislation about what you're allowed to > connect to the telephone network. > > Have fun, > Shay
