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I have an Open House telephone extension hub (ChannelPlus model H618). It has 7 Cat 5Es connected to it. 8th line is disconnected. In the house, I have 6 phone wall outlets. Still looking for the 7th one.

Can I convert phone jacks to network jacks to run network through them? Cables are Cat 5E, but I am not sure if phone line is split or not between the smart panel and the wall outlet. Is there an easy way to confirm whether phone line is split or not?

Note: What I mean by split is a phone line spliced and powering multiple phone jacks. As far as I know Ethernet connections need to be point to point.

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  • what do you mean when you say split?
    – jsotola
    Jul 27, 2021 at 3:37
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    I see an Open House unit that has the Cat5 connected. am assuming you are correct and yes it can be connected as a network cable however it must be disconnected from the phone system. If they spliced into it it would normally be at the termination of the phone. You can disconnect both ends and use a cable tester to be sure it is wired correctly.
    – Gil
    Jul 27, 2021 at 4:14

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Easy way to confirm whether one of these drops is tapped (split) out to go to two or more outlets? There are simple tests you could do which could confirm two known outlets are served from a single cable. There's no easy test that can assure lack of an unknown tap though. It can be done with a time domain reflectometer, but that's not something an ordinary person would call "easy."

While we're talking about easy: the easiest thing to do is punch these to an RJ45 patch panel, put RJ45 sockets on the other end too, and find out whether your chosen Ethernet equipment links reliably. If it does that's great; if it doesn't there are a wide range of cable tester instruments you can use to diagnose what's wrong.

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  • And while putting the RJ45 sockets on the other ends, look to see if there are any with more than one set of wires connected - that would indicate a "split" in the wiring and will have to be removed.
    – Mark
    Jul 27, 2021 at 15:32

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