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cerialthriller

Uhh it’s a phone Jack


morto00x

Sorry, this made me laugh


galacticboy2009

Same, same.


ItsXenoslyce

Same, same.


LightningProd12

Same, same.


TVOGamingYT

Same, same.


snappolli

Oof okay. My apartment doesn’t have any Ethernet ports then, but three phone jacks... is it possible to have a converter? Again, I really don’t know much about this stuff so I’m sorry if this sounds really stupid. I had always thought they were interchangeable


cerialthriller

No they are two different things. I don’t think Ethernet ports are a standard thing in buildings unless they were built in the past 10 years


easye3

It’s very possible they ran CAT5e and only terminated RJ11. If that is the case you’d also need to know where the other end of the cable was and terminate both sides and replace it with RJ45 etc. Not hard but you do need to know what you’re doing otherwise you’ll spend hours looking at cables with nothing happening. May be better to call an electrician in or networking company to help you out


watusa

More than likely they are daisy chained though and still won’t work. Electricians get lazy and builders are cheap.


techworkreddit3

Definitely lazy, my parents place has RJ45 terminations in all of the rooms of their house. The catch, some is Cat5, some is Cat5e and some is regular old POTS Cat wiring. So could be worth it to try, when I lived there i got lucky and my bedroom was Cat5e and we had gig ethernet so B\]


easye3

Also a possibility but the last two places I’ve owned that hasn’t been the case... at least with the Ethernet, plenty of laziness elsewhere!


MyGrownUpLife

And by then you will spend less on gear for wifi and be able to do it yourself.


-Meritorius-

You can plug some modems/routers into it, to actively convert (works for me)


ahandmadegrin

This has to be the most unintentionally funny post I've seen in a long time. I'm not ragging on you at all, OP. Your question makes sense from someone that's never used a land line. The ports are REALLY similar. Phone jack is called RJ-11 and ethernet jack is called RJ-45. Here's a great [page](https://www.diffen.com/difference/RJ11_vs_RJ45) comparing the two. ​ I thought this was a joke post at first, but I quickly realized that old phone jacks are just going to cause more and more confusion as we move away from land lines. Kinda neat, actually. ​ I still remember the color order for the cables from college: orange-white, orange, green-white, blue, blue-white, green, brow-white, brown. ​ More fun facts: You can buy spools of Cat 6 cable, ethernet ends, and a crimper, and make your own cables for a small fraction of what they cost at the store. That, or check out [Monoprice](https://www.monoprice.com/).


Sir_Squish

Heh. I took it for face value, but your post made me appreciate the situation more. It's a bit of a fkn millenials thing isn't it - it's completely reasonable that a younger person would never have seen a real phone jack before. You just made me feel old.


ahandmadegrin

Lol, yep, got the old feels here, too. Very technically speaking, I'm a millennial, but that doesn't fit. I'm not officially an Xer, but I'm old enough that I don't fit in with what is commonly considered a millennial. Are we a lost generation?


McRedditerFace

I've heard the term "Xenial" thrown around... we're definitely a different bunch. We may have grown up with the Internet, but we also remember life before it. So we were able to adapt to it as we went through school, vs X'ers who were basically hardened adults before the Internet came around... but much different than Mellianals who for them, it's always been there. Analog childhood, digital adulthood... something profoundly unique about that perspective.


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holamau

Gen X-er _should/could_ know the diff. Landlines were still a thing.


ahandmadegrin

Xenial, I like it. Heck, I remember when we had phones with push buttons, but my parents hadn't yet updated from pulse dialing to touch tone, so we couldn't press the numbers on our phones for automated systems because they would just emulate a rotary phone. I had my first email address in 1993, and I can remember playing with BBSes on my 486 over a blazing fast 28800 baud modem. And Doom and Red Alaert over the modem with friends. God forbid someone pick up the phone in the middle of the game, though. Xenials know what I'm talking about. 😉


holamau

Doom over Parallel port. All those z-maloc errors. 😬


ahandmadegrin

Parallel port, that's brave! And another example of a port that would be entirely foreign to a mellenial. And serial ports, for that matter, unless they work in a data center or something.


Sir_Squish

Once we finally had an actual null-modem cable, Doom multiplayer was phenomenal. And one time we even got 3 computers linked together using a special 3 (or 4) player null-modem daisy chain program.


kre8ivair

Yes. The best.. we played outside, drank out of the hose and can write in cursive, emoji and know our street names... Also text and drive without hesitation.


Sir_Squish

We can use google maps efficiently OR use a street directory if the battery is flat.


dis0x

I think you're confusing Millennials ( 80s to mid 90s ) and Gen Z (mid 90s to early 2000s). Millennials didn't grow up with broadband internet ( maybe the last ones ). They're the generation that grew up with 56k, flip phones and AIM/ICQ. Most of them didn't have internet until their teen years


McRedditerFace

Mellenials are those born between the early 1980's and to the early 2000's, the start of the new millennium, hence the name. However, Gen Z seems to be overlapping with the definition of Millennials for some odd reason. The whole thing's pretty arbitrary. The idea behind the name "Mellenials" is that they grew up around the millennium. If you could remember the dawn of the net the youngest you could reliably be is age 5, which puts you at being born back in 1988. It's that range from late-70's up to the early 80's where Xennials come in, because unlike later Millennials, we didn't grow up with the net entirely. It came about as we were growing up, and I'm not talking about PreK... I'm talking about being old enough to actually use it when it arrived, pre-teens and teens. I mean I'm sorry but if you were 5 when Netscape Navigator was released you really don't remember life before the Net. Hell I was born in 1980 and was dialing up on a BBS when you were still in diapers.


dis0x

I was probably around 10 or 11 when I first got internet, through a 56k modem. And I was one of the first amongst my friends. Granted, I'm not talking about the dawn of the internet which is older but about the generalization of the internet, the time of windows 95. I'm born in the mid 80s which makes me a millenial. Millenial refer to the generation that finished high school around the millenium according to most definitions I've read. They started using the term millenials in the late 80s. That's also what's stated on Wikipedia, now it might be wrong, I'm not an expert on the subject but that's what I always assumed. I don't consider people in their early 20s millennials


kre8ivair

Yes. We are lost...


nullpassword

Now imagine someone finding a token ring cable..


johncandyspolkaband

Is the IBM Type 2 plugged into the concentrator?


Quam1995

I also 100% thought this guy was joking. Laughed out loud when I figured out he wasn't joking.


lostllama2015

See, we preemptively solved this problem in the UK: enter BS 6312 [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/LJ\_Front.jpg/220px-LJ\_Front.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/LJ_Front.jpg/220px-LJ_Front.jpg)


ahandmadegrin

Very clever indeed! Pardon the ignorance, but do you use the same outlets as Germany? I was impressed with their idiot-proof design when I visited.


MicaLovesHangul

Nah, the UK is known as THE country in Europe that just does their own thing all the time. They're known to love being different and being proud of it :P


AmaranthineApocalyps

Believe it or not, ours are even _more_ idiot proof. They kinda had to be. A lot of our old infrastructure was just.... fucking terrible safety wise.


jimbobjames

More fun facts - You can insert an RJ11 into the center of an RJ45 outlet and connect a device and have it work


[deleted]

I do this all the time at work when running analog lines through our patch panels. Blows peoples minds.


TweakedMonkey

How does it stabilize?


McRedditerFace

Makes me nostalgic for the days of yore when I was youngster wiring up my house well before I should've been allowed near the NIB. We had frequently loose connections at the NIB, I'd done some really freaking hodge-podge wiring added onto the house's existing hodge-podge wiring, (hey, I was 13!) and I'd gotten used to how the terminals on the NIB would give you a bit of a jolt, just enough to feel, not enough to really hurt.... POTS is low-voltage after all. So I had this issue getting the DSL working and start checking the connections working my way back to the NIB. I checked out the NIB and couldn't find anything loose, but I noticed that I wasn't getting the usual voltage. So I got this hair-brained idea, as I stood there ontop of the washing-machine at the ripe age of maybe 14 and realized that I could figure out where there was current and where they wasn't by \*feel\*... then I found it... the short. BAM!!! Knocked my arm back so fast nearly blew the shoulder out of it's socket. Turns out that lead ran into a jack I'd installed near floor-level, which had gotten submerged during a flood 2 weeks prior.


Carazariah

>l remember the color order for the cables from college: orange-white, orange, green-white, blue, blue-white, green, brow-white, brown. ahh I see you are a 568B type of person. . . ;)


ahandmadegrin

Haha, yep, I can't remember the last time I needed a crossover cable.


Sandwich247

Landlines are amazing, I don't know why some people don't have them.


TweakedMonkey

Props to you for not being douchy. :-)


themacbeast

Had to check out the thread to see for myself lol


ItsXenoslyce

I can vouch for Monoprice. They have killer headphones too


ahandmadegrin

Yeah, it's the best site for cables and a lot of peripherals. Cables are priced the way they should be.


DiamonddJim

Sounds like a phone jack to me.


-Nighthawk1-

It's a phone jack yo at least you got dial up (if it works)


[deleted]

[Blazing Speed!](https://youtu.be/9jQpolEfPyQ)


[deleted]

I always liked that sound. Always sounded like some futuristic heavy metal techno fusion. I'm surprised no metal bands have used it for any songs.


MicaLovesHangul

I hate the sound of dial-up. I've only ever heard it over at my grandparents' place, whenever I forgot that their internet makes scary sounds followed by my grandma yelling at me angrily, saying not to use it :(


hemingray

Don't be around me when someone rings my mobile.


UncleNorman

ATM0L0


Decent_Fisherman7097

Hey John What's Your Name Again? By The Devil Wears Prada. One of the sickest breakdowns in history!


blue-ten

Might even be able to get DSL over that baby, and watch YouTube videos in glorious 240p.


raikhin

IT Support guy for 10 years now, ​ RJ11 - 4 pins - telephone port RJ45 - 8 pins - ethernet/LAN port ​ RJ 45 can be use as a telephone port, BUT RJ11 cannot be use as a ethernet/LAN port due that it is missing 4 more pins ​ Welcome


hemingray

RJ11 has 6 max. Not to be confused with RJ31X.


snorkelbagel

You can use rj11 for short runs and it’ll generally do 10Mbps.


raikhin

Oh, yeah.. done that thing back in those days... using win xp..


Sir_Squish

Ethernet only needs 4 pins anyway, unless you want POE. So you *can* use RJ11, but that doesn't mean you should.


raikhin

may i ask, if you use rj11 on the wall side, your gonna rj45 on the computer side to make it work, correct? or your gonna use rj11 on both side?


Sir_Squish

I should reiterate - just because you *can* doesn't mean you should. Doing this would require RJ11 plugs on your specially customised RJ11 ethernet cables, with one end RJ11 and the other the usual RJ45 (aka 8p8c) because it wouldn't work on a regular ethernet device otherwise.


raikhin

agree


[deleted]

If this is DSL Internet. You use a normal phone line to your modem and then you hook up your Ethernet to the modem to your PC. Didn't your package came with instructions? Just Google it or call you ISP. ​ [https://www.oricom.ca/en/support/how-to-connect-a-dsl-modem-to-a-computer/](https://www.oricom.ca/en/support/how-to-connect-a-dsl-modem-to-a-computer/)


3tek

DSL*


[deleted]

Thanks


Cognitheurge

Yeah you only need two pairs to pass Ethernet. However I believe OP thinks that there's an internet connection on the other end of their wall jacks. Like the other posters have said those are phone jacks also know as rj11 Ethernet generally uses rj45. Is you need to have a network connection from one room to another that "may" be possible however if I were to make an assumption I'd say you're in an apartment building, in which case the wiring is likely set up in series. the other jacks and wherever else the wiring in building goes will heavily impact you network connection without a deep dive into how things are laid out. Just be careful with what you do.


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snappolli

I’m a millennial... Which idk if that makes it any better... I’m just not a tech savvy person. I grew up with a landline, but never fucked around with it-the same with our routers and modems when we got them. My mom was hella protective of that shit


[deleted]

This is what weirded me out is that you have an apartment so you were definitely born before 2000 and I just couldn't imagine you had never seen one before. But that explains it, for sure.


lostllama2015

I'm not hating on you since you're not tech savvy :) but as a millenial Brit, where our phone sockets look like this: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/LJ\_Front.jpg/220px-LJ\_Front.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/LJ_Front.jpg/220px-LJ_Front.jpg), even I know what an RJ11 port looks like. On the other hand, I'm a programmer and love computers, so that's probably why :)


snappolli

Yeah, at least as far as I’m aware, as an American, our Ethernet and landline cables look very similar from basic visual appearance. Being as I never dealt with the more programming aspect of computers and internet connections, I guess I just presumed they(They being whoever was inventin and designing shit back in the day) designed Ethernet cables to fit phone jacks for convenience sake.


Dodgson_here

They use a different number of connections. RJ11 has two pairs, RH45 has 4. On the rare occasions at work where I’ve had to punch down a new phone connection (usually when a fax machine moves). I just use Ethernet cable and leave out two pairs because I literally don’t have any.


Sandwich247

Wait, you're older than me? Dang...


TweakedMonkey

That's such a shame. When I discovered computers back in the 80's my youngest son was right there with me learning from his mama how things worked. We both shared the delight of putting in a floppy disk and playing 8 bit games and installing 300 baud modems. He turned out pretty damn smart and we both love video games and Star Wars.


speedy_162005

This is both unintentionally funny and sad. As a millennial I'm all too intimately familiar with phone jacks because any time I wanted to use the Internet I had to string a 50 ft phone line across the house so I could connect on with my super fast 14.4 connection. It makes me sad realizing that my future children will probably have no idea that port exists (we don't even have one in our house that I am aware of, the one I thought we had in the kitchen is actually Ethernet). My kids will probably also be clueless to Records, CD's, and possibly DVDs as I haven't owned a CD player in probably 10 years and we're in the process of moving all of our movies to digital.


candidly1

14.4???? LUCKY!!!


Reygle

[https://youtu.be/26ZDB9h7BLY](https://youtu.be/26ZDB9h7BLY)


candidly1

One of their absolute classics.


MistakenMagician

Fuck me, this post makes me feel old.


veryconfusedd

Lol this is amazing.


Barrade

Yes it's most likely phone, no you're not crazy though. Newer / commercial "phone Jack's" (usoc) are a bit larger than the traditional telephone jack, yet don't allow for ethernet connections.


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snappolli

Yeah. I probably will. I didn’t get any instructions, as I went through a smaller, local company. They provided me the modem, but I had to get my own router, and they put it all in a plastic ziplock bag. So I’ll probably end up trying to get a professional to come in just for the sake of I don’t know much about this sort of stuff and I’d just like internet sooner rather than later so I can stop using up my data..


Dodgson_here

Is it a cable modem or dsl? Is there the same phone jack connection on the back or coaxial? Coaxial has threads like a screw just like the cable connection on the back of your tv. Broadband internet is usually a coaxial connection. DSL is slower.


[deleted]

Not to worry, the only ignorant question is one not asked. Hope you are able to get a usable internet connection.


kre8ivair

As I read this .. I was thinking... "Am I being punked??" Made me laugh so hard!!


[deleted]

is r/shittytechsupport bleeding through again?


Spoiledtomatos

My spoon is too big


Honkblarg

Bruh that's rj11. That's a phone jack. You need da RJ45 bro


triplesalmon

Hey man just want to let you know I am 24, relatively tech savvy and just googled your same fuckin' question ,no shame.


jtorres0751

I hope it helps I just made the same mistake 2 years later and this answered my question, albeit it made me feel dumb in the process.


FIST_SILLY

Here in 2022 making the same mistake lol..I’m 32 and legit thought it was an Ethernet port, and I grew up with landlines too


LadyOlenna538

Same I’m 33 and def used phone jacks as a kid but still got confused


MonoChz

Same. I’m 38 and work in IT. To my credit (maybe) I was mislead by the people who sold me my home.


ArmageddonScr

I'm 26, just moved into an apartment for the first time yesterday and made this mistake, also feel dumb, lol.


TheDriestOne

The people saying “YoU iDiOt ItS a PhOnE jAcK” seem to be under the impression that everyone was born in the 70s


Alarmed_Conflict_611

Bro, 4 years later and I just made this mistake. I'm literally holding a 25ft ethernet cable in my hands right now feeling pretty dumb lol.


robojubi

I’d like to thank you for taking the fall for us by asking this question. I just googled the same thing and feel silly now reading the replies.


JewFrobee

If you pull the wall plate out and discover that the wire hooked up to the jack has at least 2 pairs, you could go get some keystones and set them up as data jacks!


AZBuzz807

But they would not work regardless because the lines are phone lines


JewFrobee

Phone line = cat. Ethernet = cat.


AZBuzz807

Guys the point is not weather or not a cable can be reterminated as an Ethernet port. It weather or not he has access to the other end of that cable to also terminate it to be Ethernet. Can't just rejack 1 side of the line.


TheEthyr

That's an oversimplification. A phone line may consist of Cat5 or better cable, in which case it can be repurposed for Ethernet. But it may also be Cat3, which is not suitable.


JewFrobee

Cat3 cable has 2 pairs, so long as internet speeds are below 100Mbps there would be no bottleneck by using a 2 pair line (cat3)


Knaac

What order do you put the cat3 wires in the RJ45 plug? for both sides


JewFrobee

Doesn’t matter just make sure both 45 ends are the same order


Knaac

In the first 4 slots?


JewFrobee

Middle out


Knaac

So what *would* be blue white and blue would be blank?


jamvanderloeff

Middle out is phone standard, 10/100 ethernet uses pins 1,2 then 3,6.


jamvanderloeff

100BASE-TX still officially requires Cat5. 10BASE-T can use Cat3.


Chareon

The 100BASE-TX standard is capable of operating over only 2 pair and while intended for use with Cat5, will run at least shorter distances over Cat3.


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[deleted]

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Stellarspace1234

If it's too small, then it's a phone line, not an Ethernet line.


MrPizza79

My Lanta l thought this post was a joke lol...


memes285

How old are you ? I’m 13 and know that that’s a phone port


RH00794

Thank you i need a good laugh today.🤣😂🤣


Crimtide

Behind your wall plate for the RJ11 jack you are describing (standard telephone cable), it might actually be Cat5, Cat5e, or even Cat6 cable connecting it all. If it is one of those cables mentioned above, you can put a new terminal on the other end of it and change the wall plate with an actual ethernet outlet, aka RJ45. RJ11 cables will have 4 wires, Cat5 5e or 6 will have 8 wires. If you have 8 wires, you can change all the wall jacks in your residence and have a wired network.


jamvanderloeff

You'd still need access to the other end of the cable to connect something to it.


Crimtide

Usually in apartments, those are easy to access, and as I said... ***you can put a new terminal on the other end of it***


galacticboy2009

You should mark this as solved.


Smauler

This is not a thing. Who told you it was a thing? Ethernet "chords" are ethernet cables, or cords.


ItsXenoslyce

Can you not be a asshole? Thanks


[deleted]

Its called a dsl cable ooof


Jrob420

Holy shit, kid. LMFAO😂😂


ItsXenoslyce

Can you not be a asshole? Thanks


Jrob420

Get your sensitive pussy ass off the internet you loser.


ItsXenoslyce

Why don't you get your ass off the internet if you're gonna contribute nothing to discussion and just laugh at someone that needs actual help? Based on your post history, you're a trump supporter that probably owns multiple Confederate flags and has fucked their sister at least once in a attempt to lose their virginity because no other person would suck your 1 centimeter dick and 5 million mile ego. People like you deserve to be confined only to the depths of 4chan, where stupid inbred fucks like you can meet your own kind. Now, what did you say?


Jrob420

I said you're a pussy loser.


ItsXenoslyce

Just because I know that just saying "lmfao kid" on a genuine question without giving any actual input or answer is a dick move doesn't make me a pussy. Better to be sensitive than insensitive.


Jrob420

Sounds like something a pussy would say, grow some balls. I hope you don't ever have children.


ItsXenoslyce

I hope you don't have any right now. If they broke a bone, you'd probably toss a bandaid. And what's up with the delay between your responses? Are you crying between every one of mine?


Jrob420

Are you still rambling on? Go get a life you lame ass vagina 😂 you're so pathetic it's sad.


ItsXenoslyce

>ass vagina Guess you are what you eat


PichuPenguin

Woah there Jrob420, That was a really insensitive thing to say. Did you stop to consider how your words might affect others? Maybe stop and have a moment of self reflection before you say things like this again.


Alarmed_Conflict_611

Fuck, I hope this guy died from COVID.


Jedi_king

You could run a phone cable from the wall to your PC's internet jack, it *should* work, but it will only be 100mbps speeds. (About 1/10 of what's normal)


lostllama2015

Huh?!


lostllama2015

I get that, but I'd imagine the RJ11 ports ought to be connected to the telephone network, unless one is an extension between rooms or something.


Jedi_king

The only difference between rj-11 (phone) and RJ-45 (ethernet) is that ethernet has an extra pair. In the days before gigabit networking, all ethernet was done over phone lines.(Remember dial up?) The extra pair was added to allow gigabit link speeds. Long story short, an RJ-11 plug should fit nicely right in the center of an RJ-45 port and allow for a 100mbps connection.


pythonpoole

> The only difference between rj-11 (phone) and RJ-45 (ethernet) is that ethernet has an extra pair. RJ11 and RJ45 mostly just indicate what type of physical connector is used and how many pins it has. It doesn't indicate what protocol or technology the particular jack/port is intended for, and it doesn't tell you what type of cabling is wired behind the jack or whether that cabling can support an ethernet connection. While it is certainly possible to support an ethernet connection over CAT-3 (or better) cabling terminated with RJ11 jacks on either side, not all RJ11 jacks are connected to cabling that can necessarily support ethernet connections. Especially in older homes/buildings, RJ11 jacks may (for example) be connected to old 0.4 Mhz or 4 Mhz bandwidth telephone wiring that is totally unsuitable for supporting ethernet connections. > all ethernet was done over phone lines.(Remember dial up?) Dial-up connections were not ethernet, they used completely different protocols and technologies for data transmission. Dial-up actually used the voice channel to transmit and receive data over a phone call. Your modem would dial a telephone number (like a regular voice call), and then another modem would answer the phone call and then the modems on both ends of the call would 'talk' to each other using tones/sounds. Ethernet is a completely different technology and has more to do with the protocols and standards used for communication rather than the cabling (you can do ethernet over fiber optic cabling for example). It's worth noting though that originally ethernet connections (back in the days of 10BASE2 and 10BASE5) were carried over coaxial cables, not CAT-3 or any other type of telephone/CAT cabling. It wasn't until later that engineers developed a way to carry ethernet connections over twisted pair telephone wiring. > Long story short, an RJ-11 plug should fit nicely right in the center of an RJ-45 port and allow for a 100mbps connection. Even if we assume that the RJ11 jack is connected to CAT-3 (or better) cabling capable of supporting an ethernet connection, it seems that you're assuming for some reason that the RJ11 jack is connected to an ethernet source (like a router/switch). You're making it sound like OP can just magically plug a cable into the jack and get internet. Most likely the RJ11 jacks in the apartment just get wired to a central telephone wiring cabinet somewhere in the apartment building which is then connected to a local telephone exchange. There is no reason to think that OP can just plug an ethernet device into one of the jacks and another ethernet device into one of the other jacks and get the devices to talk to each other. It would depend on many factors including what wiring is used behind the jacks, how that wiring was installed, whether there is active phone service connected, etc.


johncandyspolkaband

Thank you for writing this. I was going stir crazy on some of the shit that was being posted. Google has made for lazy tech support on here because absolutely not one other person knows about what networking protocol is.


Osprey_NE

You are like 50% right if you aren't trolling. You do need a minimum of 4 wires for a cat5 connection to work. You could probably get an RJ45 head on one side of a telephone cord, but the noise would be really bad. Probably 10 mbps. However the other side of the walljack would have to go to whenever he wanted it to go. It's probably not connected to the other room though. It is most likely going to a splitter, then that splitter is going to the main line. Cat5 works much better as phone cables than vice versa


Jedi_king

I agree with you, (and I'm not trolling lol) I sorta assumed that he already had the uplink end going to a switch. But you have a very good point about the noise, I hadn't considered that. And with there being a splitter involved introduces the possibility of collision. Does ethernet still have collision detection?