Technical Question - FiOS wall jack

[frank20121]

Had FiOS installed about two weeks ago. Using Cat5 from the ONT in basement up through floor to my office & terminated at wall jack at floor level where my router is plugged into it. I have a multipurpose HP printer/fax that the installer told me I would simply have to plug the fax line into the wall jack if I needed to use the fax machine. I don't have a separate number for the fax machine.

My question is:

Would I be able to extend from the wall jack up about 3 feet by plugging in Cat5 and extend to point I need it at and use a double plug adapter to support the router and the fax without losing any signal strength or performance on the router? If I am able to do that would I need a special double plug adapter to support the router and fax line - if such a thing even exists?

My reason for this is that the wall jack is under my desk and is not easy for me to access to switch wires as neeed.

Any input or other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

By the way, I wish I had thought of this while the installer was at my home. He was very accomodating and I'm certain he would have done whatever was necessary to make it the way I wanted it.

[Anti-Phish1]

You can't simply plug a fax machine into a cat5 ethernet jack and expect it to work.

There are splitters that can split out a cat5 cable into 2 sets of two pairs.

http://www.amazon.com/RJ45-Ethernet-Splitter-Connector-Adapter/dp/B003C2QS90/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=...

You can run a phone connection over the second set of pairs.

Splitters will NOT work if you have a 150 or 300 Mbps speed tier as anything over 100Mbps requires all 4 pair for ethernet.

If you speed tier is under 100Mbps, then you would need 2 of these (one at each end).

[frank20121]

Thanks Anti-Phish. BTW my speed tier is 15/5 (low end these days, but it beats the hell out of DSL).

After reading your reply and looking at the adapter, I think I may have misunderstood the installer. He was talking about plugging in the fax machine and I thought he meant into the ethernet port on the wall jack. I have an old hard wired desk phone on my desk that has a removable cable that goes through my wall into the house phone wiring. I think he was probably referring to putting a splitter on that. What do you think? If I remove the cable from the phone and plug it into my fax machine would it work? I only use the fax machine once in a while, so if this solution would work, then my probkem would be solved. Thanks again!

[lasagna]

Correct.  The fax machine would plug into the jack that the phone is presently connected to.  While the phone also uses FiOS, it is connected to the ONT where the fiber enters your home and works and acts just like regular old telephone service, not as part of the ethernet/internet which is soles for computer access to the internet.

[frank20121]

Thanks lasagna - appreciate your confirmation on this issue. I'll give it a try.

[Anti-Phish1]

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@frank2012 wrote:

I have an old hard wired desk phone on my desk that has a removable cable that goes through my wall into the house phone wiring. I think he was probably referring to putting a splitter on that.

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Check your fax machine.  Most fax machines have two phone jacks.  One to connect to the phone line and one to plug in a phone.

The jack for the phone is a "pass-through".  If the fax machine detects a fax tone from the other end, it will pick up the call.  If it does not detect a fax tone from the other side,  it will simply pass the call through to the phone.  No splitter needed.

[frank20121]

Thanks Anti-Phish - I'll check that before I test it.

[frank20121 · Accepted solution]

Sorry for not getting back here sooner, but you know how life gets in the way of things sometimes. I was able to pull the cable from my hard wired phone and plug it into my HP print/scan/fax machine and test it successfully. BTW - Anti-Phish, the HP does have the dual port config you mentioned, so I'll be doing that also. I needed a way to test the fax and found an HP web site that had a free HP service which worked perfectly. I thought I'd post it here in case any other members needed a way to test their fax line. Thanks again. Sincerely appreciate the advice.

HP Fax Test Service