On Mon, Jun 10, 2002 at 02:33:34PM +0000, bneigebauer at attbi.com wrote: > Cat 5, with 2 plates with 2 cat 5 jacks each in each > room you want it in. > > Then, buy a cheap patch panel off ebay. > > Then, whenever you want to switch phone or ethernet, > just go down into the basement and patch from the > network switch and the row of phone jacks. don't be stingy with your cabling. it's about as easy to pull 4 cables as 1 cable; and you'll be thankful later on, when you find uses for all 4 of those cables. :) just remember the cabler's first rule-of-thumb" "always pull twice as much cable as you think you'll need, because you'll need it." I know a guy who pretty much only kept 25-pair cable on hand for phone wiring. it saved on inventory, and made future expansion trivial. there is some stuff out there now (I forget what it's called, someone will remind me), which has 2x cat 5 cables, 2x phone cables, and 2x coax cables all in a common sheath. something like that may be what you're looking for. Bob Tanner has publicly stated that he should have pulled fiber through his house, because it makes future expansion much easier (you can run any kind of signal down it). ;) Carl. -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises www.real-time.com