In article ,
"Mark Harris" wrote:

Note: You may have a RINGER loading issue is using many OLD phones in your
house today. They carry a REN value

Ringer Equivalence Number

which basically states how much current the ringer takes.
A VOIP router can only supply a a total of perhaps 2.5 REN
(adding up all of the REN numbers printed on each phone label).

When The Big Splittm came in 1984, the dual gong electromechanical ringer in
the Western Electric Model 500 (old, black, rotary dial, desk phone) was used
to set the baseline for the REN. The 500 = 1.0 REN.

However, with the virtually complete takeover by electronic ringers, the REN
has become mostly useless. They all have a modest REN, rarely over 1.2, but
many don't even register using an old ringer test: Using a plain VOM set to
Ohms, repeatedly reversing lead polarity. The amount of needle deflection
indicates the number of ringers. Many electronic telephone devices with a REN
of .8 (for example) won't even make the old VOM budge. Weird. Given that,
MANY more electronic ringer-equipped phones and devices will ring/answer than
is otherwise indicated by the sum of the indicated RENs.

In the old days, electrically disconnecting the ringer from an illegal
telephone set actually WOULD elude a telco attempt to determine the number of
phones on a line.

Soooooo... Someone just said the center, two pins of an RJ45 jack are for
POTS phone use. Does that mean they are NOT used in for ethernet? If yes,
can I run POTS *AND* ethernet over the same Cat5 4pr? If yes, what are the
implications to ethernet performance, if any?

I was told the other day that Cat5 is NOT absolutely necessary to run
ethernet. Given that, what can I expect if I run a basic (modest) network
using the older wire in my 1991 (RBOC gray-sheathed 6-pr, probably Cat3)? TIA
--

JR