DSL line, Cat 5 cable??

After being tired of paying way too much for cable broadband, I'm switching to an ATT/Yahoo DSL line. I've never had anything other than cable, but I'm pretty sure DSL works the same way a cable connection does. The only question I have is, my kit came with a cord that looks like a regular telephone line, but is marked as 'Cat. 5 Patch Cable UTP'.

So is this cord I have and a phone cord the same thing? The main reason I need to know is that I need to get a much longer one to reach my desk from the phone jack. Which actually brings up another question: how long is too long when it comes to network cables?

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

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Well, you should be using CAT5 cable to connect from your modem to your computer, or from your modem to your router and then to your computer.
That aside, you can really use long CAT5 cable without much concern about signal degredation. Unless your house is huge, or you are running this cable through an elaborate maze, you shouldn't have to worry one bit about it being too long.

Just to give you a number to work with, I think 50 feet would be a bit too much.

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Originally Posted by Mimi-kun

After being tired of paying way too much for cable broadband, I'm switching to an ATT/Yahoo DSL line. I've never had anything other than cable, but I'm pretty sure DSL works the same way a cable connection does. The only question I have is, my kit came with a cord that looks like a regular telephone line, but is marked as 'Cat. 5 Patch Cable UTP'.

So is this cord I have and a phone cord the same thing? The main reason I need to know is that I need to get a much longer one to reach my desk from the phone jack. Which actually brings up another question: how long is too long when it comes to network cables?

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Yes, your cable and DSL connections will work in the same fashion. However, that CAT5 cable is NOT the same as normal telephone wire. (Just look at it. :0) The telephone wire will connect from your modem to a phone jack, while the CAT5 cable will be used to connect your modem to your computer.

The maximum length of CAT5 cable is about 300ft. I doubt you will have any problems with that. :P

How ya doing, buddy?

Thanks Render, packrat. I understand the regular cat 5 cable I've been using for years connects the modem to the router/computer, but I'm talking about the cable that connects from the phone jack to the modem. The cable I have labeled as "Cat. 5 Patch Cable UTP" is the same size and looks like a regular phone cord, not an RJ45(?) like the Cat 5 cable I've been using for my cable modem. All along I thought that DSL modems used regular phone cords, but this one threw me off.

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Typically with DSL lines, the ISP will give you a filter that must usually be attached no longer than 6ft away from the plugin to the wall. From that filter you can usually attach a cat5 cable to your dsl modem, and then from your modem to your router/computer. Usually this filter looks almost like a telephone cord splitter.

It sounds like this cord they procided you is suppose to go from your phone line plug to the modem.

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No it isnt

dsl ethernet line uses the combonation color code: white orange/orange, white green/blue, white blue/green and white brown/brown (also you can tell by the size of the cube which is ethernet)

Phone line is just plain white blue/blue and a phone cube

(i hope i was a good help)

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