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There's been a cock-up in the internet wiring at a building I'm helping out at (I'm installing the networking there) and the builder has tried to rectify the situation with a solution I have zero confidence in. I however am no expert in networking/electrics, so I figured I'd ask those who might be.

For context, there's a flat that has one Cat 6 cable leading into it. The problem here is that there are actually two rooms which require an Ethernet port. There's a language barrier between myself and the builder so you can imagine conveying technical details is far from easy.

Upon me informing the builder that this was an error and we needed two Cat 6 cables leading to that flat, he came up with the solution of "splitting" the Cat 6 cable (I think)? He's used this cable connector/one similar to this to do so.

My question is pretty much "will this work?" or do I need to tell him that this is more of a problem than he suspects. I'm thinking that this could possibly confuse the network/cause packetloss/interference but those are all guesses.

I know one solution would be to use one of these but those limit the connection to 10/100 and the connection in the building is significantly faster.

Steve
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    AFAIK, no. The solutions are to either run another cable or use an Ethernet switch. – Andrew Morton Nov 20 '17 at 13:04
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    No. The splitters only work on 10 or 100 because those speeds only require two pairs and standard CAT5/5e/6 has four, so you can use two pairs for each connection. Gigabit requires all four pairs. – Finbarr Nov 20 '17 at 13:21
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    This is why builders shouldn't be installing network cabling - that will never work. He's thinking it's like a phone line. – brhans Nov 20 '17 at 13:26
  • I suspected it wouldn't work. What are the reasons why it wouldn't work? – Steve Nov 20 '17 at 15:56
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    In short, 1000baseT Ethernet doesn't work like that. All four pairs must run between two endpoints, and there's no means of handling two endpoints trying to transmit at once. Normally the architectural solution to this is to run the incoming cable to a comms cupboard "patch panel", and then two cables from the rooms to the panel, then a suitable switch plugged into the patch panel. – pjc50 Nov 20 '17 at 16:30
  • Brilliant. Thanks for the brief summary @pjc50. I'll try and convey this to the builder! – Steve Nov 20 '17 at 16:53
  • You'll want a builder with a "punchdown tool", or just get him to pull the cable and handle the termination of it yourself. – pjc50 Nov 20 '17 at 16:57
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    @pjc50 If you had written that in the correct place, the answer could have been accepted and this question could have been marked as solved. – pipe Jan 27 '18 at 22:21

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In short, 1000baseT Ethernet doesn't work like that. All four pairs must run between two endpoints, and there's no means of handling two endpoints trying to transmit at once. Normally the architectural solution to this is to run the incoming cable to a comms cupboard "patch panel", and then two cables from the rooms to the panel, then a suitable switch plugged into the patch panel. – pjc50 Nov 20 '17 at 16:30

RoyC
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