VoIP adapters sometimes have more than FXS ports. 2 x FXS ports for example, would allow you to have cordless DECT phone and one fax machine connected to the VoIP adapter, or 2 phones each with their own VoIP line.

Strictly speaking for a cable to officially support Ethernet it needs to be built using the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) and Telecom Industry Association (TIA) standards. Cables under the TIA/EIA standard will have four pairs (eight individual) of twisted wires. If your cable does not have all four pairs it will not officially support Ethernet but it may still work at slower speeds. The table below breaks down some of the twisted pair cabling commonly used in homes and lists what they can be used for. Category Take a look at the topology charts that I put together to illustrate some the the styles of network that I have commonly encountered. Notice that the only way to use every phone location for Ethernet is to start with a “Hub and Spoke” topology. I also showed that you can choose to only use parts of the original network and leave some of the phones in your home connected and working. Now that you have chosen the style of connector that you are going to use in your network all that is left is to terminate the cables, connect everything up, and make sure everything is working the way that it should. In this article I will go through how to tell if your phone network is a good candidate for conversion and how to go about setting everything up. How to tell if your phone lines are the right kind of cable to work as EthernetIn most situations a network device will not even connect using one of these adapters and even if it does you can expect poor stability and performance with a speed that is physically limited to one hundred Mbps or slower. VoIP ATA's (Analogue Telephone Adapters) bridge the technical gap between analogue telephones and fax machines in homes and businesses by allowing VoIP calls to be made over the Internet. By connecting an ordinary analogue telephone that is already in your house to a VoIP ATA Adapter, you can benefit from making cheap, crystal clear VoIP calls via a router which is connected to the Internet (and you don't need to turn on your PC). Differences between FXO and FXS ports Whether you choose to install female ends at the central location next to your router or switch is more of stylistic choice but there are some things to consider first. The second major consideration to think about before you spend the time and resources to re terminate your phone lines as Ethernet cables is your network topology (or design). The two most common topologies that I see in phone networks are the “Hub and Spoke” topology and the “Dazy Chain” Topology. A few years ago while I was moving into a new house and planning how I would set up my new network I discovered that the existing phone lines in the home were installed in such a way that I was able to repurpose many of the cables and use them to set up a full gigabit Ethernet network in much of the new house without pulling any new cable at all. Since that project I have been able to save a lot of time and money on several projects simply by converting phone lines to Ethernet

If you are still unsure what kind of cable you have, but you think that it might be adequate, the next step is to terminate the longest cable that you have and test it to see what kind of performance can be attained from the cable. If, after you have used the longest cable for some time and everything is working up to your requirements it is then safe to move on and set up the rest of the phone lines to run as Ethernet in your network. How to tell if your phone lines go to the right places It is not uncommon to be able to convert phone lines to Ethernet, but before you get started you need to make sure that the phone lines were originally put in using the right kind of cable and topology (or network design) to be able to be used for Ethernet. Once you are sure the original network was set up in a way suitable for conversion it is simply a process of re terminating all of the cables with the proper connectors and verifying that everything is set up correctly. Having an FXO port on the adapter will allow you to switch between making/receiving calls VoIP calls (over the Internet) and calls over the PSTN (Analogue phone line).You can easily change out a patch cord for ones of different lengths if you need to move your network device somewhere else in the room. Most of the time the problem ether comes down to the cables being plugged into the wrong place, faulty terminations, or bad cable. If you are experiencing any of these problems take a look at my article (coming soon) on troubleshooting Ethernet cables. Patch cords are designed to be moved around a lot and will last longer then the cables in your wall for this application. If there is a problem with your new Ethernet connection it might show up as one of the following symptoms.

Patch cords are cheap and easy to replace if they get damaged. You will need to re terminate the cable if you are using a male end and it gets damaged. The first thing to look at is the number of wires in the cable and whether they are twisted together in pairs or not. If the wires inside your cable are not twisted into pairs you can not use that cable for any kind of Ethernet at all.

Differences between FXO and FXS ports