Glossary

Note: these aren't the definitions you'd find in a book. If that's what you want, then go look in a book. These are they way I would explain the terms to someone. I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know of anything that's misleading or just plain wrong, but I'm not trying to be too strict. Life is tough enough. Sometimes, I may show some sarcasm, though.

Patch Panel

A patch panel is a thingie you use to connect all your wires up to the right thing. They are really expensive ($45-110), but I wouldn't try this without one. You can get RJ-11 patch panels for phone stuff, RJ-45 patch panels for the Ethernet stuff, and T-66 patch panels which are also for phone, but don't have any RJ-11 sockets on them.

RJ-11

Your standard run-of-the-mill modular phone connector. These actually come in 3 different flavors: there are 2, 4, and 6 conductor connectors. They're all the same, except that contacts or wires are missing. The ordinary phone connectors are 4-conductor (2 pairs = 2 phone lines). Sometimes you get a phone wire that only has 2 conductors in it; this will screw you up if you're trying to run more than 1 phone line. There's also a little-bitty version of this connector that only has 2 conductors on it. It will fit in the same socket.

RJ-45

This is the 8-conductor version of an RJ-11. It looks like a regular modular phone connector, only it's wider. You need to use RJ-45 with your Ethernet, because the connection standard puts the Ethernet on some of the outer connectors. RJ-11 plugs will fit into an RJ-45 socket. It's really tough to get all the wires in an RJ-45 plug in the right order (if you're trying to make your own plug). Fortunately you can buy patch cords with the plugs already wired on. You can also get plugs and sockets with a little tab on the side that keeps people from plugging tabbed plugs into a non-tabbed socket. Seemed excessive for a home application.