RJ11 Cables...

Hey guys! Hope you've had a good weekend (and a long weekend, at that!).

I've been putting off writing a new post...was rather hoping that a brilliant topic would come to me, but that still hasn't happened yet! So, instead, I'll let you guys in on a little bit of computer stuff that I learned over the weekend.

Remember me mentioning my new computer a few posts back? Well, I decided to tackle the project of setting up my "home office" yesterday. Not a terribly huge task, but it involved moving my computer set-up from my bedroom to the living room.

I decided on a good spot to set up my work center and started moving computer pieces, but it wasn't until I started to move my router that I realized that it was going to take a bit of planning to actually do so. I get my cable and internet through AT&T U-Verse...I don't know if it's the same way for everyone that uses their services, but in order for my cable to work properly, the 'main' receiver must be directly connected to the modem. This is the point when I realized that, rather inconveniently, my new PC doesn't have built-in wireless capabilities. And that the only broadband outlet in my entire apartment is in my bedroom...

After placing my cable boxes in their new homes and testing them to make sure that they'd work properly after I'd rearranged wires and such, I realized that the modem would have to be in the living room in order to be connected to both my PC and the main cable receiver. No big deal, all I'd have to do is get a really long cable and run it from my broadband outlet to the modem...so, off to retail land I went to find said cable.

Here's where I learned something new...(well, sort of new). In the diagram, see the cable that has orange dots on it? That's the cable that runs from the outlet into the back of the modem/router, and it's a RJ11 cable...also known as a plain old phone cord.

Silly me, I didn't realize that the cable that goes from the outlet to the modem/router and the one that goes from the modem/router into the computer are not the same sort of cable! 

I really wish I had known this before I went and bought a ridiculously long cat5e cable (which would be fine for connecting the modem/router to a computer). I'd spent almost 2 hours running the wrong cable all around my living room, meticulously placing clips to securely hold the cable in place (rather than running the cable through the middle of my living room floor) and then discovered that the cable was pretty much useless.

At which point, I had to go back to the store, buy a dang phone cable, and correctly connect my modem/router to my broadband outlet. And now, there's a phone cable running across my living room floor...but my computer has internet access!!

So there you have it! Now, anyone have any tips for hiding a phone cord?