Hi all, moved into a prewired house (built in 2003) and am trying to get my office connected to my router. The office has one of these green wires terminated at a wall jack while the rest of the house has the blue, which I just put new terminals on and plugged into a 10 port switch, then my router without issue. Question is, what is this thing that all the green CAT 5 wires connect to? The bulk of the wiring is strung through the attic space and drops down into the access panel in my closet. Do I need this thing or does it serve as some sort of bus? I just see wires come in and wires going out. Do I need to disconnect it and identify the office wire or can this be used somehow?
Thanks and any help would be appreciated!
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Its called a 66 block and was used alot for telephone systems. There are several configurations, iirc yours is a 66m-50.
Each row is divided in half. 25 pairs of cable could be connected to the first and last columns leading to 50 pairs. The silver clips in the middle are bridge clips, which connect the left half to the right half.
Along the right side of the block there appears to be a pair of jumper wires that go from row to row. This is connecting a signal (probably a phone line) to each of the cables on the right half of the block, and the bridge clips connect the cables on the left side
If you had multiple phone lines you could connect them to various devices with different jumpers and wires.
While it was never recommended, I made cables with an RJ-45 plug on one end and bare wire on the other and used a punch down tool to connect the cables to the 2nd and 3rd columns, then plugged them into my switches back in the 10MB days, and I think it worked OK for 100MB.
There is a 66 block made with RJ-45 jacks that you might be able to replace that with, and use jumper cables. The correct block to use would be a 110 block, or even better would be to connect directly to a patch panel id you have enough slack.
Thank you for the great explanation! I don’t use POTS, just a VOIP so I most likely won’t need this.
This is the original cat 5 termination, its correct name is the M-66 block. Used for phone and data (10 base T). It was used for years after data gained popularity and higher speeds required a better terminal. The good news is the cat5E cable is still very usable for data. It may not get you gigabit speed but more than sufficient for general household PC use.
Thank you! I’ll be repurposing the CAT5 as WIFI and gigabit service still doesn’t mean my work calls don’t drop. Hardwired is the way.
punchdown block
mostly used for POTS
66 block. It’s a punchdown block for telephone systems. Builders/electricians started running CAT5 for POTS (plain old telephone system) lines long ago, around the tome your house was built. Notice they are only using 1 or 2 pairs from each run. The wires coming in to the block will be from the outside telephone company lines into your house.
If you want to repurpose all or any of the CAT5 runs for networking then you’ll have to remove it from this block and re-terminate them to suit your build! Just pop the cover off and yank the wires out.
110 block is the networking version of a punchdown block, but totally unnecessary in a residential setting. I usually end up terminating these wires with RJ45s right here in the panel and put the switch in here with 1 line being a backhaul to wherever the router/modem will be.
Block 66 and it’s a been a lonnnnng ass time since I’ve punched down on one of those haha!
See them everyday installing DSL in 20+ year old buildings.
I can believe it! If it still works why change it? No need to reinvent the wheel!
It’s 66 block. Used for terminating and multiplexing phone connections. You can remove it and repurpose the cables for networking unless you need POTS for some reason.