If splitting pairs should never be done, then technically should POE run on a seperate cable all by itself as well? POE uses a "spare pair" Just something to think about.

Also I don't think it is quite fair to compare using spare cat5 pairs for a second device to putting staples through a wire. The first does not meet a volunteer standard, the second is just plain careless.

Never is a strong word. I have been in business for twenty years plus now and I used to say never a lot. I don't anymore. For example: one of my oldest and largest accounts wanted a printer connection in a cubicle in the middle of the room where the cables are fed from an underground conduit. It is stuffed full of cat5 and cat3 cables. There is no way I can get a new cable in the conduit without pulling it with a lot more than 25 pounds of pressure even taped to a snake. I will damage the cable and possibly damage the ones already in the pipe. I explained this to the customer. They understoodd but they wanted the printer and wireless is not an option. I told them that it wasn't standard practice but that I could use an adapter to split the pairs at both ends without modifying the cable itself and thus provide them with an additonal 100baseT connection. This was not a code violation, just a violation of a volunteer standard. They said go ahead. Five years later the printer cat5 connection still works, as do all the other connections in the cubicle, with absolutely no problems.

Sometimes I think we installers protest too much and we sometimes loose site of the big picture...make the customer happy!

www.myrandomviews
"Old phone guys never die, they just get locked in some closet with an old phone system and forgotten about"

Retired, taking photographs and hoping to fly one of my many kites.