Ethernet Jack?

[Tribal_Fox]

I have a '97 Explorer Eddie Bauer. In the bottom of the Center Counsel there is a Jack. It appears to be an Ethernet Jack. I tried tracing the wire back but it appears to go to into the dash, and i didnt want to mess with the molding to much. Any Ideas what its for?

 

[BrianDye]

Hm, Ive never heard of that before...I wonder if it was when some explorers had the "built in phone"


Hook a router up to it...see if you can get wifi: jk lol

 

[Tribal_Fox]

Ive been looking all over the web for something like it an have had no idea. The Center Counsel has a computer for the fuel level, consumption, economy, vehicle status, and etc. Im thinking it might have something to do with that

lol.

 

[BrianDye]

Is it in the compartment, or the "computer?"

 

[Tribal_Fox]

the jack is in the counsel compartment, the center armrest.

 

[Kriegen]

Bet it was something that a previous owner had put in. If I spent a lot of time in my car or travelling, I would be tempted to get something like verizon's myFi, put a wireless router somewhere hidden and a jack in the console that I could plug in the myFi and have wireless access in the car.

 

[Electrohacker]

it sounds like an aftermarket diagnostic tool readout.

RJ45 was used for a lot of uses not just networking

 

[BrianDye]

Well I had a good guess :

 

[Tribal_Fox]

where would i find a tool for that?

 

[Electrohacker]

you'd have to pull the jack out and follow the wires, I'm only guessing at what it could be

who knows if it was a tech geek's truck he might have installed a vehicle network interface, wouldnt that be cool?

 

[jad2411]

Might be for the phone, do a search for center console phone, might give you more hits than "counsel"

 

[410Fortune]

car phone... in 97 someone was slacking!!

 

[Electrohacker]

found it http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254508&highlight=factory+phone

 

[Kriegen]

That's a let down, was hoping some techie had set up a car network or something cool

 

[poolguy435]

My 98 E.B has the jack. When I purchased the truck in 2000 there was a phone pluged into the jack. It was I believe just wired and you as the consumer were the one to supply the phone and brain. I never tried the phone, I pulled out just the hand set not the brain. I'm going to look for the phone and plug it back in and see what I get.

 

[techieman33]

I highly doubt it will work anymore. It probably used an analog radio and I don't think any of the cell phone companies maintain an analog network anymore.

 

[poolguy435]

Well the power turned on but the phone showed no signal. It is an old analog phone from Verizon.

 

[Electrohacker]

certain types of phone signals were disabled some time ago to clean up the airwaves

 

[jbd172002]

It's an interesting rj-45 jack too. I was going to repurpose it for something else and plug an ethernet cable into it just as a breakout. I found out its actually 10 conductors rather than 8.
I also did some looking and many cars were fully wired with analog phones. They could be answered on the factory radio and had full speaker phone through the radio speakers just like modern bluetooth. Also displaying dialed and received numbers on radio display.
In my 96 Explorer factory manual, it actually gives the pinouts for all the phone connections and the actual phone radio module located outside of the center console where the antenna and radio connections were made. Interesting system, wish it still was usable.