[tossandturn]

On the other end of the spectrum (not testing specifications, but just simply "does it network?"), I have successfully ran a 100BASE-TX connection between industrial equipment using individual (not twisted) 24-AWG wires over 20ft.

[ocdtrekkie]

Seeing what people have done with legacy phone wire sometimes is just disturbing.

[cr0sh]

When I was in high school, I helped my friend get cable TV back to his bedroom by patching it over a really long length of phone cord. Crappy picture, but it was better than nothing, and he didn't have to share the living room TV any longer (his older brother later ran proper coax).

[davidgerard]

now having flashbacks to dialup tech support in the late 1990s.

Thankfully I've lost the superpower of telling precisely what's wrong with your phone line and where and how many excess devices you've plugged into it just by listening to a connection noise.