I'm no expert at this, but I have done the following on cat-5, 
connectors haven't been an issue, have used the typical D, and RJ-45:
1: 10' RS-232, 3 wire common, TX, RX, 9600 & 38,400 baud
2: 35' RS-232 3 wire common, TX, RX, 9600 baud
3: RS-485, 2 wire, 9600 baud

All of these have worked without any issues. I would think your chances 
are very good for success. :)

On 5/16/2010 8:26 PM, Josh Koffman wrote:
> Hi all. I'm working on a board that has a specific use at the moment,
> but I'd like to leave things a bit open for other future uses as well.
> At the moment, there will need to be a connector that talks to a
> device via RS232. It's low speed (9600bps) and short distance (under
> 10 feet, likely under 3 feet). To keep my options open for the future
> (and to aid my design), I'd like to use RJ45 connectors to carry the
> RS232 signal. There is a standard for this (EIA-561, mentioned here
> about 25% of the way down the page, but I've seen it elsewhere as
> well) so I feel ok setting it up. I believe that the original intent
> was to use telephone style cable with these RJ45 connectors. What
> would happen if I used straight through CAT5 ethernet cable?
> Electrically I think it'd be ok, and since RS232 isn't a differential
> signal the pairs shouldn't have to be matched.
>
> How wrong am I?
>
> :)
>
> Josh
>    
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