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couple questions about installing phone jacks

6K views 31 replies 9 participants last post by  KUIPORNG 
#1 ·
I thought this was going to be kind of simple but am now confused as I begin this project(s).

I have 2 rooms that have these ugly boxes that stick off the wall (seen on the first pic with the white wall, next to the power outlet and coax), and I intended to swap them with the jacks shown in the second pic.


I also have this ugly jack coming out of the side of a cabinet. For that I was intending on removing it, making a larger hole, and reinstalling with one of the jacks from the photo, but that instruction thing seems unclear - instruction #4 about cabinet slots?

Also, lastly, I guess I never realized there was power for the phones - I guess something needs to power them, but don't phone lines work even when the power's out?
 

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#2 ·
I can answer the power thing...yes... you don't need other power lines except the phone line itself... and yes... phone still alive when power is out...

I think the "carbinet slot" in the instruction just mean the front hole of the phone jack... as one of my coworker did, she tried to connect the laptop network cable to a phone jack at her desk... then the laptop is a goner... that is what the warning message talking about....
 
#3 ·
So I'll need to figure out how to kill power for the phone line separately then, before touching it? Hmm, gonna have to look at that box outside and see if there's an obvious 'off' anywhere, since just killing my fuse box wouldn't affect the phone..
 
#4 ·
the power in the phone lineis about 50V and low power to drive phone speaker only if I remember properly and it is not enough to cause any harm to human body... if you still worry...ware a glove... I do a lot of phone line things before and never thought of it being harmful.... kind of in my subconsious that it is safe...

anyway... don't worry about the little voltage... it is negectlable......
 
#6 ·
You have a surface mounting jack now. Do you want to make this a wall mount phone location? If so you would need a jack designed for that function.

If this is just a looks thing..do you want to install a mounting box or are you going to look at the back of the phone jack and risk moving the wire every time you open the cabinet?
 
#8 ·
I'd be installing a box (well, I was gonna build my own box to conceal it, didn't even think of using a real box lol.... I'm insanely burnt out and don't know why I didn't think of that. I was thinking how I'd construct a box for it on the inside!). Then on the outside of the cabinet, it'd be a (satin nickel) face plate over the decora-sized jack hole.

This is being done for aesthetics only, we don't even have a landline here, cell phones only :). In all honesty I would just rip the whole thing out, but I don't want to go trying to sell the place and it's not wired for regular landlines lol!!!!

For the wall: you'll need to cut a 2x3 hole in the drywall, and put in a low voltage 'Cut in' box.

For the cabinet: That wall is likely only 5/8" thick or around that, viving very little place for work. But you could cut a hole, install the same jack you plan for the wall, and trim it with a wooden cover plate. You would need to devise some sort of cover on the inside of cabinet. Really, If I wanted a concealed look, I'd probably reroute the wire and mount a jack to cabinet underside.
That's pretty slick, the under side of the cabinet.... hmmm now I'm not sure where! Part of me wants to just run the wire to the drywall, but I've never done that before and think the chances of it coming out successful w/o me messing up the wall beyond what a faceplate can conceal are too high to risk, so I kinda wanted to keep it on the cabinet.
 
#7 ·
For the wall: you'll need to cut a 2x3 hole in the drywall, and put in a low voltage 'Cut in' box.

For the cabinet: That wall is likely only 5/8" thick or around that, viving very little place for work. But you could cut a hole, install the same jack you plan for the wall, and trim it with a wooden cover plate. You would need to devise some sort of cover on the inside of cabinet. Really, If I wanted a concealed look, I'd probably reroute the wire and mount a jack to cabinet underside.
 
#9 ·
Depending on the age of your house you may have a network interface on the outside of the house. This is where your interior lines connect to the phone company lines. Look on the side that you can open for a phone jack connection. If you unplug this it will kill the power on the phone lines.

You can also use this point for troubleshooting.

PS, don't believe that getting bitten by the phone line voltage doesn't hurt.
 
#11 ·
I think it depends, the warnings said it could hit over 100volts... I dunno what that is, let me go check wiki for what tasers put out!

(from wiki:
As the mechanisms of tasers are not very advanced, some people with basic knowledge of electronics have been able to build homemade tasers or electric shock prods. There has been at least one case of students using improvised electric shock prods in a school. In March 2005, several high school students in Maine faced charges when another student reported that they had been playing with improvised electric shock prods and testing them on themselves and fellow students. The devices were made from disposable cameras with a 330-volt electric potential difference, which, while not strong enough to cause severe injury, could (some claim) be fatal to someone with a condition such as heart arrhythmia. [citation needed])
 
#12 ·
hahahaha!!!!!! I just realized that I don't need to worry because I've already been shocked by that line lol!


Yeah, when I was doing my stucco, and working in the tight corner where the interface box is, there was a loose wire that (never assume!) I thought was a dead wire. Anyways I felt something on the back of my arm, almost like a light bee sting, and noticed the wire dangling behind me. It didn't look sharp though, so I touched it again, and sure enough there was a very light current going through it! (suddenly realizes, while typing, that probably means the feed isn't running into the house anymore.. gonna have to dig out an old portable phone and see if I can get a dial tone on any of these jacks!)
 
#15 ·
The "ring" voltage is around 90V, but very low current... enough to drive the ringer... It'll give you a buzz, but shouldn't kill you... So just DON'T tell your buddies when you're working on the line, so he doesn't keep calling you as a prank... :laughing:

Just as an aside, if you get ADSL and you're doing any work on the whole system/box on the side of the house, is to install a ADSL line filter. It'll put a filter to the ADSL line for you at the entry point and can improve synch speeds...
 
#19 ·
unplug a phone line from a telephone, you see a connector, press your finger against the connector...i.e. basically shorting the phone circuit with your body.... count to 10.... now you are dead... because you just been shocked by the high phone voltage......
The voltage isn't high enough unless it's ringinggggggg......as was already said.
 
#21 ·
Got another question on these!

As I'm installing these, I came across one of those old boxes that's the phone equivalent of a junction box/outlet (or a 3 way switch I think...). It's just got one set of (4) wires going into it, and one set going out.

Is this jack okay to wire it that way? I can't think of any reason why not, in the other one both the in and out sets of wires are done on 4 terminals so it's not differentiating what's making contact.



I'm sure it's fine but just wanna get the okay before punching a hole in that wall to mount it! Here's a pic again of the phone outlet I want to put in:
 

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#22 ·
The box you came across is called a Biscuit Terminal. You are thinking way too much into the Telephone work. It is Red & Green for Pair 1, and Yellow & Black for Pair 2. It will not hurt you, and unless you have a surge from the Central Office or Remote Terminal , or even a Lightening strike, working on a phone line will not hurt you.

NOw to be safe, if you want to, go outside the house and open the little gray box where your phone line enters and unscrew the phillips head screw, and unplug the RJ-11 connector inside.

If you are still unsure, call an electrician.
 
#24 ·
The box you came across is called a Biscuit Terminal. You are thinking way too much into the Telephone work. It is Red & Green for Pair 1, and Yellow & Black for Pair 2. It will not hurt you, and unless you have a surge from the Central Office or Remote Terminal , or even a Lightening strike, working on a phone line will not hurt you.

NOw to be safe, if you want to, go outside the house and open the little gray box where your phone line enters and unscrew the phillips head screw, and unplug the RJ-11 connector inside.

If you are still unsure, call an electrician.
So it's not red+red on one terminal, and green+green on the other? That's how it was originally wired and what was told to me by someone else, though I dunno how much he actually knew...


About the voltage, I've mentioned that I've already been shocked by it outside since it's disconntected right at the box out there.
 
#23 ·
I've been working at a telco for over 10 years... never heard of anyone being killed yet... but to be 100% sure, you can disconnect at the terminal outside the house as suggested. Some of the older homes will still have the terminal posts instead of RJ jacks, so just disconnect the line side coming from the street.
 
#25 ·
Again, if you do not know what you are doing, hire someone to do it. As for the colors, it is for pair one Red & Green, and for Pair 2 Yellow & Black. What this means, is that Line 1 is on the Red/Green Pair, and that Line 2 is on the Yellow/Black pair. If you connect the wires to their opposite, you are just reversing the pairs.

Red to Red, Green to Green, Yellow to Yellow, Black to black, and so on. Do yourself a favor and pick up Black & Decker's Wiring book, which is 200+ pages on everything wiring.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=basic+telephone+wiring&fr=yfp-t-471&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
 
#27 ·
Again, if you do not know what you are doing, hire someone to do it.
That's the second time you've told me to just call someone to do it - you do realize this site is for people trying to learn right? I don't want to hire a pro because I want to know how to do it, I don't see why you're acting like that.

joeyboy, you can do this. red and green if one line keep them the same super easy and odds are the shock you felt was from a flash back... old lsd trip. The gov put it in the water years back with floride.:eek: :jester:
That's what I did, that's the way it was originally wired - the yellow/black were not even connected in the original wiring at that location.

I know with electrical it needs to be a certain type of switch if it's going to multiple places, so I figured there's a chance that could be the case with the phone plug is all. I don't like half-assing the projects I do so I want to make sure I'm doing them right :thumbsup:

AND FREE LSD IN THE WATER? Wish I lived here then, that'd be cool! Not that FL hasn't come across like half the population is on drugs anyways, but I digress...
 
#28 ·
In the past, when I hook up phones making extension outlet... when not sure which two lines out of the four to be used... I did try by error... sometimes got it right on the first shoot... sometimes got it right after a few failurer attempt... it does a bit annoying but normally get it done within half an hour....

I do believe the two wire is interchangable as long as you pick the two properly....I normally just use the same color to match the same color on the jack... but don't think it makes a difference or burn anything if I reverse them...but not 100% sure about this...
 
#29 ·
That's what I would've done too, if the line was working. I know my exterior main line is cut and needs to be spliced, so I figured it would make sense to just install the outlets now then splice that, didn't think I'd hit a 'junction' outlet lol!
 
#30 ·
so you disconnect the outside lines first before doing inside stuff... that is clean in terms of not getting shock..etc... but how do you test it easily....I wouldn't do that myself.... it is enough complex to have those 4 wires mess around... I would rather install every outlet making sure they work before goes to next one... and the only sure thing it works is the line is alive and put a phone on it... I don't want to go outside and inside hundred times to do that....
 
#31 ·
I probably should've done that, but my fiance works somewhere they sell splicers, so I waited on the splicer and got all the jacks installed (except the kitchen cabinet one, still deciding how to approach that) already. It should be easy enough to trouble shoot if there's dead outlets. We don't even have it in service (cell phones only), but I'm sure it'll still give a dial tone for 911 calls and such.
 
#32 ·
I see.... so you kind of don't have a live line yet... in that case... I wouldn't hard connected all phone jacks yet.... may be you should do what people usually do, just have the wire go through the device box, but connect nothing with it, not even cutting the wire... reason for that is, if for some reason when the phone company come to hook up.... if it is not working... they can blame you making wrong connection inside the house.... if you hasn't connect nothing yet , just have the wire going around the house on various spots... they everyone sure there is nothing wrong with connection inside the house as there isn't any connection yet....
 
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