[hotrodjohn71]

Recently I was in my attic looking at where my telephone line (from the telephone pole) connects into the first junction box. On this house, the telephone line comes over to the eave of the house, enters through a hole and comes into that first box within the attic.
There is an eye hook on the exterior eve connected to the wire to keep it from pulling out incase a limb falls on it. I noticed that the ground wire is not grounded either at the eve or inside the attic at that first junction box. What would be the best way to ground it?

 

[RAL238]

The telephone company is responsible for the Network Interface Device and proper grounding of it to the electrical system ground. It really should be outside the house to prevent any surges from lightning from entering the premises.



I would call the telephone company and have them come and move/fix it, rather than doing it yourself.

 

[daveb1]

Are you sure it's telephone or is it possible TV?

Got a picture of the box inside?

 

[hotrodjohn71]

Here's the outside box. It's just a plastic box to allow the cable (from pole) to break away. That same black wire (with the heavy gauge ground lead) continues well onto the attic to the first junction box. The ground lead isn't grounded. Where should I ground it?

 

[Colbyt]

My cable and phone are grounded to the meter box. The respective companies did that at the time of the install.

 

[AllanJ]

Ground it to the house electrical ground.

Extend a copper wire of like size to the nearest point on a grounding electrode conductor (fat wire coming out of the breaker panel and going to a ground rod or to a metal water pipe within 5' of where the pipe exits the house underground).

Customarily the attachment to the GEC is using a terminal strip called an intersystem bonding bridge (sold separately).

We have seen extending the GEC (with a similarly fat wire clamped on) up towards the telephone or cable location, meeting a thinner ground wire coming down from the eave halfway, perhaps at waist level on the outside of the house where the intersystem bonding bridge is installed.

 

[hotrodjohn71]

Thank you. In the attic near the first phone junction box is an electrical junction box where supply power (from the main power pannel) comes in and is split to different wires going through the room. Do you think I could open that box and connect the telephone ground wire to the twist of bare copper ground wires in that junction box and be okay?

 

[Oso954]

Do you think I could open that box and connect the telephone ground wire to the twist of bare copper ground wires in that junction box and be okay?

No.
You want it connected to the grounding electrode conductor as Allan stated.

If it was ok to grab Just any old ground you can find, he would not been so specific about it.

 

[RAL238]

Here's the outside box. It's just a plastic box to allow the cable (from pole) to break away. That same black wire (with the heavy gauge ground lead) continues well onto the attic to the first junction box. The ground lead isn't grounded. Where should I ground it?

That outdoor box should be more than just a plastic box. That should be your Network Interface Device, which should contain lightning blocks that suppress any surges from lightning strikes. That's why it needs a proper ground.



Open it up and look inside. There should be an obvious ground lug for connection to the ground wire, which must go to your electrical system ground rod or grounding electrode conductor.

 

[Nickd83]

You say the cable comes into the house and also has a ground cable connected to it? I would think that is the messenger cable (at least that's the term I've heard for it) which is used to attach the cable to clamps on the poles, and what looks to me like it is connected through at the hanger on your eave and continued into the house, which doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

There should be another grounding conductor as stated above, and the phone company should provide it. I know around here they put little orange flags on the ground cables from their equipment saying something to the effect of "If this cable is loose or disconnected, call ###".

 

[hotrodjohn71]

Here's a look at the inside of the box.

 

[RAL238]

Here's a look at the inside of the box.

Ok, as it says inside the cover, that box is just a terminal block and is not a proper network interface device.

What should be there is something that looks like this:

Those green blocks are the lightning blocks and the ground wire gets connected to the screw post in the middle of the blocks.


I would call your telephone company and ask them to install a proper interface device. It's a requirement.

 

[AllanJ]

Some older Network Interface Devices do not contain any lightning arresting components or electronics. All they have are two conductors coming in from the utility pole, two conductors going out to the house phone wiring, and two conductors going to a phone jack mounted in the small plastic box with the connections.

The only significance of that style of box is that if you have trouble with your phone, you (or a phone company technician) plugs a known good (land line) phone set into the jack. If that phone works then the problem is in your house wiring. If that phone does not work then the problem is in the phone company lines.

If there are four wires in and four wires out, that used to signify that therr are two phone lines, say one as the main house phone and the other as the children's phone, or one for the main phone and the other for a fax machine. Older wiring used red and green for the first phone line and yellow and black for the second line. There was no ground wire.

 

[RAL238]

Some older Network Interface Devices do not contain any lightning arresting components or electronics. All they have are two conductors coming in from the utility pole, two conductors going out to the house phone wiring, and two conductors going to a phone jack mounted in the small plastic box with the connections.

The only significance of that style of box is that if you have trouble with your phone, you (or a phone company technician) plugs a known good (land line) phone set into the jack. If that phone works then the problem is in your house wiring. If that phone does not work then the problem is in the phone company lines.

If there are four wires in and four wires out, that used to signify that therr are two phone lines, say one as the main house phone and the other as the children's phone, or one for the main phone and the other for a fax machine. Older wiring used red and green for the first phone line and yellow and black for the second line. There was no ground wire.

Surge protection has been required by section 800 of the NEC for aerial communications lines as far back as I can remember.

Even the house I lived in back in the 50's had a carbon block surge protector like this one. They weren't called network interface devices back then. That term came along around the time of the breakup of AT&T in the early 80's and became a convenient place to include the surge protection.

 

[Drachenfire]

I worked telco for a number of years.

In the company I worked for, failure to properly ground the NID could result in the installer's immediate termination.

 

[hotrodjohn71]

Is that old fashion surge protector block supposed to be grounded at the main home ground electrode like the modern NID?

 

[RAL238]

Is that old fashion surge protector block supposed to be grounded at the main home ground electrode like the modern NID?

Yes. The grounding terminal is the screw in the center of the top edge with the heavy black wire attached.