I'm really gonna demonstrate my ignorance now, but here goes... My elderly mother lives in an apt that adjoins our house. The apt has a separate phone line from our house though at the moment the line is not active because she uses a cell phone. The phone line from the pole drops to a box mounted on the exterior wall and there is a snap in plug and four screws for each line. I thought that if I put little jumpers from the screws on our side to the screws on her side I would make her inside phone jack active so I could install an emergency medical alert device for her. But it didn't work. Can I piggyback her jack onto our land line somehow?
wiring emergency alert to telephone line
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By jumpering the screw terminals in one phone jack with those in another phone jack on a different line (match the positions which should also match the wire colors) it should work assuming the wiring is intact to where the phone or alert device will be put. But be careful that you don't jumper two phone lines that each still has connections up to the utility pole and the phone company could energize at any time.
Also, most phone lines nowadays run through one or more boxes containing electronics, between the utility pole and the first phone jack in your house. These boxes can vary in size from about two inches square to a foot long and almost as wide. They may be installed either indoors or outdoors. You need to find the last box before your phone jacks; this box is called the "network interface" and you must not connect anything upstream of that box. The NI typically has a jack into which the master phone line for the interior phone wiring plugs into.
Also, most phone lines nowadays run through one or more boxes containing electronics, between the utility pole and the first phone jack in your house. These boxes can vary in size from about two inches square to a foot long and almost as wide. They may be installed either indoors or outdoors. You need to find the last box before your phone jacks; this box is called the "network interface" and you must not connect anything upstream of that box. The NI typically has a jack into which the master phone line for the interior phone wiring plugs into.
Are you wanting to do this so that YOU will receive the alert, or will the device be monitered? I'm not familiar with how these devices work, but it seems to me that since it'll be on your phone line, it's possible the responders would be sent to your house and not to your mother's apartment.
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The inside wiring is the flat wire that plugs into the jack. You need to unplug the two jacks and connect them together with Y connector and plug back into your line.
For your jumpers to work you need to open the phone company side of the box and disconnect the line going back to the pole from the unused side.
Also make sure the line from the NID is still connected inside the house.
For your jumpers to work you need to open the phone company side of the box and disconnect the line going back to the pole from the unused side.
Also make sure the line from the NID is still connected inside the house.
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