trying to start anew

[Unregistered]

hi all,
i would like some advice and some expert tips on remodeling and replacing phone line wire.

i purchased a home that is about 50 years old and the previous owner (a tradesman) hacked together this home and as we remodel the more headaches we find. sometimes i dont want to know whats behind a wall. lol

well we are now in the basement where the original plate from the box has now been located on the joist. I would like to update this wiring due to alot of interference and noises on my line. I also would like to add a dedicated line for high speed internet. so how would i go about doing this? i have currently 3 total phone jacks in the house, all upstairs. with two being added by the moran before us by taking the line from the box outside and then drilling into the side of the house to have the line. should i update the plate on the joist then go from there?

thanks for the help in advance.

Mary

[Frank]

Mary,

I *think* the wire you want is CAT-5. Not sure what that means exactly but I believe it's a higher quality. Someone that sells wire for a living should be able to tell you more. Internet access can happen different ways these days: satellite, cable, DSL... I'm assuming you mean DSL when you speak of higher connection speeds - you have to live close enough to a switching office (and they have to offer the service) but my understanding is that it uses existing telephone wire at a higher frequency. You can be online at all times without disrupting normal tele service. This suggests that the higher quality wire is indeed what you want.

Phone wiring is pretty straightforward. Get the jacks where you want them, use high quality wire, terminate using approved methods and you're most of the way there. You may want to talk to neighbors with internet access qualities you desire and see if the phone lines outside your house are up to the task. I live in the boonies and could never connect faster than 24000 bps so we went to satellite.

good luck!

[mdshunk]

For new phone work, only, only, only use CAT5 cable. The price has come way down, and it's nearly as cheap as the old RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLACK station cable, and is a far superior product. Run a "home run" to each jack from the block. CAT5 will be perfect for your computer lines too. I'd junk the block on the joist... it has served its time. Instead I'd reccommend that you use a "punchdown block" . Use either a 110 style for voice and data, or a 66 style for just voice. This punchdown block requires a special little handtool to make the connections, but this is the most professional and proper way to do your distribution. Luckily phone wiring supplies are relatively cheap to do even the nicest of jobs. I applaud you for upgrading this oft' overlooked system.

[Unregistered]

Thanks to you both. A little new at this but is there somewhere I can find out what all these terms mean? Like "Home Run" and "punchdown block" and how to do it.

Thanks

[mdshunk]

Sorry about the jargon. A home run means that EACH telephone outlet is ran on a dedicated wire from the distribution block to the telephone jack. The other method (bad method) is to "daisy chain" from jack to jack to jack. Don't do this.

There's no other way to say punchdown block. Just do a search. Cost about 20 bucks. Instead of using a brass nut or screw for each wire like your current block, it used insulation displacement terminals for a gas-tight and FAST connection on each wire.

[suemarkp]

You may want to visit the telephone and data wiring section of a Home Depot or Lowes. Home Depot sells a Leviton Structured Wiring center that accomodates phone, CATV, Networking...anything you want. Although this is probably overkill for you, I would consider buying the Leviton 110 punchdown block (about $25) and just wood screw it on short standoffs to your ceiling joist near your existing phone block.

This board has 10 rows of connectors and 4 colored columns (with slots for 2 wires per column). What the board does is tie the same column in each row together (so the blue wire pair is internally connected to the blue pair on each of the 10 rows). This gives you 4 separate phone lines, each going to 9 different locations. All you'd need to do is tie the first column (blue) on row 1 to your phone block red/green wires. Then, run each house phone jack cable from a different row putting the blue and white-blue wire in that row. The board comes with the punch down tool that just pushes the wire into the slot -- no wire stripping needed at all.

If you do a web search on phone wiring, you'll get lots of hits with pictures ranging from very basic to advanced. What you need to know now that I don't know off the top of my head is does the blue connect to your existing red wire or the green wire. The white-blue wire will connect to the other wire. Your black and yellow wires of the existing block will not be used unless you have 2 separate phone lines (numbers) coming into your house. If that is the case, then use the orange and white-orange pair to connect to the black and yellow wires.