Trying to understand telephone wires

[turfgrass]

I need to add a phone line to my soon to be basement room and there seems to be wires everywhere. The easy thing for me to do is to pull back the dedicated line to the garage and install in the new room. However, I'd like to learn more about how these wires work. I took two photos and made one sketch. The sketch shows the line coming into the house and then quickly is spliced into two lines. One line is straight to the garage and the other line goes to another junction where three lines are connected. The three lines then go up into the walls. This house has 7 telephone jacks. The two photos show a close of some splices and one of the lines enetering the house. Any good article to better understand telephone runs? Thanks.

[Mr T]

you got older wiring.
The yellow wire is no longer in use, and is not needed for anything. All you need is a red and green.

You can go point to point (daisy chain) with your wires. HOwever it is not recomended if you use your phone lines for internet (including DSL), or you want to be ready for future technology. The "best" way is to branch out all your runs from a central location. (a star or home run pattern)

If you are using your lines for data, replace all you can with cat-3 wire. You can also run cat-5e (or just cat-5 if you dont need to max your bandwidth) and use the wire for other purposes (network, intercom, phone, low level (unamplified audio), ect.. These days you can run about any singal though cat-5(e)

If you hvae any phone problems, check all your connections. most likely you have a crossed red/green somewhere.

[turfgrass]

Are there any posts that explain the wire colors or what the tabs are for? I was thinking that one wire when to each phone jack.

[Mr T]

what do you mean by tabs?

http://www3.sympatico.ca/bparker/index1.html

green is called your "tip"
red is your "ring" (not ringer)
this goes back to the old operators that plugged your calls in. They used what looks like a larger headphone jack.. tip was the end.. ring was the band further back on the plug)

[turfgrass]

If you look at the last photo you'll see those round plastic things. I decided to call them tabs, because it seem to fit. What are they?

So, it sounds like you have two lines that come into the house. In my case I use only one line which uses two of the four wires. Correct? Now I'm guessing that all seven of my home telephon jacks must be connected using the same colors to that one line. Is that right?

[turfgrass]

"You can go point to point (daisy chain) with your wires. HOwever it is not recomended if you use your phone lines for internet (including DSL), or you want to be ready for future technology. The "best" way is to branch out all your runs from a central location. (a star or home run pattern)"

I agree in having a central point, but I think I might have multiple stars and that makes running wires a problem.

"If you are using your lines for data, replace all you can with cat-3 wire. You can also run cat-5e (or just cat-5 if you dont need to max your bandwidth) and use the wire for other purposes (network, intercom, phone, low level (unamplified audio), ect.. These days you can run about any singal though cat-5(e)"

I don't quite understand the different wires that you mentioned. What wire would you recommend for regular phones and dial up internet? Thanks.

[Mr T]

Those are just splice connectors. I forget the name for them, but you will see them alot in telephone work.

The more data you run, the more critical the layout of your wiring is. With dialup, you dont have much to worry about. 56k modems push the limit of most of the country's phonesystem. You need less then 3 miles of copper between your modem and the phone company (where it goes digital) to get a optimum connection. If you exceed this, your max modem speed will drop off quite a bit. You also cant get DSL then. I was probably not far from having 3 miles in my house when I replaced my phone lines. :D

cat means catagory . It's just the way the wire is run in the cable to reduce interference and increase the amount of data that can pass through.
If you just want a phone to work, what you have now is ok. If you want good modem, go with cat-3 cable. Cat-5 does not cost much more. It may not make a big difference now, but if you ever get DSL, or digital phone, you may notice a difference.

The key to this is.. you are messin with it now... might as well get it ready for later so you dont have to screw with it anymore. I noticed a difference back when I had dialup when i replaced some old phone lines. I ran cat-5 through my house.. I now have a home network and pipe audio from my computer through the house with it.

[turfgrass]

Was I right about lines just splice off the same two wires throughout the house? For a line 1 only line.


"If you want good modem, go with cat-3 cable. Cat-5 does not cost much more. It may not make a big difference now, but if you ever get DSL, or digital phone, you may notice a difference". What do you mean by good modem? Is cat 5(e) the best right now?

"With dialup, you dont have much to worry about. 56k modems push the limit of most of the country's phonesystem".
"I noticed a difference back when I had dialup when i replaced some old phone lines. I ran cat-5 through my house.. I now have a home network and pipe audio from my computer through the house with it".

I'm confused, will there be a change on my dial up if I upgrade wires and what would I notice? Faster downloads? You sparked my interest in a home network and piping audio from my computer. Can you tell me more and what equipment is needed? Thanks a bunch. I've learned a lot already

[Mr T]

Sorry, I meant if you want the best possible modem connection (within your control), use at least cat-3 wire. Phone lines seem to be the most fragile within a house. You may not notice a big difference, and you may not have any difference if your lines are in good shape already.

For whole house networking/ect.
You want all your runs coming back to 1 place. You will probably want a punchdown block to attach all your wires to. There are 2 (common) flavors. 66 and 110. Personally, I recomend a 110 style block. Home depot sells 66 blocks if you wanna look at one. Find a Graybar in your area for the 110 blocks and terminals.

From here you can connect different runs to your network, or a audio distribution amp (your network runs are just audio signal cables in this case, a distribution amp allows you to connect to a few stereo's without loss of signal quality.) You will need a small stereo (your TV/vcr will even work if they have audio inputs...just puts wear on the TV though). in each room you want audio. The biggest expense is your jack plates for each room. You gotta buy the plate, and any connections you want in that room.. WHile you are running wires, run some RG-6 coax to each location for piping video around. OTherwise only other things you need is your punchdown block, a punchdown tool, and whatever networking equipment you plan on using.

Search on the web for 'structured wiring' and/or 'home networking' THere are alot of good sites out there with pictures.

[removeb4flight]

http://www.swhowto.com/
This is a good site for wiring info.;)

[turfgrass]

Thanks for the link. I'll have to check it out later. The holidays are getting in the way.