Re-wiring an existing jack

[GGooding]

Hi -- this is my first post, but I've done some searching on this subject, and can't find my particular problem.

I've attached 2 pictures to this post -- one of the line box outside my house, and the other of the jack in question.

I've got 2 lines in my house, and on that first picture let's call the top line "line 2"...and the bottom line "line 1". The jack is functioning right now with "line 1", but I want to have "line 2" coming out of that jack.

I've got DSL running on "line 2", and I'm starting to think that the jack isn't wired for that type of connection (not that I want DSL...I just want the phone number for voice calls).

If you can't see the jack that well, all colored lines are attached to their associated connectors (i.e. red to red, green to green). The only think coming out of this jack is the red/green/black/yellow lines.

Is there a way for me to rewire this inside so that I can get "line 2" out of this jack?

Thanks so much.
Greg

[suemarkp]

There's a couple of things. You wall jack supports two lines. The yellow and black wires are the wires for the second line. However, a single line phone will only use the middle two wires in the wall jack and those go to the red/green pair. If you don't want line 1 at all, then move the red/green wires in your outside phone box to the other line above it. I'm assuming that the wire in the phone box only goes to this one jack. If it goes to multiple phone jacks, then all of your phone jacks will be switched to line 2 and you'll need plan B instead.

Plan B would be to wire all your phone jacks so that red/green go to line one and yellow/black go to line 2 (this may be accomplished by connecting the yellow and black wires in your outside phone box to the top phone line lugs). Then, go to radio shack or some other source and buy a phone splitter jack. This will plug into your phone jack and turn it into three jacks -- one that is line 1 only, one that is line 2 only, and one that has both but line 1 is on the middle two wires (just like al the other wall jacks). Then you can plug into the appropriate jack depending on what line you want.

[GGooding]

Thanks Mark -- I really need plan B because line 1 is my work phone, and line 2 is my home phone.

I'm going to try it and will let you know.

thanks again.
Greg

[Mr T]

Been sick the last 2 days, in zombie mode here....hope i'm not too far off track with you. Are you getting DSL but not voice from Line 2? If so, do you have your DSL filters installed on all non-data line 2 jacks? Very common problem for people who are new to DSL. (disregard if you are past this point).

Another option you have with the splitter is to get a dual jack phone plate. You can make the top line1 and the bottom line2. In this case your wires would hook up to the center screws on both jacks. May look cleaner.

[GGooding]

Hi -- thanks for the reply post.

I ran out to Radio Shack and got 2 line hardware -- one is a 2-line jack, and the other is a splitter that allows for line 1, line 2, and a combo of line 1 and 2.

Let me see if I can be clearer on the problem, and state where I am now. I've got 2 lines at my house, one has DSL on it. The other one is just plain voice...and everything is working properly for both lines today. Both voice lines function, and the DSL works.

I have a jack in my home office, but when I plug a phone into it, it connects to my home phone number...I want to switch that to my work number if possible.

I connected the black and yellow wires to the top lugs in the picture -- and wired the new jack as the directions said (I only have 4 wires coming from the wall in my office...green/red/yellow/black). I'm assuming they are somehow tied back to my home line.

Any other ideas on how I can force-feed my work number through the jack in my home office?

Greg

[suemarkp]

You appear to have only two cables in your phone box. These two cables feed every phone jack in your house, but we don't know which cable goes to which jacks. I was assuming (by looking at the similarities of the cable jacket) that the line you want on line 1 was that cable in the phone NID with the hanging yellow and black wires.

If you've done the above and you still don't have one number on line 1 and the other on line 2 on the home office jack, then you need to find out what is between the phone wires in the office jack and the phone NID. It is possible that you have another jack (or two or three) in a diasy chain to the home office. If any of those other jacks has broken the yellow and black, then that line will be dead in the office phone.

Finally, your DSL voice/data filter could also be an issue. The voice for the line with the DSL need to come from the correct side of the filter and I don't know where that is -- in the phone NID or somewhere in your house.

So I'd open all your other phone jack wall plates and look for boxes with two cables. If the yellow and black of the two cables aren't tied together, then you need to join them. If you find a box where you have a cable with red/green/yellow/black and a second cable with a bunch of different colors (like the blue/light blue/red/maroon/etc) then you need to match up the yellow and black to the corresponding color that is in the phone NID on the top row.

[GGooding]

Mark --

Thanks for all the feedback on this, it's quite confusing to a novice like myself. I'll take your advice and look around at other jacks, and probably fiddle around with a bit more...but I'm thinking that a call to the phone company to rewire the jack might be in order. I'd hate to spend the money, but I know how hard it is to give advice on a phone system that you've never seen. :-)

thanks again!
Greg

[GGooding]

Lo and Behold -- the Black and Yellow wires are faulty somewhere from the NID to the outlets. I haven't tried any other jacks...but I know they are bad because I replaced the Red/Green with those 2 and didn't get signal in the house.

Nice.

Anyway, I need to pull out the junction box and see if the cat5 wires were wired up to this jack I'm working on -- if they are, everything should be hunky-dorie.

Now my problem is that the box doesn't have visable screws that I can un-do. More to come -- if anyone is interested.

G