This document was written by the "Phoneman". Thanks to "Diane" for finding the new site.
Full credit goes to him. His link is http://www.homephonewiring.com/index.html .
Click the link above my copy is probably out of date.
The Home Telephone Wiring Guide is my answer to family and friends asking: "Gee Phoneman, how do I.......?" It was getting old. I'm getting older. So I wrote everything down, played with graphics programs to create diagrams and fired up the old HTML editor to put the page together. Voila!
The Phoneman's Home Page.
Now, instead of spending my time crawling under their homes wiring up additional phone jacks, I merely praise our vast technological advances of late and the easy access to the internet, point them to my web page and wish them good luck.
I hope that this information answers your questions but if anything is unclear, please take the time to re-read the information until it makes sense. Class, pay attention! ( I never said this would be easy ).
Hopefully by reading all this you will :
*Get an overview of the pieces that make up your home telephone wiring.
*Learn how to tell what kind of wire you have in your home, and if it is best suited to your needs.
*Find the color code used by the telephone industry.
*Learn how modular jacks are wired.
*Learn the two most common ways to wire a new home.
*See some common scenarios and have step by step instructions to do it yourself.
*Learn basic troubleshooting techniques.
Please read the Disclaimer first, and work your way on from there. Things are pretty much in order after that.
Accuracy.
To quote Douglas Adams on the accuracy of another guide:
""The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" is an indispensable companion to all those who are keen to make sense of life in an infinitely complex and confusing Universe, for though it cannot hope to be useful and informative on all matters, it does at least make the reassuring claim, that where it is inaccurate, it is at least definitively inaccurate. In cases of major discrepancy it's always reality that's got it wrong."
All the information on these pages has been gathered from many sources and put together by myself. While every attempt has been made to be accurate, there is the slight possibility that the odd mistake has crept in. If it has, I apologize sincerely, but that's as far as it goes. I will not be held responsible for any grief this may cause you. To the best of my knowledge, none of the material contained in these pages is proprietary to any individual telephone company, or the old BELL SYSTEM in general. As far as I know it's all in the public domain. Should you find any inaccuracies, ommissions, or downright falsehoods in any of the information on these pages, please bring it to my attention, and I will do what I can to rectify it.
This site is my own. The opinions are my own. It is in no way affiliated with any telephone company or entity. It has nothing to do with the particular ISP that hosts it. If you have any issues with any information on this site, you can email me and we'll discuss it.
PLEASE NOTE!
This information is provided for your use on the wiring in your home only! The
wire or cable from the telephone company to your home, and the Network Interface, are the property of the telephone company. In most cases it is
against the law for you to repair, rearrange, or mess with anything that is owned by the telephone company. You could be charged with attempted fraud, wiretapping, or vandalism. Please do not touch anything on the telephone company side of the Network Interface.
The telephone wiring system in your home consists of three main parts: The Network Interface, Inside Wire, and Outlet Jacks. Let's look at each part in more detail.
The Network Interface (or NETWORK INTERFACE) is the point of demarcation between the Telephone Company and the Customer. It's the place where the outside telephone line terminates and connects to your inside wiring. Normally the Telephone Company is responsible for everything up to and including the NETWORK INTERFACE The N.I is usually divided into 2 sections: One for the Telephone Company, which contains voltage protection devices and connection points, and one for the Customer, which has a modular jack and plug for testing, and a terminal strip for connecting the inside wiring. Most of the time you will find the N.I on the outside of your home, next to the power meter. The NETWORK INTERFACE must be grounded for proper protection and the ground should be at the power ground, not a cold water pipe. If you can't find the NETWORK INTERFACE at your home, or if it is an older type, call your Telephone Company and ask them to have someone come to your home and show you where it is and make sure it is properly grounded. If your existing NETWORK INTERFACE is of an older type, ask them to change it to a new type. They should do this for no charge.
The Inside Wire (or I.W.) is the wire inside your home that is used for the telephone. Ideally it consists of one or more twisted pair, solid conductor copper wires. It takes one pair (2 conductors) for the phone to function. This wire may be run through the walls, attic, basement, or stapled to the exterior of the home. One end of the INSIDE WIRE terminates at the N.I, and the other end at the Outlet Jack. Inside Wire used to be the property of the Telephone Company; since deregulation it has become the property of the Customer, and anyone may install or repair it. We'll talk more about INSIDE WIRE in the sections titled "Wiring Theory" and "Types of Wire".
Outlet Jacks (or jacks) are what you plug your telephone, answering machine, modem or any other telephone related device into. Called Modular Jacks, they come most commonly in a 4-pin configuration, with 6 and 8 pin variations. They can be flush or surface mounted, for either desk type or wall hanging phones. You can buy most all types of jacks just about anywhere that has an electrical, electronics or hardware department. We'll go into the actual connections to these jacks in the section titled "Modular Jacks".
Telephone wiring can be reliable and noise free if certain precautions are taken. Hopefully this section will give you a better idea of the optimum wiring solution for the home.
We live in the Digital Age. Telephone company central offices are, by and large, digital systems. Unfortunately, standard telephones are analog devices. When the telephone rings, an alternating current causes the bell to ring. When you speak or listen to a telephone, you are either hearing the variation in voltage on the telephone line or varying the voltage for the other party to hear. Standard telephones operate on 48 volts DC; in the telephone industry you have one side designated as Tip (or ground), and the other as Ring (or -48VDC).
Standard telephone wiring is an analog medium. The INSIDE WIRE in your home carries varying voltages as opposed to a digital signal. Because it is an analog medium, it is susceptible to induced noise. To minimize the noise potential, INSIDE WIRE should be twisted pair, solid conductor. Telephone wire consists of solid copper wire covered with a plastic insulation. Two of these wires are twisted together as a pair and bundled with other twisted pairs. The entire bundle is covered with an outer plastic sheath. Normally, three or four twisted pairs are bundled together to make up the INSIDE WIRE
Let's face it, any kind of wire will work for one telephone line, be it doorbell wire or Romex or piano wire if you wish. Problems arise when you have two different telephone lines in the same outer plastic sheath. Imagine that as the voltage is fluctuating in the INSIDE WIRE it is creating a weak electromagnetic field. If you have two telephone lines in the same bundle, those wires are lying next to each other for some distance, and the weak EMF tends to induce or "bleed over" into the second line. Engineers figured out long ago that if you twist each pair, and vary the frequency of the twists, you can reduce the inductive voltage. All Telephone Company wiring (buried or aerial cable) is twisted pair solid conductor. Alas, not all INSIDE WIRE is.
Most people, if they are familiar with any kind of INSIDE WIRE at all, are familiar with the RED/GREEN/YELLOW/BLACK wire that can be found all over the country. It was never intended to carry 2 telephone lines; rather, it was designed for the Princess and Trimline telephones made by Western Electric, which had an illuminated dial. The RED/GREEN pair was for the telephone line, and the YELLOW/BLACK pair was for the transformer to light up the dial. Neither of the pairs were twisted, instead they spiraled (imagine a quadruple helix) around the center and were covered by the plastic outer sheath. This kind of wire works fine for one telephone line, but depending on the length of the INSIDE WIRE, putting a second telephone line in place of the transformer can cause crosstalk. Another cause of crosstalk are mounting cords of excessive length used with 2-line telephones.
The INSIDE WIRE used today by most of the major Telephone Companies consists of four pairs of twisted wire in a plastic sheath. In the telephone industry it's called "4-pair". It's a versatile wire in that it can handle four separate telephone lines, or, can be used for multi-line PBX type sets. In the next sections I'll describe common wire types, and the standard color code.
My experience with INSIDE WIRE goes back to the early 1970's. Since that time, the old Bell System companies commonly used 4 different types of wire:
*Two pair (called Quad), the common RED/GREEN/YELLOW/BLACK described earlier. This wire was used after a house was built (postwire) and the owner wanted an additional jack. Easily stapled and weatherproof; good indoors or outdoors.
*Six pair (called E-wire), typically used for houses and apartments. This wire consisted of six twisted pairs, but no outer sheath. It was used while the home was under construction (prewire), and run inside the walls. Hard to staple, not weatherproof, used indoors.
*Three pair (called H-wire or 3-pair), three twisted pairs covered by an outer plastic sheath. Used for both prewire and postwire, easily stapled and weatherproof.
*Four pair (called 4-pair), four twisted pairs covered by an outer plastic sheath. Used for both prewire and postwire, easily stapled and weatherproof.
If your home pre-dates the 70's there are a few more types of wire you may encounter. Three-conductor wire was commonly used before the mid-sixties for wiring houses and apartments. It had no outer sheath and came in a number of variations:
*The oldest style was a brown or black cloth-covered wire. Each wire is fairly thick, and the three wires are twisted loosely in a spiral. This stuff is ancient history, and, due to the non-waterproof cloth cover, was used indoors only. It was not stapled to a surface but rather it was tacked down. I still see this stuff every now and again.
*Next came a black rubber-covered version of the same wire. It was used outdoors on occasion.
*A white plastic covered version came along a little later.
*Finally there was a three conductor INSIDE WIRE with a plastic outer sheath. The three conductor colors were RED/GREEN/YELLOW
The only other common wire you might be likely to come across is PBX cable (or Key Cable). This consists of twenty-five twisted pairs covered by an outer plastic sheath. This type of wire was used for either a PBX or Key Telephone System, and normally you would find this in a business setting.
Bear in mind that this is just the type of wire commonly found in areas served by the old Bell System companies. There are many other wire types out there, either installed in areas not served by the old Bell System, or wire placed by independent vendors. I've been on some jobs where there was a combination of all the four types listed above, and other jobs where totally different wire types were used.
A color code is used to keep track of the different pairs in a multi-pair cable. This color code is standard throughout the telephone industry. To correctly identify Tip and Ring, a total of ten colors are used; five for the Tip side and five for the Ring. Using these ten colors you can get twenty-five different combinations (5x5), or 25 pairs.
The Tip colors are: White (W), Red (R), Black (BK), Yellow (Y), Violet (V).
The Ring colors are: Blue (BL), Orange (O), Green (G), Brown (BR), Slate (S).
Let's look at pair 01 for a minute. If you were in a 3 pair INSIDE WIRE, pair 01 would be the White/Blue pair. There are 4 variations of white and blue that can be used to express this:
(1) Tip side is solid white and Ring side is solid blue,
(2) Tip side is white with blue tracer and Ring side is solid blue,
(3) Tip side is white with blue tracer and Ring side is blue with white tracer
(4) Tip side is blue with white tracer and Ring side is solid blue. Whew!
That may sound confusing, but it's not really. Pair 01 will always be a White/Blue pair. The ring side will normally be *mostly* blue while the tip side will be *mostly* white. The tracer color is there to help you sort out the pairs should they get mixed up. Most of the wire you will see will have a color coding like example (3), and the rest of the pairs will look the same although with different colors.
After you finish with 25 pairs, you start over again, but wrap it in a separate bundle (or Binder Group). For example, in a 50 pair cable, the first 25 pairs are wrapped in a white-blue wrapping, and the second 25 pairs are in a white-orange wrapping.
There are always exceptions to the rules, and telephone wiring is no exception! If you are dealing with the familiar RED/GREEN/YELLOW/BLACK wire, pair 01 would be the GREEN (Tip)/RED (Ring), and pair 02 would be BLACK (Tip)/YELLOW (Ring).
Modular phone jacks started replacing hard wired jacks around 1975. Now you would be hard pressed to find a telephone that doesn't use a modular connection. They come in flush mount and surface mount, in both wall and desk types. Most jacks that you would commonly deal with in a home/small office setting can handle either one or two telephone lines. Let's take a look at an average modular phone jack.
If you were to look into the opening of the jack you would see four gold plated wires, bent to provide some spring tension, that make contact with the modular cord end when it is inserted into the jack. If you look at the back of the jack you should see where the gold plated wires attach to short lengths of the familiar red/green/yellow/black wire. The ends of these wires usually terminate in spade clips, lugs, or on some type of terminal strips. If you are looking at a working telephone jack you will probably find the red/green wires connected to the INSIDE WIRE The yellow/black wires probably wont have anything connected to them. Not much to it, eh?
The telephone industry designates
jacks by different codes depending on the application of the jack, and the number of lines it can handle. Let's look at the two most common ones.
The RJ11C is the most common jack in existence. It can be any style (surface/flush/wall/desk) but only has one line connected to it, on the green/red (tip/ring). Note that the style of jack doesn't matter; what is important is that only 1 line is used. Most RJ11C's have 4 wires (red/green/yellow/black), but the yellow/black isn't used. This is the type of jack you would find with a typical single line telephone.
The RJ14C is identical to the RJ11C, but has two lines connected to it. Line 1 connects to the green/red (tip/ring or T/R), and line 2 connects to the black/yellow (T1/R1). This is the type of jack you would use with a 2-line telephone.
The other types of jacks I want to mention are called Adapters. These handy little devices plug into a regular modular jack and either split it into two single line jacks (Y-Adapter), bring out both Line 1 and Line 2 on two separate jacks (2-Line Adapter), or bring out Line 1 and Line 2 on two separate jacks with the addition of a third jack that has both Line 1 and 2 (3-Way Adapter). Whew! These adapters come in handy when you need more than one jack at a location and don't want to go to the trouble of installing another jack.
Wiring a new home, or re-wiring an existing home during a remodel is fairly simple. The tools are common, the wire is easily available, and the time spent is minimal. There is, however, more than one way to do the actual layout, so let's talk about that first.
The Loop method is the most economical way to wire. It was the common way to wire a new home when the Telephone Companies were the only ones who did it. Basically, it uses one continuous INSIDE WIRE that starts at the NETWORK INTERFACE and loops at every outlet in the home except the one farthest away from the NETWORK INTERFACE, where it ends. This method works quite well, although it does have drawbacks. Should the INSIDE WIRE become damaged between the NETWORK INTERFACE and the first outlet, none of the other outlets will function, and repairing the damage can be difficult to impossible. If you have a home that was pre-wired by the phone company before 1983 it was probably done this way.
The Home Run method differs from the Loop Method in that every outlet has its own INSIDE WIRE that makes a "Home Run" to a central point. Additionally there is an INSIDE WIRE or INSIDE WIRE's that go from that central point to the NETWORK INTERFACE This method has a few advantages. The first is that should an INSIDE WIRE become damaged, it only affects one outlet. Even though repairing the damage can be difficult to impossible, it's easier to live minus one outlet than to have all the jacks in the house go dead. The other advantage is greater flexibility. From the central point in the home you can wire different telephone numbers on different jacks in the home, or disconnect certain rooms while leaving other rooms intact. Depending on the wire used, you can also connect key-type telephone sets with features like intercom, paging, etc. This would be, in my opinion, the way to wire a new home. The only drawback is that you use more wire.
Obviously you can combine both methods if you need to. You might have a room...say an office...where you had more than one outlet in the room. Let's say you had planned to use the home run method, but since you had 2 outlets fairly close to each other in the office, you just looped those two. This is perfectly acceptable and is done all the time.
Should you decide to wire your home you'll need a minimum of tools and supplies. I would suggest using 4-pair INSIDE WIRE to maximize your options. You'll need a pair of wire cutters for cutting and stripping wires, a screwdriver for terminating them, a hammer, and a power drill with a 3/8" bit. For outlet boxes just use the common plastic nail-on electrical outlet boxes (j-box).
You should get an idea, no matter which method you use, of how much INSIDE WIRE you will need. Use a measuring tape, pace it off, or eyeball it, but when you think you have an estimate of the footage of wire involved, add 10% to it. Really. It's better to have too much than to be 10' short. INSIDE WIRE is fairly cheap and you don't want to cut yourself short.
Keep in mind that the reason you are wiring your home before it's finished is so the INSIDE WIRE is hidden in the walls, ceilings and floor. It's critical to remember that point while you are running the wire. The best time to wire your home is after the electrical wiring is done, but before the insulation and sheetrock is placed. You don't want to spend a lot of time drilling, and it is standard practice to use the same holes that the electrical wire is run through. Also pay attention while pulling wire through holes which already have electrical wire in them so as not to cause so much friction that you wear the insulation off the electrical wires.
Another thing to consider is where the INSIDE WIRE will cross or pass through something that could cut or abrade the outside insulation. This could be a truss connector, piece of metal, or the masonry or brickwork on the outside of your home. Make sure that the INSIDE WIRE is protected at these places by wrapping a layer of black electrical tape around it.
Find out where the NETWORK INTERFACE will be located on your home (normally next to the power meter). Decide where you want the jacks in your rooms to go, and place outlet boxes at same height as the electrical outlets (for standard outlets), or at a comfortable height if they are for wall hanging telephones (like in the kitchen). Place your box/coil/roll/spool of INSIDE WIRE inside the home, close to the location of the NETWORK INTERFACE Find the farthest outlet from the NETWORK INTERFACE and figure a route to it that keeps the wire inside the walls/floors/ceilings the entire way. Think about this for a while. Then start poking the INSIDE WIRE through holes, drilling new holes when needed, until you get to that farthest outlet. Knock the little tab out of the end of the outlet and stick about 2' of wire into it, coil it up, and stuff it in the outlet box.
Before you continue, take a look at the INSIDE WIRE you have run so far. Make sure it is in the walls/ceilings/floors and that you havent missed a stud or rafter/joist and it's hanging out. If it is, you'll have to pull it out and start over. The likelyhood of damage increases when you miss things like that, and it pays to pay attention.
Now find the next closest outlet to the last one. Pick a point closest to that where you have already run your INSIDE WIRE and figure a route to this outlet through the walls/ceilings/floors and pull a *loop* of wire from that point to the outlet box, taking slack from the box/spool/roll/coil of wire at the NETWORK INTERFACE Knock out the tab, and coil up about 2' of INSIDE WIRE and stuff it in the outlet box. Again, check your work. Look for wire out of the studs/rafters/joists and pull it out and do it over if you missed something.
When you finally get finished wiring all the outlet boxes, it's time to run the wire out by the power meter where the NETWORK INTERFACE will be. If the meter base is mounted already, drill out of the house at a point about a foot below, and a little to one side of the meter. If the meter hasn't been mounted, approximate.
Find out where the NETWORK INTERFACE will be located on your home (normally next to the power meter). Decide where you want the jacks in your rooms to go, and place outlet boxes at same height as the electrical outlets (for standard outlets), or at a comfortable height if they are for wall hanging telephones (like in the kitchen). Pick a central location in your home, commonly in the heater/furnace closet, where you will have some working room when everything has been installed in that room. Place a double outlet box (the kind that has 2 light switches, for example) at a comfortable working height. Place your box/coil/roll/spool of INSIDE WIRE in this room.
Find the farthest outlet from the closet and figure a route to it that keeps the wire inside the walls/floors/ceilings the entire way. Think about this for a while. Then start poking the INSIDE WIRE through holes, drilling new holes when needed, until you get to that farthest outlet. Knock the little tab out of the end of the outlet and stick about 2' of wire into it, coil it up, and stuff it in the outlet box.
Before you continue, take a look at the INSIDE WIRE you have run so far. Make sure it is in the walls/ceilings/floors and that you havent missed a stud or rafter/joist and it's hanging out. If it is, you'll have to pull it out and start over. The likelyhood of damage increases when you miss things like that, and it pays to pay attention.
At the closet, cut off the INSIDE WIRE and run it into the double outlet box. Use a marking pen and piece of tape and mark which room the wire goes to (Kitchen, Den, Master Bdrm, Etc). Leave about 2' of wire, hanging out, not coiled up. Continue with the next outlet in the home until finished. Again, check your work. Look for wire out of the studs/rafters/joists and pull it out and do it over if you missed something.
When you have finished with all the outlets in your home, you need to pull INSIDE WIRE to the NETWORK INTERFACE I am going to suggest pulling 2 separate INSIDE WIRE's to the NETWORK INTERFACE because it increases your options. Pick your route, as before, and double the INSIDE WIRE, pulling them both in at once. At the closet, mark both of these INSIDE WIRE's as FEED. If the meter base is mounted already, drill out of the house at a point about a foot below, and a little to one side of the meter. If the meter hasn't been mounted, approximate. That's all there is to it.
Ok, now it's time to put some of this theory into practice. Here are 3 of the most common scenarios that I run into during the course of a day. They cover most of the things that you might want to do yourself in a home/small office setting.
You've just moved into that new house of yours (which you wired on your own), and you need to get the phone service connected. You're still reeling from all the other costs, and you want to save a few bucks by doing all the jack work inside. What do you do?
The first step is to call the Telephone Company and have them move the service to your new home. What you want to make sure you tell them is to only connect the line to the Network Interface (NETWORK INTERFACE), and that you will do the rest. If you have a new house they will place a new NETWORK INTERFACE, and usually connect the new line to the first pair of your INSIDE WIRE
The second step it to determine how many modular jacks you will need, and of what type (desk or wall type, etc.). Your best selection of these outlets will probably be found at a home improvement warehouse type of store. You will have more color options there as opposed to a smaller place. If you don't have any telephone sets, this would be a good place to pick some up.
The third step is to actually install the modular jacks. The tools you will need are just a screwdriver and wire cutters. Go to one of the outlets, remove the coiled up INSIDE WIRE from the outlet, and strip about 3" of the outer plastic sheath from the end. If you are doing a loop of INSIDE WIRE, find the middle of the loop and, without cutting all the way through, cut through the sheath and pull back about 2". In addition to the pairs of wire you should find a nylon string. Use this string to slit the outer plastic sheath for an additional 6". Trim off the remains of this sheath. Find the white/blue and white/orange pairs (assuming you used 4 pair INSIDE WIRE) and strip about 3/4" of insulation off the ends, taking care not to nick the copper wire.
Open up one of the modular jacks and see how it will attach to the outlet box. Some jacks attach directly to the box, while others use a metal bracket between the jack and the box. If yours have a metal bracket, feed the end of the INSIDE WIRE through the center of the bracket and screw it to the box. Now look at the back of the jack where the wires terminate. You should see 4 wires (green/red/black/yellow), normally with spade clips on the ends, on screw terminals. Back the screws off about 1 turn and wrap the ends of the pairs of the INSIDE WIRE around the screws and under the washer below the screw head in a clockwise direction. Don't go round and round; just make a "U" shape. Tighten the screws and, using the wire cutters, trim off any excess wire at the screws.
All that's left to do now is mount the jack to the outlet box, making sure you coil up the excess wire carefully in the outlet box. Make sure the box sits flush against the wall, and that it is level/straight/plumb before you tighten the screws down all the way. If you know that the telephone company has already connected the telephone line to the house, plug a phone into the jack and see if it works. If it does, you're all set. If not, you may have to do some troubleshooting.
You've decided that you need an extra line to handle the modem/fax/business or maybe a line for the kids. You already have an outlet with your existing line, and you either want to change this over to the new line, or have both lines at this outlet (maybe for a 2-line phone). The first step is to call your local phone company to have them install the new line. As in the previous scenario, make sure you tell them that you will do the inside work, and ask them to "tag" the new line at the NETWORK INTERFACE If you don't have a new type NETWORK INTERFACE on your home, ask them to make sure to replace it when they install the new line and to make sure that it's properly grounded.
The next step is to find out just what type of wire you have in your home. The easiest way to do this is to get a screwdriver and open up the existing jack and see what kind of INSIDE WIRE you're using. If you have the familiar Green/Red/Yellow Black INSIDE WIRE, it will handle a second line, but you may end up with crosstalk (see the section on Wiring Theory). If you have a 3-pair or 4-pair INSIDE WIRE, a second line should be easy.
Now it's time to find the NETWORK INTERFACE on the outside of your home. Using the screwdriver, open it up and see if you have the same type of wire that you had on the inside. If you do, fine; if not, there may be a splice either in another jack inside your home, or in the ceiling or under the house. You might want to think about running a new wire, depending on how close the NETWORK INTERFACE is to where you want the new line.
Let's assume that the wire is the same as on the inside of your home, and that the telephone company has been to your home, and tagged the number at the NETWORK INTERFACE "Tagging" means that they have written the new number, either on a paper tag, or in some space provided on the NETWORK INTERFACE, so you can identify where it is. To keep things simple let's call your existing line "Line 1", and the new line "Line 2".
Look at the way Line 1 is connected. You should see some sort of terminal posts or screws that your existing INSIDE WIRE is connected to. Most likely you will have either the Red/Green or Blue/White wires, or possibly a combination of the two, connected to those posts. Now look at where Line2 is tagged. Sometimes the telephone company will connect the next set of spare wires from your INSIDE WIRE when they hook up your new line. Check to see if they have done this, and note the colors that they used. If you have Red/Green/Yellow/Black INSIDE WIRE and your Line 1 is on the Red/Green, you should use the Yellow/Black wires for Line 2. If you have a 3-pair or 4-pair INSIDE WIRE, and Line 1 is on the Blue/White, you should use the Orange/White pair for Line 2.
Use either a screwdriver or long-nose pliers to back off the screws or terminal posts for Line 2. Strip about 1/2-3/4" of insulation off the end of the wires and wrap them in a clockwise direction around the screws/posts, and then tighten. Make sure you didn't disturb any of the existing wiring for Line 1, and when you are satisfied, close the cover on the NETWORK INTERFACE and tighten down the screw.
Go back inside to the jack where you want the new line. At this point you have three options: 1) You can rewire the jack so that the new line is the only line at the jack. 2) You can wire the existing jack for two lines (for a 2-line phone). 3) You can add a second jack so that you have a separate jack for each line. Let's look at each one in turn.
(1) You will see by looking at the jack that your existing line (Line 1) is connected to the Red/Green wires of the jack. To remove that line and put Line 2 in its place, first back off the screws on the back of the jack. Remove the wires from the jack and, using two pieces of black tape, completely cover each wire end. Now connect the pair that you connected to Line 2 at tne NETWORK INTERFACE to the Red/Green of the jack and tighten the screws. Before you do anything else, check your work. Plug a phone into the jack and see if you have dial tone. If you do, go to another phone on your existing Line 1 and call your new Line 2. The phone should ring, and you should be able to answer it and talk over it. If you have no dial tone, you will have to do some troubleshooting. When you are finished , put the jack back together.
(2) You will see by looking at the jack that your existing line (Line 1) is connected to the Red/Green wires of the jack. The Yellow/Black wires of the jack should not have anything connected to them at this point, or if they do, it would most likely be the second pair of your existing INSIDE WIRE (either the Yellow/Black or Orange/White pair). If the spare pair is connected, and it's the same pair that you connected at the NETWORK INTERFACE, you only need to test to make sure the line is working. If no wires are connected, you need to back off the screws of the Yellow/Black on the jack and connect the pair that you used at the NETWORK INTERFACE Plug your 2-line phone into the jack and check for dial tone on both lines. If you have no dial tone on one or both lines, check your connections and try again. When you are finished , put the jack back together. This method may also be used to provide two separate jacks by way of a 2-line adapter. Plug the 2-line adapter into the jack you just rewired and you will have a separate jack for Line 1 and Line 2.
(3) Decide where you want the second jack relative to the original. The type of jack you use (flush or surface mount) will determine where and how you install it. Once the jack is mounted, find the pair in the existing INSIDE WIRE that you used for Line 2 and connect it to the Red/Green of the new jack. Test as above and then finish putting the jacks back together.
Scenario #3--Existing Home, Existing Line, New Wiring--
Let's say that the home you live in has two phone jacks, one in the kitchen and one in the master bedroom. You spend a lot of time in the family room, and would really like a jack in there. What to do? Read on....
The first thing to do is decide where you want the jack to go, and then to pick the easiest, most unobtrusive way to run wire to that jack. Many things have to be taken into account when planning this type of wiring job. Which is closer: the NETWORK INTERFACE or an existing jack? Will you be able to run the wire through the crawlspace, unfinished basement or attic? How about stapling the wire to the exterior of your home, or on the interior along baseboards and door moldings? My experience has been that most customers want the wire to show as little as possible, and I plan my job with that in mind. I normally try and give the customer more than one option and let them decide.
Your best bet to do an attractive job is to pick a route through the crawlspace or unfinished basement. This puts the wire "out of sight" and is relatively easy to do. After deciding where you want the new jack to go, drill a hole (approx 1/4") through the floor right at the edge of the baseboard. Locate the NETWORK INTERFACE and make sure you have a hole through the exterior of the home into the crawlspace or basement. Place one end of the INSIDE WIRE from the box/roll through the hole at the jack and feed about 4' of wire down below. Once you get down below, pull off wire as you go, feeding it through the floor joists or over pipes, ducts, etc., to wherever the NETWORK INTERFACE is. Stick enough wire through the hole to reach the NETWORK INTERFACE with a couple of feet to spare. Take a minute and check your work, making sure the INSIDE WIRE is up and out of the way.
Using a screwdriver, open up the NETWORK INTERFACE Look at the way your existing line is connected. You should see some sort of terminal posts or screws that your existing INSIDE WIRE is connected to. Most likely you will have either the Red/Green or Blue/White wires, or possibly a combination of the two, connected to those posts. Feed your new INSIDE WIRE up into the NETWORK INTERFACE and cut off any excess after leaving enough to make your connection. Strip back the outer sheath of the INSIDE WIRE, exposing the inner wires. Strip off 3/4" of insulation on the Blue/White or Red/Green wires. Loosen the screws that your existing INSIDE WIRE are connected to, terminate the new wires, and tighten the screws. Make sure you didn't disturb any of the existing wiring, and when you are satisfied, close the cover on the NETWORK INTERFACE and tighten down the screw.
Let's assume you are using a baseboard jack at the new location. The jack itself is about 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" by 1" deep. It consists of a cover with an integral modular jack which screws onto a terminal block. The terminal block is mounted to the baseboard or wall with two screws. The INSIDE WIRE enters from below, through the floor. Two grabber screws hold the terminal block in place if mounted to the baseboard. Normally the INSIDE WIRE is routed behind the terminal block, in the groove between the screw holes. The pairs from the INSIDE WIRE and the wires from the jack both terminate on the terminal block screws. Before you mount the block, cut the wire so 1' sticks up from the floor, taking care not to let it fall back through the hole. Strip off 9" of outer sheath and then mount the jack to the baseboard over the INSIDE WIRE, pushing the wire down until the top of the outer sheath is even with the top of the terminal block. Once the jack is mounted, wind the pairs from the INSIDE WIRE around and behind the block a couple of times. Pull out the Blue/White pair and terminate it on the top two screws, one on each side, and connect it to the Red/Green of the new jack. Test as above and then finish putting the jack together.
There are times when you won't be able to go below the house. You may have a finished basement, a slab floor, or possibly you are working on the second story of your home. If this is the case, you are left with stapling wire to the baseboard and around door moldings, or on the exterior of your home. You may be able to get away with tucking the INSIDE WIRE between the carpet and the baseboard, but this can be a pain. If you pull the carpet off of the tack strip, you will need to get it stretched back onto the strip, or else the carpet will wrinkle over time. For stapling to either baseboards or outside the home, please see the section "Tricks, Tips and Hints".
Most everyone has a skill that other people don't have. I'll never be a brain surgeon, a lawyer, or an accountant, but I know telephone stuff six ways from sunday. What I do find hard is translating what I know into words.
When I go out on a job, I never know what I will run into unless I've been there before. Once I get there I can usually tell within the first 5 minutes what I'm up against and plan the job accordingly. To be honest, I never conciously think about it; it's all automatic. There are, however, tricks that you can use to do the job with a minimum of tools and supplies. I hope that the following topics will make your job easier.....
You don't need a lot of tools for doing inside work. I hate to carry more tools than I need, so I keep the tools in my tool pouch to a minimum. I have two screwdrivers: a flat-blade with a blade width of 3/16" and a shank length of 7", and a phillips head with a shank length of 6". I have two pairs of pliers: long-nose and wire cutters (dikes). Aside from a test set, tone, tone probe, can wrench and punch down tool, that's all I carry in my pouch. You won't need the tone, tone probe, can wrench or punch down tool, but I will discuss a test set later on.
When I have to run wire on the outside of a home I usually end up stapling it to the wood or aluminum siding (or sometimes vinyl but never in the winter!). To do this I use two staple guns: An Arrow T-18 and T-25. The T-18 is good for Quad and 3-Pair INSIDE WIRE, and the T-25 is used for 4-Pair INSIDE WIRE Both of these use staples that are not square, but have a rounded top similar to an upside down "U". This is not something I would suggest you buy, but rather try and work with what you have, or can borrow. Just remember that you don't want the staple to either crush the INSIDE WIRE, or penetrate the outer sheath.
The only power tool I use is a cordless drill. A drill is a must for going through wood, lath and plaster or stucco, and for that I use a 1/4" bit with a shank length of 16 inches. That length is adequate for going through most floors and walls. Add a screw bit to the drill and your hand won't get tired when you are mounting multiple jacks.
The test set I use is pretty sophisticated; I can monitor the line, it has a speakerphone, etc. You won't need all that, and you can make a servicable one by using an existing phone. What you will need is a modular jack, two alligator clips, and two, 1' lengths of some type of wire. Strip about 1" of insulation off each end of the wires, connect an alligator clip to one end of each wire, and connect the other end of each wire to the Red/Green of the modular jack. Plug the phone into the jack and you have a funky but useable test set. Even I have had to do this in a pinch!
All of the hardware needed for home telephone work is inexpensive and readily available. I use phillips head Grabber screws (or drywall/sheetrock screws) for mounting jacks to wood or lath and plaster walls. 1" screws work well for mounting to baseboards, and 1 1/2" screws work when you have to go through a layer of sheetrock and into the stud behind. To mount something to sheetrock, you will need either plastic anchors, or molly bolts. You can also use toggle bolts, but they are a one-shot deal (the toggle falls off if you have to remove the screw) and because of that I don't use them. When installing a jack in a j-box or electrical outlet box you use machine screws, which are normally supplied with the modular jack.
The INSIDE WIRE that I use in my work is 4-Pair twisted, solid copper wire. If you are going to run new wire, I would suggest using this or 3-Pair, if only because it gives you relatively noise-free service with multiple line capability. Avoid using Quad (Red/Green/Yellow/Black), as well as Mounting Cord wire (looks just like a mounting cord, sold on rolls) due to the crosstalk problems. INSIDE WIRE is fairly cheap, and the difference in cost between poor wire and good wire is small.
The type of Modular Jack that you use depends on the situation. Flush-mount jacks are designed to be installed in either a j-box or electrical outlet box that are usually placed during construction. Surface-mount jacks are usually placed after construction has been completed, normally on a baseboard. Jacks for wall hanging phones are typically of one type, which can be either placed at an outlet box, or surface mounted. If you are using flush-mount jacks, try and get the ones that use a mounting bracket, as these can be used with either an outlet box or mounted directly to the sheetrock. (I'll tell you how a little further down the page)
Know what you're getting into and make sure you end up where you want to. It doesn't matter if you're drilling through a wall or a floor, you want to make sure you don't drill through something you weren't expecting. Walls and floors contain, among other things: plumbing, electrical wires, phone wires, thermostat wires and heating and cooling ducts. I have personally drilled through a sewer vent pipe, a pocket door in a kitchen and came out in a family room ceiling because I: 1) didn't know it was there, 2) didn't pay attention, 3) measured wrong. I've seen guys drill through water pipes, power lines, and through the back of a refrigerator on the other side of the wall. With that in mind, here are some tips to make drilling easier:
Measure before you drill. I don't care if you get out a tape measure or eyeball it, but make sure that you are going to come out where you want to. When drilling out a wall, use landmarks (windows, doors, vents) to get an idea of where you will end up and look at both sides of the picture. The same thing goes for drilling through the floor. Make sure you end up in the laundry room instead of the family room ceiling.
Always drill from the inside out. You will normally be drilling out where you want the jack, and that way less wire will show inside the home. The only exception to this rule is when you are drilling a hole by the NETWORK INTERFACE to get a wire into the basement or crawl space.
Watch out for things like hot water baseboard heat. If you drill through one of those pipes you will have a hell of a mess on your hands. Maybe you could put that jack somewhere else?
If you're unsure of what might be inside that wall, try this: As you start to drill through the sheetrock, stop the drill as you feel it go through. Then, without power, push the drill gently through until you get to the outer wall. Depending on the thickness of the studs, you should have about 3 1/2' or 5 1/2" of free space. At that point you can continue to drill through the outer wall. If there had been a wire or pipe on your way you would feel it before you drilled through it. At that point you might be able to either angle the drill to avoid the obstacle, or start another hole.
Drilling through a stucco wall can be a pain. The natural tendency is to push harder to make the drill bit go through, and what you end up with is a big crater in the stucco. Go slow, and if you have one you might want to change to a long masonry bit. I filled many a stucco crater when I worked in California.
When drilling through the floor in a carpeted area, make sure you don't catch a thread of the carpet and wind it around the drill bit, leaving a line across your carpet(been there, done that). The easiest way to avoid this is to use your long-nose pliers to pull up the edge of the carpet before you drill. Normally you will want to drill at the edge of the baseboard, so at that point use your long-nose pliers to gently pull up the edge of the carpet between the baseboard and the tack strip. Ease the drill bit in between the carpet and the baseboard and start to drill, making sure you don't catch any loose carpet threads.
Mounting modular jacks is a fairly straight-forward process. The only variations are a function of the type of jack being installed. Let's start with the easiest and work to the hardest.
The surface-mount baseboard jack is the easiest to install, and probably the most common. The jack itself is about 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" by 1" deep. It consists of a cover with an integral modular jack which screws onto a terminal block. The terminal block is mounted to the baseboard or wall with two screws. The INSIDE WIRE either enters from below, through the floor, or from behind and above, through the wall. Two grabber screws hold the terminal block in place if mounted to the baseboard. If you mount this type of jack to plain sheetrock you will need to use either plastic anchors or molly bolts. To do this, use the terminal block as a guide, and a pencil to mark where you need the holes. Then take your flat-blade screwdriver and push it gently through the sheetrock to make the holes for either the mollys or anchors. Then use the screws provided with the mollys or the grabber screws with the plastic anchors to mount the terminal block. Normally the INSIDE WIRE is routed behind the terminal block, in the groove between the screw holes. The pairs from the INSIDE WIRE and the wires from the jack both terminate on the terminal block screws.
Next on the list is the flush-mount jack. They usually mount in a j-box or outlet box, and normally come with all the hardware needed to mount them. Some flush-mount jacks screw directly to the outlet box, while others have a bracket that mounts to the box, and then the jack mounts to the bracket. If you get the type with the bracket, make sure you mount the bracket to the wall before you connect any wires to the jacks. Instructions usually come with these jacks.
Wall phone jacks (for wall hanging phones) are as easy as flush mount, and can be both surface mounted, or in conjunction with a j-box. Normally they have an integral mounting plate/modular jack, and a cover that goes over it. These jacks also have two pins or buttons that are used to hold the wall phone in place. If you buy one of these jacks they also come with instructions. If you mount this jack to a j-box, you will use the screws provided with the jack. If you are surface mounting this jack, you can either mount it over a stud and use 1 1/2" grabbers, or you will need to use molly bolts due to the weight of the telephone. Plastic anchors will do in a pinch, but tend to pull out easier than molly bolts.
The hardest jack to mount is a flush mount on a sheetrock wall with no j-box or outlet box. Done correctly, it will look like it "came with the house". Normally you would do this in a situation where you had to run wire on the outside of the home to get to a room where there was no outlet. First you would drill your hole through the wall at the height of the other electrical outlets, at the desired location. After placing and stapling the wire and connecting it at the NETWORK INTERFACE you would choose a flush-mount jack that had a bracket type of mounting. Inside the room you would cut off the wire, leaving about 2' sticking out of the wall. Now take the bracket and thread the INSIDE WIRE through the center, and place the bracket on the wall at the same height as the other outlets. Mark the mounting holes with a pencil and make holes for the molly bolts. Place the molly bolts and screw the bracket to the wall, making sure it's straight up and down. Now you have to remove the drywall in the center hole of the bracket to be able to place the jack. Follow around the inside of this hole with your screwdriver, gently pushing it in all the way around, until you can pop this piece of drywall into the wall. Once that is done you can strip the INSIDE WIRE and finish mounting the jack. (This actually isn't as hard as it sounds, but then again I've done hundreds of them)
This is the bane of most of the phonemen I know. I'd have a hard time to think of anyone I know who likes to run INSIDE WIRE Unfortunately, it has to be done, and there are things you can do to make it easier.
The first thing to do is plan what you want to do. When I get to a job and find out from the customer what they want, the next thing I do is try and plan the job so I get done as soon as possible. This means doing things in order, and only once. For instance, if a customer wants three new outlets, and those outlets require me to go into the crawl space to pull the wire, I want to make sure I only go under their house once! So I plan my job to make sure that's all I do. In doing the work yourself, you have all the time you need to plan. This also includes making sure you have all the tools and materials you need to do the job before you start.
To begin with, you should make a rough sketch of your floorplan, and figure where you want any new jacks. Wire can be run anywhere, be it in the attic, crawl space, unfinished basement, or stapled to the exterior of your home or along baseboards and moldings inside your home. Note the location of your NETWORK INTERFACE and any existing jacks in your home and try and figure the best and easiest way to gain the desired result. Look at the type of INSIDE WIRE you already have in your home and see if there is a way to utilize it in your plans. You may have an existing jack on the other side of a wall and all you need to do is run 1' of wire and mount a jack. All these things need to be taken into consideration before you start. Never work any harder than you have to!
Try and avoid running wire on the outside of your home. INSIDE WIRE is tough, but not indestructible. Exposure to the sun, rain and cold over time will cause the outer sheath to crack, exposing the wires inside to possible damage from moisture. When stapling wire to the outside of your home, try and pick a route that will be as inconspicuous as possible while protecting the INSIDE WIRE from the elements. Staple the INSIDE WIRE every 8" on horizontal runs, and every 12" on vertical runs. Try and follow natural lines, like the under edge of horizontal siding. When working around doors and windows staple to the sides of the trim, not the face. Use two staples at the beginning and end of turns and curves. INSIDE WIRE can be painted with any leftover trim or house paint to match your home. If you're working high under eaves or the roof line, make sure you have a steady ladder, and don't work more than 2' from either side of the ladder. Falling is no fun, and the object here is to get the job done, not to get hurt.
Try and do more than one thing at a time when you can. Let's say you are adding three new jacks, and the INSIDE WIRE will go through the floor into the crawl space and then out to the NETWORK INTERFACE Drill down through the floor where you want the jacks to mount on the baseboard. Drill into the crawlspace from the NETWORK INTERFACE Remember that if you are pulling multiple INSIDE WIRE's through this hole it will have to be a bit larger (say 3/8" or so) to fit them all. Pull off enough wire for each jack to go to the NETWORK INTERFACE(plus a little extra), tie a knot in one end of each INSIDE WIRE and stick the other end through the hole in the floor at the jack. Do that for all three jacks, and when you have to make the crawl find all three and pull them over to the NETWORK INTERFACE One crawl for three jacks.
When you are down in the crawlspace you want to try and pick a route that will keep the INSIDE WIRE off the ground. You can use existing pipes, ducts and electrical wires to support the INSIDE WIRE, but pay attention to the sharp edges on pipe hangers and ducting to make sure they don't damage the INSIDE WIRE You can also staple it, or use wire nails (for nailing electrical wires), as long as you don't hammer them in too tight. You want to support the wire, not crush it.
Stapling wire to baseboards and door moldings never looks good, but sometimes it's the only way to get the job done. The thing to remember here is to keep the INSIDE WIRE tight and straight. Start by putting in two staples at the starting point. On baseboards, go as low as your stapler allows, as close to the carpet as possible. Stretch the wire out ahead of you, and staple every 8", normally using the stapler as a guide. Use two staples at the beginning and end of every curve or turn. Staple to the sides and top of door moldings, not the face. If you are going through a doorway from one room to another, make sure you have the INSIDE WIRE low enough that the door won't pinch it when it closes.
Fishing wire in walls can be one of the hardest things to do. The thing that will stop you cold every time is a fireblock or firestop. This is a piece of stud placed horizontally between two studs to slow or stop flames travelling up inside the wall. If you run into one of these, you're toast. The other thing that will slow you way down is insulation, but at least this is workable. The tool to use here is a straightened clothes hanger or piece of stiff wire with a small hook at one end. Let's say you are mounting a wall phone jack about 5' off the floor, with wire stapled along the baseboard. Find the space between the studs and mark where you want to mount the jack. Make about a 1" hole in the sheetrock behind and in the center of the jack. Directly below that, just above the baseboard, make a hole in the sheetrock just large enough to get the INSIDE WIRE through. Stuff in about 10'-15' of wire, and, using the coathanger or stiff wire, hook the INSIDE WIRE and pull it up. Then finish mounting the jack as usual.
You can also combine all these methods to do the job. You might staple wire for a short distance on the outside of the house, come into a closet and staple around the inside of that, fish up a wall and then poke through the wall to a flush-mount jack. The combinations are endless, and believe me, I find new ones all the time.
It is a fact of life that nothing lasts forever. Telephone wiring, jacks and the telephone sets themselves are not immune. Most of the time you won't have any problems with your service, but if you do, and want to try and isolate and repair these problems yourself, it is not beyond the ability of the homeowner to do so. If you have read the rest of the guide and are familiar with the basics of telephone wiring it won't be too hard.
What I had planned to do in this section was to present examples or scenarios based on my typical repair jobs. Unfortunately, as I tried to write the different examples I kept realizing how subtle variations in each situation changed the way I would go about isolating and repairing the trouble. After writing and re-writing this particular page, I came to the decision that this is one section where you are on your own. I will define some terms, explain how the causes generate effects, and how to go about recognizing them, but as for isolating them and fixing them....well, give it your best shot.
Before you read this next section, please read my Disclaimer.
As a telephone customer, you pay for a service, but not all customers know exactly what to expect in the line of service. If you are unsure of what level of service you are entitled to you should call your local telephone company and find out. What I am talking about here is what is covered repair-wise and what is not. At my company, we will repair, for free, anything up to and including the network interface (NETWORK INTERFACE), unless the cause is malicious damage done by the homeowner/tenant. Anything past the NETWORK INTERFACE, which includes all the interior wiring and jacks is handled in one of two ways. You can purchase from us a Wire Maintenence Agreement for a couple of bucks a month, and should anything go wrong with your wiring or jacks we will repair it or replace it for no charge. You can decline to purchase a Wire Maintenence Agreement, and should anything go wrong with your wire or jacks you can either fix it yourself, hire anyone you like to fix it, or have us fix it on a time and material basis. Additionally, we will charge you to come out and isolate the trouble into your home if you don't have the Wire Maintenence Agreement.
What this means is that you should know beforehand what level of service you are getting and who will pay for what in the event of a service call.
Example : Your phone goes dead and you call telephone repair to report it. You do not have a Wire Maintenence Agreement. I am dispatched and come to your home to fix the problem. You are not home, but I test the line from the outside of your home and find the problem is in your home. I would bill you a trouble isolation charge (about $70), leave your telephone dead, and go on to my next job. Don't bother arguing, ignorance of the law is no excuse, etc. If you should be home and want me to fix it, the first half hour is in the price (about $70) but if it takes longer it's $18 for every 15 minutes thereafter. If you don't like those prices you either hire someone else or do it yourself.
Do I have a Wire Maintenence Agreement? No. Why? I can fix it myself. If you asked me my opinion of them I would say that it is very cheap insurance. It may cost you $18 a year, but the first time you use it you could save $100. On the other hand I have lived in my current home for almost 18 years and have never had a wiring problem. (and believe me, I don't spend my spare time doing preventive maintenence on my phone wiring). So the bottom line is it's how lucky you feel; sort of like a Road Hazard Warranty on your tires (which I have used once in my life). But please take the time to find out what you can expect if you do have trouble.
The hardest part of troubleshooting anything is learning the theory behind it. Let me rephrase that. There is a procedure involved in troubleshooting any system, and to succesfully troubleshoot any system you have to know the procedure.
The procedure for telephones is not very complicated. What is complicated is the number of variations in wire types, wiring layouts, customer equipment, etc. You, as customer, only have to deal with one arrangement : the one in your current home. I, as a repairman, have to deal with every different kind of arrangement known to humankind, and I still run into new setups all the time. Every job is different.
When you have a problem with your telephones you have a system that is in an abnormal condition. Some event has caused the system to go from a normal to an abnormal condition. To correct the problem, you have to determine what event occured, and where it occured. Trouble symptoms and knowledge of events are the easiest ways to isolate both the event that took place and where it took place.
Whew....Let's look at some examples.
*You come home from work to find that the water heater leaked and flooded the basement. You pick up the phone and all you hear is static. The phone worked fine until the water heater leaked. Lots of my customers can't make the connection here but I can : Something's wet. Something in the path of all that water. Probably a wire or jack in the basement or near the water heater.
*You wake up in the morning and try to use the phone, but it's dead ; no static, nothing. Last night there was a big thunderstorm. The problem here is weather related. Lines could be down or broken, or high voltage protection devices may have blown out.
*You upgrade your computer and modem and now you can't connect to your I.S.P. anymore. Is this a telephone problem? I don't think so.
These three examples show your system going from a normal to abnormal condition. In the first, the event that triggered it was a water leak. In the second, a storm. In the third, the system was perceived as abnormal, but in reality was not. These are things I see all the time when I go out on repair.
Before we go much further we need to define some terms relating to telephone troubles.
*No Dial Tone, NDT: When you pick up your telephone you do not get a dial tone, and you cannot make an outgoing call.
*Can't Be Called, CBC: People cannot call you. To them, they either hear your phone ring, or they get a busy signal.
*Can't Call Out, CCO: You have a dial tone, but, after dialing the number, your call does not connect.
Static: At any point after you pick up your telephone, you hear pops, clicking, or what sounds like bacon frying.
*Noise or Hum: A constant, loud background hum during normal conversation.
*Hears Others On Line, HOOL: During conversation you can hear another conversation, or modem or fax machine, in the background.
90% of all the troubles I go on are described in these terms. They may be singular, or a combination of the terms above. All are abbreviated. No dial tone becomes NDT, Can't be called becomes CBC. So when I get a trouble ticket, it will say "NDT, CBC, CCO", and I know that they have no dial tone, can't be called, and they can't call out.
Now we need to define the different conditions that cause these troubles. Please refer to the chart below.
99% of all the troubles I go on are caused by one or more of these 4 conditions.
*SHORT: A short is defined as the connection together of the tip and ring side of the line. This connection can be of any resistance. If the resistance is low, this is known as a Solid, or Hard short.
*OPEN: An open is defined as a break in continuity of either the tip or ring side of the line, or both. This break can be of any resistance. If both sides are open it's known as Wide open, as opposed to a Tip open or a Ring open.
*CROSS: A cross is defined as the connection of either the tip or ring side of one line with the tip or ring side of another line. This connection can be of any resistance.
*GROUND: A ground is defined as the connection of either the tip or ring side of the line to a ground source. This connection can be of any resistance. If the resistance is low, this is known as a Solid, or Hard ground. If the resistance is high, it is known as a High-Resistance ground.
Now that we've defined two sets of terms, let's go into them a little deeper. We'll start with the conditions that will cause trouble on your line.
A SHORT can be caused by a number of things. You may have frayed wires in the cord to your telephone and they touch, causing a short. The pins in the modular jack may be bent, and touching. A staple or nail may have gone through the INSIDE WIRE in your home and is shorting out the line. Water (being a conductor of electricty) may be somewhere that bare wires are exposed, causing a short. A telephone may be "off hook" somewhere in your home, and that will cause a short. The Modem in your P.C. may be stuck, or not releasing, and that will cause a short. If your line is shorted, and the short is fairly hard, or solid, you will not be able to get dial tone. People calling you will get a busy signal, because with the short on the line, the telephone equipment in the central office thinks your line is in use. A short caused by water or moisture will normally result in STATIC.
A GROUND can be caused by most of the things that cause a short. You could have frayed wires, a staple or nail through the INSIDE WIRE, or water problems. The difference here is that instead of both sides of the line touching each other, either or both sides of the line are touching some sort of ground. Normally, if you were to ground the Tip side of your line, your telephone would still work, but you would have a loud Hum on the line. If you were to ground the Ring side however, it would appear to the telephone equipment in the central office to be a short, and your line would, for all intents and purposes, be shorted. A ground caused by water or moisture will normally result in static.
A CROSS can be caused by most of the things that cause a short or a ground. Frayed wires, staples or nails, and water. It can be hard to isolate at times because a cross can behave as either a short or ground. Remember that you have battery on the ring side of your line, and ground on the tip. If you have a cross between the tip of one line and the ring of another, you basically have a short. If you have a cross between the tip of one line and the tip of another, you have a tip ground. Generally, a solid cross in an INSIDE WIRE will put both lines out of service, just like a short or ground. A cross caused by moisture or water will normally result in static.
An OPEN can be caused by anything that will break the conductor, at any point along the line. Vibration or flexing will cause the wire to break, along with staples and nails. A conductor may be open due to a loose connection at any point where two or more wires connect. Heavy moisture in the air can cause wires and connections to corrode, causing opens. If you have an open in your line, you could either have no dial tone or dial tone with static. If the open is caused by moisture, you will most likely have bad static as long as it is wet, and no dial tone when it dries out.
The first thing you need to determine when you have a telephone problem is whether the problem is on your side or the phone company's side of the NETWORK INTERFACE The easiest way to do this is to make your first test at the NETWORK INTERFACE
Take a look at this block diagram of a typical NETWORK INTERFACE You can see the wiring coming in from the telephone company and the wiring going into the house. The protection devices are for high voltage surges, and normally the modular plug is in the modular jack. The beauty of this NETWORK INTERFACE is that you can plug a regular telephone into the modular jack to test the line. In doing so you disconnect the wiring going into the house. When you test the line here you prove the trouble either back in to the telephone company's system, or into the house wiring and jacks.
For example : Let's say you were experiencing a No Dial Tone condition. You go to the NETWORK INTERFACE, unplug the modular plug that connects to your house wiring, and plug a working telephone into the modular jack.
There are only two possible outcomes here. You will either :
*Have a dial tone. If you do, this proves that the trouble is inside your home because you are now connected only to the telephone network; your inside house wiring is not connected. Now you need to decide whether you will fix it yourself, or have someone else look at it.
*Have no dial tone. If you still have no dial tone, this indicates that the house wiring is is O.K., and that the problem is in the telephone company's stuff. Do not go any further, but call your telco and have them check it out.
There may be times, especially if the problem you are having on your line could potentially damage or "hold up" the telephone switching equipment, when it could take some time after removing the trouble from the line before you will hear a dial tone. This is to protect the telephone switching equipment. If you are trying to determine at the NETWORK INTERFACE whose problem it is, and after removing the house wiring and plugging in a test telephone you don't get a dial tone, you might want to wait a minute or two and try again.
The subject of data transmission speeds and problems is an area in which I get quite a number of requests for advice. To try and cut down on the amount of e-mail I have to answer I've decided to put up a page with the basics. I'll try and give you an idea of how data transmission works, what the limiting factors are, and how few options you have in improving the situation. Yes, I did say "few" options.
This is somewhat more technical, long and drawn out. Boring. But there is a lot of information to cover here so please bear with me eh?
If you can remember back to the Wiring Theory section, I mentioned that, while most of the telephone Central Offices are digital, telephones are analog devices. This isn't a problem because analog telephony doesn't require high bandwidth. Data transmission however wants to use as much bandwidth as possible (higher bandwidth = higher speed). What you need to consider first and foremost is that the telephone line you are using for your computer is a Voice-Grade line.
What does this mean? It means that you are paying for a telephone line to use for voice transmission, not data. The residence line (or business line) that you are using only has to meet certain criteria pertaining to voice transmission. This is also called a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line. And that is the point: you are paying for a line that you can hold a conversation on, not a high-speed data line. It is possible to have a line that meets the criteria for POTS that won't send or receive data at speeds greater than 2400 bps. Really.
Why is this? Well, you have to take into consideration the varying conditions under which most telephone companies operate. In major urban areas most people are never very far away from their central office. If the area in question is an older, established city, there isn't really much growth (new home construction), and for the most part people just move from place to place. The cable facilities the telco has to serve this area are, by and large, mostly copper cable of a fairly moderate length. If, however you are in more rural area, or an area that has a lot of new construction (normally on the outskirts) you might find yourself at a much greater distance from the central office. Normally the length of cable will be greater, and facilities will be in short supply (due to growth). In addition, the local telco may use transmission facilities other than copper cable to try and keep up with demand for service, or to handle the problems associated with distance.
When I worked in L.A. I was in an older, established urban area. Most of my customers were within 2 miles of the office, and the longest distance from the office was about 4 miles. When I moved to Utah, the area I worked in had customers that were up to 9 miles away. All on copper cable. Needless to say, at that extreme distance service was marginal, but, it worked, as voice-grade service. As the area continued to grow we had to come up with ways to maximize our cable potential, and we used both analog and digital carrier systems to keep up with the demand and maintain service.
Data speed is a function of the transmission medium used. Telephone companies historically used copper cable for the transmission medium between the central office and the customer location. With the growing demand for additional lines in the 80's and 90's, digital carrier systems were developed to increase the capacity of existing copper cable. With a digital carrier system, two copper pairs can carry 24 dial tone lines. Fiber optic cables are also used to further increase capacity. But at some point, even the the digital carrier and fiber optics need to go back into copper cable before it reaches your house. Check out the diagram below.
Remember when I said that telephony is an analog medium? It's true. Because we don't all have digital telephones (like an ISDN telephone set), the digital carrier signal is converted back to analog at the Remote Terminal and sent out to the customer on copper cable. That is why you use a Modem (MOdulator/DEModulator) to change the digital signal from your computer into an analog signal that can go over the phone line. You would think that with the digital carrier systems on either copper or fiber you would be getting the fastest transmission speed but that's not entirely true.
In the example at the top of the diagram you see a house that is fed by copper cable all the way from the central office. This is the most common and the traditional way of doing things. In the second example you see a house that is fed partially by a digital carrier over copper to a remote terminal. At the remote terminal the digital signal is changed back to analog and continues on copper cable to the house. In the lower example the feed is on fiber optic cable, to the remote terminal and then on copper to the house. In traditional telephony, being an analog medium, you will always have some copper going to the house. The advantage of digital carrier systems is twofold:
*The distance from the central office to the house can be much greater, because the digital signal is regenerated, not amplified. Because it is regenerated, any noise that you would encounter due to the length of the cable is not amplified and added back into the circuit. When the signal is converted back to analog at the remote terminal, the loss at that point is almost exactly the same as it is when it leaves the central office.
*The number of dial tone lines that are available increases greatly. In a normal digital carrier system you use 12 pairs for the system and diagnostics. You get the capability of 96 dial tone lines vs 12 dial tone lines on the 12 pairs. This is vastly important as growth occurs and you want to keep costs down.
Ok, so what determines the speed of your data connection? The limiting factors are:
*Loss, measured in dB
*Noise, measured in dB, and
*Overhead, associated with digital carrier systems
Loss is a function of distance and resistance. The longer the length of cable, the greater the loss. The greater the loss, the slower the speed. There is a threshold here, in that the speed drop is not linear with respect to loss. In fact, too little loss can also affect the speed, but that rarely is a problem. What happens is that when you reach some point where the loss is great enough to affect the speed, your modem (or the modem you are dialing into) will "autobaud down" to a slower speed to establish a connection.
Noise is a function of the quality of the cable pair and its susceptibility to outside influences (induction). Noise on a cable pair can cause your modem to "autobaud down" when you try to connect. Combine Noise with high Loss and now you have two strikes against you.
Overhead is the portion of the bandwidth that is used by digital carrier systems for internal uses that cuts into the available bandwidth for each telephone line in the system. In some digital carrier systems this can cut your speed from 28.8 down to 24.6.
Let's go back to the idea of a voice-grade line for a minute. I said earlier that there are criteria for POTS lines, and these criteria just happen to be most of the things that pertain to data speed. Where I work we do what is called a 5-point test to check the telephone line to see if it meets the criteria. We measure Loop Current, Loss, Noise, Balance, and Power Influence. If my test shows that we meet the criteria for these five areas, we do nothing further. Period. If you can't connect at anything greater than 2400 baud, oh well! The reason for this is because you are just paying for a voice-grade line. I can't emphasize this enough.
What can you do about this? Not a whole heck of a lot, because it's just a voice-grade line. In fact, the last time I checked (which was back in '95) we only guaranteed a data connection of 2400 baud. If you are having problems connecting or getting the speed you think you deserve I would suggest the following:
*First and foremost, make sure it's not something in your computer. Do you really have the right init string for your modem? Is the software set up correctly? Is it one of those cursed WinModems? Or, did you stop to consider that maybe the trouble is with the line you are calling into? If you are calling long distance, is the long distance provider you are using capable of handling high speeds? Check this stuff out first.
*Next you want to check if the trouble is inside your house or back in the telco's stuff. Move your computer closer to the Network Interface temporarily and run a cord out the window or something and plug it directly into the NETWORK INTERFACE That should bypass and disconnect all the existing house wiring. Try and connect and see what happens. If things improve, you have a problem in the house. If not, check with a neighbor and see if they are having the same problem. If you have a laptop, try it from a neighbors house. What you want to do here is isolate it one way or another.
*If things don't improve you should call your telephone company and explain things to them. Tell them you have checked it at the NETWORK INTERFACE and didn't see any improvement. Ask them if they do a 5-point test and if so would they come out and do it to your line. Ask them if there is a charge for this and decide accordingly.
*If they do come out, and your line fails, they should be obligated to repair it so it will pass. If the line passes the test then you have to ask some questions. Ask them if you are on copper or some type of digital carrier ( SLC-96, Pair Gain, DISCUS). If you're on copper, ask them if your area is also served by a digital carrier, and if so, is there any chance that they could "cut" you over to the digital system. It never hurts to ask, but remember that if the line passes they really aren't obligated to do anything more to the line.
*If the trouble was in the house, you can either have the telco check it out, or you can do it yourself. Hopefully the information on the preceeding pages will help you to do that.
*If nothing that either you or the telco does improves the situation then you need to take a hard look at how badly you need (or want) that high-speed connection. There are some alternatives but they are not cheap. You can see if they offer a conditioned line, and weigh the cost vs the benefits. You can go to an ISDN line, if available. Or you can try and get an xDSL line, if available. These are not cheap compared to a voice-grade line, and there will be associated costs for new modems, etc.
As computers have evolved over the years one of the things that hasn't exactly kept pace has been data transmission. There are some of you who are reading this that are too young to remember 300 baud modems. Unfortunately I do. Let's look at how we get on the internet with an analog modem.
When you dial into your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to log on to the internet you set up a point to point call over the public switched telephone network. The modem in your computer handshakes with a modem in a bank of modems at your ISP and you exchange data, at a maximum rate of about 53.x k/sec. You can't use your telephone for anything else because the line is in use. This is just a like a regular telephone call, except instead of talking you are sending data. And because it is going through the telephone company switch in the central office there is a limit as to how fast you can transmit that data.
One of the reasons that data transmission hasn't kept pace is because it's tied closely to your telephone line. Until recently the general population used analog modems exclusively to connect to other computers or computer networks. Other schemes have been available (ISDN, Dedicated Data, etc) but haven't been adopted by the general public.
In 1992 I had a 2400 baud modem. Modems increased in speed to 9600, 14,400, 28,800, 33,600 and finally 56k. Analog modems won't get any faster because they can't. They are limited by the speed at which they can transmit data through the public switched telephone network. This is why you get that disclaimer on a 56k modem that says your actual speed will be less than 56k.
People want, and need, more speed. More people are working at home and requiring a faster data connection to access their company databases. The internet is evolving with the growth in higher bandwidth connections. Look at Napster or AudioGalaxy. They would not be anywhere as popular if everyone was on a 56k connection.
And so we have DSL.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a technology that enables voice and data to share the same line at the same time. The range of the human voice falls within 0-3000 Hz but there is considerably more bandwidth on the average telephone line. So the DSL transport is essentially an analog carrier system that splits the bandwidth of the telephone line into two sections; the first 4000 Hz of bandwidth is used for voice (0-3kHZ for voice, 3k-4kHZ as a buffer), and everything available above that is used for data. The data is "piggybacked" or multiplexed on the voice line at the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer), and the data is separated at the customers premise via the DSL modem. A simplified diagram can be found below.
With DSL we combine both data and voice on the same pair. We do it for two reasons:
*It conserves facilities. We don't need to use another pair as long as we are within distance limits. There is no need to add another line specifically for data.
*It allows you to do the installation yourself, if desired. Currently more than 80 percent of those who order DSL do the installation themselves. It's important to understand that DSL doesn't need dial tone to function. We multiplex them for convenience.
The thing to remember here is although we have both dial tone and data on the same pair, they are separate. The dial tone is taking up the first 3k of bandwidth and the data is taking whatever is available over 4k. Your line sounds just like it did before DSL as long as your DSL modem isn't connected. If you are using the DSL modem the data portion can be heard as a hiss or white noise over the dial tone. To get rid of that hiss on your telephones we use Filters that remove the high frequency. We'll go into filtering a little later on the page.
Now instead of setting up the data transfer over the phone line as in the first illustration, we split the data off at the DSLAM and send it out through the Asynchronus Transfer Mode (ATM) switch and out to the ISP as in the following illustration. Note that in this example the DSLAM is located in the Telco Central Office, and the DSL modem is inside the computer.
We now have a high speed data link all the way from the computer to the internet backbone. In addition, because the data and dial tone are separate, we can use the telephone at the same time.
There are many different models of DSL modems available but the generally break down into two types: Internal and External. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.
Internal Modems are generally less expensive than external ones. They can completely replace the existing analog modem, or work alongside it. (I still have need for my analog modem to send and receive faxes). Internal DSL modems are generally based on the PCI architecture, which limits them to computers having a PCI slot. In most cases the software is Windows specific, which rules out Macintosh, Sun, Linux and etc. This also rules out laptop computers because of the PCI architecture. In addition these cards are designed to be used in a single computer, although in a network situation with the addition of proxy software the connection can sometimes be shared between computers.
External modems are generally more expensive, although not by too much. I have seen them using two different types of connections to the computer: USB and Ethernet.
USB based external modems are similar in many ways to the internal modems. They are generally designed to be used on only one computer at a time, and all the ones I have seen require Windows (generally Win98, WinME or Windows Professional) as the operating system. They can however be used on Windows laptops that have USB ports and a compatible operating system.
Ethernet based external modems have a distinct advantage in my opinion due to their ability to connect to any computer that has an RJ45 Ethernet connection. PC's, Macintosh, Sun, Unix, Linux, BEos, all these use Ethernet for networking and so can be connected to an external DSL modem which uses Ethernet. All Macintosh computers come with Ethernet already built in. Some PC's come with it built in, but if not it is an inexpensive and easy installation. The Cisco 67x DSL modem/router can be connected to a computer directly or to an Ethernet hub and provide multiple computers on the network with high speed connections. I have a network at home consisting of an iMac, Windows PC, and whatever temporary computers happen to be around (my work laptop, my son's PC). I use the Cisco 675 in conjunction with a 5 port hub and everyone can be on the internet at the same time, doing different things, with no loss in speed. Sweet.
One of the nicest things about DSL is that in most cases it requires no changes or additions to your existing home wiring. Let's look at a typical installation where you have one telephone line with three existing telephones and a computer connected to a fourth jack.
This is a fairly common arrangement in many homes. Dial tone represented by the black line and the computer is using an analog modem. If we want to add DSL to this arrangement it is a simple task.
The example above shows the addition of DSL to the existing line. Note that the Data portion is in red. In front of the computer we have added the DSL modem, which separates the high frequency Data from the dial tone and sends it off to the computer. It may be connected to the computer via Ethernet or USB, or the DSL modem may be internal. In front of each telephone we have added a Filter. The filter is there to remove the high frequency hiss that we mentioned earlier. The low frequency dial tone passes through the filter and into the telephone.
These filters are important for two reasons. First, they filter out the high frequency DSL signal (hiss) so it doesn't interfere with normal telephone conversations. Second and most importantly, these filters act as isolation devices. Once a filter is installed it makes whatever is plugged into the filter appear as if it isn't there to the DSL modem.
This is important because all telephone devices (and many other things) affect the quality of the DSL signal as it travels from the DSLAM. The DSL signal also gets weaker the farther it travels. We measure the strength of this signal or the signal to noise ratio in decibels or dB. The overall measure of signal strength is called Line Quality. Normally there is a lower limit of line quality that telco's can't go below because it results in poor quality service to the customer.
Given the illustration above we can see that adding DSL to our home really didn't have much of an impact on our existing setup. All we did was connect a filter to the cord going to each telephone and connect a DSL modem to our computer and the telephone line going to the computer. Pretty simple. Now we can reap the benefits of that high speed connection.
There are many factors that affect the strength or quality of the DSL signal. Many are beyond your control because they are factors inherent to the makeup of the individual telephone line going to your home or business. Things like the total length of the loop, the amount and placement of bridgetap and digital interference if any. Please understand that these are conditions beyond your control or ability to influence.
Let me be blunt: DSL service is somewhat of a privilege and not a right. It is not a regulated service offering from any telephone company. Which means that your local telco isn't obligated to provide this service, and if it does provide this service they don't have to provide it to everyone. So if it works, fine. And if it doesn't, that's fine too. Just because your neighbor has it doesn't mean that you are entitled to it. If there are conditions that keep you from having DSL service, the telco is under no obligation to do anything to correct those conditions. The telco's are obligated to provide you with telephone service that meets certain parameters, but that obligation doesn't include DSL.
So with that out of the way, let's look at the factors in your home or business that can affect DSL.
As we stated before, any telephone devices connected to the line will affect the signal quality of your DSL service. None of these will have a positive effect. When I say telephone device I mean any device that can be connected to a telephone line, including but not limited to: Telephones, answering machines, caller ID boxes, modems, separate ringers, televisions, digital cable/satellite/pay-per-view, alarm systems, key telephone systems and etc. There's a lot of stuff you can connect, and most people don't know all the things they have connected to their telephone lines.
Am I going to go into each situation and describe what needs to be done about it?
No.....
What I am going to do is try and emphasize this: Many things in the home or business can and will affect the quality of the DSL signal and most if not all of these can be dealt with by the proper use of filters. So let's take a look at an example of using the isolation characteristics of the filter to solve a common problem, and you can then apply the theory to other situations.
Note the figure above. This is a very typical situation where the customer has an alarm system connected to their telephone line. Alarm systems affect DSL due to the way they are wired. Typically, instead of the dial tone connecting directly to the INSIDE WIRE at the N..I., it first goes from the NETWORK INTERFACE out to the alarm equipment on a separate pair or INSIDE WIRE , and then back to the NETWORK INTERFACE on yet again another separate pair, and then connects to the INSIDE WIRE going into the home. This puts the alarm system "ahead" of the telephones and allows the alarm system, when activated, to shut off all the phones in the home so no one can take a phone off the hook and stop the dialing. Because it is just another device connected to the telephone line the circuitry of the alarm system will affect the strength of the DSL signal.
In a case like this we need to use the isolation charisteristics of the filter in conjunction with a separate pair or INSIDE WIRE run to the DSL modem. Look at the diagram below.
Compare the filtering in the previous two figures. Look closely. What we are doing is using one filter at the NETWORK INTERFACE to isolate everything beyond that point, with a separate non-filtered INSIDE WIRE to the DSL modem. In these cases, you will need to either run a new INSIDE WIRE from the NETWORK INTERFACE to wherever the DSL modem is located, or use an existing spare pair to carry the unfiltered DSL signal to the modem. One filter can filter up to 6 telephones so in most cases you can filter the entire home with just one filter. Large amounts of wiring, multiple telephones, key telephone systems and/or substandard wiring are treated in the same way. The idea here is to use the filter before everything else at the premise and isolate the DSL modem.
A Word Of Caution: While we're on the subject of filters I need to point out some filter limitations. Filters come in different types. Some are polarized and some are bi-directional. The directional filter has to be installed in a certain orientation. It has WALL and PHONE stamped on either end of the filter and that orientation has to be maintained. If installed backwards it will typically drop the signal quality between 10-15 dB. The bi-directional filters can be installed in either direction without problem. In addition, if you are in a situation where you have two-line phones and the DSL is on line 2, the filters will not work. You will be filtering line 1 and that is all. If this is the case you will have to find another way to filter the phones. Most filters will pass line 2, but only filter line 1. A two-line bi-directional filter can be ordered, but is not the standard issue.