Home Automation - Phone Wiring
Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.View Full Version : Phone Wiring
01-04-01, 08:16 AM
We recently purchased an older home. The past owner had numerous phone lines going to rooms in house. Some work, some don't. How can we trace which lines are which?
Also, which wires (color) in the cable are actually used by the phone? I thought two of the four are utilized.
Also, which wires (color) in the cable are actually used by the phone? I thought two of the four are utilized.
dkerr
01-04-01, 07:03 PM
Originally posted by algapb
We recently purchased an older home. The past owner had numerous phone lines going to rooms in house. Some work, some don't. How can we trace which lines are which?
Also, which wires (color) in the cable are actually used by the phone? I thought two of the four are utilized.
Any pair of wires can be used , I beleive older installations had a 4 wire telephone cable, newer houses are usually wired with a cable containing more pairs of wires, I would first suspect , red and green as the active pair. If you look in the basement where the telephone line comes into the house, and if there is anykind of junction there , check to see which color pair is being used, you may also be able to check on the outside of the house lift off the telephone junction box and see which pair is being used to enter the house. Most houses these days has 1 or 2 telephone wire runs, going room to room, and one pair is hooked up in the basement where the telephone comes in from outside and you just tap into the same pair at each location. Check and note which outlets are working and which one are not. Of the ones that work , if you remove the cover to phone jack, you can see which wires are being used also. In a loop anybreak in the wire at a perticular jack, and you would lose connectiveity to all remainding jacks further down on the run. It is also possible (which may not be the case)that the previous owner had more than one telphone, or even a security system. So they would most likely just cancelled their telephone service , moved and left the telephone line as they were. So it is always possible that they had different line runs serving different telephone numbers, what you want if you are only using a single line, is to make sure that all cable runs end up at the same set of wires at the junction of the line coming into the house, and to avoid confusion , use the same color pair in all runs.
We recently purchased an older home. The past owner had numerous phone lines going to rooms in house. Some work, some don't. How can we trace which lines are which?
Also, which wires (color) in the cable are actually used by the phone? I thought two of the four are utilized.
Any pair of wires can be used , I beleive older installations had a 4 wire telephone cable, newer houses are usually wired with a cable containing more pairs of wires, I would first suspect , red and green as the active pair. If you look in the basement where the telephone line comes into the house, and if there is anykind of junction there , check to see which color pair is being used, you may also be able to check on the outside of the house lift off the telephone junction box and see which pair is being used to enter the house. Most houses these days has 1 or 2 telephone wire runs, going room to room, and one pair is hooked up in the basement where the telephone comes in from outside and you just tap into the same pair at each location. Check and note which outlets are working and which one are not. Of the ones that work , if you remove the cover to phone jack, you can see which wires are being used also. In a loop anybreak in the wire at a perticular jack, and you would lose connectiveity to all remainding jacks further down on the run. It is also possible (which may not be the case)that the previous owner had more than one telphone, or even a security system. So they would most likely just cancelled their telephone service , moved and left the telephone line as they were. So it is always possible that they had different line runs serving different telephone numbers, what you want if you are only using a single line, is to make sure that all cable runs end up at the same set of wires at the junction of the line coming into the house, and to avoid confusion , use the same color pair in all runs.