[SOLVED] Phone Lines

[gletob]

Ok I need some help with phone line wiring. I currently have two lines one that leads to my whole house (my main line) and a second line that leads to my computer room (for faxes and such) and I have decided to get rid of my second line because it is costing me too much per month. So I was wondering how do I get my second line in to the other room?

P.S. Mods: If there is a better section to put this in by all means move it.

[caro]

Usually, when a residence has two lines running to it, the phone company uses two different pairs on the same cable. Pop off the jacks and see what color twisted-pair wires are used for the two lines. If they are different, try swapping the pairs around in the fax room (I assume that is the line you are disconnecting) and see if it doesn't have dial tone from your main line.

[gletob]

That's now how it's configured there are two test jacks in the Telephone Company's box (Uhh I can't remember the name it's the gray box on the side of my house) that are connected then are stripped and lead into the house and the second line is not stripped and leads to the second line.

And yes I'm disconnecting the second line.

[caro]

So you are saying there are two demarcs (or network interfaces or gray boxes) outside your house each with their own line coming from the street? That's not the norm when you have two lines in a residence.

Anyway if you can pull wire from the closest jack (on your main line) to the jack where the fax line is, you can connect the fax line jack to the main line by disconnecting the current twisted pairs and connecting the ones you pulled from the main line.

Or, there are wireless jacks that you can use that connect to an electrical outlet and an existing phone line. Just google "wireless phone jack." That's the easiest solution.

[gletob]

So you are saying there are two demarcs (or network interfaces or gray boxes) outside your house each with their own line coming from the street? That's not the norm when you have two lines in a residence.

Anyway if you can pull wire from the closest jack (on your main line) to the jack where the fax line is, you can connect the fax line jack to the main line by disconnecting the current twisted pairs and connecting the ones you pulled from the main line.

Or, there are wireless jacks that you can use that connect to an electrical outlet and an existing phone line. Just google "wireless phone jack." That's the easiest solution.

No there is only one box here is a crude diagram (open office draw)

[MikeTheC]

This is both a simple and disturbingly complex problem. The reason for it is all that's involved are four wires, but how the runs of wire are in a given installation cannot be guaranteed, so if ever "Your Mileage May Vary" applied, it would be *now*.

All data and telco wires are color-coded. Telco wires are usually all solid colors (for residential and small-scale business), and commercial telco and data wires are a mix of solid and striped. For our purpose, we're only going to worry about residential lines.

In residential teleco wiring, there are two "pairs". A pair, as the word implies, is two wires. The pairs are Red & Green, and Yellow & Black. Normally, Red & Green is the primary pair, either being the only "live" pair in single-service situations, or "Line 1" in multi-service situations. As you can guess, Yellow & Black then comprise "Line 2".

Everything I've just written I can write with reasonable confidence. But it starts to get tricky from here.

Standard round wire (whether twisted or straight) for residential service comes with four wires (as mentioned above), and typically all four wires are physically wired to the wall jacks. In single-line installs, Yellow & Black are not connected to any kind of service in the demark. They may or may not be punched down or screw-tied (or whatever), or they may be, but there's no phone company wiring on the other end of the connection.

However, the problem kicks in (usually) with how second phone line service was run, either in older houses which have God-only-knows-what for wiring, or in installations where service was desired, but only for one room, and for the sake of expedience (or as a money-making scheme) a direct shot of wire was sent from the demark to the one or two (or whatever) jacks involved.

There's no sane way for any of us here to tell you what to do, or what you'll find. You'll simply have to go have a look. However, here's how you can go about checking the wiring the easiest.

1. Do you know for an established fact that "Line 1" is available on all jacks in all rooms?

2. Do you know for an established fact that "Line 2" is available on all jacks in all rooms?

3. To test this, go to Radio Shack, Wallmart or where ever and buy yourself an adapter that looks like this:

http://rsk.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pRS1C-2265232w345.jpg

!!! EXCEPT !!! On the front it will have stamped "Line 1", "Line 2", "Line 1&2". The picture above is actually a single line 3-way splitter, but otherwise looks identical.

Anyhow, this allows you to take any standard single-line device (say, a regular telephone) and plug it into either Line 1 or Line 2.

Now, once you've gone around the house and gotten the "lay of the land", so-to-speak, let us know and we can try to advise you further.

[gletob]

I have a tester from radioshack that has lights on it an on all jacks the only light that lights up is line 1. Line one (let's refer too as 56) is in all rooms except the room where the fax is (let's call that line 03)

[sharon.gmc]

you can always ask the help of the electrician of the telephone company. . .

[MikeTheC]

I have a tester from radioshack that has lights on it an on all jacks the only light that lights up is line 1. Line one (let's refer too as 56) is in all rooms except the room where the fax is (let's call that line 03)

Well, obviously at a minimum, the only pair that's hot is the one running to your computer room. If you're saying you want to deep-six that line, then I'm a bit confused. You cannot "transfer" that line to any other room if you're going to cancel service.

OTOH, if what you really want is to just migrate your equipment to your "56" line, then... So, you're saying your tester lights up BOTH 1 and 2 in the computer room?

[gletob]

Well, obviously at a minimum, the only pair that's hot is the one running to your computer room. If you're saying you want to deep-six that line, then I'm a bit confused. You cannot "transfer" that line to any other room if you're going to cancel service.

OTOH, if what you really want is to just migrate your equipment to your "56" line, then... So, you're saying your tester lights up BOTH 1 and 2 in the computer room?

I want 56 in all room (03 only goes to one room)

The tester show up with line 1 only everywhere

[mips]

Simply disconnect line two at the outside box and connect it to the same place as line one.

[gletob]

Simply disconnect line two at the outside box and connect it to the same place as line one.

I'll have to go take a look in the box (not now it's raining)

[mips]

I'll have to go take a look in the box (not now it's raining)

Just keep in mind that you can get a electric shock from the phone line when it is ringing ;)

[gletob]

Hi the rain let up so I went outside to take a look in the box and there are four screws and wires for each line. Can I take the wires that connect to 03 and put them under the same screws as the 56 line (meaning two wires under each screw)?

[mips]

Hi the rain let up so I went outside to take a look in the box and there are four screws and wires for each line. Can I take the wires that connect to 03 and put them under the same screws as the 56 line (meaning two wires under each screw)?


I cannot look at your drawing, no odf viewer. But what you propose sounds exactly like what I did to create more extensions from one line. Just put 2 wires under each screw.

[gletob]

Thank you all so much for the help I had to wait to switch the wires (It takes verizon a little while to activate the dsl service and moving the wires under the line 2 screws to the line 1 side has fixed my problems