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  • How to Install Telephone Wires


    Telephone wires are easy to work with and very safe due to the low voltages involved.

    The most complex part of installing telephone wires is complying with the defined standards.

    When installing additional telephone wires into an existing facility, it is usually best to determine which telephone wiring standard is currently in use and conform to that standard.

    When installing telephone wiring into a new facility, EIA/TIA T586A is the standard to utilize.

    How the Wire Gets into a Residence

    Historically, telephone companies ran telephone wires above ground with telephone poles to make wire issues easy to repair. The wire itself is sourced at a telephone company and goes through various paths to get into a home’s general vicinity.

    Above Ground Wiring

    In older neighborhoods (1970s and earlier in the US) and areas that have a high water table, telephone wiring is most likely above ground. There is one or more telephone poles in easement areas in the neighborhood that distribute phone service wire pairs to residences with an aerial connection method. A breakout box is attached to the pole, with the main service lines for the area entering in one side and residential lines running out of the other side. Wires are then run from the breakout boxes to each neighborhood residence.

    Underground Wiring

    Most modern U.S. neighborhoods have telephone wiring underground. During the neighborhood build out, before home building commences, breakout boxes are installed in geographically strategic points and lines are trenched back to the neighborhood’s primary distribution can and to each property nearby.

    The Residential Network Interface Device

    Regardless of how the wire is run to a house, the wire terminates on a Network Interface Device (NID), which is connected to the home. This device is a gray or tan box about eight inches wide and twelve inches long with a door(s) concealing two compartments. Access to the customer compartment is possible with a simple slot headed screw. A specialized screw head controls access to the telco compartment. Users can open the NID’s customer access compartment to check lines for a dial tone, check wiring connections inside the NID, and to trace lines coming out of the NID into the home. The user does not need to open the NID’s telco compartment. If there is a wiring fault between a house and the central office, the customer cannot repair it. Most NIDs handle up to 5 different lines.

    The telephone line from the pole or breakout box goes into the telco compartment and exits through the customer compartment.

    If the customer only has one telephone line and there has been no maintenance on the line for a long while, he/she may have a box that is a predecessor to the NID. This box is simply a plastic or metal cover that is screwed over a telephone wiring box to protect it from the elements. The telephone company will replace the old box with a new NID at no cost if there is time, available equipment, and the customer demonstrate a need such as a method to test for dial tone. Sometimes, phone company technicians leave the original box in place and just install an NID between the box and the wiring running to the pole or breakout box.

    Testing Phone Lines

    Always use a previously tested corded phone for phone line testing. This is the only way to be sure that only the phone line is being tested. If unsure about the test phone’s functionality, take it over to a neighbor or family members home and test it with a known good phone line. Once there is dial tone, the phone is usable for a line test.

    First Just Pick Up the Phone

    When the telephone company initially installs a phone line into a home, they should provide at least one phone jack to connect a telephone. The easiest phone service test is to merely plug a phone into this jack with the proper wire, take the phone off the hook, and listen for the dial tone. Some people may need to consult their phone manual.

    No Dial Tone

    If there is no dial tone when the phone is taken off the hook, there is probably a phone line problem. If there are multiple jacks in the home, test each one to verify which jacks work and which do not. If some of the jacks are functional and others are not, the wiring fault is between the NID and those specific jacks. The phone company may be willing to help with these problems for a charge. Read more on how to repair these problems in the “Repair” sections below. If none of the jacks in the home is working, test the phone lines at the NID.

    Testing at the NID

    When the NID’s customer compartment is opened, there are phone jacks lined up, usually vertically. For each phone line installed in a house, there is a phone jack with a line plugged into it. Do not worry if there are jacks that have no line plugged into them, it may be that there was a second line to that home at one time, that the wiring box was faulty, or that they just installed more than one wiring box and jack as a standard install. If there is more than one line, labels on the NID lid should tell which jack is associated with which phone line or number. If they do not, just try them all until the one to be tested is found. To test, disconnect the line from the jack and plug the corded phone into it. This will disconnect the line from the jacks in the house, so do not panic if there is no dial tone inside. If there is a dial tone when the phone is hooked up, the wiring fault is in the house. If there is no dial tone, call the phone company for repair, nothing further can be done to fix the problem.

    Sometimes the Wire Colors Do Not Match

    Many phone companies have updated their color standards due to the use of Cat 5 cable for most phone line installs and to keep residential and business installs in line with each other. In this new standard, there are no green, red, black, or yellow wires. White/blue, blue/white, white/orange, and orange/white wires have replaced them. Knowing how to identify the wire color is a simple matter. The wire is going to be primarily one color, with small stripes of a secondary color on it. If the wire is primarily orange with white stripes then that color is orange/white. The following simple table will help users to understand which colors match. The NID labels will most likely have the old coloring scheme on them and most telephone wiring components for sale will still reflect the original colors.

    Function New Color Old Color
    Tip 1 Green White/Blue
    Ring 1 Red Blue/White
    Tip 2 Black White/Orange
    Ring 2 Yellow Orange/White

    New Telephone Jacks in the Home

    Installing new telephone jacks in a home is really simple, but there are some tools and basic hardware needed to perform the install.

    Tools:

    • Drill
    • Drill bits
    • Flathead Screwdriver
    • Fish tape
    • Cable Test Equipment

    Hardware

    Most hardware, electronics, and many grocery and department stores have the items needed to complete an installation.

    Modular jack boxes come in two variants, one with a wiring box and one without. If installing an entirely new jack, get the jack box with the wiring box. Users only need a jack box without a wiring box when replacing a jack box that is damaged, but the wiring box inside is still intact. There are both four and six contact modular jacks available. Buy a four contact modular jack unless there is a special reason to buy a six contact modular jack. This process needs one jack box for each new jack to be installed.

    Buy four wire flat silver satin telephone wire for any new jacks in the home. Users may save a little money if they only buy the individual wires without the silver sheath. However, having the sheath will save time and frustration in the long run. Wires with sheaths are flexible, can easily be stripped off in locations that require it, and keep the wires together so they can easily be placed where needed.

    If there are more than two lines in the home and jacks for all of them will be placed in the same location, six or eight conductor telephone wires can be used as well. Keep in mind that there are three pairs of wire: a blue pair, an orange pair, and a green pair in six conductor wire. Eight conductor wire has the same wiring colors as the six conductor, it just adds a brown pair for the last pair. Connect the same wires to the proper posts on the wiring block to avoid any problems.

    • Modular jack boxes with wiring box
    • Four, six, or eight strand telephone wire

    Always Have a Corded Phone for Emergencies

    Customers may need to plug a phone or phone base into house power if they have a cordless phone or a phone with an integrated answering machine (or some other capability). Standard corded phones receive all the necessary power over the phone line itself, so no additional power is required. It is always a good plan to have a corded phone just in case the other devices have issues or to use in emergencies when house power is out.

    General Reference Information

    The information following may help users understand the standards and wire plans in their home. They are merely reference materials to assist with planning and diagnostics.

    The Christmas and Halloween Standard for Telephone Wiring

    Many homes have only 2 pairs (4 wire) of telephone wiring.

    The first telephone line is connected to the Christmas pair. This wire pair is called the Christmas pair because one wire is Green and the other is Red.

    In the Christmas pair, the Green wire is Tip and the Red wire is Ring.

    The second telephone line is connected to the Halloween pair. This wire pair is called the Halloween pair because one wire is Black and the other wire is Yellow.

    In the Halloween pair, the Black wire is Tip and the Yellow wire is Ring.

    The EIA/TIA 568B Standard for Telephone Wiring

    Pin (Jack) Pin (Plug) Color Pair
    1 8 White/Orange Tip 2
    2 7 Orange Ring 2
    3 6 White/Green Tip 3
    4 5 Blue Ring 1
    5 4 White/Blue Tip 1
    6 3 Green Ring 3
    7 2 White Brown Tip 4
    8 1 Brown Ring 4

    The EIA/TIA 568A Standard for Telephone Wiring

    Pin (Jack) Pin (Plug) Color Pair
    1 8 White/Green Tip 3
    2 7 Green Ring 3
    3 6 White/Orange Tip 2
    4 5 Blue Ring 1
    5 4 White/Blue Tip 1
    6 3 Orange Ring 2
    7 2 White Brown Tip 4
    8 1 Brown Ring 4

    The USOC (Universal Service Order Code) 8 Wire Standard for Telephone Wiring

    Pin (Jack) Pin (Plug) Color Pair
    1 8 White/Brown Tip 4
    2 7 White/Green Tip 3
    3 6 White/Orange Tip 2
    4 5 Blue Ring 1
    5 4 White/Blue Tip 1
    6 3 Orange Ring 2
    7 2 Green Ring 3
    8 1 Brown Ring 4

    The USOC (Universal Service Order Code) 6 Wire Standard for Telephone Wiring

    Pin (Jack) Pin (Plug) Color Pair
    1 6 White/Green Tip 3
    2 5 White/Orange Tip 2
    3 4 Blue Ring 1
    4 3 White/Blue Tip 1
    5 2 Orange Ring 2
    6 1 Green Ring 3

    The 25 pair Telephone Wiring Standard

    Pin (Jack) Pin (Plug) Color Pair
    1 50 Blue/White Ring 1
    2 49 Orange/White Ring 2
    3 48 Green/White Ring 3
    4 47 Brown/White Ring 4
    5 46 Slate/White Ring 5
    6 45 Blue/Red Ring 6
    7 44 Orange/Red Ring 7
    8 43 Green/Red Ring 8
    9 42 Brown/Red Ring 9
    10 41 Slate/Red Ring 10
    11 40 Blue/Black Ring 11
    12 39 Orange/Black Ring 12
    13 38 Green/Black Ring 13
    14 37 Brown/Black Ring 14
    15 36 Slate/Black Ring 15
    16 35 Blue/Yellow Ring 16
    17 34 Orange/Yellow Ring 17
    18 33 Green/Yellow Ring 18
    19 32 Brown/Yellow Ring 19
    20 31 Slate/Yellow Ring 20
    21 30 Blue/Violet Ring 21
    22 29 Orange/Violet Ring 22
    23 28 Green/Violet Ring 23
    24 27 Brown/Violet Ring 24
    25 26 Slate/Violet Ring 25
    26 25 White/Blue Tip 1
    27 24 White/Orange Tip 2
    28 23 White/Green Tip 3
    29 22 White/Brown Tip 4
    30 21 White/Slate Tip 5
    31 20 Red/Blue Tip 6
    32 19 Red/Orange Tip 7
    33 18 Red/Green Tip 8
    34 17 Red/Brown Tip 9
    35 16 Red/Slate Tip 10
    36 15 Black/Blue Tip 11
    37 14 Black/Orange Tip 12
    38 13 Black/Green Tip 13
    39 12 Black/Brown Tip 14
    40 11 Black/Slate Tip 15
    41 10 Yellow/Blue Tip 16
    42 9 Yellow/Orange Tip 17
    43 8 Yellow/Green Tip 18
    44 7 Yellow/Brown Tip 19
    45 6 Yellow/Slate Tip 20
    46 5 Violet/Blue Tip 21
    47 4 Violet/Orange Tip 22
    48 3 Violet/Green Tip 23
    49 2 Violet/Brown Tip 24
    50 1 Violet/Slate Tip 25

    Telephone Wiring Pin Number Orientation

    When looking at a telephone jack, Pin 1 is the left most pin.

    When looking at a telephone plug, Pin 8 is the right most pin.

    Telephone Wiring Jacks and Plugs

    In telephone wiring, the plug is the male end of a telephone cable and the jack is the female receptacle in the wall.

    Telephone Wiring Tip and Ring

    The terms Tip and Ring are used extensively when discussing telephone wiring.

    Tip is the electrically positive wire and Ring is the electrically negative wire.

    Related Reading on Telephone Wiring

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    53 comments
    1. Balwinder Singh

      19 November, 2014 at 9:37 am

      hi ..i bought dodo internet before we have optus…new modam i recieve totally different …its telephone based but our telephone wire broken outside ….oud adsl optus wire are different …how can i connect that wire ..there are 5 different colour wire…..what socket i need to attach…becouse i missed that too…

      Reply
    2. Mark Isherwood

      11 June, 2014 at 4:35 pm

      We have NO NID at our house, the wires come through the basement wall and terminate in the ceiling on a block with 2 terminals. We are supposed to have pone service but I’m getting nothing. Have called the technician. Is the phone company REQUIRED to install an NID box outside the house?

      In this house, there are actually 3 lines coming in through the wall. Phone service was turned on when we were out of town.
      3 of the lines are cut off inside the wall, the third is the one I mentioned, ending on the terminal block.
      I thought perhaps the patina of the terminals were causing it to make no contact? I am going to try cleaning them and connecting a red/green pair to see if I can get a dial tone.
      The number rings and is answered by the voicemail, but no service in the house. We had service in the house several years ago, but have been using Comcast phone service through the cable the past several years and haven’t messed with it recently.
      Any help would be appreciated as I await a callback from the technician…

      Reply
    3. jacob hejtmanek

      3 March, 2014 at 3:25 pm

      Hi I bought socket which is rj11 end and I struggle to get internet even I have rj11 split to phone line and router.phone wires are green orange black and white. On old socket are white and orange connected and it works.on new one neither of them.thank you

      Reply
    4. Adam McEachern

      14 August, 2013 at 4:25 pm

      I was wondering if you could be so kind as to help me in my predicament. I’m trying to replace the telephone receptacle in a Toronto condo but none of the wiring diagrams really show the colours that I have here! Any input would be greatly appreciated.

      Basically I have the following wires ends visible from top to bottom (or left to right depending on the orientation of the pic):
      Brown/green
      Green/brown

      Yellow/orange
      Orange/yellow

      Black/brown
      Brown/black

      Yellow/orange
      Orange/yellow
      (This pair currently connected to red and green terminals)

      Do I need to connect the others? This is the line I use for dsl as well.

      Reply
      • WillSpencer

        16 August, 2013 at 5:43 pm

        If the Y/O-O/Y pair is currently connected to your “Christmas” pair and working … why are you changing things? One pair is all you need. 🙂

        Reply
    5. Marvin Jaffe

      6 August, 2013 at 11:36 pm

      i have twelve strand telephone wire in the downstairs office. hurricane sandy ruined everything including the wall jack. any ideas on how to install a new wall jack? i only need four wires.

      Reply
      • WillSpencer

        7 August, 2013 at 4:01 am

        It should be the same as the USOC 6 and 8 wire standards:

        Tip 1: White/Blue
        Ring 1: Blue

        Tip 2: White/Orange
        Ring 2: Orange

        Reply
        • Marvin Jaffe

          9 August, 2013 at 1:52 pm

          hi will thanx for reply the wires are all solid colors the wires are numbered.
          can u help choose the correct pairs?

          Reply
          • WillSpencer

            11 August, 2013 at 6:17 am

            That would make it…

            Tip 1: 5
            Ring 1: 4

            Tip 2: 3
            Ring 2: 6

            Reply
    6. Alice Goodchild

      16 July, 2013 at 6:44 am

      How do you convert an older 60 n 70’s hardwire wall phone into a modern phone and install a modular port plug into it as well to make it work?

      Reply
      • WillSpencer

        17 July, 2013 at 11:26 am

        Alice:

        What do the existing wires look like?

        Reply
    7. Chuck Zmuda

      6 June, 2012 at 10:57 pm

      Susan,

      I think the problem there may be that the dial tone and ring have not changed between pulse and tone, but the dialing did. The current phone system there may not support pulse dialing, which is what your antique phone may be using. I don’t know either way, it’s just a guess. Suggestion: Give a call to the local telecomm union office and ask if they’ve got an old salt who know his stuff. He may know the reason it’s not working right away.

      Reply
    8. Susan Gubbins

      19 May, 2012 at 12:47 pm

      Hi, I need help please.
      I have an old antique phone which years ago had been wired up but am having trouble joining it to a new cable. the colours on the old phone is red,blue,black & white. I have paired the red to black, blue to green, black to yellow and white to red.
      All works including the ringing bells and dial tone. the only trouble is I can’t dial out on it as it keeps coming up with the dial tone every time I dial.
      Can someone please tell me where I’v gone wrong.
      I am in Australia if this makes any difference!!

      Reply
    9. stuart

      15 April, 2012 at 6:00 pm

      i have knocked my surface mounted telephone socket of the wall and the cables have become disconnected, i have managed to reconnect the wires but i have a problem and that is when i have an incomming/outgoing call the phone does not disconnect…any ideas pleases

      Reply
    10. Hill

      9 January, 2012 at 5:20 pm

      Happy New Year.
      I’m having trouble with blocked local calls.Do you think there may be trouble with wiring in phone box outside house?How can I fix that?
      Thanks immensely!

      Reply
    11. Rud A.B. Seerden

      28 December, 2011 at 10:38 am

      De plug in de hoorn was stuk, heb toen het snoer rechtstreeks verbonden met de bedrading in de hoorn. heb kiestoon. De gebelde persoon kan mij horen maar ik hoor de persoon niet. wel hoor ik mijn eigen stem in de luispreker van de hoorn. Wat is hier verkeerd?
       gr. Rud 

      Reply
    12. keeley morrow

      9 December, 2011 at 12:21 pm

      hello there I’m trying to wire my mums phone line and internet, its the oblong box inside the house that i’m trying to wire which connects to the square box were the phone is inserted. Anyhow the oblong box only has plain colours (not stripped) and I have no idea where they go. Theres 8 wires red green black etc and 8 places where they can be screwed into E.g the oblong box. I hope u understand me, I’m retarded when it comes to explaining things, sorry. Can you please let me know which one go’s where. keeleytomorrow@yahoo.co.uk
      Thanks 

      Reply
    13. jimmy

      3 September, 2011 at 2:03 am

      I added onto my old house, contractor left me to wire up the new phone wires to the old phone box on the out side of my house. The old phone box has line one and line 2  with line one colors wired all red and line two wired all green. (yellow and black not used.) The new addition was wired up with new wire that has  different colored wires.  green/white, blue/white, orange/white ,brown/white. which of these wire would go to the red line one and which wire would go to green?. thanks jimmy

      Reply
      • anyjoe

        24 October, 2011 at 11:48 pm

        any pair will be fine. Also polarity is not an issue. Usually blue/blue striped is used for phone…. orange pair for second line and green for data….

        Reply
    14. Dave Huston

      30 July, 2011 at 9:06 pm

      I am a 1099 IT Contractor.  I have been doing some business phone installs and repairs for various companies as Spencer Technology and Granite Technology in my local area in NC.  I am more of a Data tech, computer tech, MCSE and CCNA.  I have trying to find more info in finding more about working with the old land lines and  not just VoIP.
       
       

      Reply
    15. Carl Richmond

      30 July, 2011 at 4:17 pm

      We have a master socket in the hallway, directly next to this is a standard socket. From the standard socket we have a telephone extension for phone and internet. We also have a connection going to the sky box. All of this is basically piggy backing from the one connection. All the equipment works fine, however, the wiring is a mess and can be knocked easily. This configuration must be 10 years old and I was wondering if there is a simple way of tidying using a single socket / box, i.e. direct wiring?? Cheers

      Reply
    16. Adrian

      23 July, 2011 at 10:15 am

      Hi
      Can you help?
      I have a master socket which is working ok. There is also an extension socket, which i intend to use for my Sky box. I was looking to move this, and undid the front plate, and all the wires fell out as i undid the screws.  The wires colours i have are: White, Orange, Black & Green. I do not need the ringer part of the extension. I have tried umpteen different configurations, but cannot get it to work – Help!

      Reply
    17. K & A Fisher

      17 July, 2011 at 9:30 pm

      We moved our phone line to another room by disconnecting the phone jack and running the wire through the wall. We are trying to reconnect the phone jack and the wires are different colors. I am in trouble for not writing the color connections down before I removed the jack. Phone line is orange, blue, white/blue and white/orange; phone jack is red, green, yellow and black. Can you tell me which colors to match up?
       

      Reply
      • Gary

        18 July, 2011 at 7:41 pm

        Wire to jack hook up is   White/blue = Green
                                                         Blue                    Red
                                                         White/orange = Black
                                                         Orange                   Yellow

        Unless you have 2 lines working at the same location (ie 2 seperate telephone numbers) you probably don’t need to hook up the White – Orange to the jack, particularly if the jack is the end of the wire run. 

        Reply
    18. jason

      27 May, 2011 at 4:59 am

      How do I wire a six line phone system from a cable company
      tip/ring router. There will be 5 voice lines and one fax. seven corded phone locations

      Reply
    19. Bertha Ruiz

      19 May, 2011 at 11:51 am

      Thanks! I appreciate helpful info and free! Mainly because of budget issues. Also, I am a do-it- yourselfer.

      Reply
    20. Pat

      3 May, 2011 at 9:03 pm

      We just moved into our house which is about 30 years old.  The phone jacks have been pulled out so all I have is the wire coming out.  The wires are orange, red, blue and white; the jacks we have (the wires were previously connected to these same jacks) indicate white, black, yellow and red.  Where do I connect which wire?

      Reply
    21. Nancy

      21 March, 2011 at 9:38 pm

      I have/had 4 working phone jacks, none of them close to my computer with internet so I had to run my ethernet wire across two rooms. Well, we finally got around to installing a new jack and oh the excitement when plugging in the phone to test it first and it worked. Then plugging in my DSL and router and have it work was a dream, until, that is, a day later I noticed I wasn’t getting any phone calls and upon checking the other four connections, they no longer work? How can this be?

      Reply
      • Dee

        8 July, 2011 at 6:57 pm

        The same thing happened to me. I had to put filters on all of the phone jacks for them to work. The filters just plug into the phone jack and you plug the phone into the filter. Solved the problem.

        Reply
    22. Fran

      19 March, 2011 at 1:17 am

      I have zero knowledge about phones. We are building a house and it’s time to finish up. The phone wire that was installed has 6 wires, the phone jack I have to put on the wall has only 4. do I have the wrong jack? Do I leave 2 wires not connected? Help!

      Reply
    23. keith

      11 March, 2011 at 7:30 pm

      I have to move my intercom buzzer, which is connected to a first floor phone, one and a half metres because of a new porch I’m having built. It is an easy d.i.y job but I’m unable to find the 2 metres of cable I need – even online. It doesn’t help that I don’t know what this cabling is called. The wires are green, yellow, red, black, blue and white. Can anyone help, please. 

      Reply
    24. Rick

      8 March, 2011 at 6:15 pm

      IT’S THE GREEN WIRE!! CUT THE GREEN WIRE!! IT’S ALWAYS THE GREEN WIRE!! HURRY BEFORE WE ALL BLOW UP!!!!!!!!!!

      Reply
    25. Dave Mckinnon

      8 March, 2011 at 3:53 pm

      most telephone wiring in residential Co applications is very straight forward, you can buy a 2-line rj11 plug checker from radio shack with colour indicator on it for about 5-6 bucks, anyhow buy a cheap toner set at home depo , which is basically transmission, of a tone down the wire to the end , and comes with an amplified probe that finds the last point of the transmitted tone !
      such as the d-marc or nid box , so by doing this you can identify the correct jack to hook up! or that is not connected to the main pair from the the phone company! once hooked up check dialtone by phoning the operator, and have them dial you back ask them how your line sounds while you comment on the weather if they say fine then your send and receive, tone should be clean cheers!

      Reply
    26. sandra

      22 February, 2011 at 12:03 pm

      i want to connect a mains telephone socket to old wiring the colours are,  White, Orange, Green, Black and 3 red and i have a six point connection socket can you tell me the sequence please

      Reply
      • eoin

        11 March, 2011 at 12:38 pm

        i have the same wire and cannot figure out how it connects up

        Reply
    27. Mike Lundy

      20 February, 2011 at 5:27 pm

      When a telephone man was here working on something else, I asked him to check to see if our jacks had both of our lines available.  He used his tester and said, yes.  So we bought a two-line phone, plugged in the four-conductor wire which came with it.  Plugged it into the Line 1/LIne2 jack on the phone.  Line 1 works.  Nothing on line 2.  Any ideas

      Reply
      • memenode

        22 February, 2011 at 10:20 pm

        He might have meant that your wiring supports two lines (them being “available”). You would still have to get two lines service from your phone company to use with your two-line phone.

        Just an amateur guess though.

        Reply
    28. julie king

      22 January, 2011 at 9:38 am

      In my new home I have a 
      box coming from the wall -how do I identify whether it is for a phone or t.v? 

      Reply
      • Will.Spencer

        22 January, 2011 at 8:18 pm

        Telephones normally use an RJ-11 connector on UTP cable. Television normally uses coaxial cable. What kind of cable is coming out of the box?

        Reply
    29. Hampton

      18 January, 2011 at 6:44 pm

      Moved to a house that used to have several tenants and each had their own phone lines. When we moved in, the telephone company cut-off all the phone lines except the one that was assigned to us. The result is that many of the jacks at the house were not working as they were once under different phone lines/numbers.

      We checked the phone service box in the garage, there are 3 jacks of which lines were cut loose.

      Is there any way to reconnect all the cut lines with the phone line that is working now so that all the jacks in the house will work?

      Reply
      • Will.Spencer

        21 January, 2011 at 5:55 pm

        Hampton:

        Sure.  You could re-terminate the cut lines and then use RJ-11 splitters, or you could just splice the wires manually.

         

         

        Reply
      • Dave Mckinnon

        3 April, 2014 at 10:37 am

        make sure hampton you check color pairs before splicing straight across, i recommend cap 33 threaded marrets with the small brass set screw! then run your jumper from nid tip and ring to assign dial tone too each!

        Reply
    30. Brian

      16 January, 2011 at 4:15 pm

      I recently purchased a home that previously had 2 phone lines into the house. I only needed one line so only ordered one line from the phone company. I would, however, like the jacks that were served from the previous second line also wired for the one line I have now. The wiring into the house is properly done, with one service box. I tried to simply connect the wires at the service box from the old second line to the one working line, hoping all jacks in the house would now work on the one phone line I have, but they don’t. The result is that the jacks from the old second line still have no dial tone. I guess I’m oversimplifying things, but as a phone line splicer from way back, I have no idea why this didn’t work. Any ideas?

      Reply
    31. buc

      15 December, 2010 at 2:35 pm

      Your info was helpful, but these appear to be contradictions from your website.

      “Sometimes the Wire Colors Don’t Match

      “Many ph co’s have updated their color stds . . . there are no green, red, blk or yellw wires, they have been repl’d by wh/blue, blue/wh, . . . The NID labels will most likely have the old coloring scheme on them, and most tele wiring comp’ts you can purchase will still reflect the orig colors.
      Function New Color Old Color
      Tip 1 Green White/Blue
      Ring 1 Red Blue/White
      Tip 2 Black White/Orange
      Ring 2 Yellow Orange/White”

      New colors are Gr, Re, Bl, & Ye? Also, looking inside the NID, the ph co gives a chart of Ring colors and Tip colors. The orange is ring and the white with orange stripe is tip as you say, likewise for the red and green, but they have blk as Ring and yellow as tip.
      Thanks much,Buc

      Reply
    32. Chloza

      30 November, 2010 at 8:51 am

      Hello, We recently got a portable building put in our front yard as an office. Dad and I are trying to connect the phone lines from the roof of our house to the office. The Roof of our house is runnign 6 core telephone lead (white, blue, red, black, green, yellow) The office is runnign Cat5 cable. In the roof dad is usign White blue red and black. Which colour in the 6 core cable is connected to which colour in the Cat5 cable?

      Reply
    33. rwoodsr

      15 November, 2010 at 12:03 am

      Here’s my predicament, I’m trying to install a new phone jack in my daughter’s room, but the phone line coming out of the wall does not end at the wall, it merely continues… to the next jack? Anyway, the phone line has orange-white/orange (cut), blue-white blue (cut), green-white/green (uncut). I’ve got a diagram on how to wire the jack, but am I supposed to twist each colored wire together, and then tighten it on the appropriate colored lead on the jack? I’m already confused just typing this out. Can anybody help me out with this? Thanks in advance!

      Reply
    34. KenF

      30 October, 2010 at 1:35 pm

      What gauge does the outdoor wiring need to be? I want to run about 150ft of wire from my house to the shop. I have a roll of solid strand 4-conductor thermostat wire, I think its 18ga. Will it work for telephone wire?

      Reply
    35. unsolicited

      1 October, 2010 at 11:48 pm

      Originally posted by prehistoric: “I have two phone lines. both work well. one is voice, the other is for my pc for dialup (that’s right, not dsl, not fiber optiocs) internet access. My problem is that though I connect to the internet at 40+kbps, my network utilization percentage (as per the windows task manager networking tab)rarely eclipses 25%. Therefore though I have signal/dialtone/etc., I’m only realizing only 10Kbps. I installed the second line on the house from the consumer side of the NID. What can’t the line be cleaner so that I can get at least 75% throughput of the connect speed?”


      Analog connections only opperate at a maximum of 9600 Baud [9.6 kbps], anything higher than that [2400, 28.8, 33.6, and up to 56k”> are the result of Data Compression schemes.

      Reply
    36. Daniel Memenode

      21 September, 2010 at 2:39 am

      Originally posted by prehistoric: “I have two phone lines. both work well. one is voice, the other is for my pc for dialup (that’s right, not dsl, not fiber optiocs) internet access. My problem is that though I connect to the internet at 40+kbps, my network utilization percentage (as per the windows task manager networking tab)rarely eclipses 25%. Therefore though I have signal/dialtone/etc., I’m only realizing only 10Kbps. I installed the second line on the house from the consumer side of the NID. What can’t the line be cleaner so that I can get at least 75% throughput of the connect speed?”

      I’m pretty much an amateur at this, but it’s possible that you’re too far away from the nearest telecom node so the loss isn’t really occurring in your own wiring, but between you and the node. If you’re living in a flat it could also be the wiring of the building that’s bad too. I know this is why ADSL customers, for example, never really get the advertised speeds. It’s always less, and how much less depends on distance from the node and wiring in the building.

      It’s also possible your ISP is just not providing you with the speed they promised on their own end, that is, they’re throttling it for some reason.

      You could call their technical support and see what they say.

      Reply
    37. prehistoric

      26 August, 2010 at 2:41 am

      I have two phone lines. both work well. one is voice, the other is for my pc for dialup (that’s right, not dsl, not fiber optiocs) internet access. My problem is that though I connect to the internet at 40+kbps, my network utilization percentage (as per the windows task manager networking tab)rarely eclipses 25%. Therefore though I have signal/dialtone/etc., I’m only realizing only 10Kbps. I installed the second line on the house from the consumer side of the NID. What can’t the line be cleaner so that I can get at least 75% throughput of the connect speed?

      Reply
    38. sethwell

      1 August, 2010 at 7:31 am

      WHITE with blue marks = green
      BLUE with white marks = Red
      WHITE with orange marks = Black
      ORANGE with white marks = Yellow

      found this info on

      wire-your-phones.com

      Reply
    39. bell tech

      28 July, 2010 at 11:23 pm

      hi there debbie
      Green goes to White/Blue wires
      Red goes to Blue/White wires
      Yellow goes to Orange/White wires
      Black goes to White/Orange wires

      Reply
    40. Debbie Frost

      21 July, 2010 at 6:50 pm

      Unfotrtunately this didn’t help me
      .I have a double jack which is also a hub for three other jacks. I seem to have unusual coloured wires . They are brown /white, white /brown,blue/yellow ,yellow/blue,pale green/white,white/pale green and two red and two green. Can anybody tell me which colours to connect to the red ,green, yellow and black terminals of the two jacks. Thank you

      Reply
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