When working with
or installing your own
local telephone service lines
and wiring, the following tips may help to make
your job a lot easier
Sometimes the
wiring color scheme used in your
residential phone service is not
accurate because someone did a non-standard
installation. This can be extremely frustrating,
especially in a two line set up. You then
have to
figure out which line is which. The only way
around this is to connect the wires one by one
and check for a dial tone and then ascertain the
phone number through caller ID or trying to call
the number. Be methodical. Take Notes. This can
be especially exasperating when working with
more than the four basic wires. Many of
today's newer houses have
local phone service wiring with up to
5 pairs in the basic cable.
Label what you can. Items such as phone numbers, which line is
which, where the lines are routed and anything
relevant should be labeled.
Residential phone service
wiring projects and troubleshooting become much
simpler.
If you are trying
to diagnose problems such as line noise or a
phone not working, you can plug a phone directly
into the Network Interface Box. Some people put
locks on these boxes as someone could
potentially easily tap into your phone lines and
listen or make their own calls at your expense.
A spare phone
plugged directly into a computer can be useful
to diagnose problems and make quick calls.
Keeping a conventional corded phone (one that
doesn't need AC power) can make
local phone service
wiring/troubleshooting much easier.
Sometimes, as with
any electrical problem, you may solve a problem
more quickly by abandoning and leaving in place
an old wire that does not work and simply
running a new one.
Keep your wiring
connections short. The more phone extensions you
have, the lower the power output. Often,
problems arise from cheap telephones. When
diagnosing telephone
service problems, a preliminary step can be
to unplug, one by one, phones, faxes and other
phone service devices.
Lightning can be a
real threat. Do not work on phone wire during
electrical storms, and a conservative practice
would be to not be online, or even pull the
phone wire from your phones & modems, during electrical
storms.
Water within the
phone lines can be a source of shorts or line
noise.
Keep the modular
connectors clean. I learned this from a phone
company employee. Crap from carpets and dust can
embed into the connectors and wiring. Sticking
the modular connector into a carpet is asking
for problems.
Good Luck.
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