phone wiring...

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Ok,another annoyance from this house that i bought.It has the old style wiring, 4 different colors.The only box to plug in the cable for the dsl is in the kitchen,about 20 feet away.The wire runs across the living floor and into the kitchen.The original wiring from the house runs through the attic. There's a small terminal box with screws on top that has the outside wires connected to this and from this box,the wires from the kitchen box are also connected here.Junction box?. Anyways,here's the question,should i get rid of the wiring from the nid box to this junction box and since I'm messing with all this,replace it with Cat5 wire? I have a dry loop setup and With a "Tragic Jack" phone use.Also,how do i determine which wire is which?
 
I wont be able to help you on the real technical stuff but i can provide some insight. Long phone cabling deteriotes dsl connections. Would be best to leave modem in kitchen and run a longer cat 5 to the other room. Which is messy. I would run Cat5 if you are confident to do so. Also, you can have your dsl provider maybe come by and install a potsplitter in the room you want to have your dsl modem. Is there a reason itdoes not work on other jacks? Not sure about specific wiring details but cat5 likely best long term solution. Good luck!
 
The router/modem is in the living room.The kitchen box is actually farther from the nid box than the modem.Can i test the wiring like testing for ac current? I.E. ,Grounding one test lead from a multimeter and checking wires for current,or does it matter if i don't have phone service at all?(dry loop)
 
I was a phone tech for several years. Your wiring is what was installed in homes up until the early 2000s when copper wiring started to be replaced with newer technology in some areas.

Red/Green is the first or primary pair (2 wires are needed for phone service) and Yellow/Black is the second. Your phone technician will (should) hook up RG if you have only one line, unless the wiring is bad then YB is used as a spare.

The junction box in the attic is also normal. Typically, the phone service is brought from the NID box to a central point in the house, and the individual outlets are fed from there as needed. If you need another outlet, you can just run the wiring from that junction to your new outlet.

If you want to spend $$$ on replacing the wiring, that is your call; however if what's there is in good condition now, it should continue to provide good service for many years.

Here's a site that may help you with it:
http://www.whoopis.com/howtos/telco-basics/


Happy to answer any questions you have.
 
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That takes care of that problem! Many thanks to all for your help.still have that question,is there polarity on the 2 wires that go to modem or can they be connected either way?
 
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Originally Posted By: daves66nova
The router/modem is in the living room.The kitchen box is actually farther from the nid box than the modem.Can i test the wiring like testing for ac current? I.E. ,Grounding one test lead from a multimeter and checking wires for current,or does it matter if i don't have phone service at all?(dry loop)


Simplest way to test quality of your phone cable going to modem is running a speedtest. Than get a short phone cable 6ft or less and retest. Compare the 2 results. Phone cables and phone splitters go bad over time. Im IT tech and alot of times issues point to inside wiring etc... If your provider is giving you 6mbps and you only see 3-4 or less you can try small things and keep retesting. For example change phone cable for new one, buy new splitter, retest after bypassing router.. Dry loop is simply your telecom suppressing the dial tone. Is your main issue the inconvenience of the wire run or its effect on ur internet itself? If your speed and internet works well, changing wiring to cat 5 run will only serve to clean up the long cable run.
 
Originally Posted By: daves66nova
That takes care of that problem! Many thanks to all for your help.still have that question,is there polarity on the 2 wires that go to modem or can they be connected either way?


While I was doing it there wasn't a difference. Systems may have changed since I was in the industry. Hook it up, test your speed, and switch them and check speed again to see if there's a difference.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
I was a phone tech for several years. Your wiring is what was installed in homes up until the early 2000s when copper wiring started to be replaced with newer technology in some areas.

Red/Green is the first or primary pair (2 wires are needed for phone service) and Yellow/Black is the second. Your phone technician will (should) hook up RG if you have only one line, unless the wiring is bad then YB is used as a spare.

The junction box in the attic is also normal. Typically, the phone service is brought from the NID box to a central point in the house, and the individual outlets are fed from there as needed. If you need another outlet, you can just run the wiring from that junction to your new outlet.

If you want to spend $$$ on replacing the wiring, that is your call; however if what's there is in good condition now, it should continue to provide good service for many years.

Here's a site that may help you with it:
http://www.whoopis.com/howtos/telco-basics/


Happy to answer any questions you have.
I've seen Yellow/black used to power lighted phones.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: daves66nova
That takes care of that problem! Many thanks to all for your help.still have that question,is there polarity on the 2 wires that go to modem or can they be connected either way?


While I was doing it there wasn't a difference. Systems may have changed since I was in the industry. Hook it up, test your speed, and switch them and check speed again to see if there's a difference.
+1 There used to be a polarity issue with Western electric touch tone phones, though.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
I wont be able to help you on the real technical stuff but i can provide some insight. Long phone cabling deteriotes dsl connections. Would be best to leave modem in kitchen and run a longer cat 5 to the other room. Which is messy. I would run Cat5 if you are confident to do so. Also, you can have your dsl provider maybe come by and install a potsplitter in the room you want to have your dsl modem. Is there a reason itdoes not work on other jacks? Not sure about specific wiring details but cat5 likely best long term solution. Good luck!
The DSL line connection runs all the way back to the central office, a few feet inside the house isn't going to change much.
 
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You could have something in your house wiring dragging the system down with noise or whatever. The test is to go to your outside network box, open the "customer access" cover, and disconnect the red/green wires. There should be a jack in there you can plug your modem into temporarily.

If it still works poorly, get on the telco about it. The wiring up to and including that box is their responsibility; the rest is yours.

Coincidentally if you isolate your house wiring you can hook up all your old phones to the magicjack. Just make sure the ringer voltage is low, which it would be on modern phones.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
I wont be able to help you on the real technical stuff but i can provide some insight. Long phone cabling deteriotes dsl connections. Would be best to leave modem in kitchen and run a longer cat 5 to the other room. Which is messy. I would run Cat5 if you are confident to do so. Also, you can have your dsl provider maybe come by and install a potsplitter in the room you want to have your dsl modem. Is there a reason itdoes not work on other jacks? Not sure about specific wiring details but cat5 likely best long term solution. Good luck!
The DSL line connection runs all the way back to the central office, a few feet inside the house isn't going to change much.


Inside wiring causes alot of line quality issues with dsl speed and stability. Obviously if the line from the CO isnt great it will cause issues however bad inside wiring results in bad dsl service. I send techs out for this type of issue often. Line from CO to the demarc isnt the only area of concern. Bad splices, noise on the line, defective phone cables and splitters are all major reasons for sending a tech for a bad connection.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
You could have something in your house wiring dragging the system down with noise or whatever. The test is to go to your outside network box, open the "customer access" cover, and disconnect the red/green wires. There should be a jack in there you can plug your modem into temporarily.

If it still works poorly, get on the telco about it. The wiring up to and including that box is their responsibility; the rest is yours.

Coincidentally if you isolate your house wiring you can hook up all your old phones to the magicjack. Just make sure the ringer voltage is low, which it would be on modern phones.


+1.

Exactly. We typically run a test to see if there is voltage on the line.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
I wont be able to help you on the real technical stuff but i can provide some insight. Long phone cabling deteriotes dsl connections. Would be best to leave modem in kitchen and run a longer cat 5 to the other room. Which is messy. I would run Cat5 if you are confident to do so. Also, you can have your dsl provider maybe come by and install a potsplitter in the room you want to have your dsl modem. Is there a reason itdoes not work on other jacks? Not sure about specific wiring details but cat5 likely best long term solution. Good luck!
The DSL line connection runs all the way back to the central office, a few feet inside the house isn't going to change much.


Inside wiring causes alot of line quality issues with dsl speed and stability. Obviously if the line from the CO isnt great it will cause issues however bad inside wiring results in bad dsl service. I send techs out for this type of issue often. Line from CO to the demarc isnt the only area of concern. Bad splices, noise on the line, defective phone cables and splitters are all major reasons for sending a tech for a bad connection.



+1 I see it all the time. People having issues with the modem randomly disconnecting, etc. Signal levels are terrible, low SNR, and extremely high transmit power. Tech goes out, replaces the line in the house and the drop from the pole... poof! problem solved. Wiring does degrade, due to age, moisture, and biologics. (ie rats/mice/bugs).
 
I might of wrote this wrong.Let me be more specific. I don't have any problems at all. What i wanted to do is,run a another wire from the junction box to my modem,so that i don't have to run a phone wire from my living room desk,across the living room floor and into the box on the kitchen wall.What i'm also asking is, how do i determine which wires from the modem cord go connected to where on the junction box in my attic? Can i hook up the 2 wires it uses any way or is there a way to determine which goes where? This way,i can run the modem wire straight up the wall to the junction box in the attic. Thanks and sorry for being vague on this..
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
You do not need CAT-5 cable for a phone or DSL modem.

No, but I've read that it's recommended these days. As for phone wiring, I'm going to have to take some pictures one of these days before I undertake certain repairs. Oh boy, I have some fun times ahead.
 
The shorter (and cleaner) the run, the faster the sync speed (if it is left as "best effort" by the ISP or capped above what you are able to get).

What this means is that in order to get the best possible sync speed, the modem should physically be as close as possible to the demarcation point on the side of your house. And you should use a VDSL2 splitter to isolate the modem from the other "loads" in your house, which are your internal phone lines. The VDLS2 splitter has a separate connector for this.

This is how I'm able to get 24/4 on VDSL2 with a loop length of well over 1Km.
 
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