OT phone wire advice needed

[JPSmit]

We currently have only one working phone jack in the house. In our bedroom we have phone wires exiting the wall. I hooked a jack up exactly as the working one is wired but get no dial tone - how can I check the wires to see how to hook them up?

thanks all

 

[Bayless]

If I remember right, standard phone wiring is red/green is one pair (usually primary) and black/yellow is another. Try connecting one pair and if no luck then try the other. For a phone polarity doesn't matter althou it did for some modems. If neither works then you may have a fiddled hookup or no connection to the source. It can't hurt to try other combinations though.

 

[hilsideser]

John, go outside to Network Interface Device, (grey box on the side of the house called the NID), and open it. See how many lines are attached to the terminals. Chances are good that there have been many technicians in this box over the years and things may not be "straight" in the box. Be sure all lines leading into the house are connected, if not, attach them to the screwpost terminals, else go to Lowes and buy the "Scotch lock" crimp on connectors and join the wires. Pairs are red/green as the primary circuit with yellow/black as secondary. If any new wiring has been added to the system, it may have been done with blue/blue-white pairs and orange/orange-white paired wires. The blue/blue-white is the primary and blue goes to red, blue-white goes to green when joining to older exisiting pairs.
Chances are equally as good that the wires may have been pulled from individual jacks through out the house. Open and inspect them, reconnencting as needed. You could also pick up a Sperry test device from Lowe's that plugs into the jack and either glows green or red, depending on line status. Could make it simpler to determine the need to open the jacks.
All in all, it's not difficult work. Good luck.

 

[aerog]

You can also check the voltage on the wire pairs at the jack with a simple meter. If the phone line isn't being used, you should have about 48 volts DC across the pair, around 6v if the line is "in use". If there's no voltage on the line you're trying to use then it's either no connected somewhere, or it's shorted out. Sometimes they're daisy-chained from one outlet to another rather than a direct run from the NID (if you have one - older houses may have an open terminal panel somewhere like a basement)...and sometimes when the jack/outlet gets replaced the second set of wires doesn't get wired to the outlet properly.

 

[tony barnhill]

If your inside wiring loops from box to box to box, you'll need to get a feel for how the wires run....go to the last working telephone in the house, open the box & see if there are wires running both in & out of the box (& if they're both hooked up).....if your house is over a crawl space, you may need to follow the telephone wire to see how it gets to that nonworking phone.

 

[abco]

I am assuming that the American system should be the same as the Brit one.Your line will come in to the master socket as 2 wires,as said previous,they are not polarity concious.After the master socket you have to carry through 3 wires on pins 2,3 and 5. 2 and 5 carry the dial tone,3 is the bell circuit,if you dont connect 3 up in the extension sockets,you will be able to make calls,but it will not ring on incoming calls.you can make your own colour scheme up as long as you just follow thru with the right connection to each pin.stan.