How To Install A Second Phone Line Yourself

by Jeff Fisher

I of the most common questions we go asked goes something like this:

We had the phone visitor install a second phone line, which nosotros're going to utilize for our modem. But they wanted $200 to connect the line to an inside jack, which we though was outrageous and declined. So now they say the line is "installed." How do nosotros hook it up to utilise it within?

This awarding note will endeavour to take any novice through the procedure. (Or at least give you some pointers that will help.)

A phone line uses two conductors. Typical old-style phone cable has iv conductors. (Red, Green, Black, and Yellow or White.) The first telephone line will exist on the Red and Green wires. The black and yellow wires will be unused and may not even exist connected. If you connect them right, you lot can utilize the blackness and yellowish wires to carry the new line from the exterior of the house to the desired wall-jack(due south). Standard modular wall-jacks can back up both these lines. And you tin can use either a 2-line phone or a plug-in ii line splitter to get to the second line.

Annotation: Sharing 2 phone lines in non-twisted "quad" telephone cable volition probably introduce some crosstalk. You may be able to hear whatever is going on the other line at a very depression level. In that location isn't annihilation you can do most this except rewire all your phones with more current twisted-pair wire.

Telephonic Archeology

The first pace is to perform a bit of what we call "Telephonic Archeology" by examining your present wiring to endeavour to decide what goes where.

Go around the house with a small straight screwdriver and "pull" all the phone jacks. For surface mount boxes, remove the single screw and gently pull the encompass away. For jacks that are built-in to the wall, remove the two visible screws and gently pull the wall plate away from the wall until y'all can see how the wires are continued behind the plate.

If you are being watched, stare intently at all these wires, rub your chin, and nod knowingly (this is very of import). You may practise this for an extended period if you lot wish. Congratulations...you lot've just done exactly what the telephone installer gets paid $200 for.

Yous will virtually likely run into one cable going to the jack, either from within the wall, or stapled to the surface of the wall. This cable volition probably take four solid usher wires in it; 1 red, one green, one black, and one yellow or white. If the wire doesn't have 4 conductors, you have a non-standard installation and you'll need assist. This cable either goes direct to the DMARC cake (more on this later) or it connects to the dorsum of another jack...which does have a cablevision that goes dorsum to the DMARC cake.

If there is more than 1 cablevision, and the wires from one cablevision are tied to the same color wires from the other cablevision, (peculiarly the red and light-green) so you are looking at a "daisy-chain" jack. Ane of the cables probably goes dorsum to the DMARC block, and the other(s) go to other jacks. (Information technology doesn't really matter at this betoken.)

Each jack should have 2 or 4 screw terminals. They may be labeled with the wire color: (R) red (K) green (Y) yellow (B) black.

The jacks will also have 2 or 4 individual wires that run from the modular jack to the screw terminals.

The chief thing yous're trying to determine at this point is whether all jacks have all four wires, and if they are connected. Leave the jacks loose, you may need to work on them later.

Now you need to detect your DMARC cake. An explanation: The phone company has this concept of a "point of demarcation" where they are completely responsible for the phone lines to a certain point...and you are responsible for them from there on. This point is ordinarily on an outside wall of a house, or maybe just inside a garage. Usually they are a little gray box with something most the phone company written on them and may have some rather large wires going into them.

Newer DMARC blocks accept a divided interior with i sealed past a special commodities and the other side user-accessible with a standard screwdriver.

When the telephone company added your second line, they probably added information technology to your existing DMARC box. Only they could also have replace your existing box with a new version that supports two (or more) lines, or they may have added a second DMARC box for the new line. (It's upwards to them which they exercise.)

Open upwards the "user serviceable" portion of the DEMARC block. There volition be two or more screw terminals inside. Peradventure with a colored label or R/G/Y/B labeling. Note the cables that come from the business firm and which wires connect to which terminals. Nosotros'll effigy these out later.

Get Set up

Now ask yourself what you lot want to do with this new phone line.

Probably the easiest affair to do is to connect the new telephone line to all (or well-nigh) jacks. This new line will be "line ii" in your jacks. Any two-line telephone plugged into these jacks volition allow admission to the second line. Or you tin can use a plug-in two line splitter to connect a telephone/fax/modem straight into line two. To do this yous just demand to make sure that all four wires are connected in each jack, and get the black and yellow/white wires connected to the proper place in your DMARC box.

If it'southward a fax or modem line, you may need to merely to go to a certain jack. To do this, you'll need to go the black and yellow or white wires hooked upward in the jack, and figure out where the cablevision goes and which cable it is back at the DMARC box. If the cable goes straight to the DMARC box, yous're in business. Just hook up the wires to the new line (more subsequently.) Merely if the cable goes to one or more other jacks first, you'll have to brand sure that the black and yellow/white wires are continued "passed through" all the jacks between the DMARC box and the jack where you want the new line.

Get Set (Manusset...go it?)

OK. Now it's time to actually exercise something. Yous'll need a bit of exam equipment:

1. A working phone.
2. Two phone cords with a modular plug at both ends.
3. A plug-in two line splitter. (Which yous tin can become from us or just nigh whatever part supply store or Radio Shack.) This device plugs into a two-line jack and splits line 1 to one jack and line 2 to the other jack.
4. A medium sized straight screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

Take ane of the modular phone cords and cutting off one stop. Strip off near three inches of the cable jacket. If the cable has four conductors, cut off the outer two. Strip the remaining two conductors. If the wires are colored, these will be green and cerise.

What you have washed is build home-mash versions of sophisticated test equipment. If you plan on making a career out of this, you tin can purchase the real matter.

Plug the cable with the stripped wires into the telephone and take it out to the DMARC box. Inside this box, yous should meet some green and ruby wires going to two screw terminals. If you connect 1 wire from your improvised "butt-set" to each of these screw final, you should get a dial-tone when y'all option up the phone. To test to see if you accept the "correct" line, dial the number. (Brand sure nobody is using the phone inside.) If you lot go a busy indicate, yous are probably on that line. (This method isn't fool-proof, merely the special number the phone repairmen use is obviously an industry secret, to which we mere mortals are non to be trusted.)

If there is a modular plug and jack near these terminals, this is your "test port." You can unplug it (which will disconnect your phones) and plug a phone straight into the jack to connect to the line. The phone company volition tell you to do this to test the line before they come up out to fix anything. It proves that the problem is either on your side of the wiring or their side. If you don't have a modular plug and jack, don't worry, you don't need them for this exercise.

Determine which cable feeds which jack(s) inside your dwelling. (You lot may non need to practise this if yous are going to feed the new line to all jacks.) Plug the standard modular cable into the telephone. Disconnect one light-green wire from the screw last. Now run effectually the house plugging in your phone to see if you take a punch-tone at each jack. The jack(s) that stopped working are connected to the wire you just disconnected. Back at the DMARC block, label the cable with the jacks that it serves. Reconnect the green wire. Disconnect another light-green wire...repeat the in a higher place until you have identified all cables. (Yous may find that some cables don't appear to go anywhere. That'due south not unusual in an older dwelling.)

Determine which terminals in the DMARC block are the new line. Connect your makeshift butt-set up to the other terminals in the DMARC block. They may be colour coded blackness and yellow, or a second set up of green and ruddy, or have B and R labels, or simply exist two more "posts" opposite the ones in use. Connect to terminals until you get a dial-tone and call the new number to make sure you get a busy betoken. (Yous tin also get inside and call the new number to see if the test phone rings.) When you identify these terminals, connect the black and yellow (or white) wires of the jack(s) where you want the new line.

You lot're virtually done. The merely affair left is to make sure the black and yellow wires are carried all the manner through and are continued in the target jack. Plug your test phone into Line 2 of the ii-line adapter and plug the adapter into the target jack. If you go a dial-tone...you're in concern! If non, become around to any other jacks that are on that cablevision and make certain that the black and yellow wires are "passed on," either by splicing the ii blacks together and the two yellows together, or past connecting both blacks to the B concluding and both yellows to the Y concluding in the jack.

If you want all jacks to take the new line. But make sure that all the jacks take the blackness and yellow wire connected.

At present you can become around and push upwardly all your jacks and the DMARC block. Yous should accept a practiced idea of how your phones are wired, and how they connect to the DMARC cake. If you ever have phone trouble in the time to come...yous'll be one-up on nigh people!

That'southward it for now...Enjoy!

Jeff

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Source: http://wiki.gohts.com/tiki-index.php?page=How+To+Connect+A+Second+Phone+LIne

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