It is legal in B.C. to do your own installation and repair work inside your house. You also have the option to pay the phone company or an electrician to do this work. If you live outside of B.C., check out the legality of doing the work yourself.
First Repair Step
90% of telephone noise occur at the telephone jack and telephone. Unplug the telephone set cord from the wall jack and check the mini plug end for corrosion. The tiny pins should be shiny clean gold in color, any green or black indicates corrosion.
If there is corrosion, both the set cord and wall jack need to be replaced.
Telephone surface mounted jacks are located low on the wall where they are susceptible to water damage when rugs are steam cleaned, the water-soap over spray ends up in the telephone jack. Also wall washing can cause water/soap to end up in the jack causing corrosion. The worst cause of telephone jack corrosion is caused when people hang wall paper, the water and glue mixture is extremely damaging, because the conductivity of the glue is very high causing corrosion in a very short period of time.
Troubleshooting Static on the Telephone
Pick up the receiver on your telephone and dial any single digit, other than zero, this remove the dial tone. While listening in the handset receiver, wiggle the set cord near the telephone jack and at the telephone. If there is a poor connection, you will hear static.
Also wiggle the handset cord at both ends of the handset cord, while listening for static. If you can hear static while wiggling the cord, the setcord needs to be replaced.
Loose connections and corrosion causes static in telephones. Remove the telephone jack cover, and check that the wires are tightened down firmly.
Going Further
When there is no dial tone, the first step to troubleshoot a telephone no-dial tone trouble is to determine whether the trouble is inside the home or out side. Go to the network interface box on the side of the house, this is the telephone company's de-marcation point. The wires toward the central office are the telephone company's responsibility, the wires toward the house are yours.
Using a Phillips screwdriver open the lid of the grey plastic interface box. If the type of interface has a short telephone cord plugged into a telephone de-marc jack, unplug this cord and plug a telephone set into it. If you can get dial tone at the interface box, but not in the house, the telephone trouble is in the house and is your problem. If there is no dial tone at the interface box, the trouble is the telephone companies.
Go Further
If you determine the trouble is somewhere inside the house, the best way to go further is with the use of a multi-meter. Set the meter to read ohms on the X1 scale, remove all the jack set runs (individual wires to each jack) and isolate them from the binding post. Take a separate reading on each wire pair, a short (full deflection of the meter needle) will indicate the problem wire. Tie all the other set runs down on the binding post, and plug in the de-marc jack at the interface box. Check all the jacks in the house for dial tone, the jack that has no dial tone is the one with the problem. Investigate this jack further, remove the telephone and recheck the wire for a short. If there still is a problem, tie down the wire for this jack run at the interface box, try changing the jack, if this does not help, the trouble is in the wire between the interface box and the jack. Usually 90% of the time it will be a bad jack because of corrosion, or a telephone problem.
Telephone Jacks
The above picture shows the back side of a common telephone jack used today in the home and business. The telephone jack has six colored wires, green, red, yellow, black, white, and blue. For a single telephone number only the green and red jack wires are used. If there is a second telephone number added onto the jack for a two line telephone, it is connected to the yellow and black jack wires. If the jack wires has a white and blue wire, they are used for special applications.
Telephone Wire Colors Codes
Older Three Conductor Wires
Red - (Ring) - first line
Green - (Tip) -first line
Yellow - was used for ground in a party line setup
Older Two Pair Conductor Wires
Green -(tip) - first line
Red - (ring) - first line
Yellow - (tip) - second line
Black - (ring - second line
Four Pair Conductor Wires
White with blue marks (tip) - first line
Blue with white marks (Ring) - first line
White with orange marks (tip) - second line
Orange with white marks (ring) - second line
Usually designated for ADSL, if no second line is used.
White with green marks (tip) - third line
Green with white marks(ring) - third line
Usually desinated a spare, or for a fax line
White with brown marks, spare
Brown with white marks, spare
Spare
Hum on the Line
Hum at the telephone, means there is a path in the telephone wires to earth ground, this usually is caused by damaged wire coating, and wetness around the wire, either in the home or between the home and the telephone central office.
AC Hydro power inducting onto the line can also produce a hum. Normally the telephone lines between the telephone central office and your home are in balance, any hum in the line is removed before it reaches the telephone set. Poor bonding of the ground sheath around telephone wires in telephone cables, can produce a hum. If you live in a rural area, with long runs of telephone cable near hydro power cables, a hum is more apt to happen. Usually when the telephone wires are out of balance because of poor grounding, the telephone wires will sometimes pick up a weak radio signal in the background. If the hum in the line cannot be corrected, a filter can be placed at your telephone set, to remove the hum and any faint radio station.
Telephone Protection Devices
A telephone protector is located at the demarcation device, to help prevent injury to people, damage to the telephone wire, jacks and telephone devices in your home, if and when voltage surges occur outside the home.
This device is situated where the telephone wires enter the house and is there to protect you, the home, and phone equipment. If a large current comes down the telephone line, its purpose is to direct the voltage spike to earth ground.
Shocks From Telephone Wires
At standby the telephone voltage is 48 volts, still shockable, but when the bells are ringing, the voltage goes up to around 110 volts.
You can wear rubber or dry leather gloves to avoid shocks. Be aware that any type of shock can upset a pacemaker's operation. If you are standing on a dry floor or on a rubber mat, there is less change to get a shock. Obviously, if you are working on telephone wires in a damp basement, damp crawl space or under a trailer, there is more of a chance to get between the voltage and ground and receive a major shock.
Dual line jack, back side
Dual Telephone Jack
The dual line jack is used where two separate telephone numbers are required at one telephone jack.
Each separate telephone line is attached to the red and green wires of each separate jack connection.
The white/blue wire of the set run wire connects to the green wire of one side of the dual jack. The blue wire of the set run connects to the red wire of the jack. The white/orange wire of the set run connects to the green wire of the other side of the dual jack. The orange wire connects to the red wire. This jack is wired to have two separate telephone numbers at the dual jack.
For both sides of a dual jack need to have the same telephone number, bridge with a jumper wire, one half of the dual jack to the other. Green to green, and red to red.
Connect the w/b of the set run to the green of one of the jacks, then connect the blue wire of the set run to the red of the same jack. Both sides of the jack will now work with the same telephone number.
Tip
No matter what kind of jack, all the jack wiring is the same, center two pins are telephone line one.
Alarm Wiring, to the Demarcation Point
Alarm panels are connected to the telephone wires to send signals to the alarm monitor company. The alarm panel is set up in a manner that it disconnects all the telephone jacks in the home during an alarm trip. The alarm panel takes full control over the telephone wire.
This is accomplished by way of a special jack called a jack8. The telephone wire from the demarc point, is brought to the jack8 at the alarm panel, and then looped back to a spot where all the individual jack run wires are located. The return jack8 wire run connects to all the telephone jack wires in the house, on a binding post. The wire from the demarc device is connected to the front two tie down screws, the wire returning to the jack runs connects to the two rear tie down screws. The jack8 provides a loop back, when the alarm system is not in alarm mode.
Modem, Router, and Computer Connecting Instructions
Modem and router
The Function of a Modem
Modems convert the incoming analog signals produced by telephone terminals into digital signals. A telephone circuits bring the analog signals to a computer modem to convert into a digital signal for the computer.
Modems also convert outgoing digital signals to analog (tones), in order to transmit data over telephone circuits.
The modem is a data set which modulate and demodulate signals a computer understands.
The modem consists of a power supply, transmitter, and receiver. The unit contains a modulator, filtering, wave shaping, and signal controlling circuitry.
The Function of a Router
A router is required if more than one computer must share the single modem, otherwise only one computer can connect to a modem at a time. The router is placed between the modem and computers. A single lead is run from the modem to the router, and a separate single lead from the router to each individual computer. These computers will share the bandwidth of the internet service. The router manages the bandwidth between the computers in use at one time. A small router has four or five ports, for the computers.
Instructions to connect a Router to a Modem and Computers
Cat5 (category 5) wire is required to connect computers, modem and routers. Cat5 wire has a blue outer coat, and has tighter twists in the wire pairs to handle higher frequencies. Category 3 wire found in most house for the telephone, does not have tight twists and does not carry higher frequencies as well.
The cat5 wire has eight conductors and needs a RJ45 plastic connector for the wire ends. The RJ45 plastic connectors are available at stores like Source stores and other computer stores.
When you buy the connectors, always buy a couple extra in case you make a mistake or the connections do not take. If you do make a mistake connecting the wires, simple cut off the existing end connector and try again.
To place the connectors on the cat5 wire, skin back the outer coating of the cat5 wire to about one inch, fan the conductors out with each color in the correct order, and then trim back to the correct length. Hold the wire end next to the RJ45 connector to judge the correct length.
Pay attention to the twisting of the wires and try to end up with the orange colored pair on the left, this will help in getting all the wires positioned in the correct order.
Crimp the wires, so the outer protective coating will be under the crimp, and the exposed leads will reach the end of the plastic connector.
Use the proper wire crimper for the RJ45 Connector. Some people are able to get away with regular pliers, small screwdriver and hammer, to set the brass pins and crimp the base of the connector to the wire. The brass pins should be set slightly lower than the plastic ridges of the connector when set properly.
Modem to Computer Wire Configuration
and Router to Computer Wire Configuration
and Router to Modem Wire Configuration
Hold the connector in your hand with the retaining clip on the under-side,
with the end pointing away from you.
The correct order of the wires is as follow.
Starting from the left Pin
1 --- White/Orange
2 --- Orange/White
3 --- White/Green
4 --- Blue/White
5 --- White/Blue
6 --- Green/White
7 --- White/Brown
8 --- Brown/White
The White/Green is transmit+
The Green/White is transmit-
The White/Orange is receive+
The Orange/White is receive-
The other wires are not used.
How To Wire Your Computer Directly To The Internet, Modem.
1/ With your computer near an existing telephone jack, run a normal 7 Ft.
telephone set cord from the telephone jack to the modem.
2/ Connect a RJ45 computer cable from the modem to the computer.
3/ Plug in the power pack to power up the modem.
4/ Turn on the computer.
5/ Follow the instructions of your provider.
How To Wire a Router to a Modem and other Computers
1/ With your computer near an existing telephone jack, run a normal 7 Ft.
telephone set cord from the jack to the modem.
2/ Connect a RJ45 computer cable from the modem to the router.
3/ Run cat5 wire from the router to the location of each computer.
4/ You can connect the cat5 wire with a RJ45 connector clip on the wire end,
you can run the cat5 wire to a RJ45 wall jack; and then use a patch cord from the jack to the computer.
5/ Place a plastic RJ45 connector on each end of the cat5 wires. Use the color guide listed above.
6/ Plug in the power pack to power up the modem, and router.
7/ Turn on the computer.
8/ Follow the instructions of your provider.
The average router has output jacks for four or five computers.
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