Thank you Sir. You have no idea the relief your easy to understand explanation and visual has given me. Thanks to you I can now fix the wiring, instead of having to beat the crap out of the tech who installed my home WiFi. I am grateful, thanks again!
Wow Marcy, what a glowing compliment. I shall have to print it out and put it on my office wall to remind me to keep making more content like this. Sorry to hear about the frustration.. unfortunately I hear it often. Good luck! 😊
Appreciate you explain this phone wiring, the step by step illustration was awesome. Didn't know of any red, blue or green wires LOL. I can't believe a large house we bought comes with only one phone jack, and oddly from all places, it's built-in in the kitchen wall. Anyway, thank you very much !!
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I looked at several videos and my phone didn't work. But your explaination of the blue wires helped a lot. Now my phone line is working properly.
Excellent information...brings me closer to accomplishing what I need to for my house, which is full of CAT5e and CAT6 for data AND phones with a home room to a closet, where I can switch the purpose of the jack from phone to data. For example: disconnecting a phone line in the closet (it has an RJ45 connector) and plugging it into the switch. Now that I'm adding both data and phone jacks, I need to sort out the jack's pinouts and how to interconnect the additional phone cables to a single existing phone line. I'm thinking of rigging up rack-mounted patch panel with RJ45 keystones. Getting them all interconnected is the tricky part...not sure whether it's physically possible to punch down more than one wire on the keystones. Suggestions appreciated.
You're so fortunate to have those data-capable cable runs in your home. I am so jealous! BTW, if you're not familiar. With my other TH-cam channel- /networkadvisor , you might find it helpful for DIY network topics. ☺
Thank you for your videos. They are really helpful! I just started a new job as a field tech and while they provide on the job training, being the "new guy" I sometimes feel like asking too many questions makes me a bother when on work sites. By watching your videos it helps me learn at my own pace with my tools in my home lab!
+willdogs droid Yep, we've all been there. Would have been nice to have a resource like this when I was new in the field. I do make videos with aspiring telecom pros in mind. You might like my other channel if you haven't seen it already. TH-cam.com/networkadvisor Similar topics as this channel but with more of a data & networking slant. Good luck and thanks for the comment! :-)
ask your question and commit the answer to a personal book and you will never have to ask twice. Did this as an apprentice nearly 47 years ago and keep up to date even for today's new tech.
I am am currently running g an in-class training for new hires and at times I need a quick refresh on certain things and I've found your videos are very helpful and you are thorough on explaining what it is you use and what your using them for. Great job!
Great, easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow video. What really helped me was explaining the difference between the commercial and residential wiring. For some odd reason, my house has commercial phone wiring. The description of matching the colors from the commercial wires to a residential wall mount helped immensely; the phone worked perfectly the first time. Thanks much.
The narrator has been doing telecom/network cabling for a very long time. The house phone wiring for my house, which was built last year, the technician used outdoor rated Cat5e and did one pair for the phone line and one pair for DSL. I was curious and did open my network interface in my front yard, and looks like they ran your red,green,yellow,black cable to feed the ouse and the inside was wired with Cat5e. Cat5e is fairly cheap, common, and most cable provider techs are usually fixing network problems on their end at commercial building, which are most likely using Cat5e or Cat6.
Exactly Tyler. Most techs are running around with only cat5e or cat6 on their trucks. That “drop wire” ( the tan cable with the red, green, black, yellow) is almost non-existent anymore . Thanks for commenting! 😊
Good evening. At the wall jack. If I test the resistance with my meter and it shows a reading of 0.006 (the red and green connection) can I swap the red/green wires with the black/yellow wires. Also swap the wiring at the phone box, outside the house??????
That help me understand why I have two cables to my wall jack! Actually, like in your video, I have the two types of cables. Pretty old cables that break so easily, due to age and becoming dry or so? Can I fit a double jack in order to have one for a modem and other for my phone? Aim is to use my internal phone wiring with an IP phone system. Thanks for advising.
I'm an intern at my local telephone company. When I was in I/R, we never installed the older, cat3 style of cable. We'd always use cat5e on residential installs. For bonded DSL installs, in particular, adjacent pairs found in cat3 are prone to experience interference from each other. Nowadays, you can often find cat5e for less than cat3.
Excellent video-my Florida house built in 2004 has CAT 4 or 5 all serial (daisy-chained). I suspect there was a wall mount that was abandoned-kitchen renovation. (tiled over) I have access front attic, both lines going down to old wall mount. Can I cut and splice all pairs together using your Redhead method. I suspect this is why further down stream one of my phone lines is not working......a dull sound when I pick up phone from that location. So I simply follow the pairing as you described?
Thanks a million!!! i was trying to terminate an old 4 color ribbon cable with a cat 5 keystone jack and your explanation at 8:30 was exactly what I needed. I appreciate your video.
right? it can be confusing with all those colors floating around. The residential color code being different from the commercial color code doesn't help! :-D Thanks for the feed back, Jared. :)
My first time changing out a phone Jack. I have the “biscuit” style. You didn’t tell me how to actually connect the wires coming out of the wall to the biscuit. Do I just loose the the screws on the biscuit and wrap the wall wires around corresponding screws? Probably seems obvious, but like I said, I’ve never done this before.
Finally a ideo explaining in simple terms how to DIY phone wires for myself. Single mum with a 14 year old nagging how to connect the internet thanks you very much . ,😃😃😃
Good sound, nice quality video, should help me accomplish what I need to do.. which was to just purchase the correct exterior cable. Bonus was learning there IS a methodology to the don't to mix up the red & the green & the white blue & the WHAT was that again? *hits replay* 🔁
Hi, at 4:44, it sounds like you are saying the tip and ring are 'green and red.' The wires appear to be gray and red, and then are shown to connect to the phone jack, which has red, green, black and yellow wires. Are the green and red typically the two wires needed for a single residential phone installation? Thank you!
Green (tip) and red (ring) are usually all you need for a residential phone line. If your wiring does have a green/red/black/yellow wires inside, the its commercial wiring. In that case, the white-blue and blue-white wires are what you need for tip and ring.
I watched this hoping to learn if a wire is a TX or RX something of that sort, and does it matter if the 2 main wires needed are put on the wrong way. I have just done a biscuit wall mount and it works but I am not sure if I got the cabling right as I have an older type biscuit mount that all the wires are black.
So that’s a great question the polarity of the wires USED TO matter. Last 20-30 years, doesn’t really matter. There isn’t a TX/RX or even a +/-. It is direct current but I have rarely seen it ever matter anymore. 😊
Thank you! As an instructor, I’m sure you can appreciate that fine balance of trying to teach a complex concept in the simplest terms. I suspect that’s what you meant with the tightrope analogy. Thanks for the comments! 😊
Great video, but I have a question. We have a wall mount AT&T cordless phone that was wired into an outlet that I believe was connected the two or one light switches in the vicinity. (No outlet in that wall!) Now we need a new phone and can not find anyone who knows how to reconnect the new phone. Is this no longer an option? Do I need to have an outlet to plug in the 'transformer'? Can't figure out how it was done, but it worked for 15 years! Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Plastic cover on my surface mount in residential house become brittle and broke. Didn't know anything about it but this video gives me confidence to replace it. Looks like a surface mount with an existing 4 strands of wire setup using a screw post setup.
@@DIYTelecom This was two years ago, did you ever do a re-do? Did you do another video covering that question? I need to know how many wires come from the dmarc into the house and is there at least 2 or possibly 4 wires inside that jacket? The wires I have don't seem to be the same colors. If you did another video on this please send the link. Thanks
What if you don't have a blue wire? I'm trying to connect to internet and not sure if that's the issue. I'm getting an at&t technician coming tomorrow and not sure if it's an issue outside or the phone jack. Help appreciated!
This video saved my behind on installing a connection box for a camper. I couldn't figure out why each post on the j 45 had two different colors and which were correct. when you showed the two different kinds of cable the light came on . ohhh!!!
Thank you for the video. Well done. We currently have a non-working phone line in our house (Uniden handset displays Check TEL Line) with two (2) beige wires coming out of one of the junction boxes, all wires red, green, yellow and black. Does this mean we have two phone lines? Wiring might be wrong somewhere because we swapped the faceplates for newer ones and had to get new wall jacks.
hi Justin, Just because you have the Green/Red and Black/Yellow doesn't mean you have two lines. If I was troubleshooting that problem, I would be focused on just the red/green. Good luck!
Great Video. I had an outlet that had two jacks, one was for the internet the other for phone. The phone jack only had two wires, the internet had 4. I changed to cable and used the space for the old Internet wires for the cable but had to reconnect the phone. So i connected the new jack and only used two wires that was used for the phone jack. All work fine, except the phone has a humming sound now. I wanted to know if it is possible one of those wires from the internet may have been a ground to terminate the buzzing. Can you help me with this issue?
I have a 1960s bell chime ringer and when I moved and took it to my new apartment I had a hell of a time hooking it up in my new apartment because of that new wiring
Have you ever seen a wall phone jack with prongs like a fork on the back and the wires are wrapped between the prongs? The outside of the jack is no longer useable in our new home (built mid 1960s). We have wire sets and colors that were connected are blue with yellow stripes and yellow with blue stripes and the other set is red with blue strips/ blue with red stripes. Trying to replace the jack so we can plug the modem into the outlet, but need to replace the jack first. Assuming we shouldn't cut the wires or we may loose phone connectivity in the other jacks. Thanks in advance for any suggestions to help us solve this mystery jack.
Yeah, thanks! That, explanation helped. The blue blue/white or double paired stunned me for sometime. We, want to move the biscuit interface from under headboard of our bed in the Master-bedroom, to the front hall foyer area for two reasons, one, easy access, and our new Flat Screen, T.V., seems to receive the Wireless DSL, signal much better at that location in the house. SO, thank you again for takig the time to explain this wiring stuff to us novice folks. Thanks Jimmy_Snags
Had new phone service hooked up today. Used to use phone like with Verizon but went to Comcast which used phone line off back of modem. Now I'm back to fios and I plugged the phone in and it won't work. It's a screw post jack with only red and yellow hooked up. Is it possible they have line hooked to black and yellow? Figured I'd ask since I watched your video. I learned a lot from it.
@@Roopaloooop red and yellow aren't a pair for inside wiring or outside plant. It would be black yellow, blue white and/or green red for inside. Outside its blue orange green brown slate is ring and white red black yellow violet is tip
I have multiple phone jacks coming to the NID on the outside of the house. All wires are not connected to anything. I am no longer using the phone company but using a device for VOIP, which has a RJ11 Jack. What is the best way to connect my jacks to the new VOIP connection? Can I connect all of the Red to Red, Green to Green, Yellow to Yellow, Black to Black on the outside of the house including the connection from the VOIP? IS there a special termination block that can be mounted outside to keep the weather off of the connections? TIA
Our house was built in 1963. We have 3 round jacks which are flush to the wall. One in the kitchen, one in the hall and one in the master bedroom.. Suddenly all three do not work. We had Spectrum cable Co come in and check their connections and the tech said their system was working fine and the problem was not with their set up.These jacks must operate from a central location, as all three suddenly stopped working. Any suggestions?
Hello yes im trying to install a phone jack on the apartment. Working on phone line like this do i need to shut the breaker off or anything? Lmk thank you in advance.
There is a small amount of electricity on the phone wires, but not enough to hurt you. You might feel it if someone rings your line while you are holding the bare copper of the wires.
I will say there has definitely been an increase in the number of views over the past 30 days. Glad to know I can help ppl out during this crisis. thanks for the comment. :-)
Running in series is better than Running them all back to the de mark. Running them all back to the de mark is called star wiring, those pairs that arent being used, act as airials, so cause noise issues. Twist the wires together too, which makes the pair rejects noise.
Def agree that unused runs to nowhere to increase RF interference I guess in a perfect world the service tech would disconnect any home rum not.in use ( But we know in reality that wouldn't happen). Great comment 😊
I live Southern CA. Two phone jacks stopped working. Have found nobody in my town to repair them. The phone comes through a router. Seems "hardline" means a wireless connection to your house system. Wish we had never stopped the hardline connection to AT&T.
Hi Jay I sympathize. I miss the old hardwire plain old telephone service too. Unfortunately today. It's no longer a profitable model so the Telco companies are trying to get out of that business asap. 🤷♂️
Is it possible to go from a modular to a screw post? My friends internet is down originally modular set up but if I can do a screw post I'd rather go that route for sure
I'm pretty sure you need to strip about a half inch of insulation off of the red and the green bell conductors before you place each under the biscuit screw terminals; the blue and white-blue Cat 3 don't have to be stripped - just punched down on a modular jack.
I didn't mention anything about stripping back the insulation on the wires? Shame on me. I probably just assumed it was Electrical 101 and figured everyone would know that. Thanks for clarifying! :-D
Of course they need to be stripped and he obviously knows that this is just a how to video to show us how to install. I find it funny when ppl point out the obvious like its something only the educated or professionals in the field know and the rest have to be told when all it is, is commonsense lol
Yeah, I've been looking for guidance on how to strip that insulation without damaging the wires. So far, every article on this topic skips over that part.
@@huttarl Your front teeth will work just fine and not damage the copper conductor causing future issues or faults. It will however fuck up your teeth in a hurry. Keep smilin'!
Apologies for the dumb question, but if the wiring from the wall is only three (Red, Green, Yellow) solid copper wires, is that a problem and can it be wired to any of these wall plate styles you went over? Also, my wire is coming right out of the wall, there is no metal mounting "bracket" as in your video or an electrical box it feeds into. Do I need to install anything additional?
It helped a little bit I'm working with an older style screw Mount and I figured okay that's what I'll do I'll serial Mount from the other one I put in a couple years ago and just extend a wire out. I think I have the commercial wires cuz I got them from a commercial place when they were taking them out of the building and I got a whole bunch of wires of pretty long lengths so I think I should be able to find one that will fit.
only question i still have is that my issue is from the demark to the jack. i want to replace the line because it is very old. our phone company is Frontier and we have raging battles to get them to do anything and I am over it. I want to do this myself, but i don't know if i can get into the demark to do the work. i was wondering if you can splice like you would with electrical in a J box, or is that inadvisable?
Yes, splicing is ok. But it is critical to use airtight connectors for the splice. Otherwise oxidation sets in and creates static on the line. They have these things we call "red heads". Not recalling the official name at the moment. But you can find them at the big box he stores. The look like little red plastic circles about the size of an m&m. Good luck. 😊
I have the 4 wires black-red-yellow-green I cut the broken modular piece off because it was broke could not hang up the phone so I took the 4 wires and attached to the 4 colors still no dial tone on that jack all others work in house and the phone works also on other jacks help
Jim, I'm assuming the the old jack worked before you cut it off. If so, be sure you're connecting the colors to match what's on the jack. (Green to green, Red to red, etc). The main thing you should be concerned about is the red and green. These are known as Tip1 and Ring1. They are the only two you should need for dial tone. If you had a 2nd phone number, then that would be on Yellow/Black.
What able if your wires go directly from wall to a rotary phone not thru a wall mount but I want to disconnect rotary phone and make into a wall mount so I can plug my newer phone into it?
Excellent question Bryan! So, if you have a Green/red/Black/yellow wiring, then the Black would go in the White/Orange of the keystone. And, the yellow would go in the Orange/white. Sorry, if I didn't mention that in my video. Glad you brought that up! :)
+Jeff Moss thanks Jeff. It helps to hear that from someone like you. Its always balancing-act. I try to restrain myself from over explaining the topic and thus losing my audience. The feedback is much appreciated. :-)
t 5:00 what is a single line? how many users can be accommodated in 2 pairs? the connection u get at the telephone exchange or de mod (whatever u call it.that thing outside ur house) how many users can use them max...because if it were max connections then they would have single demod for the whole neighbourhood. plus make avideo of how a phone/modem splitter works..how a single copper wire is used to give telephone plus ethernet(internet) signals
t 5:00 what is a single line? how many users can be accommodated in 2 pairs? the connection u get at the telephone exchange or de mod (whatever u call it.that thing outside ur house) how many users can use them max...because if it were max connections then they would have single demod for the whole neighbourhood. plus make avideo of how a phone/modem splitter works..how a single copper wire is used to give telephone plus ethernet(internet) signals
hi..is the bisquit box pre-wierd...my house land phone at times the caller cant hear my voice do I need to change the bisquit box n re connectgreen n yellow( ring n tip).??
Jose, yes, thise jacks are usually pre-wired. But if you have a situation where you can hear them but they can’t hear you, that sounds more like a problem with the telephone- not the wiring.
Thanks so much! Great video that explained some worries I’ve had about a Hurricane Harvey house. I can at least trouble shoot now before I get professional help.
I dont have a jack so i need to connect it directly so idk to which one i need to connect the comercial wires the solid blue and the other i need to connect to what i only got red white yellow and blue
Thank you for sharing your video. It is simple but very informative. The phone jacks in the house worked before but stopped a week ago.The phone only works if plugged directly to the back of the router. Mine are currently wired opposite to yours as follows: solid blue to green, white-blue to red, solid orange to black and white-orange to yellow. House is 20 yrs old (built 1999). Do I follow the same color code wiring the same way they have it now or do I follow what's on the video?Thank you.
If there is no exposed copper, then no fire hazard . But best to find the other end of that wire, if you can, and disconnect it from the phone service.
Yes, Brian, home phone lines are very flexible that way. All that matters is that the Tip and Ring of each jack (green and red wires) are in some way connected to the demarc.
Thank you for your response. I called my phone company Cox, and they're going to do a reset, and they said to wait 2 hrs to check it again, but nothing has happened. It's still says NO LINE? I called them again but they'll returned my call.
Hello, I am looking into putting a phone line from my house to my shed (80 meters away) I don't want to connect to the landline, I just want a end to end way to use a phone, any ideas how? Thanks
Viking makes all kinds of products for this sort of thing. They have these devices that when you pick up a phone it rings the phone attached on the other end. No dialing.
DIY Telecom; In your description of this video above you quoted; "Almost all residential phone service uses just 2 wires (also referred to as "one pair"). Each pair of wires has a "TIP" and a "RING". (or kind of like Neg and Positive, but not really)". In reality it is exactly like Negative and Positive (Direct Current 48 - 50 volts). You have many viewers and I'm sure you can teach a large percentage of them a very simple video with a volt/ohm meter (VOM) at the demarcation and then the final termination point (jack) to verify their voice/data/video signal is present and working. VOM's are free with a small purchase from Harbor Freight Tool Co. or very affordable for most DIYers.
hi Shawn, def agreeing with you that an inexpensive Volt meter (or multi-meter) would be very helpful for determining the presence of POTS line power on the pair. The reason I said “not exactly”, is I was taught that Phone line voltage is -48vDC. so, yes it is 48 v between the pairs. (but maybe I am misinformed) i super-appreciate it when viewers, like you, take the time to leave detailed insights because many people read the comments. And then, we all become smarter. 😀
@@DIYTelecom ; DC voltage is available on your car battery. If you look for voltage on one conductor and ground on the other you will know how to use a VOM. Current flows on the positive to the device (voice-data-video/not just POTS anymore) and the circuit is completed when there is a grounded conductor with continuity back to the central office. If your experiencing problems with no signal at the jack, it might help to find the two wires that have your POS/NEG continuity. A DC circuit cannot be made without +/-.
Thanks, @@DIYTelecom! I love old phones but I will never have a phone service (because I use a smartphone). Has anyone ever turned their home land-line-phone "network" into a house intercom just for fun (using old phones)? I tinker with Arduino and Raspberri Pi and am confident there's a way to execute different functions depending on what numbers were dialed e.g. make the other phones ring etc. All the Best!
I simply want to disconnect the line from AT&T to my house, but leave in tact the internal phone wiring that distributes the phone connection to multiple jacks within my house. This because I have switched to VoIP and my main telephone connection is now through a modem. But I want to continue to use my internal house phone lines to other jacks so I can use them for calling, as before.
I definitely understand what you are trying to do. The place to disconnect the phone service from your inside wiring is at the “demarc”. That is usually a box located on the exterior of your house. Once you do that, you could run a phone wire out of the modem to a nearby wall jack and that would back-feed the VOIP dial tone into the rest of the house jacks. Good luck. 😄
Thank you Sir. You have no idea the relief your easy to understand explanation and visual has given me. Thanks to you I can now fix the wiring, instead of having to beat the crap out of the tech who installed my home WiFi. I am grateful, thanks again!
Wow Marcy, what a glowing compliment. I shall have to print it out and put it on my office wall to remind me to keep making more content like this.
Sorry to hear about the frustration.. unfortunately I hear it often. Good luck! 😊
Super explanation! The jacks in our house were over 40 years old and with your help, they are all brand new now. Thank you.
wow, that's great! Glad I could help out. :-)
Appreciate you explain this phone wiring, the step by step illustration was awesome. Didn't know of any red, blue or green wires LOL. I can't believe a large house we bought comes with only one phone jack, and oddly from all places, it's built-in in the kitchen wall. Anyway, thank you very much !!
thanks for the feedback Danny! good luck with your house. :-)
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I looked at several videos and my phone didn't work. But your explaination of the blue wires helped a lot. Now my phone line is working properly.
Wonderful news Catherine. Glad you got it! ☺️
Thank you VERY much for this video. It told me EXACTLY what I needed to know to figure out the wiring in my new (old) house. Fantastic!
Thanks for the feedback, Eric. Glad that helped. 😊
Excellent Explanation, I am going to use this for some of my less analog knowledgeable people on my crew, thanks.... Great work
Thanks Ken :-)
Explanation makes phone wiring so easy a child could do it! A thousand blessings upon you good sir!
Great, glad I could help make it easy! 😄
I had an issue with my phone line.
Your video helped me resolve the issue.
Thank you for the help. Very informative 👏
Always makes me happy to here someone fixed something and my videos helps a little. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Very useful instructions, very skilled at teaching in a clear & concise fashion, much appreciated, thank you.
Thanks for the feedback Gabriel. 😊
Excellent information...brings me closer to accomplishing what I need to for my house, which is full of CAT5e and CAT6 for data AND phones with a home room to a closet, where I can switch the purpose of the jack from phone to data. For example: disconnecting a phone line in the closet (it has an RJ45 connector) and plugging it into the switch. Now that I'm adding both data and phone jacks, I need to sort out the jack's pinouts and how to interconnect the additional phone cables to a single existing phone line. I'm thinking of rigging up rack-mounted patch panel with RJ45 keystones. Getting them all interconnected is the tricky part...not sure whether it's physically possible to punch down more than one wire on the keystones. Suggestions appreciated.
You're so fortunate to have those data-capable cable runs in your home. I am so jealous!
BTW, if you're not familiar. With my other TH-cam channel- /networkadvisor , you might find it helpful for DIY network topics.
☺
Thank you for your videos. They are really helpful! I just started a new job as a field tech and while they provide on the job training, being the "new guy" I sometimes feel like asking too many questions makes me a bother when on work sites. By watching your videos it helps me learn at my own pace with my tools in my home lab!
+willdogs droid Yep, we've all been there. Would have been nice to have a resource like this when I was new in the field. I do make videos with aspiring telecom pros in mind. You might like my other channel if you haven't seen it already.
TH-cam.com/networkadvisor
Similar topics as this channel but with more of a data & networking slant.
Good luck and thanks for the comment! :-)
ask your question and commit the answer to a personal book and you will never have to ask twice. Did this as an apprentice nearly 47 years ago and keep up to date even for today's new tech.
I am am currently running g an in-class training for new hires and at times I need a quick refresh on certain things and I've found your videos are very helpful and you are thorough on explaining what it is you use and what your using them for. Great job!
Great video. Complete, to the point and clear. Thanks.
thank you for the feedback JJ. :-D
THANK YOU!!! You're video is the only one I found helpful when working with the 4 paired wires.
You no longer
Not sure what the installer did when we changed carriers, but I was able to fix it with your help! MANY THANKS!
Wow Charlotte! I love hearing stories like this! Thank you! 😁
Great, easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow video. What really helped me was explaining the difference between the commercial and residential wiring. For some odd reason, my house has commercial phone wiring. The description of matching the colors from the commercial wires to a residential wall mount helped immensely; the phone worked perfectly the first time. Thanks much.
The narrator has been doing telecom/network cabling for a very long time. The house phone wiring for my house, which was built last year, the technician used outdoor rated Cat5e and did one pair for the phone line and one pair for DSL. I was curious and did open my network interface in my front yard, and looks like they ran your red,green,yellow,black cable to feed the ouse and the inside was wired with Cat5e. Cat5e is fairly cheap, common, and most cable provider techs are usually fixing network problems on their end at commercial building, which are most likely using Cat5e or Cat6.
Exactly Tyler. Most techs are running around with only cat5e or cat6 on their trucks. That “drop wire” ( the tan cable with the red, green, black, yellow) is almost non-existent anymore .
Thanks for commenting! 😊
Good evening. At the wall jack. If I test the resistance with my meter and it shows a reading of 0.006 (the red and green connection) can I swap the red/green wires with the black/yellow wires. Also swap the wiring at the phone box, outside the house??????
Absoulte amazing explanation mate! Been searching for hours and your the only person who could explain it properly!
Cheers man
That’s great to hear Marcus ! 😊
That help me understand why I have two cables to my wall jack! Actually, like in your video, I have the two types of cables. Pretty old cables that break so easily, due to age and becoming dry or so? Can I fit a double jack in order to have one for a modem and other for my phone? Aim is to use my internal phone wiring with an IP phone system. Thanks for advising.
On UTP cable can you explain the others pairs beside the blue and white what are they used for thank you very informative video
I'm an intern at my local telephone company. When I was in I/R, we never installed the older, cat3 style of cable. We'd always use cat5e on residential installs. For bonded DSL installs, in particular, adjacent pairs found in cat3 are prone to experience interference from each other. Nowadays, you can often find cat5e for less than cat3.
You will usually find cat3 in older homes so best know the cat3 installations
Excellent video-my Florida house built in 2004 has CAT 4 or 5 all serial (daisy-chained). I suspect there was a wall mount that was abandoned-kitchen renovation. (tiled over) I have access front attic, both lines going down to old wall mount. Can I cut and splice all pairs together using your Redhead method. I suspect this is why further down stream one of my phone lines is not working......a dull sound when I pick up phone from that location. So I simply follow the pairing as you described?
Yes, pretty much what you said will work. Good luck!
Thanks a million!!! i was trying to terminate an old 4 color ribbon cable with a cat 5 keystone jack and your explanation at 8:30 was exactly what I needed. I appreciate your video.
right? it can be confusing with all those colors floating around. The residential color code being different from the commercial color code doesn't help! :-D
Thanks for the feed back, Jared. :)
I feel like saul good man was just teaching me about basic phone line repair :)
ahahha... yes, I get that a lot. I was a BB fan, but haven't watched the Saul spin-off. :-)
It's pretty good had me rolling a few times
Thank you so much. This was very helpful. Saved me a lot of time.
This saved me a call to verizon today. Thank you!!
Well that certainly is good news then! :-D
Bro your a life saver I just re connected my connections as my dog ripped them out and I have my NBN working again.
Oh I love hearing feedback like that! Glad I could help! 😊
Perfect instructions!!! I did turn off all the electricity in apartment.
My first time changing out a phone Jack. I have the “biscuit” style. You didn’t tell me how to actually connect the wires coming out of the wall to the biscuit. Do I just loose the the screws on the biscuit and wrap the wall wires around corresponding screws? Probably seems obvious, but like I said, I’ve never done this before.
You got it right. That’s what you do.
Finally a ideo explaining in simple terms how to DIY phone wires for myself. Single mum with a 14 year old nagging how to connect the internet thanks you very much . ,😃😃😃
Thanks for the feedback Amanda. Glad it helped! 😊
How you place the multicolor cables to the regular cable box inside your home. Which goes with what??? Thanks
Good sound, nice quality video, should help me accomplish what I need to do.. which was to just purchase the correct exterior cable. Bonus was learning there IS a methodology to the don't to mix up the red & the green & the white blue & the WHAT was that again? *hits replay* 🔁
What is the supply voltage that feeds the vintage telephones with the bells? Is it 24 volts AC or DC?
Needed to see how you do the ones that are not solid color. Thanks
Oh good. It would be confusing to me if I wasn't already in the industry. Glad that helped. 😊
Hi, at 4:44, it sounds like you are saying the tip and ring are 'green and red.'
The wires appear to be gray and red, and then are shown to connect to the phone jack, which has red, green, black and yellow wires.
Are the green and red typically the two wires needed for a single residential phone installation?
Thank you!
Green (tip) and red (ring) are usually all you need for a residential phone line. If your wiring does have a green/red/black/yellow wires inside, the its commercial wiring. In that case, the white-blue and blue-white wires are what you need for tip and ring.
Thank you so much!! This helped out so much!!! ❤❤ thank you for being simple and to the point.
I watched this hoping to learn if a wire is a TX or RX something of that sort, and does it matter if the 2 main wires needed are put on the wrong way. I have just done a biscuit wall mount and it works but I am not sure if I got the cabling right as I have an older type biscuit mount that all the wires are black.
So that’s a great question the polarity of the wires USED TO matter. Last 20-30 years, doesn’t really matter. There isn’t a TX/RX or even a +/-. It is direct current but I have rarely seen it ever matter anymore. 😊
@@DIYTelecom Thank you for a quick reply. That puts my worries at ease. I can leave it as it is then.
done lots of training myself - you walk the tightrope very well - didn't fall off at all :-)
Thank you! As an instructor, I’m sure you can appreciate that fine balance of trying to teach a complex concept in the simplest terms. I suspect that’s what you meant with the tightrope analogy. Thanks for the comments! 😊
Great video, but I have a question. We have a wall mount AT&T cordless phone that was wired into an outlet that I believe was connected the two or one light switches in the vicinity. (No outlet in that wall!) Now we need a new phone and can not find anyone who knows how to reconnect the new phone. Is this no longer an option? Do I need to have an outlet to plug in the 'transformer'? Can't figure out how it was done, but it worked for 15 years! Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Plastic cover on my surface mount in residential house become brittle and broke. Didn't know anything about it but this video gives me confidence to replace it. Looks like a surface mount with an existing 4 strands of wire setup using a screw post setup.
Good luck sir 👍😊
I really appreciate this video, but it would've been nice to see how the wire(s) is connected on the other end at the Network Interface Box. Thanks.
ah, that's a good point John. Maybe this video needs a re-do.
Great suggestion. :)
@@DIYTelecom This was two years ago, did you ever do a re-do? Did you do another video covering that question? I need to know how many wires come from the dmarc into the house and is there at least 2 or possibly 4 wires inside that jacket? The wires I have don't seem to be the same colors. If you did another video on this please send the link. Thanks
What if you don't have a blue wire? I'm trying to connect to internet and not sure if that's the issue. I'm getting an at&t technician coming tomorrow and not sure if it's an issue outside or the phone jack. Help appreciated!
Great, thanks.
Just troublshooted a broken blue/white wire on the wall outlet!
This video saved my behind on installing a connection box for a camper. I couldn't figure out why each post on the j 45 had two different colors and which were correct. when you showed the two different kinds of cable the light came on . ohhh!!!
hey Michael. great to here my video helped. i know I get a lot of help from other youtubers and bloggers. thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Thank you for the video.
Simple and very helpful.
Thank you for the video. Well done. We currently have a non-working phone line in our house (Uniden handset displays Check TEL Line) with two (2) beige wires coming out of one of the junction boxes, all wires red, green, yellow and black. Does this mean we have two phone lines? Wiring might be wrong somewhere because we swapped the faceplates for newer ones and had to get new wall jacks.
hi Justin, Just because you have the Green/Red and Black/Yellow doesn't mean you have two lines. If I was troubleshooting that problem, I would be focused on just the red/green. Good luck!
Hi, any references/advice on wiring a mode 3 socket?
Thanks for this video
🤔 note familiar with that term.
Great Video. I had an outlet that had two jacks, one was for the internet the other for phone. The phone jack only had two wires, the internet had 4. I changed to cable and used the space for the old Internet wires for the cable but had to reconnect the phone. So i connected the new jack and only used two wires that was used for the phone jack. All work fine, except the phone has a humming sound now. I wanted to know if it is possible one of those wires from the internet may have been a ground to terminate the buzzing. Can you help me with this issue?
I have a 1960s bell chime ringer and when I moved and took it to my new apartment I had a hell of a time hooking it up in my new apartment because of that new wiring
New Wiring.... your referring to the cat5? thats kind of become the new standard. Even for voice.
Have you ever seen a wall phone jack with prongs like a fork on the back and the wires are wrapped between the prongs? The outside of the jack is no longer useable in our new home (built mid 1960s). We have wire sets and colors that were connected are blue with yellow stripes and yellow with blue stripes and the other set is red with blue strips/ blue with red stripes. Trying to replace the jack so we can plug the modem into the outlet, but need to replace the jack first. Assuming we shouldn't cut the wires or we may loose phone connectivity in the other jacks. Thanks in advance for any suggestions to help us solve this mystery jack.
Yeah, thanks! That, explanation helped. The blue blue/white or double paired stunned me for sometime. We, want to move the biscuit interface from under headboard of our bed in the Master-bedroom, to the front hall foyer area for two reasons, one, easy access, and our new Flat Screen, T.V., seems to receive the Wireless DSL, signal much better at that location in the house. SO, thank you again for takig the time to explain this wiring stuff to us novice folks. Thanks Jimmy_Snags
Jimmy, happy to hear you got some useful info from my video. thanks for the feedback. :)
Interesting, could the wiring not having a jacket around it cause a problem?
As long as the copper isn't exposed then it's fine
thanks , my nephew ripped the wire going to the spliier out of the face plate , this video helped understand how to fix them
This was really helpful, just fixed our intercom 😊
Thank You. I was able to replace my grandma's old phone lines with new ones.
Had new phone service hooked up today. Used to use phone like with Verizon but went to Comcast which used phone line off back of modem. Now I'm back to fios and I plugged the phone in and it won't work. It's a screw post jack with only red and yellow hooked up. Is it possible they have line hooked to black and yellow? Figured I'd ask since I watched your video. I learned a lot from it.
@@Roopaloooop red and yellow aren't a pair for inside wiring or outside plant. It would be black yellow, blue white and/or green red for inside. Outside its blue orange green brown slate is ring and white red black yellow violet is tip
@@Rabbit.760 #on l nip mo
Hug hug"""v"v. "V"""v v
What's your grandmother's phone number so I can check to make sure its working ok
needed a refresher course 😂thanks for the info!
How about this... I sometimes have to watch my old videos just to remember how to do something (seriously). 😆
I have multiple phone jacks coming to the NID on the outside of the house. All wires are not connected to anything. I am no longer using the phone company but using a device for VOIP, which has a RJ11 Jack. What is the best way to connect my jacks to the new VOIP connection? Can I connect all of the Red to Red, Green to Green, Yellow to Yellow, Black to Black on the outside of the house including the connection from the VOIP? IS there a special termination block that can be mounted outside to keep the weather off of the connections? TIA
Thanks, you were very clear and helpful.
Our house was built in 1963. We have 3 round jacks which are flush to the wall. One in the kitchen, one in the hall and one in the master bedroom.. Suddenly all three do not work. We had Spectrum cable Co come in and check their connections and the tech said their system was working fine and the problem was not with their set up.These jacks must operate from a central location, as all three suddenly stopped working. Any suggestions?
You sound like Saul Goodman. Can I use the voltage from those wires to run an inverter? Thanks for your video.
Yes, I hear that frequently 😄
Inverter? Not much juice, so not sure if it would be of any use. 🤷♀️
Hello yes im trying to install a phone jack on the apartment. Working on phone line like this do i need to shut the breaker off or anything? Lmk thank you in advance.
There is a small amount of electricity on the phone wires, but not enough to hurt you. You might feel it if someone rings your line while you are holding the bare copper of the wires.
Excellent explanation, thank you for the video 👏👏👏
How many of y'all watching this because you have work from home because the virus and need internet access lol
I will say there has definitely been an increase in the number of views over the past 30 days. Glad to know I can help ppl out during this crisis. thanks for the comment. :-)
Running in series is better than Running them all back to the de mark. Running them all back to the de mark is called star wiring, those pairs that arent being used, act as airials, so cause noise issues.
Twist the wires together too, which makes the pair rejects noise.
Def agree that unused runs to nowhere to increase RF interference
I guess in a perfect world the service tech would disconnect any home rum not.in use ( But we know in reality that wouldn't happen). Great comment 😊
Beautiful video, didnt know how to wire it and im a red seal but i dont do data, u explained it perfectly
I'll take the compliment, thank you. ☺️
Doesn't really matter as long as it's the same on both ends, which color it is doesn't matter much
I live Southern CA. Two phone jacks stopped working. Have found nobody in my town to repair them. The phone comes through a router. Seems "hardline" means a wireless connection to your house system. Wish we had never stopped the hardline connection to AT&T.
Hi Jay
I sympathize. I miss the old hardwire plain old telephone service too. Unfortunately today. It's no longer a profitable model so the Telco companies are trying to get out of that business asap. 🤷♂️
Is it possible to go from a modular to a screw post? My friends internet is down originally modular set up but if I can do a screw post I'd rather go that route for sure
And she has commercial wiring
I'm pretty sure you need to strip about a half inch of insulation off of the red and the green bell conductors before you place each under the biscuit screw terminals; the blue and white-blue Cat 3 don't have to be stripped - just punched down on a modular jack.
I didn't mention anything about stripping back the insulation on the wires? Shame on me. I probably just assumed it was Electrical 101 and figured everyone would know that.
Thanks for clarifying! :-D
Of course they need to be stripped and he obviously knows that this is just a how to video to show us how to install. I find it funny when ppl point out the obvious like its something only the educated or professionals in the field know and the rest have to be told when all it is, is commonsense lol
Yeah, I've been looking for guidance on how to strip that insulation without damaging the wires. So far, every article on this topic skips over that part.
Electrical scissors bro
@@huttarl Your front teeth will work just fine and not damage the copper conductor causing future issues or faults. It will however fuck up your teeth in a hurry. Keep smilin'!
Apologies for the dumb question, but if the wiring from the wall is only three (Red, Green, Yellow) solid copper wires, is that a problem and can it be wired to any of these wall plate styles you went over? Also, my wire is coming right out of the wall, there is no metal mounting "bracket" as in your video or an electrical box it feeds into. Do I need to install anything additional?
Usually all that matters is the red and green.
Can't find that drywall mount "Caddy clip?" for phone mount to drywall cutout.
Anybody got a link?
Thank you..you saved me time and cash
That's the best kind of compliment!! 😊
It helped a little bit I'm working with an older style screw Mount and I figured okay that's what I'll do I'll serial Mount from the other one I put in a couple years ago and just extend a wire out. I think I have the commercial wires cuz I got them from a commercial place when they were taking them out of the building and I got a whole bunch of wires of pretty long lengths so I think I should be able to find one that will fit.
Awesome. Good luck with your project. 😊
will a two line phone work a pair line(tip and ring) green/red?
Great explanation. Thanks!
only question i still have is that my issue is from the demark to the jack. i want to replace the line because it is very old. our phone company is Frontier and we have raging battles to get them to do anything and I am over it. I want to do this myself, but i don't know if i can get into the demark to do the work. i was wondering if you can splice like you would with electrical in a J box, or is that inadvisable?
Yes, splicing is ok. But it is critical to use airtight connectors for the splice. Otherwise oxidation sets in and creates static on the line.
They have these things we call "red heads". Not recalling the official name at the moment. But you can find them at the big box he stores. The look like little red plastic circles about the size of an m&m. Good luck. 😊
I cannot find the Caddy clips. I see many different kinds here online but not the one you showed. Any alternative?
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B076JL3F19/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A174WFR4IJ5GPD&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWw
You just saved me a bunch of money. Thanks!
Glad I could help. :-)
Its a $300 callout fee for us. This saved me that and explained why my blue and white wires where wrong.
I have the 4 wires black-red-yellow-green I cut the broken modular piece off because it was broke could not hang up the phone so I took the 4 wires and attached to the 4 colors still no dial tone on that jack all others work in house and the phone works also on other jacks help
Jim, I'm assuming the the old jack worked before you cut it off. If so, be sure you're connecting the colors to match what's on the jack. (Green to green, Red to red, etc).
The main thing you should be concerned about is the red and green. These are known as Tip1 and Ring1. They are the only two you should need for dial tone. If you had a 2nd phone number, then that would be on Yellow/Black.
What able if your wires go directly from wall to a rotary phone not thru a wall mount but I want to disconnect rotary phone and make into a wall mount so I can plug my newer phone into it?
Right. A biscuit jack would work. But that must be some old, old wiring. Modular plugs for phone wiring was quite standard by the early 1970s. 😳
Just wondering where the yellow and black get connected in the keystone jack. Do they get connected in the same spots or in a different pair?
Excellent question Bryan! So, if you have a Green/red/Black/yellow wiring, then the Black would go in the White/Orange of the keystone. And, the yellow would go in the Orange/white. Sorry, if I didn't mention that in my video.
Glad you brought that up! :)
Don't use that kind of wire for internet, that wire is fine for phone but terrible for dsl
nice video. I have been doing this stuff for 15 plus years, you explained it very well!
+Jeff Moss thanks Jeff. It helps to hear that from someone like you. Its always balancing-act. I try to restrain myself from over explaining the topic and thus losing my audience. The feedback is much appreciated. :-)
t 5:00 what is a single line?
how many users can be accommodated in 2 pairs?
the connection u get at the telephone exchange or de mod (whatever u call it.that thing outside ur house) how many users can use them max...because if it were max connections then they would have single demod for the whole neighbourhood.
plus make avideo of how a phone/modem splitter works..how a single copper wire is used to give telephone plus ethernet(internet) signals
t 5:00 what is a single line?
how many users can be accommodated in 2 pairs?
the connection u get at the telephone exchange or de mod (whatever u call it.that thing outside ur house) how many users can use them max...because if it were max connections then they would have single demod for the whole neighbourhood.
plus make avideo of how a phone/modem splitter works..how a single copper wire is used to give telephone plus ethernet(internet) signals
mashhood syed how to plug a n extension phone into a phone jack
Jeff Moss I'm using a modular model and need to connect broadband as well. Do I still use the 2 wires or do I use an additional one
You saved the day once again...
That’s great news George. So happy to hear it! I know how often YT saves my rear (especially home and auto repairs). Thanks for the feedback! 😁
Could a beginner do this? What safety precautions should I take?
Great video man!!!
Thanks for the feedback ☺
Is there some kind of switch that can be used on a telephone wire?
Like an on/off switch for the phome?
Thanks for your information,it helps a lot
Glad the video helped 😊
hi..is the bisquit box pre-wierd...my house land phone at times the caller cant hear my voice do I need to change the bisquit box n re connectgreen n yellow( ring n tip).??
Jose, yes, thise jacks are usually pre-wired. But if you have a situation where you can hear them but they can’t hear you, that sounds more like a problem with the telephone- not the wiring.
Thanks so much! Great video that explained some worries I’ve had about a Hurricane Harvey house. I can at least trouble shoot now before I get professional help.
thanks Dragon. Houston is my home town. My thoughts have been with you folks. Good luck with your recovery.
I have a white and gray wires, what should i do ?
I dont have a jack so i need to connect it directly so idk to which one i need to connect the comercial wires the solid blue and the other i need to connect to what i only got red white yellow and blue
Thank you for sharing your video. It is simple but very informative. The phone jacks in the house worked before but stopped a week ago.The phone only works if plugged directly to the back of the router. Mine are currently wired opposite to yours as follows: solid blue to green, white-blue to red, solid orange to black and white-orange to yellow. House is 20 yrs old (built 1999). Do I follow the same color code wiring the same way they have it now or do I follow what's on the video?Thank you.
I want to remove the jack all together and patch the wall can I just leave the wire in the wall and is it a fire hazard if I do?
If there is no exposed copper, then no fire hazard . But best to find the other end of that wire, if you can, and disconnect it from the phone service.
Can you serialize Jacks back to a jack hub and then to the demarc?
Yes, Brian, home phone lines are very flexible that way. All that matters is that the Tip and Ring of each jack (green and red wires) are in some way connected to the demarc.
Hello, I connected my wires like you said, but my phone is not giving me a tone at all. Please help. Thank you
Is it possible the phone service is out before it even gets to your home? Or, does the phone work in other parts of your home?
Thank you for your response. I called my phone company Cox, and they're going to do a reset, and they said to wait 2 hrs to check it again, but nothing has happened. It's still says NO LINE? I called them again but they'll returned my call.
Hello, I am looking into putting a phone line from my house to my shed (80 meters away) I don't want to connect to the landline, I just want a end to end way to use a phone, any ideas how?
Thanks
So Tony, you just want a way to ring between the shed and the house?
Viking makes all kinds of products for this sort of thing. They have these devices that when you pick up a phone it rings the phone attached on the other end. No dialing.
Great explanation. Turns out my condo has serial setup.
Just a question at 3:54 what is called that black cable ( the isp cable )
Love the video,perfect explanation can't ask better than this video🐣
Great to hear Juan. Glad I could help. ☺️
DIY Telecom; In your description of this video above you quoted;
"Almost all residential phone service uses just 2 wires (also referred to as "one pair"). Each pair of wires has a "TIP" and a "RING". (or kind of like Neg and Positive, but not really)".
In reality it is exactly like Negative and Positive (Direct Current 48 - 50 volts). You have many viewers and I'm sure you can teach a large percentage of them a very simple video with a volt/ohm meter (VOM) at the demarcation and then the final termination point (jack) to verify their voice/data/video signal is present and working. VOM's are free with a small purchase from Harbor Freight Tool Co. or very affordable for most DIYers.
hi Shawn, def agreeing with you that an inexpensive Volt meter (or multi-meter) would be very helpful for determining the presence of POTS line power on the pair. The reason I said “not exactly”, is I was taught that Phone line voltage is -48vDC. so, yes it is 48 v between the pairs. (but maybe I am misinformed)
i super-appreciate it when viewers, like you, take the time to leave detailed insights because many people read the comments. And then, we all become smarter. 😀
@@DIYTelecom ; DC voltage is available on your car battery. If you look for voltage on one conductor and ground on the other you will know how to use a VOM. Current flows on the positive to the device (voice-data-video/not just POTS anymore) and the circuit is completed when there is a grounded conductor with continuity back to the central office. If your experiencing problems with no signal at the jack, it might help to find the two wires that have your POS/NEG continuity. A DC circuit cannot be made without +/-.
Does the voltage come from the telephone company or the resident's electrical box?
It’s supplied from the phone company. Great question!😀
Thanks, @@DIYTelecom! I love old phones but I will never have a phone service (because I use a smartphone). Has anyone ever turned their home land-line-phone "network" into a house intercom just for fun (using old phones)? I tinker with Arduino and Raspberri Pi and am confident there's a way to execute different functions depending on what numbers were dialed e.g. make the other phones ring etc. All the Best!
There’s a company called Viking which makes a lot of products related to what you’re talking about. 😊
www.vikingtelecomsolutions.com
Awesome! Thanks, @@DIYTelecom !! :)
I simply want to disconnect the line from AT&T to my house, but leave in tact the internal phone wiring that distributes the phone connection to multiple jacks within my house. This because I have switched to VoIP and my main telephone connection is now through a modem. But I want to continue to use my internal house phone lines to other jacks so I can use them for calling, as before.
I definitely understand what you are trying to do. The place to disconnect the phone service from your inside wiring is at the “demarc”. That is usually a box located on the exterior of your house. Once you do that, you could run a phone wire out of the modem to a nearby wall jack and that would back-feed the VOIP dial tone into the rest of the house jacks.
Good luck. 😄