Old phone jacks

Posted by MiamiCuse on March 18, 2007, 1:25 am

I am remodeling an old house and in some of the rooms on the baseboard are
very old phone jacks. However in the living room and family rooms, they
installed two jacks, like below:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w67/143house/living%20room/P1000720.jpg

I am trying to figure out why. I do not have the phone line turned on yet,
since the house will be worked on for the next six months and not inhabited,
I don't see the need to pay for a land line for six months. But I would
like to move the jacks into the wall which is not a big deal just need to
get a small box and some drywall patching is all that is necessary.

However, I wonder if these two jacks mean there are two separate lines. Is
there a way to tell?

Thanks,

MC

Posted by DCT Dictator on March 18, 2007, 1:35 am

>http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w67/143house/living%20room/P1000720.jpg
>However, I wonder if these two jacks mean there are two separate lines. Is
>there a way to tell?

Open them up. See if they are simply series wired or separate. The
spade lugs from the modular jack - if they are all going to the same
cable pairs it's wired for a single line.

But as long as it's multi pair cable it can be two lines.

BTW - tell us the avocado carpet is going away . . .

Posted by MiamiCuse on March 18, 2007, 2:52 am

>>http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w67/143house/living%20room/P1000720.jpg
>>However, I wonder if these two jacks mean there are two separate lines.
>>Is
>>there a way to tell?

> Open them up. See if they are simply series wired or separate. The
> spade lugs from the modular jack - if they are all going to the same
> cable pairs it's wired for a single line.
> But as long as it's multi pair cable it can be two lines.
> BTW - tell us the avocado carpet is going away . . .

yes that is SOOOOOOO going away.

MC

Posted by MiamiCuse on March 18, 2007, 2:54 am

>>http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w67/143house/living%20room/P1000720.jpg
>>However, I wonder if these two jacks mean there are two separate lines.
>>Is
>>there a way to tell?

I was however, at one time, thinking of painting the carpet white.

Posted by mm on March 18, 2007, 1:57 am

On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 01:25:03 -0400, "MiamiCuse"

>I am remodeling an old house and in some of the rooms on the baseboard are
>very old phone jacks. However in the living room and family rooms, they
>installed two jacks, like below:
>http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w67/143house/living%20room/P1000720.jpg
>I am trying to figure out why. I do not have the phone line turned on yet,
>since the house will be worked on for the next six months and not inhabited,
>I don't see the need to pay for a land line for six months. But I would
>like to move the jacks into the wall which is not a big deal just need to
>get a small box and some drywall patching is all that is necessary.
>However, I wonder if these two jacks mean there are two separate lines. Is
>there a way to tell?

I would take the covers off and see how the wires are connected. Maybe
you can see that the big white wire goes from one box to the next, and
that the connections to the two boxes are in parallel. Or maybe
you'll see red and green to one, and black and yellow to the other, or
some such. That would probably mean two lines.

Right now they have single boxes with two jacks, but I don't know if
they had that when the style here was the most popular. (Although I
think maybe you can still get these.)

Here or in cases where all the wires are in the walls, you can also
use an ohmmeter(sp?) to see what the resistance is between the L1 of
one box and the L1 of the other, the L2's, the L1/L2 and L2/L1, and
any other combination. I suggest more than the minimum measurements
because people can come up with wierd ways to wire things. (I do,
although there is always a good reason. :) )

And finally, I'd find where all the phone lines are connected and see
how it is done and where the wires go from there. My house has never
had more than one line, and the connection place has 4 "clip-strips"
that are used and each wire atttached is attached to all four. So I
know nothing fancy is going on.

>Thanks,
>MC

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