replacing phone jack

[Bethina]

There are 2 phones in the house. Mine, the 2nd, is a separate # and separate billing.
My jack needs to be replaced but when I did it I hooked to the house line in error. What wires do I change to and how to get my own phone to ring my own # again. I rings with the house phone now.
There are 4 wires, red, blue, green, and I think white.

Please can someone help me. I am on a very limited SS budget. Thanx

[handyandy]

You simply replaced your old jack to the same wiring? You probably switched the wires. Your two lines are probably carried over those two pairs. Whatever two are hooked up, switch to the other two. Does it work then?

[jill_negrete]

phone jack repair - have 8 lines trying to put them into a 4 color coded phone jack?

[LazyPup]

Bethina,,it depends on how the second line was installed. Did they install new wires in the house of did they simply use the existing wires. There are four wires in a phone cable, red, black, yellow and green. Normally red and black are used to operate the phone and black and yellow are a redundant spare or used for a second line. Most phones that are for a single number only pickup on the red and black wires. Some phones that have the two line feature use all four, using red and black for the primary number and yellow and green for the second number.

Go on the outside of the house and examine the box where your line connects to the phone company drop. As you look at the box you will see one side (usually the left side) has a little door and it says customer side on the cover,,the other side of the box is sealed with a special tool so you can not open it, tht is the phone company side.

Open the cover of the box on the customer side. You will see 4 terminals labeled red,black, yellow and green. The cable running into the house is connected to those terminals. In the middle of that terminal block there should be a modular plug the same as on your phone cord. That is the test plug. If your box only has one test plug, they are using the redundant spare as your second line. In that case you could attach the yellow and green wires to the red and black terminals at your phone jack and it should work ok. Leave the red and black disconnected.

If the box has two test plugs there should also be a second set of wire terminals. take an ordinary phone (do not use a cordless phone or caller ID phone that requires a 110v power supply) and plug it into one of the test jacks. call someone you know who has caller ID and ask them to tell you what number appears for that jack,,I call my cell phone. Then switch the plug to the other test jack and repeat the caller ID test. You will now know which number is assigned to with jack. When you complete your test be sure to plug the lines back into the plugs in the box, otherwise you will have no phone.

Once you know which jack is your number look at the wire terminals beside that jack and see which color of wires are used for your line, then attach those same colors to your molular jack on the red and black terminals.

[Troy]

jill,

Welcome to the forum! Although there are different wiring schemes, and no guarantee the installer used any of them, there should be only four active wires in the cable. Assuming some scheme was used, you want to definitely use the blue pair. Those are your center pair (blue - blue/white). Then use either the green pair or orange pair, depending on where you are located. Probably the green pair.

Let us know how it goes!

[]

[bryan]

there are different types of cable: 4 strand colors green, red, black and yellow is commonly known as Quad cable.

8 strand with blue, orange , green and brown colors with a primary color of white. I.E. white blue, blue white = the blue pair.

in a house condition it is typical for quad cable to be used, almost always (if a phone guy did the work)green/ red are used for the 1st line and black and yellow for the second line. green being the tip side and red being the ring. same goes for black and yellow, respectfully.

For the 4 pair wire (8 strand) blue is the first. ( the second depends on the type of jack you are using) if it is a cat 5 jack 568A config, the orange would be next. if it is a cat 5 568B config jack then the green is the second pair (line, however you wish to look at it)

hope that helps....... that is the way the indistry standard is, doesn't mean the person that did the work followed that protocol thoo.....

[Troy]

Bryan,

Maybe you know the answer to this. Sometimes I have to connect a four pair cat5e cable (punched into a 66 block or patch panel) into a wall mount phone outlet that uses red, green, black and yellow. The other side of the cat5e is wired t568b, how do I pair up the rgbw with the pairs of the cat5e?

Welcome to the forum!