Re-wiring phone lines

zagmund

Hi all,

Just a very quick question as I have a feeling I know the answer but I wanted to check with someone first. The existing phone wiring in my house is all over the place, with junctions and joins all over the place leading to wiring in almost every single room in the house. The previous owner appears to have been quite the cable-runner. I'm having some phone line quality issues not surprisingly, so I want to pare it all back down to basics and make sure that the line into the house is terminated/presented properly first.

The line comes in (as usual I expect) from a telegraph pole to a fitting on my outside wall and then runs down to a junction box outside the house. I haven't opened it up yet but there's only a single pair of wires coming out of it and down into the garage where there's another junction box, and another, and another, etc . . .

What I want to do is replace the cabling coming from the outside junction box into the house.

And finally, my question is do I have to be aware of voltages, shorting, etc . . . at that external junction box ? I'm pretty sure that there's no major issue and I would *of course* be taking care anyway. From rewiring internal sockets and stuff I don't think there's a risk of blowing stuff up but I wanted to check here first.

Thanks,

z

swampgas

zagmund wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a very quick question as I have a feeling I know the answer but I wanted to check with someone first. The existing phone wiring in my house is all over the place, with junctions and joins all over the place leading to wiring in almost every single room in the house. The previous owner appears to have been quite the cable-runner. I'm having some phone line quality issues not surprisingly, so I want to pare it all back down to basics and make sure that the line into the house is terminated/presented properly first.

The line comes in (as usual I expect) from a telegraph pole to a fitting on my outside wall and then runs down to a junction box outside the house. I haven't opened it up yet but there's only a single pair of wires coming out of it and down into the garage where there's another junction box, and another, and another, etc . . .

What I want to do is replace the cabling coming from the outside junction box into the house.

And finally, my question is do I have to be aware of voltages, shorting, etc . . . at that external junction box ? I'm pretty sure that there's no major issue and I would *of course* be taking care anyway. From rewiring internal sockets and stuff I don't think there's a risk of blowing stuff up but I wanted to check here first.

Thanks,

z

It's pretty much the same all the way from the exchange to the phone - there is 50V DC outseide, just the same as at the phone itself. Shouldn't be a problem.

indie armada

best to do all you internal wiring and connections first, test them for cross shorts and then terminate the main cable from outside. for a better quallity line replace the main cable as much as you can. its usually a poly-poly from the pole to a black twin core. line in will either be black/green or orange/white, so just make not of which one is used when you disconect.
cat 5 is ideal to use but 2 or 3 pair phone will do the job too.

Buford T Justice

Just remove the extensions from the main line as it comes into the house and see if the line quality improves first. If it does, then the issue is with the exstensions and not the main line

kdouglas

I was under the impression the cable from the pole outside to the first junction box in your house was Eircom's responsibility?

As advised above, I'd try replacing the internal wiring and see if this fixes the problem, if not, get someone out to replace your line, I'm fairly sure there is no charge as it is covered by your line rental.

indie armada

just to point out, im not telling the op to touch the polypoly comming from the pole, that is eircoms responsibilty. i get the impression that its comming from the pole to the gutter then down to a jb at the front of the house, its at this point that the op can begin their termination.

zagmund

Thanks for all the information. I understand about not 'messing' with the eircom side of things in terms of the cabling coming from the pole on the street onto the house. I would only be working from the first junction box which is on the outside of the house and where the eircom cable is terminated.

It leads to another junction in the garage, but that is in rag order, is exposed, hangs off the wall, etc . . . so I plan on rewiring from the external junction box to a new socket inside the house.

I used to have reel of CAT5 stashed away in the old house but eventually threw it away but I'm sure I'll be able to track some suitable cable down somewhere.

z