Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Home Improvement Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [telephone]

85 questions
23
votes
3 answers

Repurpose telephone line to ethernet

I have a (UK) telephone socket in the same corner of each of the three floors in my house. My broadband router is connected to the socket on the bottom floor. The wiring looks like the following: Top floor: Middle floor: Bottom floor: What…
gozzilli
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15
votes
7 answers

Am I OK cutting an unused cable TV incoming service cable attached to my house?

I have some tree limbs I need to cut but there is a wire under it going to a house I own and will eventually demolish. I think the wire is for internet. I called the local company to get it removed, but I'm not a customer and will not become one, so…
MsAgentM
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13
votes
2 answers

Mystery telephone wiring device in old house

This mystery thing is mounted to a ceiling joist in the basement of a 1940s house. I have a couple of questions: What is it? Is there any reason I couldn't rip it out and run new Cat 5e's from the NID to the wall jacks, just for the sake of…
alexantd
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11
votes
6 answers

Wiring Ethernet through Telephone Cable

I have been researching this for some time now and feel that I am almost ready to begin. I have run into a slight problem though that I can't seem to find any answers for. The telephone cables in my house are all connected to one single cable and…
zack
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10
votes
5 answers

What's the right way of removing an indoor telephone line?

I'm in the process of removing an old telephone jack that has wiring running along the wall. The jack is easily removed, but I'm unclear on what to do with the wiring. It seems short sighted and foolish to just snip it off. On the other hand, the…
R.D.
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9
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2 answers

How can high and low voltage be mixed in a junction box?

So I'm aware of the standard rule of thumb, keep high and low voltage away from each other, preferably on opposite sides of a stud. However, while looking at some properties, I'm seeing telephone and cable lines in the same junction box as an…
BMitch
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8
votes
3 answers

How should I route my Romex and Network cables and can I safely drill another hole through this joist?

I am trying to run a bunch of network cables from my network switch in the basement into the attic so that I can disperse them throughout the second floor bedrooms. At the same time, I needed to repair some Romex cables that squirrels bit and chewed…
Hooplator15
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7
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5 answers

Safe to remove out-of-service 3-line landline junction box by myself?

We have lived in this house 13 years. It's wired for a landline, but we've never used it. Previous owners must have had 3 business phones lines to the house. There is a junction box for those landlines on a finished basement wall. I would like to…
dadu007
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7
votes
2 answers

How do I replace original telephone jack with a new one?

I have what appears to be an original telephone jack from the 1980's that I wanted to replace with a white face to freshen it up. When I opened the back, I found that the wires are directly attached to the face plate, fitting into little clamps. See…
Rebecca
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6
votes
3 answers

Can I use existing telephone wire as a pull for new cables?

I am moving into a new home shortly, built in the 1990s, and it has telephone jacks with POTS wiring that I do not plan on using. Ideally, I would love to run twisted pair cabling where the telephone wire is now, and just change the faceplate and…
Dan S.
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6
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1 answer

Is this odd device some kind of lightning arrestor or primitive fuse? Help identify

I found this in a junk box in an attic of a house built in the 1940's. The original house owner repaired appliances and took stuff in trade, so it may predate the house. It is on a ceramic base. It looks to me like some kind of lightning arrestor. …
jbbenni
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6
votes
2 answers

What kind of socket is this?

I found it in my apartment's wall.
StackedCrooked
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5
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1 answer

How do I find out what's wrong with my phone (DSL) line?

I'm trying to wire up a phone line on my land. I don't care about voice, just about internet (DSL). It's 1.5Mbps, the only speed available. The TELCO NID is on the same post as the power meter and main panel. There are several runs of conduit to…
Jay Bazuzi
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5
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3 answers

How to prepare for a home service call from my DSL provider?

My DSL internet connection has been very unreliable and slow recently. I called my service provider this morning and they told me that they will be sending someone to my home this weekend to fix it. They told me that he would be inspecting the…
Vivian River
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5
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1 answer

Is it frequent to use two Ethernet cables for one phone line?

I'm experiencing some noise on my phone when it is connected in the wall. There's no noise when connected right in the modem. So I decided to check things out and I noticed something that seems odd to me. My telephone jack uses 2, yes two,…
Maxime Morin
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