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Comcast Digital Voice - Rotary Phones - General Q's

Started by winkydink, January 01, 2012, 09:10:00 PM

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winkydink

I am helping a friend trying to hook up their "new" rotary phone (a WE 302) at their home.  They have Comcast Digital Voice.

This friend doesn't know anything about rotary phones and very little about how their Comcast hookup was installed.

From what I can determine, The digital modem is hooked up to a wireless phone base unit, and they have wireless remote units throughout the house.  I do not believe that Comcast hooked up the wiring in the house.  I found an article about how to hook up the rest of the house to use the Comcast service

http://www.ehow.com/how_2197109_house-work-comcast-digital-voice.html


I think the situation in the article describes the situation I am walking into.  The only problem I have is that this is an older house and does not have an "outside box" to disconnect the service from the outside.

Does anyone know if this is important.  And if it is, how can I do this from the interior ?

I also want to verify that the phone works with the Digital voice.  So my initial plan was to connect this to "Line 1" of the digital phone modem and see if the phone works.  Does this sound like a reasonable approach (They tried this on Xmas day and the phone worked but they brought down the internet).

If anyone has experience starting from square 1 with Comcast Digital Voice and would like to give some advice, I would appreciate it.

thank you.

bingster

I ran into this exact situation when I moved in July.  The solution is super easy.  When the installation tech arrived at my house, I happened to have an old rotary 500 with a modular adapter on the end of the line cord sitting on a stack of boxes.  The tech must have assumed that was the phone I wanted hooked up, so he plugged it directly into the line out jack on the edge of the comcast box.  It worked perfectly.  But I needed the whole house wired, so I unplugged the phone and plugged in a simple modular line cord (with clips on each end), and plugged in the other end to a nearby phone jack, which wound up energizing the entire system.

I wasn't happy with such a jury rigged system, so I've since replaced all the phone wiring and jacks in the house, and ran the wire from the comcast box into the basement where it's connected to Bell System Equipment.  But that's a story for another day.

You can do this easily, and the phones should definitely work.
= DARRIN =



winkydink

Quote from: bingster on January 01, 2012, 09:17:28 PM
I ran into this exact situation when I moved in July.  The solution is super easy.  When the installation tech arrived at my house, I happened to have an old rotary 500 with a modular adapter on the end of the line cord sitting on a stack of boxes.  The tech must have assumed that was the phone I wanted hooked up, so he plugged it directly into the line out jack on the edge of the comcast box.  It worked perfectly.  But I needed the whole house wired, so I unplugged the phone and plugged in a simple modular line cord (with clips on each end), and plugged in the other end to a nearby phone jack, which wound up energizing the entire system.

I wasn't happy with such a jury rigged system, so I've since replaced all the phone wiring and jacks in the house, and ran the wire from the comcast box into the basement where it's connected to Bell System Equipment.  But that's a story for another day.

You can do this easily, and the phones should definitely work.

So are you saying that it is OK to just connect Line 1  from the modem to a modular wire and the other end of the wire to the nearest modular outlet ?

(In my case I will need to change the outlet to a modular one from a 4 prong one, but thtat too is a story for another day.)

Adam

Quote from: winkydink on January 01, 2012, 09:10:00 PM
The only problem I have is that this is an older house and does not have an "outside box" to disconnect the service from the outside.

Does anyone know if this is important.  And if it is, how can I do this from the interior ?

It's like, really important. If left connected to the telephone company central office wires, voltages on the phone line and voltages coming from your local VOIP equipment could interfere with each other, and very likely cause damage, most likely to your VOIP equipment.  I don't want to scare you or anything, but in an extreme circumstance, a fire could result.

Every house has an "outside box to disconnect the service", although it may be somewhere inside the house, not outside, like in a garage, or a basement.  It can't be someplace terribly hard to access (like an inaccessible attic) because don't forget, phone men need easy access to this to fix your phone when it goes out of order.

Does the service coming into your house come in via wires on a pole?  If so, you should be able to see where the wire "drop" connects to your house, and follow it from there to find your disconnect point.

If your wires come in from underground, it makes it a bit harder, but like I said, your incoming service connection has to be somewhere, like a garage, basement, the back of a closet, etc.
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

bingster

Quite right.  I didn't have to worry about mine, because the tech disconnected the drop wire from the basement protector (the house doesn't have an outside demarc point).
= DARRIN =



Adam

Well, they're one and the same thing.  The protector is the demarc point, so if the drop wire is totally disconnected from the house wiring by removing it at the protector, then it's OK to connect VOIP to the house wiring.

P.S.: It's a really good idea to put a tag on the disconnected, hanging drop wire that says "IMPORTANT! TELEPHONE COMPANY: DO NOT RECONNECT!"  Seriously.
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

winkydink

Does anyone have a picture of what this might look like.  So I know what to look for ?

Again this house is from the 30's or 40's and still has many original 4 prong plugs in the house. 

dencins

I have Comcast Digital Voice.  The telephone modem is an Arris Touchstone and the way it is  connected is RJ11 "line 1" to an existing phone jack.  That way you can use any phone jack in the house for a telephone.  Also all phones ring on incomimg calls.  I have a 354 in the kitchen, a 302 in my workroom and a wireless telephone base station in the office with wireless phones in the office and bedroom.  All work fine including rotary dialing.

If you connect the modem to the wireless base station, the rest of the jacks in the house will not be connected.

Originally the Arris Touchstone was also my internet connection.  Cable wire to Arris Touchstone then RJ41 connection to Cicso wireless router and RJ11 "line 1" to phone jack.

Since then Comcast increased internet speed and provided a Ubee Doc 3.0 modem for the internet.  All this took was a splitter on the cable wire with one side going to the Ubee for the internet and the other to the Arris for Digital Voice.  Obviously I had to move the RJ41 going to the router from the Arris to the Ubee.

Dennis Hallworth

winkydink

Here is a photo of a phone connector in my house (not the location that I am working on tomorrow).  Is this the disconnect point I am looking for.

If so, what exactly should I disconnect ?

Adam

Yep, you got it!  That's the protector!  When you find it at the other house, remove the wires coming from big fat black cable, that's the drop wire from the outside.  Leave everything else connected together as it is, those are all the wires to the jacks in the house, which you want to remain to be interconnected.

Also do NOT remove the grey ground wire in the middle, that remains important to the house wiring.
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

winkydink

thanks !

So to review.

1)  disconnect the line from the outside Bell/Verizon service (Thick black wire)

2)  Attach a modular line to "input 1" of the digital voice modem

3)  Attach the other end (modular connector) to a modular phone jack nearby

4)  Test a phone on a different jack with-in the house

5)  Hope for the best.

thanks

Adam

Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

bingster

If the protector is older, it may look like the one below (it may also be white porcelain in the exact same design).  Same deal though... remove the heavy black cable coming in from outside, if it's still connected.
= DARRIN =



winkydink

#13
Well my story has a happy ending.

I found where the protector was at my friend's house.  In fact They had 2, located about 1 foot from each other.  The original one for the house was made slightly inaccessable because somewhere in the past someone "framed" a panel to hide the electric panel/phone input.  The newer one was located inside the framed area.  It was the newer one (inside the framed area) which the outside (fat black) wire was attached to.  There were no wires attached to the newer protector except for the line from outside and one set of wires (red/green) which attached to the older less accessable protector.

I made sure that that the jumper set of wires going between the two protectors were disconnected so that phone wiring of the house was isolated from the outside connection.

I then made a wire with a modular plug on one side and wires on the other, connected the red/green to red/green on one of the accessable phone jacks and plugged the modular connector into "phone 1" of the Comcast Modem.  Presto !  All the phone jacks in the house worked.

We plugged in the rotary 302 upstairs and it too worked.  Initially I thought that the dialing part was not working because I did not get immediately connected to the number I dialed.  I later found out that there is a 10 or 15 second delay to connect, so dialing also works.

Do other people with Comcast Digital Voice also experience this type of delay ?

In anycase, it rings, it has a dial tone, it dials poperly and the send/recieve voice quality is very good.  A happy ending !

Adam

Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820