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antiquated line wiring

Started by Babybearjs, February 07, 2014, 10:57:39 PM

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Babybearjs

I lived in a 1946 home a few years ago where the original phone lines demarcation point was in the basement. the house had been refiited with aluminum siding and the basement remodeled which covered up the original wiring. When a field tech can't locate the original protector, or the line drop is Inexcessable, are they suppose to bring on a new line and update the installation for future ease of access? I know that they stopped running lines into basements in the 1960's (and stopped putting basements in homes) so, what is the new "code" for upgrading phone services in old homes......if the tech sees a problem like the one mentioned here, isint He/She suppose to bring on a new line drop and abandon the old one? I thought this was standard procedure??
John

Contempra

I don't know but all pass by a cable for me.. Internet, television and the phone  and I use some old rotaries  and one pushbutton because I have voice message ( voice-mail what ever you call this  in English I don,t know :) ) and I have no problems.

Bill

I lived in a 1919 house in New England for many years. I don't know when the phone wiring was added, but the 3-wire entrance cable from the street came into the basement and terminated at a protector block as you describe. From there, several (6?) separate 4-wire cables went off to various parts of the house. If the protector were to be covered up, it would be easy to install a new protector, but difficult to capture the ends of the half dozen cables, since none of them would be near the new protector location. And since they are all on the house side of the protector, an installation tech wouldn't do anything about it - at least in the time since the breakup. "Yer on your own, mister!"

By the way, where in the country do you live where they stopped putting basements in new construction? It is something that drives me crazy about Arizona - all homes, even very nice ones, are slab-built and seem always to have been that way. But in New England, all homes, old and new, are built over a basement.

Bill

WesternElectricBen

Yeah, we have had phone issue, and they were going to charge us a monstrous fee to fix a problem inside, which we could live with.

I agree with Bill, where do you live that does not have a basement? My house in Minnesota has one, and so does every one else.

Ben

Sargeguy

I am still using my homes original 1928 wiring, hooked up to FIOS
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

poplar1

If you don't have an existing ONI (network interface) with a modular jack Inside for unplugging all of the Inside wiring so that the line can be tested, then they are supposed to provide this. On new installs they usually put it close to the electrical ground, even if the builder has all the Inside wire run to the opposite side of the house! All grounds--water, gas, phone, cable-- are supposed to be bonded (tied together) with the power company ground, so this is the easiest place for the phone company to do this.

In my house (1946), the original protector is in the basement and the original house wiring goes there. The Demarc (ONI) is outside and a station wire from the back bedroom goes directly there. It looks to me like a previous owner ordered a bedroom extension, possibly when they first ordered a new line, and that perhaps it was then that the new protector was installed outside--which is more for the convenience of the phone company since they don't need someone to be home in order to access the demark (demarcation point).

I seem to recall that sometimes the installer/repairman would connect the new protector (outside) with the existing station wires in the basement without charge, but this may not be the case. However, unless you are served by the Green Acres Telephone Company, it is the responsibility of the phone company to get the dial tone at least to the side of your house. If that means running a new drop, or finding a clean cable pair on your street, they have to do that. I don't think they want you to be running drops or climbing their poles or accessing their crossboxes (where the  "F1" or "underground" cables from the central office are cross-connected to the "F2" or "aerial" cables going to your neighborhood.

"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

poplar1

Quote from: WesternElectricBen on February 08, 2014, 12:06:36 PM
Yeah, we have had phone issue, and they were going to charge us a monstrous fee to fix a problem inside, which we could live with.

I agree with Bill, where do you live that does not have a basement? My house in Minnesota has one, and so does every one else.

Ben

Ben, hope it's not a problem you caused! Were you able to fix the problem? There are usually spare pairs in the inside wiring if one goes bad. Unfortunately, even in new houses the builders hire electricians to do the phone wiring so they often just daisy chain the wiring from one jack to the next, the way they do electrical outlets. It's always best to "home run" each wire back to one location, where you then have the flexibility of cross-connecting each station individually. For example, each inside wire could use one pair for an extension off a Panasonic 616 Key System and another pair connected directly to the outside line. This is one way to add an external Caller ID box where you have a phone connected to an extension port on the 616.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

Contempra

Quote from: Sargeguy on February 08, 2014, 12:17:08 PM
I am still using my homes original 1928 wiring, hooked up to FIOS

good old house wired in old fashion.. :D :D

WesternElectricBen

Quote from: poplar1 on February 08, 2014, 12:36:43 PM
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on February 08, 2014, 12:06:36 PM
Yeah, we have had phone issue, and they were going to charge us a monstrous fee to fix a problem inside, which we could live with.

I agree with Bill, where do you live that does not have a basement? My house in Minnesota has one, and so does every one else.

Ben

Ben, hope it's not a problem you caused! Were you able to fix the problem? There are usually spare pairs in the inside wiring if one goes bad. Unfortunately, even in new houses the builders hire electricians to do the phone wiring so they often just daisy chain the wiring from one jack to the next, the way they do electrical outlets. It's always best to "home run" each wire back to one location, where you then have the flexibility of cross-connecting each station individually. For example, each inside wire could use one pair for an extension off a Panasonic 616 Key System and another pair connected directly to the outside line. This is one way to add an external Caller ID box where you have a phone connected to an extension port on the 616.

No, I don't think I messed it up, I haven't done any wiring, the only stuff I have done, connects to an existing modular jack. It pretty much works as an extension cord.

Our house was built in the early 50's, so it is possible some of the original wiring is left, but I doubt that. There is this fancy thing, with yellow and blue wire, so I think it is new wiring. Though, the issue is sometimes it rings two shorts, and when you go to pick up the phone, nobody is there. The issue happens to people on the other end, (meaning they listen to two rings,) my grandmother described it as, "gremlins in our phones." hehe

The issue is suppose to go away when I unplug the jumper cable, but then I would loose half of the telephone wiring in my house.

Ben