Telephone Jack Help

[Bigwoods]

I haven't even looked into this, but thought you guys would know the answer. We bought a differnt house and some of the telephone jacks were cut off. So I just have the telephone wire coming through the wall. Can you get a kit to install a new jack plug in and is it a hassel ? I also found a jack in the basement where we want our Ebay computer to go. That wire comes through a block wall and has what appear to be plastic balls on the end of each wire.


So can anybody let me know the answers. Thanks.

[SteveH]

That wire comes through a block wall and has what appear to be plastic balls on the end of each wire.

The "plastic balls" are most likely splices the telco uses. They press on and splice two wires together.

Yes, you can buy telephone jacks at Home Depot, Lowes, and Radio Shack to name a few. They are easy to install...just hook up the red and green wires. The yellow and black are not normally used, but sometimes they are uses as a second line, but mostly spares.

[Jiminsav]

and, if you hook up the wires backwards, whoever you call gets the bill..

[Larry Messaros]

and, if you hook up the wires backwards, whoever you call gets the bill..

what appear to be plastic balls on the end of each wire

Quite often dangling wires will short out, so we would use "jelly-beans" to cap the wires to prevent shorts.

If the wires are red and green, chances are the telephone jacks you buy will also have red and green wires as well. Like Steve said, ignore the yellow and black wires.

If the wire coming out of the wall is a different color, chances are there will be a blue wire with either a white line or stripe and a white wire with a blue line or stripe. The solid blue connects to the red on the jack and the solid white connects to the green. Ignore all of the other colors as they would be used for additional lines (at least in theory!).

If all else fails, do what I did when I was a young teen and wanted a phone in my bedroom, keep connecting the wires until the phone worked.

[Shrug53]

Here is the typical wiring for a home jack:

red, green = line 1
black, yellow = line 2

Usually all you need to do is pickup a wall plate (from home depot, radio shack etc.) and just hook the right colored wires to the matching colored screws. You an get flush mount plates or if you just have a small hole with the wires poking out, you can get a surface mount.