- 1). Locate the network interface device on the outside of your home. This is usually a small gray box which will have the name of your phone company or service provider listed on the box. There should be a rather thin cable going into the box which will be the phone line. Inside the box you should find a set of terminals with at least four different colored wires attached. This is your starting point.
- 2). Determine the type of phone cable you are working with. The cable will be either a standard four strand wire, or it could be a Cat 5 cable. Both work in the same way, but look very differently. A standard four strand wire will have a green, red, yellow and black wire. If it is a Cat 5 cable the wires will be White with a blue mark (Green), Blue with a white mark (Red), white with an orange mark (Black), and orange with a white mark (Yellow). The instructions below assume you have a standard four strand wire.
- 3). Installing wiring to your planned phone jack locations. Plan out the route for your wiring before you begin. If you are planning to install multiple jacks, plan the entire route before beginning. Your only junctions or splices in the wire should be in the phone jack boxes. Other splices or junctions can reduce reception quality and result in maintenance issues. Once you have the route planned install the wiring, being certain to support it off the ground if routing it under your home. DO NOT cut the wire at the phone jack locations, instead just leave a loop which you can cut and work with later.
- 4). Prepare the phone line by peeling away the outer coating to reveal the individual wires. Once the wires are exposed strip out approximately one half inch of the covering on each of the four small wires. This wire is very delicate and you will need to work with caution or risk breaking the wire when stripping it. Attach each of the wires to the matching color inside the network interface device.
- 5). Wire each of the individual jacks. You will wire each of the individual jacks with all four wires, but only two are needed to complete an individual phone line. The four wires are actually for two different lines and are wired in pairs. Remember the term Christmas Trees and Bumble Bees. Red and green (Christmas Tree colors) and black and yellow (colors of a bumble bee) are always wired together.
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