phone jack wiring question

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: May 09, 2004 Posts: 2

are phone jacks wired serially? So that if one jack was bad, all the other jacks further down the circuit would also be bad?

I'm trying to setup Vonage using the 2nd line in my house. I've verified that the 2nd line is NOT connected to anything at the external phone junction box. But then I found out that none of my jacks had the 2nd line hooked up.

I've been fixing that, but I still can't get a dial tone from Vonage on any of the extensions. I suspect that there may be a jack hidden behind a piece of furniture that I haven't found yet, and it's causing a break in the circuit for the 2nd line.

I still have SWB running to the primary line, and I don't want to disconnect it until I'm sure I'm happy with Vonage and get my # switched over.

any ideas?

Posts: 183 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: May 05, 2004 Posts: 183

No, they're not wired serially (all the tip wires are connected to the jacks' tip connections in parallel, likewise for the ring wires), but often they're daisy chained through the house. So yes, a disconnect at one point could break all connections from that point on to the last one in the chain.

Posts: 36 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Aug 15, 2003 Posts: 36

Can be done either way. When all jacks are wired seperately to a common junction box, it is called "home-run". This is the best way to do the wiring because a broken line will only affect one phone. They can also be connected from one to another but a break in the wiring can affect several phones. I have an old AT&T wiring book that explains all this.