Frontiers NIU box - of course it had to be different !

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2006 Posts: 3

I looked around to see if I could find a post or a guide for this NIU from Frontierm but I could not find one, so this is my request for assistance on how to isolate our inside wiring so we can re-wire for Vonage.

This is the picture of the NIU box. If you know how to do it, please let me know. Thanks

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

Is the plastic projection on the swing cover an actual plug with electrical contacts on it? If so, can you identify wires connecting to that plug?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2006 Posts: 3

The plastic projection on the swing cover is an actual plug with electrical contacts, but I can not see the color of the wires on the plugs themeselves.
I have uploaded a few more pictures at: http://thingymajigger.com/frontier.htm

You will notice that there are two wires coming fron the bottom left side of the box. One is white and the other blue. Don't know what it's for.

There are also four different "switches" . The first switch has a label of what used to be our 2nd phone line, the second has a label of what used to be our first line. The third one is labeled data and that fourth one is labeled voice.

There is a set of white and blue wires attached to the first switch (used to be our second line), and a set of green and red wires attached to the second switch (used to be our first line)

Can you take a look at the new pictures I uploaded at
http://thingymajigger.com/frontier.htm

Any help you can give me will be appreciated. As I mentioned in my first post, all I want to do is to disconnect the power so I can use my Vonage using existing lines into all the rooms.
regards,

PS: Sorry for the late reply - I was out on an international trip.

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

My guess is that the phone company is hard wired to the jacks, and closing the door on a compartment inserts the plug into the jack. That makes a connection to the wiring on the screw terminals that are now behind the closed door. The house wiring is connected to the screw terminals.

If this is right, simply opening the compartment disconnects that set of house wires from the phone company. (By the way, is this a duplex or quadriplex? That's what this box seems to be for.) The trick, of course, would be to keep someone from closing the compartment again. A piece of electrical tape over the plug contacts might work, but it wouldn't be a very professional solution.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:19 pm Post subject:

Every time someone posts about having an unusual NIU they post a picture of this box. It must be pretty popular based on the number of posts.

If it were me I would disconnect the house wiring from the NIU and splice like colored wires together. That is, splice together the wires currently connected on the same screw terminals.

Are you using DSL? If so, is it on your primary line or is it a dry pair? That connection would obviously have to be maintained.

How are the phones in your house wired? Do you have a distribution panel?

My take on the situation is that the box is an attempt to install a DSL splitter inside the NIU (on the telco side). But that is just a guess.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2006 Posts: 3

This is a private home in a rural area, about three years young. This box was installed then to accommodate our requirements of DSL, and two phone lines. DSL was installed on the main line at that time. I have since cancelled all services with them and now have cable internet and Vonage, period.

I like the idea of using tape to block the plugs from making contact the best. This way the box still remains a viable alternative if Vonage does not work out in the future. I am going to try and see if that works today. I certainly don't want Frontier getting mad at me for tampering with their box and charging hundreds of $, although I don't expect to ever have to go back to a telco again.

As far as this post, I tried to search for a similar box, but could not find any topics that showed this particular box. I really did not want to start a new topic on something that may have been discussed before. If I did, my apologies.

Thanks for all your advice so far. It is appreciated.
Regards,

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:39 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't worry about starting a new post, it's not like you can search based on a picture of the box (yet).

[EDIT: I found one of the threads showing a similar interface box. vonage-forum.com/ftopic5691.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="postlink">Home Telephone Network Wiring Box Questions

adnanx786 wrote:

The network box here is very different.

Please note that my comment on the popularity of this topic was not directed at the original poster, but more to get people thinking about how we could provide better information in the guides to cover this type of interface device.]

As far as Frontier getting upset, everything on the right side of the box is fair game. The only concerns you have are on the left side of the box.

If the house is only three years old I would expect it to have structured wiring. That means a single line would go to a central point and from there be distributed to each jack. If that is the case then that structured wiring panel is a better place to make your changes.

The alternative wiring scheme is that one or more lines are run from the NIU, each line can connect one or more jacks in series. If the house is small enough then the builder may simply have run all of the jacks back to the NIU. If this is the case then a good project would be to add a simple structured wiring box so that phone system reconfiguration is easier in the future.

I maintain that adding good quality splices is a better long term choice than taping over the jack. Removing the splices and reconnecting the wires to the terminals to reconnect the NIU should not be a significant effort. What will the tape look like after two winters? Five?