Wiring with Alarm / 2 separate lines to NIU

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 13, 2006 Posts: 1

I'm planning to switch to Vonage, but wanted to make sure I understood the wiring before I started the switch. My Alarm system is a separate line that runs into my NIU box the Blue/White pair (There is no RJ-31X in the line. I was able to follow the line from my Alarm directly to the outside of the house. My phone jacks run off of the Orange/White pair. In order to make sure my alarm will still call out, do I just need to scotch-lok Blue/Orange and White/White together? Then feed the Vonage into an inside outlet?

I apologize about the focus on the pictures.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Your setup isn't too clear. Generally speaking, there will be two pairs running from your NIU to the alarm panel. One is connected to the POTS line in the NIU and the other is connected to your house wiring. For example, a blue/white pair might connect to POTS and carry the phone signal to the alarm panel, and an orange/white pair would bring it back. That orange/white pair would then connect at the NIU to the blue/white pair in another cable servicing the house jacks. During alarm situations the alarm would disable the return pair, giving exclusive use of the line to the alarm.

If yours is like this, simply disconnecting the blue/white alarm pair from the POTS line has isolated your house from POTS as desired. Connecting the blue/white and orange/white alarm pairs together and plugging the Vonage service into a wall jack, as I think you're proposing, will make things work. However, the feature that gives exclusive use of the phone to the alarm during alarm situations will be disabled. To do it right, you would have to leave the alarm pairs separated and somehow connect the Vonage box to the input side of the alarm system.

There's a lot of material on this in the sticky post at the top of the FAX-TIVO-ALARM forum.