Home wiring installation using old Cable & Wireless

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 28, 2005 Posts: 7

I used to a Cable and Wireless telephone service, which we had disconnected about 4-5 years ago. I would like to use the sockets in the house to connect my Vonage box but I'm having trouble identifying the box where the line comes into the house. As I understand it, I would need to disconnect those wires (so that the wiring in our house was therefore isolated) in order for this to work without problems. Can anyone tell me how I might identify this box and which cables I should be cutting.

Thanks!!

Posts: 76 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Oct 17, 2005 Posts: 76

You can connect Vonage via any socket provided you locate the 'Master' socket on the C&W circuit and disconnect it. You can tell which it is as it has some components inside it which the other boxes don't have.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 28, 2005 Posts: 7

So, is that to say I will find the master socket INSIDE my house? If so, then I know where to find it. But I still don't know which wires to be cutting. Any further suggestions or help?!

thanks!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 27, 2006 Posts: 1

Well, I'm not particularly familiar with Vonage, but I am a contractor for Time Warner Cable and install cable phone systems. The basic principle of home phone wiring systems for Voice Over IP is that the wiring needs to be back fed from the modem device, and isolated from the old phone service provider. I.E. Verizon/AT&T etc. The only reason the phone system needs to be isolated is so that the electrical current in the phone service providers line does not zap the the modem device, and also so that the two systems do not interlace with each other and cause mass hysteria and confusion. With all that said, the normal point of attack to disconnect from the telephone company is called the phone NID, (network interface device) Usually located on the outside of the home. BUT in your case the nid is not located on the outside structure of the house. My best advice to you would be to start tracing the line at the pole where all your services enter your house. The basic pole set up is PHONE on bottom, CABLE in center, and ELECTRICITY at the very top of the pole. Follow the phone drop cable from the bottom line off of the pole (usually a thick black line on the bottom half of the pole) to your house, and trace where the line disapears. If you have new siding on the house this may not work well for you, usually people side right over the lines, which can be annoying for those of us who have to install cable and phone set ups on a daily basis. (Granted people dont want ugly black lines all over there house, but its the price you pay for wanting cable or telephone service.) I can almost guarentee you that your phone nid is actually located in the basement or crawlspace under your home. This is usually the only other point where the phone nid could be located, although i've seen some located directly on the pole which is common for houses with long driveways far away from the main access road. As for the lines you need to cut it is fairly simple. Your phone drop line should go direct into the NID, therefore your just disconnecting all the other lines from the nid, and NOT the drop (which is the telephone company's property). So lets say there are 4 phone jacks located in your home.. In theory there should be 4 phone lines to the nid. (I say in theory because some older houses have lines running off into no-where land because of old wiring setups that have been bypassed or cut inside the house somwhere.) Another possibility is that when you find your nid, it will only have one line going into it besides ofcourse the drop line. In this case you have a termination block somewhere near this point that splits off and feeds all the phone jacks in the house from there. This makes the job fairly easy since all you would have to disconnect is that one line from the nid, and you would not need scotch locks to connect four lines together. Hopefully this helps you locate your NID and connect your Vonage system to your existing phone jacks. Good Luck!