DSL on 1st floor, Landline phone on 2nd floor

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 26, 2009 Posts: 1

Hi,

Just got my Vonage phone adapter. Have a dilemma. I have my DSL setup on my 1st floor in my garage. My current corded phone is on the 2nd floor. Short of running phone cable from the back of adapter to my corded phone, any ideas of how to make this setup work without running the cable?

RK

Posts: 227 · Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:10 pm Post subject:

I assume that your corded phone on the second floor is plugged into a telephone jack which is connected to your house wiring. This house wiring now has DSL but no longer has voice service. Your DSL modem is plugged into a telephone jack in the garage, which is connected to the same house wiring. If my assumptions are incorrect, please provide more detail.

If I correctly understand your situation, read on: Your house wiring probably consists of two (or more) pairs of wire. In an older house, the first pair has wires colored red and green, the second pair has black and yellow. In a newer house, the first pair will be blue and white, while the second pair is orange and white. Normally, the first pair is connected to line one (pins 3 and 4) of each telephone jack, and the second pair is connected to line two (pins 2 and 5) of each telephone jack. If this is not the case, but you have a second pair, then re-wire the jacks as described above. Then, go to the network interface (where the telephone line from the street is connected to your house wiring). At that point, disconnect the street line from the first house wiring pair and connect it to the second house wiring pair. Leave the first pair disconnected (but tape the ends individually, so it doesn't short).

Then, in your garage, unplug the DSL modem from line 1, and plug in a modular L1/L2 adapter. (This is a splitter with one plug and two jacks, which splits the two lines from the plug into two separate single-line jacks. You'll also find some 3-jack versions of this device, which provide an L1 jack, an L2 jack, and a third jack with L1+L2. You can get these at Radio Shack and similar places.) Plug the DSL modem into the L2 jack on the adapter. Plug one end of a modular telephone cord into the L1 jack. Plug the other end of this cord into the Phone-1 jack on the Vonage adapter.

This arrangement will deliver Vonage dial tone to L1 on all of the jacks in your house, including the one on the second floor where your corded phone is plugged in.