Wiring Old 1950s NID/Demarc telephone box- pls see photos

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 24, 2010 Posts: 3

Hi, I want to distribute my Vonage dialtone to all wall phone jacks in my house. (I have read Vonage's "Do-It-Yourself Home Wiring Guide" at http://www.vonage.com/support.php?article=649 and some posts on this forum.)

My house was built in 1950 and has a very old telephone box (NID/Demarc). The box has no jack(s) inside - only screw terminals. There is also no "telephone company side" and "home owner side" - just one box with wires from street and wires into house meeting at the screw terminals.

You can see photos of the box below (I have labeled where each wire is running to). Can anyone look at these photos and tell me what I need to do in order to isolate the house's inside wiring?

Thanks for your advice. Smile

Posts: 86 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 03, 2009 Posts: 86

If you're not keeping any phone lines from the telephone (PSTN) company and your internet in not DSL disconnect them all. The Idea is to keep any voltage or signaling from your home wiring / wall jacks.

Here is a better reference:
http://www.mi-telecom.org/index.html

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 24, 2010 Posts: 3

Thanks for your reply, and for the link to the article. Smile

Yes, I plan to be totally disconnected from the phone company - no phone-company telephone line, and no DSL (using cable broadband instead).

When you say "disconnect them all", do you mean I should loosen the top and bottom screws, then unwind the blue and green wires from the top screw, and unwind the red and blue wires from the bottom screw, so that no wires are touching either of those screws? (Or if not that, what should I do?)

In the article you linked, it says "t is important to leave the ground wire connected, since it can help guard against lightning damage to your home (in the event that lightning strikes a nearby phone cable)." Does this mean I should keep the blue wires (which run from the pole on street) still wrapped around the top and bottom screws? Or is it safe to just remove all wires from touching the screws?

Thank you very much for your guidance on this.

Posts: 366 · Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:40 pm Post subject:

Just disconnect the blue wires (that isolates the house from the telco), leave the red and blue wires connected. Or you have to connect all of the green wires together (so that they are all connected) and all the red wires together. It would be just as easy to let them connected to the box, just removing the blue wires.

Posts: 86 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 03, 2009 Posts: 86

I love the picture...
The ground should be the center post and it looks as if a wire is connected to it.
If the wiring inside is a bus configuration you may find some wall jacks will loose connection. If that's the case you'll need to connect green to green and red to red with a wire nut to complete the circuit.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 24, 2010 Posts: 3

Thank you for the responses and info Smile

. Based on your replies, I will give it a try as per your directions and hopefully it will work! Yay! Thanks very much. Smile