NID in a condo. Where do I find it?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 01, 2005 Posts: 4

I tried to find the elusive NID at my condo yesterday in preparation for the arrival of my Vonage service (I am optimistic that it will work sufficiently well, after running the various tests referenced on this board). Unfortunately, I don't know what it looks like and was unable to locate anything that appeared to house telephone wiring. Would it be located on each unit? Or would there be a central panel (to which I may not be able to gain access without the condo association's help?)

Great board. I signed up for Vonage before reading the litany of complaints on here, but I'm convinced that for a great majority of folks the service works well, and I'm willing to try anything that allows me to escape POTS service (and those exorbitant taxes and fees!).

Thanks for your help in advance,
Nanter

Posts: 336 · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:33 pm Post subject:

The only problem I ever had with Vonage was voicemail messages would be delayed from time to time. That has all been fixed up though. Vonage installed some voicemail servers which cleared the whole problem up.

Most people only write when they are complaining. The vast majority of people who have no problem would not come on here to write anything. I've had service with Vonage for about 10 months and am very pleased.

Posts: 24 · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:38 pm Post subject: NID

Check in a utility closet and where you have your fuse box. I live in an apt I did not have the standard NID. By my fuse box I had a short phone cord coming out of the wall that was plugged right back into a wall jack. Once i disconected that jack I was off of the phone company and any building wiring. depending on how yoru condo is wired you very well may not have access to pull the plug

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 01, 2005 Posts: 6

I live in a condo with no NID - instead they daisy-chained all my phone jacks AND cable outlets together. Try the master bedroom... unscrew your wallplate and note how many runs of RJ-11/12 there are.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 01, 2005 Posts: 4

Thanks for the replies, all.

I thought there had to be an NID of some sort (somewhere) so that when a telco comes out to install POTS service, they can connect it to their network.

For example, I almost had phone service through the cable company activated but canceled the installation after having some unacceptable interactions with them. They were going to have to come out on a weekday evening and, in their words, "rewire the box on the exterior of the building where the phone service is currently connected to Verizon's network." I was assuming this was the NID.

In any case, thanks for the help. Hopefully I'll figure this out without causing any damage to the current wiring infrastructure. Smile

Posts: 156 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 30, 2005 Posts: 156

Have you checked in the Laundry Room? If you have one it could be there.

Posts: 68 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 14, 2005 Posts: 68

Usually it's a square grey box, something like this:

http://www.rric.net/insidewiring.htm

It varies, some open down the middle, some are wider, etc.. but you'll know..

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 22, 2007 Posts: 1

Many multi-family units have one main telco NIU for all apartments in one location on the outside of the building normally where power enters the entire complex our units.

Many times they run one wire from there to one outlet in the apartment or condo, sometimes in a basement by the breaker panel and sometimes, if no basement they will run to one phone jack first and then home run the lines from that jack or series them from there.

The standard by many POTS companies for many years was to home run to the kitchen phone outlet first (that use to be the location where most people always had a phone).

Standards do vary from area to area but most of the time in bigger complexes you do not want to enter the telcos NIU unless you have just a individual condo or possibly a duplex where they enter one line for each home with an individual NIU on the outside for your one condo or half of a duplex.

Hope this helps.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 06, 2008 Posts: 5

Locally we have Bellsouth telco NIDs that are tan or green 9inch square tube that comes out of the ground outside the building. Sometimes they are not marked for the wiring from each Apt. I always use a toner to trace the line even if its labeled, people get mad when you disconnect the wrong one.