Phone wiring termination

[the_b_man]

So, real stupid question here, but what is the current practice for wiring up phone lines in a house, at the point at which service enters the house?

I ask because I recently bought a small 70's home, the basement closet has a few runs to wall jacks haphazardly chained with those little red crimp-on saucers, and I want to 1) add a new run or two, and 2) clean it up

I see $50+ blocks for punching down dozens of lines (plus the tool) - but those are overkill and expensive considering I'll have maybe 4-5 runs of a single phone line and no alarm system.

What is the low-budget yet clean way forward?

 

[RocketTech]

Low budget is to leave it alone if it works. Next would be to home-run your jacks to the demarcation- there should be binding posts with plenty of room for 5+ runs.
For a budget install taht looks nice, I get one of the structured cabling telephone blocks and mount it to a board, home-run the cables.
If you are laying new cable, I suggest CAT 5e and simply use any pair consistently to wire the jack. Leave enough slack to be able to re-terminate with RJ45 when desired.
I recently bought a 70s ranch home and pulled all the phone wiring and did a new run for u-verse only. All other phones are SIP and use Ethernet.

 

[the_b_man]

I couldn't leave it alone entirely as I connected VOIP and wanted to detach from the phone company. Don't want to pull home runs for existing jacks as it'd be too much work, so there's a few chained on one branch (I can live with that) .. but I do want to pull a couple news ones. (2 storey plus finished basement with drywall ceiling, ack!)

You mention binding posts, are there a particular kind suitable for this? Right now I'm using a little plastic panel with screws, and twisting multiple wires on each screw, which seems like a dreadful idea. The VOIP ATA is mounted on the wall, and I just need a solid way to tie it in cleanly with a few runs. I'm cool with a punch block if it's small and cheap; I need a punchdown tool soon for doing Ethernet keystones anyway.

 

[RocketTech]

Ethernet and phone use different punchdown tools, although most have both (110/66). The binding posts I'm talking about should be on the Telephone Network Interface, mounted on your house, where the line from the pole goes into your house. Failing that, you might want to look into some wire splicers. yellow is 2 conductor, red is 3 conductors.
Something like this is what I was talking about for the neatest.
A little plastic panel with screws is a binding post and is capable of handling multiple wire if separated by washers. Binding posts are actually one of the best connection methods for conductivity and are mechanically robust.

 

[m1abram]

Ethernet and phone use different punchdown tools, although most have both (110/66). The binding posts I'm talking about should be on the Telephone Network Interface, mounted on your house, where the line from the pole goes into your house. Failing that, you might want to look into some wire splicers. yellow is 2 conductor, red is 3 conductors.
Something like this is what I was talking about for the neatest.
A little plastic panel with screws is a binding post and is capable of handling multiple wire if separated by washers. Binding posts are actually one of the best connection methods for conductivity and are mechanically robust.

If he has a 70s house and the phone company has not updated the Telephone Network Interface then he may not have anything more than a black 4 post binding block for a DMARC and not that fancy box with RJ11 jacks you linked to. My house just has something like this for a DMARC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileemarc2.JPG

 

[jeffmoss26]

I hate all of those structured media panels with a passion.
A 50 pair 66 block is less than 25 bucks with the bracket. You can find smaller blocks as well.
What I like to do is take the incoming phone line and loop it through the block for however many jacks I have, plus a few extra. Terminate the cables for each jack on a separate block, and cross connect between them.
In the real world, you don't always have that much space, so you sometimes end up just punching down whatever pairs you need on the other side of the block.

 

[Macco]

I hate all of those structured media panels with a passion.
A 50 pair 66 block is less than 25 bucks with the bracket. You can find smaller blocks as well.
What I like to do is take the incoming phone line and loop it through the block for however many jacks I have, plus a few extra. Terminate the cables for each jack on a separate block, and cross connect between them.
In the real world, you don't always have that much space, so you sometimes end up just punching down whatever pairs you need on the other side of the block.

That's how I do it if it's 2+ lines or the customer needs room for expansion. For 1 line easy enough to just use bridge clips and be done with it.

As far as the OP's question goes the cheapest way to do it would be to run your new lines back to where the phone line comes in, cut it and splice them together with these. However the best option for troubleshooting and future expandability would be to get a 66/110 block of some sort and use that.

 

[Nate7311]

That's how I do it if it's 2+ lines or the customer needs room for expansion. For 1 line easy enough to just use bridge clips and be done with it.

As far as the OP's question goes the cheapest way to do it would be to run your new lines back to where the phone line comes in, cut it and splice them together with these. However the best option for troubleshooting and future expandability would be to get a 66/110 block of some sort and use that.

Ditto

 

[RocketTech]

I'm not suggesting the whole panel- just the component. I also think the panels are too limiting/expensive/behind the times, but some of the components are useful.
The TIN depends more on the Telco- most metropolitan areas switched to modular wiring and the 'fancy' TIN in the 70s. My house is in the middle of nowhere, built in 75 and has a newer TIN.

 

[the_b_man]

m1abram, my demarc is exactly like that. Definitely never been upgraded, all crusty and the cover barely stays on.
The splicers I don't think look like a proper permanent install, there was already a couple of those dangling about when I got the house.
I'll definitely agree that the media panels are limiting, I'm opting for a proper mini-rack, patch panel, etc. for the networking stuff.
In the mean time, I'll look at using washers on my little junction box, or getting a small 66 block.

Thanks everyone.