# Questions about phone jack wiring for Comcast cable



## userid (May 4, 2010)

Hi, I live in Montgomery County, MD. When I moved to my new town home, I had Comcast installed everything for me (TV, internet and telephone). I had the Comcast pro set up my cable modem on the 3rd floor where I had my home office. So, the phone wire is also connected to a phone jack on the 3rd floor.

Now, I moved my home office to the basement, so I have moved the cable modem to the basement as well for easier network wiring.

I am interested in wiring the phone jack in the basement to my cable modem myself, but got confused as I have never done this before.

In picture 1, you'll see the Comcast pro's wiring of the phone jack on the 3rd floor. I am confused by connector A and connector B there. Do I have to have them?

Picture 2 shows the current phone jack in my basement. I am wondering if I can simply detach those wires shown in picture 2 and directly connect the white and blue wires (shown picture 1) to the basement phone jack.

Any experienced? Please advise a first-timer? Thanks.


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## Jim Port (Sep 21, 2007)

The parts labeled A and B are wire connectors for small gauge wires, just like a wire nut.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Jim Port said:


> The parts labeled A and B are wire connectors for small gauge wires, just like a wire nut.


OK, thanks, let's get things done little by little. 

So, they are wire connectors, my question remains: Do I have to have them in my basement phone jack wiring? Sorry I know nothing about phone jack wiring now, and I'm trying to learn a little from here.


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## Jackofall1 (Dec 5, 2010)

homenewbie said:


> So, they are wire connectors, my question remains: Do I have to have them in my basement phone jack wiring? Sorry I know nothing about phone jack wiring now, and I'm trying to learn a little from here.


No a terminal block such as the one in the second picture is actually a better solution.

Ring Ring........your phone is ringing

Mark...:yes:


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## Jim Port (Sep 21, 2007)

Why not just plug into the jack that is there? I might not understand how the cable is run tho.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Jackofall1 said:


> No a terminal block such as the one in the second picture is actually a better solution.
> 
> Ring Ring........your phone is ringing
> 
> Mark...:yes:


Speaking of Picture 2, so, you are saying that I can indeed detach those current wires and wire the blue and white wires (shown in picture 1) to the basement phone jack), correct?


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Jim Port said:


> Why not just plug into the jack that is there? I might not understand how the cable is run tho.


Yes, that's the best way to try it out, but before I know what I am doing, especially, I want to dismantle the phone jack on the 3rd floor, I wanna make sure I do it right if I do.


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## Jackofall1 (Dec 5, 2010)

Yes wire the phone out from the cable modem to the block, make sure the original wiring coming in from the outside is disconnected. If all the phone jacks in the house are wired correctly tying onto that block should enable the phone jacks throughout the house.

Mark


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Jackofall1 said:


> Yes wire the phone out from the cable modem to the block, make sure the original wiring coming in from the outside is disconnected. If all the phone jacks in the house are wired correctly tying onto that block should enable the phone jacks throughout the house.
> 
> Mark


yes, all phone jacks in the house are connected.


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## Jackofall1 (Dec 5, 2010)

homenewbie said:


> yes, all phone jacks in the house are connected.


Now you have live jacks throughout the house.......ring.....ring.....ring


Mark


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Jackofall1 said:


> Now you have live jacks throughout the house.......ring.....ring.....ring
> 
> Mark


Not yet, actually, please look at picture 2. When I connect the blue and white wires in picture 1 to the basement phone jack, how can I make sure all phone jacks in this house are properly connected? Thank you.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

homenewbie said:


> Not yet, actually, please look at picture 2. When I connect the blue and white wires in picture 1 to the basement phone jack, how can I make sure all phone jacks in this house are properly connected? Thank you.


In picture 2, I see that 4 wires (blue, yellow, black and red) are connected to the phone jack. Which two am I supposed to replace with the blue and white wires in picture 1?


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## Jackofall1 (Dec 5, 2010)

homenewbie said:


> Not yet, actually, please look at picture 2. When I connect the blue and white wires in picture 1 to the basement phone jack, how can I make sure all phone jacks in this house are properly connected? Thank you.


Plug your phone into a jack, try all combinations on the terminal block until your phone has a dial tone or 

trace the original wires brought in by the phone company (back before cable modems) disconnect those (2) wires and connect the blue and white from the cable modem.

If that doesn't work call me......:laughing:

Mark


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Ok, Comcast has an outage in my area. I am replying thru the iPhone app of this forum. 

Should I replace bolt 1 and bolt 2 in Picture 2 with the white and blue wires and don't touch bolt 3 and bolt 4? Will this make sure all phone jacks in the house are connected?


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## Jim Port (Sep 21, 2007)

Is the new cable from the Comcast box bringing phone service into the house?

It would be screw terminals 1 and 4, not 1 and 2. Red and green, black and yellow is the old pairing color scheme.


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## kicken (Jul 10, 2011)

I could be mistaken but I seem to recall the comcast guy telling me that I could just run a cord from the modem and plug it into the jack in the room and that would make all the other jacks in the house live, no need to wire anything directly. We have a cordless phone so I never actually tried it. If that's true is seems like that would be an easier solution than trying to re-wire the jack to the modem. 

If you wanted a phone in that room as well you could use a phone splitter such as http://www.techexcess.net/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=F8V106-WH I would think. Plug that in to the modem, run a cord from there to your phone and another to the jack.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Yes, the phone service comes through the Comcast cable modem. See picture 3 please. 

Finally I got it narrowed down to the particular screws. Thanks a lot. Will definitely give it a shot after comcast services are restored from the tropical storm. 

Replied thru the DIY Chatroom iPhone App.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Kicken: thanks for sharing, that would indeed make it a piece of cake. I wanna try it out after the services are restored from the tropical storm.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Kicken: Yes. I have phone spliters like that. Thx.


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## AandPDan (Mar 27, 2011)

Way to complicated.

Your Comcast "pro" did you a disservice. He never should have hard wired the cable modem into the phone line like he did. He should have used an RJ-45 splitter at that box in picture 1.

All you have/had to do was get a regular phone patch cord and plug one end into ANY jack in your house and the other into your cable modem.

That's it. Nice and simple. No need to mess with the wiring.

Kicken is showing the correct splitter.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Okay, lets start from the beginning. I am guessing that you want all jacks to be able to have phone service to them, regardless if you have a phone plugged into them or not. Figure out where you want the EMT to be at. From there, you will need a phone jack to plug a phone cord from the EMT to the phone lines in the house. Go to every jack, and make sure they all have Red & Green from the wiring in the wall, connected to the Red & Green at the jacks. Yellow & Black, is for a second line, or in the old days, was for a transformer that was used to light up the keypads on the old princess style phones.

One you have determined that all jacks have Red & Green wired to the wires from the wall, then go back to where you have the EMT, and take a phone cord and plug into the jack nearest to it. Otherwise, you can do what is called "Home Run", and go the NID on the outside of the house, that the telephone company used, before you went with Comcast, and make sure that your home wiring is disconnected, which will be a little pigtail, that plugs into the block, and just plug a phone cord into where the wiring from your home is connected on the screws out in the NID, and just plug the phone cord in.

Another way, is to take the wiring from the NID, where it enters into the house, and just wire the pair for Line one, which can be either Red & Green, or like the CAT-5e that comcast used, and wire the blue & blue/white to a phone jack, and just plug your emt into that, and you should have phone all through out the house.

The key is to first make sure all jacks are wired the same in the house, second find where the house wiring goes to the NID, unhook from the test jack in the NID, and just plug your EMT into any jack in the house. Reason of unhooking home wiring from the NID, is so that your telco does not blow out the emt.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

I never knew it was so simple. Maybe the comcast pro didn't have a phone splitter the time he installed it for me? So he wanted to make that phone jack available to a telephone?


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Yes, make sure all jacks are wired Red & Green appropriately, and that the inside wiring is not connected to the feeder for the telephone company at the NID. Even with the test jack out there still plugged in with the telco making it possibly live at any time, make sure either to just pull the wiring inside the house, or place a note at the test jack, stating not to plug back in.


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## userid (May 4, 2010)

Yes, confirmed, that I can simply plug in a phone line patch wire with an RJ-11 (?) connector into the the phone jack, and all phone jacks in the house would be connected. Thanks a lot for you guys' support!


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