In article . net,
Thomas Daniel Horne wrote:

If you feel the side of the black drop wire that runs between the NID
and the protector on your basement rafter you will find that one side of
it is ridged.

From what I've read, the NID was a retrofit using a section of the old, aerial
drop wire to make the jump from the NID outside to the old protector location
in the joist downstairs. This is very typical.

It is certainly possible and very LIKELY that the old protector downstairs is
still providing the circuit protection that, had the retrofit been done
properly, would be done by new protectors inside the NID box outside. This
can be determined by the presence (or lack thereof) of a 10-gauge copper
ground wire running to the telco-side of the NID outside.

If there ISN'T a ground wire to the NID (there should be), and especially if
the service is still fed with an aerial drop, the old protector in the
basement is still necessary for its circuit protection.

Knowing what I know (and do for a living), and YOU now know, I would request
that my service be upgraded with a properly grounded and protected NID. The
connection point (former protector) in the basement would remain ONLY as a
simple connection point.

So the red wires from your inside wiring terminate on the right hand
side of your old protector if the ridged side of that drop wire is
terminated on that side. If the protector is not mounted vertically
with the drop wires terminated on the left and right then you should ask
more questions.

Not necessary. At this point, that old wire should be replaced.

With a NID outside (grounded or not), the "jump" between the NID and the old
protector downstairs, currently an *OLD* hunk of brittle drop wire, needs to
be changed-out with modern, twisted pair station wire.

Keeping the polarity of those wires consistent will
help you with trouble shooting later.

Only if your 20-year-old Western Electric desk set's Touchtonetm keypad quit
Touchtone-ing. The first, few generations of Touchtonetm telephones were
engineer so that, with the polarity of the pair being "proper", the phone
would full work. With the polarity of the pair REVERSED, the keypad on the
phone quit working. You could ANSWER the phone but could not make calls. I
suspect this may have been a "feature" rather than a bug in the interest of
keeping things as complicated as possible to discourage the public from
messing with their phones and phone service - an illegal practice for almost
100 years.

Polarity (red or green? It doesn't matter) hasn't been important for years.
I wasn't sad to see the issue go away. Our Central Office MDF (Main
Distributing Frame) still has quite a number of "reversing" heatcoils - made
specifically to reverse a line for the use of Touchtonetm!

If you ever add a second
telephone line or install an intercom you will need the black and yellow
wires so instead of cutting them off the best practice is to wrap them
back around the cable jacket so they remain available if needed.

Good advise. Always cut it LONG. If it's too long, you can always cut off
some more. If you start out cutting it too short, you can't make it longer
and it's REALLY hard to work on.
--

JR