Bob,

If you don't have a punch down tool metioned in the above posts, you can
use
two long nose pliers to push the wires into the terminals. With a long
nose
in each hand simply grab the wire with each plier spacing them about 1/16
inch apart. Then push the wire down into the terminal slot with a plier on
each side of the tab until the wire is seated. The idea is to support the
wire on both sides of the terminal tab as it is punched down so the wire
doesn't bend out of place. There is no need to pre-strip the wires as the
terminal slots displace the insulation.

I used this method with two pairs of needle-nosed pliers and the wires
snapped right in place on the first try and the phone jack works great!
I'll probably never do this again, so I couldn't justify purchasing an
expensive tool I'd only use once.

You can also simply solder the wires to the terminal tabs the traditional
way. That's what I would do.

I thought of that too, but I was looking for something real quick and
simple.

BTW, these terminals are usually set up for 24 or 26 AWG solid copper
wire.
Do not use stranded wire or wire of other gauges unless soldering.

That's right,. That Rat Shack wire looked a little thinner than the one
that builder used, but it all worked out. I needed a phone jack in my
closet to hook up an audio InStreamer, which is hooked to my scanner that is
scanning the railroad radio band to be broadcasted to the Internet. This
new device must be plugged directly into my router and since I have DSL, I
must have a phone jack in my closet without running telephone cord under the
carpet, etc. Besides, the router/DSL modem is better out of site from
everyone. If you or anyone you know is interested in trains, my broadcast
is at:

http://www.railroadradio.net/content/view/38/140/

Thank you again for the message and to everyone else who gave me great ideas
as well. I haven't posted to Usenet in many years and it has never let me
down yet.

Take care,

Steve