drew wrote:
The house that I bought had an old CPI security system that hadn't
been used in years and I did not see the need for a system so the
other day I was looking at the huge panel in my coat closet and
realized that I had both power and a phone line in a nice handy box.
So I disconnect the security panel and pitch it. I plug the modem
into the phone jack and the wall outlet and set up my wireless
router. I cleaned up and check the internet and it works great. So I
go about my business for a couple of days and realized I hadn't been
harassed by a telemarketer in a while (we like most people these days
use their cell phone for everything, the only reason I have a home
phone is for DSL). I pick up my land line and there is no dial tone.
I check the other three phone outlets in the house and they are all
dead. So I start thinking about the problem and hook up the phone to
the outlet in the closet and lo and behold I get a dial tone. I take
the router and modem and hook it up at another outlet and dsl works.

When I removed the security system circuit board from the closet, I
assumed the wires that screwed into the circuit board went to the
smoke detectors and door sensors. The board had a phone line plus
plug that plugged into the phone outlet in the closet.

Does anybody have any ideas on what might be going on? Here is what I
have sticking out my box. I have three 4 strand phone type wire
(Black, Green, Red, Yellow) and three 2 strand wire (black,red). I
pulled the sensors off the door and they seem to correspond to the
black and red (three exterior doors). I would assumed one of the 4
strand wires would have to go the the security panel. I am guessing
that at least one of the other 4 strand wires goes to my smoke
detectors.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The phone line is normally wired to the alarm first. So if someone is
on the phone, it disconnects them so it can call the police/alarm
company. There was a phone line going into and OUT of the alarm box.
You need to hook them up again so the line to the rest of the house has
phone service.