Telephone wiring question
 

I thought that when hooking up a phone, the important wires are the red
and the green. I thought that the red wire from the phone line is
supposed to be coupled with the red wire in the wall jack, and the
green wire from the phone line is supposed to be coupled with the green
in the wall jack. Today I examined the wires inside the jack box, and I
see that a tan/white wire from the phone line is coupled with the red
in the wall jack box, and a blue wire from the line was coupled with
the green wire in the box. I tried to re-do the pairings by matching
the red from the line with the red in the box and a green from the line
with the green in the box, but when I did that, I didn't get a dial
tone. What's going on?

Back in the old days, telephone wire was four conductor: R-G-Y-B and yes
you connected to the red and green. Now most telephone wiring is done with
Cat 5 or other multiwire cables and the same color scheme does not apply.
You need to reconnect the jack to the two wires that were on it originally.
"chemqueries" wrote in message
ups.com...
I thought that when hooking up a phone, the important wires are the red
and the green. I thought that the red wire from the phone line is
supposed to be coupled with the red wire in the wall jack, and the
green wire from the phone line is supposed to be coupled with the green
in the wall jack. Today I examined the wires inside the jack box, and I
see that a tan/white wire from the phone line is coupled with the red
in the wall jack box, and a blue wire from the line was coupled with
the green wire in the box. I tried to re-do the pairings by matching
the red from the line with the red in the box and a green from the line
with the green in the box, but when I did that, I didn't get a dial
tone. What's going on?

chemqueries wrote:
I thought that when hooking up a phone, the important wires are the red
and the green. I thought that the red wire from the phone line is
supposed to be coupled with the red wire in the wall jack, and the
green wire from the phone line is supposed to be coupled with the green
in the wall jack. Today I examined the wires inside the jack box, and I
see that a tan/white wire from the phone line is coupled with the red
in the wall jack box, and a blue wire from the line was coupled with
the green wire in the box. I tried to re-do the pairings by matching
the red from the line with the red in the box and a green from the line
with the green in the box, but when I did that, I didn't get a dial
tone. What's going on?


It looks like someone had a 2nd phone line, and it was converted at some
point back into a single line in the house. The 2nd line was run on the
2nd pair.

--
Respectfully,


CL Gilbert

In alt.home.repair on 25 Jul 2005 01:59:54 -0700 "chemqueries"
posted:

I thought that when hooking up a phone, the important wires are the red
and the green. I thought that the red wire from the phone line is
supposed to be coupled with the red wire in the wall jack, and the
green wire from the phone line is supposed to be coupled with the green
in the wall jack. Today I examined the wires inside the jack box, and I
see that a tan/white wire from the phone line is coupled with the red
in the wall jack box, and a blue wire from the line was coupled with
the green wire in the box. I tried to re-do the pairings by matching
the red from the line with the red in the box and a green from the line
with the green in the box, but when I did that, I didn't get a dial
tone. What's going on?

It's good that you know what the original pair was.

BTW, with dial phones and no party line, the red and green wires of
the phone were interchangeable. With touch tone, you'll get a dial
tone if they are backwards, but you can't dial.

Meirman
--
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

meirman posted for all of us...
I don't top post - see either inline or at bottom.

BTW, with dial phones and no party line, the red and green wires of
the phone were interchangeable. With touch tone, you'll get a dial
tone if they are backwards, but you can't dial.

Meirman

BWAAAAA nooooooooooooooooooooo
--

Tekkie

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On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:31:37 -0400, meirman
wrote:

In alt.home.repair on 25 Jul 2005 01:59:54 -0700 "chemqueries"
posted:

I thought that when hooking up a phone, the important wires are the
red and the green. I thought that the red wire from the phone line
is
supposed to be coupled with the red wire in the wall jack, and the
green wire from the phone line is supposed to be coupled with the
green in the wall jack. Today I examined the wires inside the jack
box, and I see that a tan/white wire from the phone line is coupled
with the red in the wall jack box, and a blue wire from the line
was coupled with the green wire in the box. I tried to re-do the
pairings by matching the red from the line with the red in the box
and a green from the line with the green in the box, but when I did
that, I didn't get a dial tone. What's going on?

It's good that you know what the original pair was.

BTW, with dial phones and no party line, the red and green wires of
the phone were interchangeable. With touch tone, you'll get a dial
tone if they are backwards, but you can't dial.

Newer electronic phones have built in bridge rectifiers, making them
polarity insensitive, but older phones did have this "feature".
They were designde that way.

As for the color code, red/green/yellow/black are the old colors.
Modern colors are blue/white-blue/orange/white-orange

so you would connect red to blue, and green to white-blue


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--
-john
wide-open at throttle dot info

Tekkie® wrote:
meirman posted for all of us...
I don't top post - see either inline or at bottom.


BTW, with dial phones and no party line, the red and green wires of
the phone were interchangeable. With touch tone, you'll get a dial
tone if they are backwards, but you can't dial.

Meirman


BWAAAAA nooooooooooooooooooooo

That was only true with the old five hundred telephone sets. More
modern instruments do not have polarity sensitive key pads.
--
Tom Horne


Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to.
We're just working men and woman most remarkable like you.

~^Johnny^~ wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:31:37 -0400, meirman
wrote:
It's good that you know what the original pair was.


Well, I admit that I had to write it down so I wouldn't forget!

As for the color code, red/green/yellow/black are the old colors.
Modern colors are blue/white-blue/orange/white-orange
so you would connect red to blue, and green to white-blue -john

Hello john. You said that red would be connected to blue and green to
white-blue, but on my phone white/tan was connected to red, and blue
was connected to green, and it's working.

In alt.home.repair on Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:06:54 GMT HorneTD
posted:

Tekkie® wrote:
meirman posted for all of us...
I don't top post - see either inline or at bottom.


BTW, with dial phones and no party line, the red and green wires of
the phone were interchangeable. With touch tone, you'll get a dial
tone if they are backwards, but you can't dial.

Meirman


BWAAAAA nooooooooooooooooooooo

That was only true with the old five hundred telephone sets. More
modern instruments do not have polarity sensitive key pads.

Did not know that. Thanks to you and Johnny.

(It will probably be another decade before I get to "modern
instruments". :)

Meirman
--
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

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On 26 Jul 2005 18:53:17 -0700, "chemqueries"
wrote:

~^Johnny^~ wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:31:37 -0400, meirman
wrote:
It's good that you know what the original pair was.


Well, I admit that I had to write it down so I wouldn't forget!

As for the color code, red/green/yellow/black are the old colors.
Modern colors are blue/white-blue/orange/white-orange
so you would connect red to blue, and green to white-blue
-john

Hello john. You said that red would be connected to blue and green
to white-blue, but on my phone white/tan was connected to red, and
blue was connected to green, and it's working.

No telling who wired the phone the last time before you! :-)



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--
-john
wide-open at throttle dot info