Another dumb question.......

[Terry Hatfield]

I need to put 2 phone lines in my new office space. One for voice and one for fax. Do I need to run new cable back to the main phone box??? I ask this because these phone lines already go to 2 different rooms in the house. Splicing into the closest one to the new office would be easier. What type of wire should I run for these 2 phone lines and where is best to make the connection?

I have cable for the computers so no new wiring needed for that.

TIA,

Terry

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Terry, I have one phone cable that brings my home phone and business phone line to my office. There may be someone here with more knowledge than I but I think you can tie into the circuit anywhere you want as long as that circuit has both linesw/numbers on it. There are if I remember correctly 4 wires in standard telephone "cable". Only 2 are required per circuit/number. So....one 4-wire cable will handle 2 separate numbers. If you have a jack box or terminal box that has both numbers coming into it, you can tie in there. If you have a telephone that answers both numbers, check the wiring at it's jack box and wire the new one accordingly (IOW follow the color code of the one that's working properly). I hope this makes sense! Good luck!

[Don Abele]

Terry, as you indicate that both of these lines go to other rooms you can splice off of that box and run the line to the office. If both lines go to the same room, use 4 line phone wire. You'll use the red/green pair for the main line and yellow/black pair for the fax. If however, each of the lines are in separate rooms, you'll need to run 2 sets of wires - 1 from each room back to the office. In this case, you can get some 2 line phone wire - you can even use the stuff that's designed for door bells (which is 2 line).

Running new phones lines/additional outlets is a relatively easy task. One which would cost you close to $100 an outlet if you paid someone to do it. So have it and save the money for more toys...errr...tools.

[Terry Hatfield]

Thanks Ken and Don,

That is what I thought but I wanted to make for sure before I did anything drastic. :D

When I first started the appraisal business I actually had the office in the living room. It's about 40 feet from the new office. What I would really like to do is remove the phone lines from that existing box, run those to a new box in the attic and on to the new office. I assume that would work from what you guys have told me.

Thanks,

t

[Don Abele]

Terry, that'll work fine. Just be sure to use new wire and make clean tight connections. Old wire and lose connections cause static on the lines. For a fax or computer line, that'll wreek havoc with the data.

Have fun...

[Terry Hatfield]

doc,

Ok cool!! I really wanted to kinda kill 2 birds on this one. I will never use the extra office lines in the living room and when the phone company ran the new lines in there initially...well....let's just say it's not real pretty. The didn't fish the wire through the wall but rather stapled it along side the trim and the baseboads on the ouitside. It's a nice professional looking install for sure. :D

t

[Don Abele]

Terry, in most cases, baseboard has the middle section of it rabbited out slightly on the back. If you can pry it away from the wall carefully, you can slip the phone line behind the molding and neatly hide it without worry of pinching/crimping it. If you have carpet on the floor, the carpet tack is usually nailed about 1/2 - 1 inch away from the wall. This leaves a perfect track to run wires in (just not electrical wires). There are lots of ways to hide phone/computer/cable wires. Being in the Navy and moving every couple of years, I often find myself renting :( So I've learned a lot of ways to temporarily "rewire" things to meet my needs. :D

[Terry Hatfield]

Doc,

I think on this one the best is to fish the wire in the wall between the office and the hall way. There is an existing cable outlet and 2 electrical outlets on that wall already. I'll either drill a new hole or perhaps I can go through the one that the cable is running in now. I plan on this being permanent and I have to run overhead through the attic. House on slab.

t

[Jim Becker]

Yes, you can splice in for these connections. Since this is strictly for PSTN voice/fax use, go ahead and splice due to the convenience, but understand it's not necessarily the best way to do it from a technical perspective! Today's standard is now for home-runs for maximum versatility and reliability, even for voice. Any splice can potentially be a future headache to deal with. (If you were doing a network connection (Ethernet) you CANNOT splice in...)

[Terry Hatfield]

Jim,

Good points. I'll be extra careful on the connection in the attic. I'll be connecting the office computer to the others via usb cable so hopefully that will be fine. No splices there of course. :D

t

[Jim Becker]

I'll be connecting the office computer to the others via usb cable so hopefully that will be fine. No splices there of course.
Actually, USB isn't the best medium for networking computers. The distance limits on the cables is short (16' max in the spec I believe). It's really intended as a peripheral interface. A wireless access point to your high speed access and wireless interfaces in your computers would be the easiest way to network your home/offcie and provide additional security, too. Not all that expensive...the LinkSys 802.11g AP I recently bought from Staples cost me about $60 after the rebate, for example.

[Chris Padilla]

Cisco now owns Linksys...purchase away!!! :D

[Terry Hatfield]

Cisco now owns Linksys...purchase away!!! :D


LOL....How did I know that that response was coming??? :D

I think the best answer amy be to move Katie's computer into my office. I wouldn'thave to buy anything new (sorry Chris) that way and it would make things simple. My simple mind needs simple solutions.

t

[Don Abele]

Terry, in a previous post we talked about a router with 4 ports on it. How many computers do you have? Why not connect them together with Cat5 network cable? It's as easy to pull as any other wire and the only additional thing you would need are network cards for the computers if they don't already have them. A linksys 100 Mbps card can be had for around $15-20 each.

[Terry Hatfield]

Doc,

Only 2 'puters right now. We will solve the problem by moving Katie's computer to her room. It's where she really wants it to be anyway. :) Katies room has a common wall with the office. I'll just go through the wall. That way the cable will only be about 6' long.

I got the phone deal done today. Man, I'm not shaped correctly for attic work. :eek: Good thing is, it's done. :D

t