rewiring house phones

[petersonra]

I mentioned this once before but I may be in need of having the house phone system rewired. there is a horrible static noise on it coming from somewhere. Right now the only phones working are the cordless ones. The base station is plugged directly into cable modem.

Is there any simple way to redo the wiring? I have a crawl space under most of the house so there is no real access that way.

I talked with an electrician acquaintance about this once before and the numbers he was coming up with make me want to leave it as is.

I am thinking if I do this it might make sense to have Ethernet wires run at the same time. It has been suggested to me that given as the telephone only uses 2 wires a cost effective setup is to run cat5e and use 2 of the 4 pairs for data and run the phone lines in one of the unused pairs. There is something about this idea that bugs me that I cannot quite put my finger on.

The other thing that bugs me is the idea of running the cables in the crawl space and having them lay on the crawl space floor, something else that was suggested as being the only practical option.

 

[grich]

The original idea a zillion years ago with CAT5 cables was to put the phone circuit on the blue pair and data on the orange and green pairs. I wouldn't try this in today's world, especially if you wanted to use a Power-Over-Ethernet device.

You mentioned a cable modem...is there any chance the old telco CO line is still connected to your house phones? There could still be talk battery on that and that will mess up you up.

 

[sgunsel]

Try one of the cordless models with cordless remotes. Only the base phone plugs into your system, the extensions are wireless, except for a wall wart power supply. I have a panasonic that operates 6 phones. It works extremely well. I used it with my landline and now with cable. Much easier and more convenient than installing telephone wiring. Just move them wherever you want and they work just fine.

 

[RichB]

Had the same thing at my house--turns out it was old/bad cabling from the old telco connections and somewhere in the walls it is picking up a staticy hum--went to a phone plugged directly into the modem(Comcast0 and wireless remotes--no more noise

 

[cadpoint]

Just be up front and remind the owner that when the power goes out they lose their land phone(s) based on cable service and wireless phones, if that?s where they?re going!

I wouldn?t mix telephone and data in the same circuit the phone ringing is 24VDC, if that?s what you?re thinking about. There is exterior rated telephone 2 wire the CAT5e, I?m not so sure about.

In general, a crawl space of dirt of the house has the same humidity and temperature as the outside. Since you?re dealing with an old house is I can only assume the set of problems you have.

Is there any simple way to redo the wiring? I have a crawl space under most of the house so there is no real access that way. ? The other thing that bugs me is the idea of running the cables in the crawl space and having them lay on the crawl space floor, something else that was suggested as being the only practical option.

I?m sorry, is there access and why are you laying telephone/cables on the dirt? If the house is that old go vertical and drop down from the attic, there might no be blocking in horizontal but look out for diagonal bracing.

 

[Cow]

If you're going to run one cat5, it's just as easy to run two...?

 

[gadfly56]

The original idea a zillion years ago with CAT5 cables was to put the phone circuit on the blue pair and data on the orange and green pairs. I wouldn't try this in today's world, especially if you wanted to use a Power-Over-Ethernet device.

You mentioned a cable modem...is there any chance the old telco CO line is still connected to your house phones? There could still be talk battery on that and that will mess up you up.

I had a similar situation but was still a POTS customer. Turns out the connection at the pole was loose, and as the cable swung in the wind, the conductors were hopping across the terminal threads. It did a pretty good imitation of a crystal radio set. I figured the tech would just tighten and go, but he dropped a whole new run of figure 8 from across the road and installed a proper demarc box. Didn't cost me a nickel, and I couldn't see what was in it for the tech (besides going the extra mile for a customer) but it was all good after that.

 

[sgunsel]

I gave up on the phone company after many several years of mediocre service, unreliable performance, and high rates. Switched to a cable phone and never have any problems. I have a cell phone if the cable goes go out, but so far it has been very reliable. The new cordless phones work very well with POTS too, as long as the problems are not inside the house as they appear to be in this case. But all you need to do is find one good jack, probably closest to the incoming line, and if that is good eliminate the rest and you are good to go. Worst case you need to put in a few feet of cable. But if the problem is outside, as mine were, good luck.

 

[petersonra]

Part of the house is built over a concrete slab and just has a crawl space. part does have a basement under it.

I looked at the wireless phone adaptors and figured they were cheaper than paying an electrician to rewire the phones to get rid of the hum, but it does nothing for wiring up ethernet. OTOH, maybe WiFi handles that adequately. that is what we have now.

I checked outside and the inside house wiring is disconnected at the breakout box. So it is something inside the house.

I suppose I could spend time isolating it.

I never considered having the phone wires run down from the attic. Right now most are on exterior walls and it would be hard to do that, but I suppose they could be moved to interior walls without that much trouble.