Installing Telephone Jacks and Wiring

The multiple jacks and wires that are associated with a telephone make the wiring look difficult. The basics of telephone wiring are simple. Each line requires two wires: a positive and a negative. The two wires connect from the telephone module from the phone company to the phone jack in the house. Telephone cables generally contain more than one pair of colored wires. The colors are important in connecting the wires to the phone jack.

The color-coded wires are the main difficulty that you will need to know to have a successful hook up. There is a standard color code chart that you can follow to avoid any issues.

Supplies needed:

• Screwdriver


• Utility knife


• Drill


• 3/8-inch drill bit

1. Locate the service box outside your home that is property of your telephone company. The service box is called the network interface device (NID). Open the box with a screwdriver on the customer side of the box (you will not be able to open the phone company side).


2. Open the covers of the modules inside that are identified by a phone number. There may be more than one line. Number the lines so you can distinguish them by order of importance.


3. Transfer the telephone cable through the bottom of the NID. Make sure you have enough cable so you can connect on all of the live modules. Remove eight to ten inches of the outer covering from the cable. Separate all of the wires on the inside of the cable; these wires are color coded in pairs. The current standard cable is a 6-wire Cat5. There will be a blue wire with white stripes and a white wire with blue stripes. There will also be an orange and white wire and a green and white wire. If it is an 8-wire cable, the extra pair of wires are brown and white.


4. Connect the blue/white pair of wires to the terminals on Line 1. Remove about an inch of insulation from the end of the wires and connect the blue/white wire to the green positive terminal and tighten the nut with a screwdriver. Connect the white/blue wire with the red negative terminal.


5. Connect all the other lines the same way. The orange/white pair for Line 2, the green/white pair for Line 3 and the brown/white pair for Line 4 should all be connected. Twist all of the unused wires together and close the NID and screw the cover back on.

Installing Jacks

1. Run your cable from the basement to the jack location. Make a 3/8-inch hole in the floor, through the bottom plate of the wall, and in the wall behind the jack.


2. Run the cable through the holes that you’ve made, remove the cover of the jack, and feed the wires into it. Screw the jack on the wall just above your baseboard.


3. Remove the outer layer of the cable and insulation from the wires you need. If you are installing a single phone line then you would connect the blue/white pair to the green and red terminals. If it is a multi-line jack, connect the blue/white pair to Line 1 and the orange/white pair to Line 2. If there are more lines, continuing wiring by following the wiring diagrams.


4. Wire another jack in the house and run the wires from the first jack to the second. This allows you to connect the phone is different parts of the house on the same phone line. While you are configuring your phone line, if the first line fails, all lines will fail. To avoid failing, use a configuration that runs a separate wire to the second jack from the NID. Continue this strategy to the additional jacks throughout the house.