I disconnected my alarm system by cutting the wires. Now my phones don't work. What can I do now?

Question

I have black, red, yellow and green wires. Can I just connect them (How?) or do I need to call the phone company. I still have one phone working but the ones in the bedrooms are not working.

Answer 1

Yes you can connect them. The wire you have is older untwisted 2 pair telephone wire called "quad". Go to Radio Shack/Circuit City or Home Depot and get at least four "scotch lock" wire connectors. These are clear and red plastic and about the size of a shirt button. You reconnect the wires, matching the colours (green to green, red to red, black to black and yellow to yellow) using one "scotch lock" for each colour. Don't strip the insulation off the wire. The insulation is required to hold the wire in place. Once the wires are in place, squeeze the red part of the "scotch lock" with a pair of pliers. There are small metal teeth inside the "scotch lock" which break through the insulation and will make an electrical connection between the two same coloured wires. This is what the phone company would do.

Answer 2

You could try sticking your head in a bucket of cement.

Yes, you can reconnect. The colours mentioned sound like power cable colours rather than telecomms cable colours which are usually in pairs like blue / blue - white stripes, green . green - white stripes, so to be safe switch off your electricity at the distribution box first.

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Strip the coloured insulation on both ends of each wire and twist the conductive metal core together, red to red, black to black and green/yellow to green /yellow. then wrap some electricians tape around each to insulate it.
Stripping wire with either a knife or scissors is easy for a smart sort of person. I suggest you buy some wire strippers to avoid the risk of amputating a few fingers.

That's a temporary repair. Call the phone company for a permanent fix. And if you are not sure and don't know anyone who knows their way around an electrical circuit, don't mess around. Call the company and wait.

Good luck.

Answer 3

So I assume you've canceled your alarm service? I don't reckon you should cut the wires, instead you should have just disconnected the wires by unscrewing them.

I canceled my alarm service awhile back, called the customer rep and then had my alarm system disconnected simply by unscrewing 'em, pullin' the wires from its connected bases. My phone was not effected at all.

I'd suggest call your phone company to send a phone technician over to check the problem. They have the know-how to diagnose your phone problem better. Better yet, it's usually free of charge compared to hirin' third party private phone repair technicians.

Answer 4

The alarm system is jacked into your phone system - when you cut the wires, you cut the connection to your phones downwire from that point (which would be your bedroom phones).

Call the phone company - it'll cost you, probably in the range of 100 dollars.

Answer 5

call the phone company to repair it
call the alarm company to repair it
splice the wires back together