no phone jacks in home!needhelp...?

Question

okay so my husband and i recently moved into our home but omg it has no phone jacks anywhere! so yesterday ATT came and turned on thephone thing for the dsl and hes like u can connect the pohne like outside to the gray box cause u have no phone jacks and hes like we charge $150 per jack to be installed and omg were 19-22 years of age with a baby we dont have money to spend on a phone jack u know, so is it possible to install one without one being in ur home already?? thanks for the answers

yeah we own the house so we will just do the wiring and kristin omg do not tell me not to have anymore kids!whatever. dsl is like 15 bucks a month chill out i just dont wnana throw away 150 bucks on a phone jack if its not necessary !

okay calm down u dont make sense at all, putting a block of cheese to ur head, and quit being ghetto by saying tweeking! so stupid! oh God whatever, n yeah u did offend me cause i dont have the cell glued to me and yeah i shouldnt even explain myself so whatever

Answer 1

This is EASY :)

Yes, the phone company charges WAYYY too much to do this.

You can purchase a phone jack for just a few dollars, at any hardware or building supply store. Same goes for phone wire. Some folks will even use CAT5 wire, instead of "phone wire" because it transmits computer signals a bit better.

First thing to decide is where do you want your jack. Which room, and which type do you want? You can get one that mounts in the wall, like an electrical wall outlet, or you can get a "modular" jack, which simply mounts on the surface of the wall... it is a small square box, about 1.5" square. The "modular" jack is the easiest to install. They come in white and almond colors.

Once you know where you want to locate the jack, then you need to run a wire from it to the 'grey box' outside. It is often easiest to run this wire under the floor. If you have a basement or crawlspace, this is how I would do it. You can purchase phone wire, or CAT5 wire in various lengths. You do NOT need any special adapters, or connectors on them.. just the wire.

A drill bit, of about 3/8" or 1/2" diameter is large enough to pass the wire through easily, and you can seal any opening with a little silicone to prevent the weather from getting in.

This method here, will assume you will use a MODULAR jack:

Drill a hole in the floor at the baseboard, where you will install the jack. Next drill a hole in the exterior wall, below the "grey box". Run your wire from the "grey box" to inside the home, leave a little excess, to make it easier to work on. You can use a "wire" staple to hole the phone wire in place along the underside of floor joists, and to anchor it to the outside wall. (I like to make a small loop, in the wire, that hangs BELOW the drilled hole.... this lets any rain that collects on the wire, follow the wire to the loop BELOW the drilled hole, and drip off the wire, rather than running down the wire, and INTO the hole)

Pop the cover off the modular jack, and strip the cover off the wire (about a half inch of expose wire works well, and about 3/4 of an inch of the outer jacket of the wire, so you can move the individually colored wires around easier) Match each color wire to the same colored screw -- red to red, green to green, black to black, etc. Tighten the screw on each to hold the wire in place between the little washers. Now you can attach the modular jack to the wall, either by running a screw thru the hole in the jack for that purpose, or with double stick tape (both provided with the jack).

Now go outside to the "greybox".... one side of which, you can undo a screw, to get into. It will most likely say "customer side". Run your wire up thru the hole in the bottom of it, and follow the same steps as when you attached the wires to the modular jack.... red to red, green to green, black to black, etc., again, tightening each screw to hold the wire between the small washers on each screw. Once you have the wires in place and tightened, you can close the lid, and lock it back in place.

That's it! you're all set and ready to go.

The DSL should have a 'filter' to attach to the phone jack, so that regular phone calls, answering machines, fax machines etc, do not interfere with the dsl signal. You can use the phone at the same time as you use the dsl.

While you are at it -- run some phone wire to other modular jacks in other rooms, for convenience! I ran jacks to my kitchen, bedrooms, living room AND home office. I use my first jack (closest to the 'grey box' outside, to connect my computers with the dsl modem, shortest distance for the most critical signal to travel that way), and then run my other phone jacks on other wires from the grey box to modular jacks to other rooms in the house. You can run a wire from one jack to another, without necessarily running all the wires to the grey box outside.

This is an easy project to do yourself, if you have a drill and a screwdriver.

Now -- If you had decided to run the wire into a "wall jack" (one of those jacks that is in the wall like an electrical outlet), then you would have had to run the wire up inside the wall, and cut a hole in the dry wall, to mount the plate. A little more work, but it does give a more 'finished' look to it.

Have Fun

Answer 2

The guys here are all correct: an Ethernet Jack is usually bigger than a phone jack and you can't fit an Ethernet plug into a phone jack. What ultimately counts is, what the thing is connected to on the other side. You may well find that you Ethernet jack is just a left-over from when your college didn't have a wireless network and it isn't connected to anything anymore. Plugging your Ethernet into the phone line isn't possible (it's too big) plus, it wouldn't buy you anything: chances are, it's connected to a phone system rather than to any kind of computer network.

Answer 3

Ponex Broadband sells a device that plugs into a regular wall outlet that also has a jack, it is called "Easy Jack" part # PX-441. You might look on Craigslist for a handyman, usually (in my area) they charge about $25 per jack. If it is an old house, the installation may be a little difficult. Congrats on the new house and the baby!

Answer 4

Go to the hardware or big box store and tell them you want outdoor telephone wire. You will have to measure for length, 1 length per line or phone jack. A line with no splices is easier to trouble shoot if you should have problems later on. Also buy the number of phone jacks you need that screw directly to the wall or baseboard. Drill holes where you want the jacks at, be careful for electrical or any other lines where your going to drill. Now snake wire through the hole in wall the run wire around the outside of the house to Grey telephone box. Tacking up with staples as you go. Push wire through the bottom of box there should be a black rubber area for the wires to go into the box. Now go in the house and connect the wires to the phone jack and screw to wall. Connect red wire to red lead on jack and green wire to green lead on jack. Now go back outside to Grey telephone box and connect red to red and green to green. Then caulk holes where wires enter the house. This is an exterior installation. I have done several homes this way.

Answer 5

Buy the long extension cords at the Dollar Store then plug one end into that outside gray box (it is just like a phone jack only it is outside) then run the extension inside.
You can buy little plug like things to make your extensions even longer, just take a look at all the stuff there at the Dollar Store. Or go first to the expensive place and ask what you need to do that, then go buy it at the Dollar Store.

Answer 6

in my entire life of contracting I have NEVER seen a home with no phone jacks... I would look again to see if you have some....check the wires in the basement or from the box to inside the house to see where they go......either way it costs about $5 for a phone jack to wire up and run the wires yourself

Answer 7

You can get one of the phone systems that have a base phone and the satellite phones. The base phone would go into the router and the others would work off of it. Not really expensive. We have Vonage and don't use any of the phone jacks.

Answer 8

If you are renting I would ask my landlord t install them. If not you can chek into VOiP...but it isn't ver dependable. If your cable goes out, you have no phone...so you'll need a back-up cell or something. That's all I can suggest.

Answer 9

It's not that difficult if you have the wires existing already.
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