outside light switch?

Question

its been a long time since my dad put a light switch in but just last week we just put in a light switch in for the back porch light (outside) its running on 2 seperate outlets and but when we turn the light switch on it works then on the off, it trip the breaker on the breaker box off. how do i help my dad with it?
is the light switch suppost to have a 2 gold screw for the wire or just copper and silver? the wire also have a ground too but we have to use one wire and connect other ground around it because it wouldnt fit in the ground screw.


*** we checked the light,wire,breaker,outlets*** so nothing is broken.

Here is the discription what i meant,,,,from breaker to outlet-to light switch-to light,,,from outlet box conected to the light switch to other outlet. all using black,white and ground.

so what i seeing from these answers are that u connect the power from the breaker (white directly to the light)? then (black to the switch ? then from Black wire switch connect to the light?

Answer 1

The light switch should have two gold or copper colored terminals and you install it in between two black wires...one coming from power or outlet and one going to the light. The white wires just get wirenutted together and ground wires get connected to ground terminals on the switch, outlet and light.
Never connect white or ground wires to the black wire or hook them up to any copper or gold colored terminals for the switch or outlet.

Answer 2

Your electrical box should have 2 white and 2 black as well as 2 ground wires. The whites get hooked together , The black wires go to the switch, and the grounds to the box,. You may have a situation where this is a 3 way switch setup with another light switch also controlling the outside light. In that case look here http://www.handymanwire.com/articles/3wayswitch.html