Telephone Outlet in House

[Quicklier]

Hi all,
I've just moved house and have almost finished setting up the study.
Telstra don't have any ports left for me at the local Preston exchange so i have to wait a few weeks to get my ADSL setup.

My problem is that I only have a point in the bedroom and kitchen, nothing in the study (that's live anyway). There is a connection there, but it's dead and was on a seperate number (previous tenants).

Is there anyway that I can connect the existing connection in the study to my main line? I don't want to run a 25m cable around door joins.

I spoke to Telstra and they told me to have a look and see if I could do it myself. They quoted $200 to get the job done (std call out fee).

Any telco guys out there that can help?

[Tote]

unless you have fancy external bells and old phones you can just connect the extension socket in parallel. You will have to install filters for your ADSL anyway so just run the other phone socket from the "phone" port on your ADSL filter.
Regards,
Tote

[Quicklier]

Originally Posted by Tote

unless you have fancy external bells and old phones you can just connect the extension socket in parallel. You will have to install filters for your ADSL anyway so just run the other phone socket from the "phone" port on your ADSL filter.
Regards,
Tote

But this would involve running a phone extension cable from an existing "live" port. There is only one in the kitchen and bedroom. I really don't want to run cable around doors.

I want to make the dead port, live. Surely there would be wires coming into the house somewhere, do they normally come via a distribution box? I've never fettled with phones before.

[EA2BA]

depends on the wires, pull out all the ports and check whats behind them, more then likely the other port is just paired off one of the others at one of the points.

[falcon91]

Originally Posted by Quicklier

But this would involve running a phone extension cable from an existing "live" port. There is only one in the kitchen and bedroom. I really don't want to run cable around doors.

I want to make the dead port, live. Surely there would be wires coming into the house somewhere, do they normally come via a distribution box? I've never fettled with phones before.

Mine has a phone outlet junction box (If that's what they are called) in the roof. It's a matter of getting up there finding the 'dead line' and joining it to the 'live line'. The wiring is easy. You need someone at the 'dead' end with a phone plugged in and you up in the roof with the wires. When you hit the correct connection sequence. they will get a dial tone. There is not that many sequences for the wires to go. The normal telecom guys just carry a orange handset thing with them. Because you don't have that, then thats what I would do. (What I would really do is get a non telecom guy out of the yellow pages to do it)

[Quicklier]

Originally Posted by EA2BA

depends on the wires, pull out all the ports and check whats behind them, more then likely the other port is just paired off one of the others at one of the points.

I checked with Telstra when I moved in. There used to be 2 lines running to the house. Some sort of modem+phone or fax+phone setup more than likely. Surely the lines would run to the same point at the house, then make their way out to each wall socket on their own.

i'll have a look though, the wires might have fallen out?!

[Quicklier]

Originally Posted by falcon91

Mine has a phone outlet junction box (If that's what they are called) in the roof. It's a matter of getting up there finding the 'dead line' and joining it to the 'live line'. The wiring is easy. You need someone at the 'dead' end with a phone plugged in and you up in the roof with the wires. When you hit the correct connection sequence. they will get a dial tone. There is not that many sequences for the wires to go. The normal telecom guys just carry a orange handset thing with them. Because you don't have that, then thats what I would do. (What I would really do is get a non telecom guy out of the yellow pages to do it)

Interesting... The house is only 12 years old, so would probably have it all up in the roof. The phone bit is easy, I've got a cordless! The ceilings are pretty high, so I'd probably need a ladder or something to get up in the roof and have a look. I'll check the yp's tonight and see who's in the area.

[EL XR8]

PM Sent

[WILDTRAKPX2]

go wireless

[eminvil_12]

Yeh go wireless if your setting up adsl/broadband.

Buy a wireless router and wireless pci card for the pc and you will be fine, just make sure to set the WEP/WAP key, nothing worse than geeks sitting out the front using it all :P

Dont invest in a Netgear branded router either, out of 4 of them, they have all had problems losing the signal. Link sys are good.

[Sprint_ED]

the IDF (thing in ur roof) whould have a few lines in and a few lines out ull find 2 lines (the ones u currently have running) jumpered onto one of the lines comming in, if jumper the third one going out to the first line it should fire up, but it depeds how its wired there could be a main box and a another box somewhere else, it depends on how lazy the telstra tech was on the day

[Blue Ice]

Amazing Telstra advised you to do it yourself, they usually crack the whoops if anyone touches their infrastructure other than themselves.

[Scott]

Find the end of your dead cable, find junction either in the roof, under the floor or at your first phone point and connect the blue to the blue's and the white to the white's. Will work fine. (doesn't really matter about the polarity).

[ronwest]

Originally Posted by eminvil_12

Dont invest in a Netgear branded router either, out of 4 of them, they have all had problems losing the signal. Link sys are good.

funny, I've been involved with setting up at least a dozen Netgear routers and none have had a prob... and yes, Linksys is also very good.

In any event, some objective reviews from Darren over at Ozcableguy's:-

http://www.ozcableguy.com/routers.html

[Sprint_ED]

ive had one netger die on me have never had one thing go wrong with a linksys product, i install things like this for a living

[Dean C]

Go wireless its awesome & hassle free

[ronwest]

Originally Posted by Sprint_ED

i install things like this for a living

now that's interesting... do you mind if I pm you regarding a mate who wants to load share a cable and adsl connection?

I haven't done it before but the info he's got is that a Snapgear (can't rem the model) is the way to go.

[Bluefreak]

Originally Posted by eminvil_12

Dont invest in a Netgear branded router either, out of 4 of them, they have all had problems losing the signal. Link sys are good.

Funny how different peeps have different experiences... 3 Linksys failures and finally got my money back, bought a netgear and it has been solid for just over 12 months...(touch wood)

[WILDTRAKPX2]

I use Netgear, no problems at all.

I'd be inclined to go wireless at home, but we've got over 4 computers on a wired LAN and when transferring large files it can often take double the time over a wired connection using wireless.

If its just for net connection definatly go wireless. This way you can tap the ADSL line as close as you can to the phone line entrance to the house and minimise loss of speed(and interferance noise) that would normally happen putting in a modem at the back of the house.

If you still prefer wired, pull out the old socket, and hope that the cable in there has 4 wires. unhook 2 of them and rehook the other 2.

[vegabass]

I’m surprised they even offered a tech out there, anything from the fence line is your responsibility, you need an aca licensed technician to wire it for you. If you’re found to have dodgy wiring which causes a fault then Telstra will charge for the full repair of the problem (even if it’s a fault from the fence line to the exchange)

Telstra won’t dig pits anymore because they could fall in and if there is water in it they could drown! Don’t laugh that’s what I was told in my 6 weeks training before I started working for them!

Originally Posted by vegabass

I’m surprised they even offered a tech out there, anything from the fence line is your responsibility, you need an aca licensed technician to wire it for you. If you’re found to have dodgy wiring which causes a fault then Telstra will charge for the full repair of the problem (even if it’s a fault from the fence line to the exchange)

Telstra won’t dig pits anymore because they could fall in and if there is water in it they could drown! Don’t laugh that’s what I was told in my 6 weeks training before I started working for them!

Can we see Telstra issued safety floaties to overcome this problem!

[Black XR6]

Id like to also say, dont get your broad band with telstra.

That is all!

[S3SR]

have u tried the option of VOIP u can have about 3 phones on different numbers on the one line and it costs about .9 cents flat rate

[megsy]

can you get under the house? i would just buy some cable and run it through the floor under the live point and back up through the floor to the dead point. as long as you match the colours at both ends it will work. ive done it a few times just be careful and connect it up really tightly, and check it when your finished by,

1. can you ring out.
and 2. can you ring in.

if you can do both of those it's wired up correctly

oh and if you have to cut wires ty to use proper connectors or you will find the adsl wont work

[Quicklier]

Don't worry all, I'm certainly not going to fall into the BigPond... I could drown with all that download limit! I've signed with dodo on a 12 monther, my exchange is on the list to be upgrade to ADSL2+, so I'll have to evaluate the costings again once I'm out of contract.

As for the phone, I'm going to get up in the roof and see where the cabling runs. If it all runs to one distribution box, I'll just fettle with the wires until I'm happy.

I understand you have to be an electrician to install telephone sockets. You technically have to be one to change a downlight globe too.

[EL XR8]

You don't need to be an Electrician to wore and connect Phone points, etc.
Just need to have an AUSTEL licence. Most sparkies will have one, but there's still a number of them that don't.
Technically you don't need to be an electrician to change a downlight globe, as you're only playing with the 12V side, unless you have the shocking GU10 240V downlights...

Originally Posted by EL XR8

Just need to have an AUSTEL licence.

not an austel license anymore, its be registered with a registrar such as titab, biski or (there is another one)

Originally Posted by vegabass

I was told in my 6 weeks training before I started working for them!

welcome to the team...


(although 6 weeks traing, damn, I did a 4 year apprenticeship plus lots of ongoing training)