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From: John on 9 Jul 2010 13:07
Hello,

I'm an amateur when it comes to repairing things.

I have static on my phone line and called the phone company. They came
out and everything is ok at the NID outside. I have located the jack
with the problem. It's a jacks that my DSL and phone like connect to.
I swapped DSL filters and that is not the problem. I then plugged in
the phone line directly into the jack and I hear static. I want to
check or replace the jack, but I don't know how hard this would be. I
heard that there are 4 wires only that need to be undone and
reattached to the phone jack.

Questions:

Do the wires just screw into the jack or are they soldered?

Is there any issue with electricity or anything? Meaning do I need to
turn off a breaker or is not needed.

How hard is it for me to replace a jack?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
From: Tom Biasi on 9 Jul 2010 13:39

"John" <stepri(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:bple361bbefuffqejlpi26fikohf81452r(a)4ax.com...
> Hello,
>
> I'm an amateur when it comes to repairing things.
>
> I have static on my phone line and called the phone company. They came
> out and everything is ok at the NID outside. I have located the jack
> with the problem. It's a jacks that my DSL and phone like connect to.
> I swapped DSL filters and that is not the problem. I then plugged in
> the phone line directly into the jack and I hear static. I want to
> check or replace the jack, but I don't know how hard this would be. I
> heard that there are 4 wires only that need to be undone and
> reattached to the phone jack.
>
> Questions:
>
> Do the wires just screw into the jack or are they soldered?
>
> Is there any issue with electricity or anything? Meaning do I need to
> turn off a breaker or is not needed.
>
> How hard is it for me to replace a jack?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!

The four wires are color coded and the jack will have the colors indicated
near the screw terminals.
The danger of electrical shock is very low. If the phone rings when you are
across the line you may get a little buzz.
How hard will it be for you to do this? I don't know you but it is a low
difficulty repair.

Tom


From: Tim Wescott on 9 Jul 2010 15:17
On 07/09/2010 10:07 AM, John wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm an amateur when it comes to repairing things.
>
> I have static on my phone line and called the phone company. They came
> out and everything is ok at the NID outside. I have located the jack
> with the problem. It's a jacks that my DSL and phone like connect to.
> I swapped DSL filters and that is not the problem. I then plugged in
> the phone line directly into the jack and I hear static. I want to
> check or replace the jack, but I don't know how hard this would be. I
> heard that there are 4 wires only that need to be undone and
> reattached to the phone jack.
>
> Questions:
>
> Do the wires just screw into the jack or are they soldered?

Not soldered. Residential style jacks have screw terminals; there are
some commercial style modular jacks but unless your house was wired by a
nutcase* you won't have that.

> Is there any issue with electricity or anything? Meaning do I need to
> turn off a breaker or is not needed.

Phone lines are separately powered from your house electricity. That's
why, if you have an old-style "POTS" phone, it'll still work when the
power goes out.

There's about 48V standing on the line, which only hurts if you
accidentally stick yourself with two wires (I've worked on phones often
enough to do that, for my sins). Even then it only hurts, but doesn't
harm. Ring voltage is 120V, so you'll feel it with a vengence.

If it worries you, unplug the phone at the entrance jack.

> How hard is it for me to replace a jack?

For _you_? I don't know -- I've seen the stuff of horror stories done
by beginners.

You can't screw up anything permanently beyond that one jack -- the
worst you could do would be to grab the cable and manage to pull it out
of the wall, hard enough to damage your in-house wiring. You'd almost
have to do that on purpose, though. Even shorting the wires together
won't damage anything; it'll just bring down your phone service until
you figure it out.

Go slow, put everything back the way you found it, and you should be OK.

Note that your problem is a loose connection that may not be at the jack
-- replace the jack, try it out, and if you still have a problem you'll
need to find the other end of the wire (there's probably a break-out
block close to the house entry point) and check connections there.

> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!

* I have those, so I can put a bazzilion jacks in at each station -- but
I'm widely recognized as a nutcase.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
From: John on 9 Jul 2010 15:24

>Note that your problem is a loose connection that may not be at the jack
>-- replace the jack, try it out, and if you still have a problem you'll
>need to find the other end of the wire (there's probably a break-out
>block close to the house entry point) and check connections there.
>

Is there break out box NID safe to disconnect and reconnect wires at?

Any electrical issues there?


From: John on 9 Jul 2010 16:02
I noticed a small grey plastic box that is near the NID. Is that the
external phone line box?

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