Rewire house

I have started a total reno to my 40 year old home. I thought I should investigate my options for communications throughout the house with plenty of lead-time so I don't run into any probs. I'm currently working in the basement with structural, electrical & plbg upgrades.

Now I admit I'm a telecom dummy, so please be easy on me! I have read thru previous posts to acquaint myself as much as possible although I haven't yet read thru all the websites you pro's have recommended.

I have 2 lines coming into the attic, although the second is now disconnected. It seems the second protector(?) wires up to the first. The second line was hooked up for my wife's tele-commute to work, just a single jack in our office. It will (for now) be abandoned but I will wire it up anyway for future. I'm confused as to why the second (newer) protector, or how it can be wired to the first. The first protector has a connector block wired to it with some leads running to jacks & another lead runs to another connector block in the basement to feed the rest of the jacks. The second protector seems to be a double. Is this possible? It also has a small black plastic retangular box wired up to it with 3 wires. Is this some kind of fuse?

I would like to relocate the protectors in the basement. Is it wise to splice the lines to get them to the basement or should I just run a CAT6 lead to a new connector block? I noticed also the one line outside the house is spliced, almost looks like it was done with friction tape.

I was thinking I should probably run CAT6 rather than 5 even tho it's twice the expense. (Wiring for the future). Any comments?

I have only one pc online right now (dial-up) but plan on moving to adsl with a network for my other pc's.

 

Let's start with these "protectors" you're talking about. I think I know what you're talking about, but I want to make sure before we do anything else. A picture would be nice, if you have a digital camera (e-mail me some and I'll post them here - as we still cannot post IMG's straight to the forums.)

If they are bellsouth's interface, you cannot move them inside the house (or, at least, you have to leave one accessible for bellsouth - for service purposes, of course.) Now, the first one (where a big black wire comes to, probably from the ground or from the power lines - depending on how your neighborhood was wired for service - Atlanta varies a lot), this is the one that will need to be accessible by bellsouth. The rest are just for splitters, more than likely, but that remains to be seen. If you have a really old interface (which consists of nothing more than 2 posts and a grounding post (not an actual "Box" outside the house) then the second line was probably wired to another interface. Or they may have disconnected the lines from one interface and put in a new interface or whatever, no telling. So I'm thinking that's why it looks like you have one interface that feeds the other. Technically it does, but this is just for 2-line capacity. Again, this is speculation.

As for the boxes inside the house, they are probably just splitters, to run more jacks without actually having to run the line all the way outside.

Cat6 is definitely overkill. Cat5 is more than suitable for DSL and voice lines. However, it's your house and your money

If you are going to go ahead and rewire all the phone jacks, if you really want to do it right, pull 2 wires to each location. This allows for a phone jack and a network jack. Home run all the wires back to a wiring closet or location. Run 2 wires out to the interface from this location. What this does is allow you to have you incoming lines go to a central location, where all your jacks will branch from. This is structured wiring. It's the only way to do it right. You could also pull Coax (RG6) with it, so that you have Cable Access for computers also. But this is optional. It might not be a bad idea, though, since your cable now is probably not satellite compatible (RG6 or better.) Just a suggestion.

Let me know if you can get some pics of your lines and hardware, and we'll try to figure out what you need to do. Otherwise, I'm right in Atlanta and could setup an appointment to come by and do some consulting on this for you, if you're interested.

Good luck!

 

Hi Brandon, thanks for responding.

I wish I had a digital camera, I keep telling myself to get one, guess I'll just go out & get one.

From your post it sounds to me I have the old interface. Both outside leads come straight off the pole, thru the gable end & terminate at each interface in the attic.

On closer inspection both interfaces are grounded together & they have one pair going off the new interface to the (30 amp connector block as they call it) or splitter that is on the panel board with the old interface. LOL, hope this makes sense.

They have 4 posts used for that pair coming off the new interf., & have tied in black & yellow leads from 3 different wires heading to wall jacks. The rest of the posts on the splitter are fed by the old interface.

Will Bellsouth upgrade this to a box outside for free or is that a stupid question?

Yes, I plan on rewiring everything & would like to do it right. Whoever wired the house did it helter-skelter with daisy-chaining as well. I have to remove quite a bit of wiring for structural upgrades also.

Actually I have some RG6 wired in already for satellite but will want to add more rooms in. What would you recommend rather than RG6?

 

Usually red/green pair is used for the first line. Then black/yellow for the second line. So it sounds like from what you say, is that each interface is a separate line, but it's hard to say. It sounds like they may have wired all the jacks with the second line on the black/yellow wires (just to make it easier later to switch lines at each jack.)

RG6 is sufficient for pretty much anything. I wouldn't change any of it out. And if you run new lines, just use RG6, it's much cheaper than RG6U.