Telephone Junction Box

This type of junction box can accommodate up to four telephones per line.

Today, I posted several facts about the junction box and made an illustration of a common type that is readily available in most hardware stores.The illustration shows how the wires inside the box are connected. 

The following are some basic facts that can help you wire your telephone:

• The telephone junction box is the hub where all telephone wires inside your home converge.
• Its main function is to act as a hub that will distribute telephone power and signals to telephone jacks inside your home.
• The junction box is used if you want to install more than one telephone jack in a single telephone line. 
• You do not have to install the box if you only need one telephone inside your home. You can simply connect the wire running from the NID directly to the telephone jack.
• The telephone cable from the NID runs into the junction box where telephone wires are screwed onto similar colored terminals.
• To connect a telephone jack to the junction box, run the cable from the jack into the box, then screw the wires at the end of the cable to terminals with the same color inside the junction box.  

Telephone Jack - How to Wire It

A surface mount telephone jack can be wired in ten minutes by connecting all similar color wires together.

1. Open the Network Interface Device (NID), or small grey box mounted on a wall just outside your home. 
2. Unplug the short telephone cable from its jack inside the NID. Unplugging the jack will disconnect the telephone company wires from your household wires and make it safe for you to touch the wires.
3. Remove the telephone jack cover.
4. Loosen the terminal screws on the jack counterclockwise, then connect each wire coming from the telephone cable onto each terminal by wrapping the wire clockwise onto a terminal having same color.
5. Tighten each screw and replace the jack cover.

Tips:

       A single line (Line 1) telephone uses a green and a red wire.

       The second line (Line 2) uses a black and a yellow wire.

Things Needed:

• Screwdriver

Reference:  Danny Lipford: How to Install a Phone Jack

                   Top Bits: How to Install Telephone Wiring

How to Know If the Line Coming from the Telephone Company is Working.

1. Find the Network Interface Device (NID) mounted on a wall just outside your home. The NID is a small grey or tan plastic box where the cable coming from the utility pole runs into. 
2. Open the device and look inside the NID for the short telephone cable (about two inches long) plugged into a telephone jack. 
3. Unplug the short cable from its jack. 
4. Get a working telephone and plug the telephone into the jack.
5. Listen for a dial tone. No dial tone is indicative of a problem with the telephone company line. Call the telephone company and report the problem if there is no dial tone.

   Tips:

   Check the telephone you’re using to make sure it is working. You can plug the telephone to a neighbors jack to make sure it is working. 

Reference:

 Michigan.gov: Checking the phone at the Network Interface Device (NID)