Rewiring Your Home Phone System?

the_2nd_coming asks: "Back when I moved into my house, the phone system was in need of immediate upgrade. The house was built in 1964, and it still had the original spaghetti phone lines running through the walls. The phone jacks were in odd places, and to top it all off, the line would melt after I would dial up to my ISP. I took immediate and drastic action. I pulled all the phone wires out of the walls, patched over the holes where the jacks use to be, and started drilling. I bought 2000 feet of Cat5 (I was going to be putting in a home network in the future). A day later, I was cursing and bitching because the old phone system used a 3 screw junction box to connect the house to the phone company, making it very difficult to have multiple jacks.What is the best way to rewire my phone system so that adding an extra 2 or 3 jacks would not be such a chore?"

"I eventually got all the wires hooked up, but very poorly due to the shoddy junction box. Since then I have added a phone jack, and will be adding 2 more in preparation for DirecTV service. My problem is that I did not set up the system to be expandable: just adding one jack was a hack job, and with 2 more on the way I have decided it is time to rewire this system with expandability in mind. I have looked around at Home Depot and Radio Shack, but all their solutions seem sub-par."

Comments

Cell phone.

[Feztaa]

Just get a cell phone, and don't worry about the wiring. Wireless router too, then you don't have to worry about the cat5 for your local network :)

Re:Connecting blocks and wiring tips

[Dun Malg]

Gotcha... although I certainly don't have a drill bit long enough for this -- probably need a 6-8 inch bit to drill from the top of the baseboard down at an angle, through the floorboards.

Man, you gotta get one then. It makes the job so much easier. Electrical suppliers often carry them. Get one like 12"-16" long. Your original post talks about putting the wire in the chuck, but I really don't see hanger wire drilling through plywood

You'd be surprised. I've been installing phone and network wire for years, and that's one of the first tricks my boss showed me. The end of the wire gets a pinty chisel shape from cutting it with dikes, and this kinda compacts the wood to the sides as it goes. It'll also go right through drywall or plaster.