Clarification on Telephone Wiring Terms

The internal wire maintenance will take care of fixing any internal problems with your wiring, but it generally does not cover running new cable unless there was physical damage or something to that effect. Wade told me that it was quite a hornets nest in your basement. If you find someone to re-wire your home to the ingress it's pretty likely our in-home wiring maintenance plan will cover re-tying that to the drop. Our normal charge is $30/hour, I believe.

Unfortunately I do not know the lingo. What is the ingress and what is the drop? Are they saying they don't do in-home wiring and that I need to do it myself or hire another? I really just want to know what those two words are referring to.

Reply to
GG.and.UN.
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"Ingress" in this context means where their external wire (the "drop") physically enters the house -- through the basement wall, a hole through a wall, stuck in through a window, whatever...

What they're saying is you get a new wire run to where it is accessible to where their current wire is in their junction box ("drop"), then they'll hook it up for nothing extra beyond your maintenance fee. Anything beyond that they'll charge $30/hr for however long it takes...

Reply to
dpb

Dump the wire maintenance fee are replace the wire yourself. It's not really that hard. You mentioned ADSL as well. Get some riser rated Cat5 cable, a Leviton Bridged 1x9 phone module, and a Levition whole house DSL filter.

These products can be seen here:

1x9 module:
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DSL Splitter:
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Find a good place in your basement to mount these two boards and work from there. Bring a new line with new wire from your NID (phone box) outside, connecting to it using the blue and blue/white wires in the Cat5 cable. Run the new wire to the DSL filter board, then to the 1x9 bridged phone module. Then pull home runs of Cat5 cable from locations throughout the house to the 1x9 phone module and connect there, always using the blue blue/white wires. Do not cut off the other 6 wires in the bundle, wrap them around out of the way and keep them. They may be needed as replacement or extra lines in the future.

I wired my whole house for phone exactly as described as above, and it works fantastic. It was great the get rid of all those stupid little DSL filters I had around the house. This is easier to do if your computer network and phone network all together in an enclosure. If that's too hard to do, at least pull the home runs and use the 1x9 phone module or 66 block.

Good Luck!!

Reply to
J.A. Michel

module:

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Splitter:

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Thanks very much guys - J.A. I was thinking of just doing it with Cat5 too! Thank you for your wonderful description - I won't get to it in the next week but it looks like that's what I'll be doing as I have

1000 ft of Cat6 laying here and I recently purchased some Levington parts to redo my LAN through the walls... looks like I'll just extend that to the entire house. I'm sure I'll have questions for you so stay tuned!
Reply to
GG.and.UN.

J.A.

Do I get

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Thanks!

Reply to
GG.and.UN.

I pay the monthly maintenance fee and had a problem with static on our voice line. The phone company came in and rewired the whole interior of the house for nothing. Did a beautiful job and labeled everything. I have DSL that runs consistently over 1Mb/s, so whatever they did worked. If you're paying that monthly maintenance fee, I'd press them a little harder.

Reply to
MarkL

Congratulations. I was 8th in Latin once, but nothing recently.

So it genereally doesn't cover running new cable, and it seems that right now they aren't willing to repair your current cable. So what does the internal wire maintenance charge cover??

And even this is only LIKELY? I thought this part was required even if you don't have maintenance (This part I'm not sure of, but internal maintenance is supposed to cover more than just this one chore.)

How long have you been paying this fee?

I once had an extra listing in the phone book for a dollar a month. I didn't look at it, and found it was backwards 2 1/2 years after I got it. They fixed the listing and gave me my 30 dollars back.

I think you should tell thenm that it's their obligation to fix it, and see if they can prove youre wrong.

There a loads of hornets nests. They only have to concern themselves with the phone wires. They do it all the time. (Note: I've never actually pursuied an argument, or even had one, with the phone company)

Reply to
mm

Thanks for the responses guys... I'll likely just redo everything with Cat6/Cat5e cable... I like the sound of that.

I am on very good terms with the phone company business-relationship- wise so I would like not to complain or fuss too much... I will if I have to (and already slightly have since my last post) but rewiring everything with Cat6/Cat5e cable sounds too fun to pass up.

Reply to
GG.and.UN.

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Depends. The items you have shown are the same, the only difference is one version comes with the mounting bracket, and the other doesn't. If you are using a Leviton Structured Media panel, then use the one with the bracket. The bracket allows you to snap them directly into the panel. If you're not their media panel, then there's no reason to pay extra for the bracket.

When I did my house, I fabricated my own Structured Media panel. I ran Computer Network, Internet Access, Phone, and Satellite TV all to the panel I had constructed. It makes a nice, easy modular system to configure once it's done. If you ever need to new phone or network location, you just pull a new homerun to the panel. Easy. Email me at: jm44316 (at) alltel dot net, and I will send you photos of my structured media panel.

Reply to
J.A. Michel
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Not much!!

IMHO, most interior wiring coverage by telcos is a waste of money. (1) There rarely is any problem with internal wiring that would require their repair, and (2) In the event a problem does come up, the homeowner or a local electrician should be able to fix things. My recent experience with this "service" reinforces my opinion.

Our telephone service includes interior wiring repair in the bill. The fine print says they won't work in hazardous areas. The fine print doesn't tell you they've defined attics as hazardous areas and won't work in attics -- which, of course, is where all of the telephone lines are. So if you have an interior wiring problem in your attic, they won't work on it.

All they will do is run a replacement line around the outside of the house to the room with the problem, then drill a hole through the exterior wall (concrete block) into the room. They also were not concerned with aesthetics and weren't going to do anything to conceal the exterior wire or either side of the entry into the house.

Unfortunately, this "service" is now bundled with the local telephone service (with an increase in the base price) so there is no way I can drop this useless expense -- we need the landline for several reasons, including the fact that cell service is intermittent at this location.

Reply to
JimR

You can't drop the line maint. fee? It is optional in our area. I don't pay it.

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Reply to
J.A. Michel

Dang

I guess I should check my bill.

They want to sell me interior wiring maintenance for my cell phone.

I tell them there are no wires, but they keep calling.

Reply to
mm

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