Would someone please decipher these phone cables?

[John Smith]

Would someone please decipher these phone cables?

There are four cables going into the phone box. One of the cables' blue/dot blue conductors is terminated with a plug and plugged into a jack. This cable's orange/dot orange conductors is spliced with the blue/dot blue conductors of the other three cables. There are more than 9 jacks in the house and all jacks work.

I opened two wall plates and found only one cable in the box. Thus, these two are not daisy-chained. I assume there is one more such box somewhere.

What's going on here? Why is orange/dot orange spliced with blue/dot blue? And how come those three cables still work (can dial in and out) when they seem not plugged into the phone box? Thanks.

[LdB]

Typically the first line in a house (line 1) is on the White/Blue pair. A second line (line 2) on the White/Orange pair. Could there have been two lines in the house at one time? The second line was removed and the jacks wired on line 2, the orange pair were connected to line one. That would extend dial tone to all the jacks without having to go around to every jack to switch over to the Blue pair.

There could be tap connections made anywhere in the house where the wire is accessible. There are likely a few daisy chained jacks as well.

Or

The jacks were wired/connected by a hack.

Telephone require two conductors to work. The color of the insulation is irrelevant. If everything works and you don't want to make any changes then just close up the box before you break something.

LdB

[Mr.E]

The first cable blue may feed a security system and return on the orange to feed the other line 1 jacks.

[DA]

My money is on Mr. E's guess. The first box must be feeding a security panel somewhere in the house. The security panel needs to be able to interrupt calls on any of the other jacks in the house if it needs to call the security company's monitoring center, so all other jacks have to be wired through that first one.

------------------------------------- /\_/\ ((@v@)) NIGHT ():::() OWL VV-VV

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, Do we know if the house has security system? Security box has one connection to phone line.

[aemeijers]

Even if it USED to have one, alarm company might not bother to rip out the line seizure jack if they de-install the control box. Or the place could have been 'prewired for security system' as a feature. Only costs a few bucks while the walls are open, and the builder gets a kickback from any residents that actually sign up.

While one wire, it is actually 2 connections- POTS in, and then back out on a second pair to the rest of the house. The little beige box by the alarm box is NOT the same as the normal phone jacks.

I second what somebody else said- if all the jacks work, leave well enough alone, and go buy a DIY telephone wiring book if they are curious.

[Tony Hwang]

>> snipped-for-privacy@totally.>>>

My house has ADT system. If I want to disconnect, I just remove RJ plug from the box. I never saw alarm company removing deactivated system. Right when all is well, leave it alone. I never lived in an old house. Always have set of blue print which shows all matters. If I do something, I put a note on the print. When I sell the house and move, I give it to the next owner.

[The Daring Dufas]

Someone already mentioned the possibility of an alarm system, if so, there is a special jack called an "RJ31X" somewhere in a closet or basement. The phone line is fed to the jack then back to all the phones in the house. The purpose of the jack is to switch the phones lines back to the phones in case of alarm system malfunction. The lines are switched back when you unplug the alarm system from the RJ31X.

TDD