Confessions of a Radio Shack Flunkie
DIY 2-line phone services
Everyone knows that only geeks work at Radio Shack. I should know, I worked as a geek-for-hire for several years. We Radio Shack geeks never ask questions like “will the cable company charge me more for splitting the signal off into my bedroom?” or “will the phone company make me pay extra for receiving faxes?” We know better. (In case you don’t know, you pay the cable company and the phone company for no more than simple services - what you do with each service after it’s reached your house is usually up to you and none of their darn business if you do the work yourself.)
One of the best kept secrets in the phone business is the fact that while most houses in the country are wired with four-wire telephone cable, a standard single phone line only uses TWO wires. So when your kid is addicted to Ultima Online and you’re ready for a second phone line to come into your house, you don’t HAVE to pay extortionate fees to have new jacks for the second line inside your house. You probably already have adequate wiring to all the jacks in your home. All you have to do is have the phone company run the service up to the box (or demarc - short for demarcation) on the outside of your house. Armed with a couple of screwdrivers and some needle-nose pliers, you can take it from there.
If you watch the phone man, you’ll know exactly where the demarc is on your house - or if you recently painted the outside of your house, you probably remember having to paint around the box. All you have to do, once the phone guy is done with his part of the deal, is take the two wires for the new service and connect them to the two unused terminals where your existing phone line is connected. Don’t ask me why it is that the phone box is sealed with a phillips head screw but the phone line terminals use slotted screws - some things are still a mystery, even to Radio Shack Geeks.
The phone wiring in a typical post-50’s home will contain four wires - black, yellow, red, and green. The typical single phone line will use the red and the green wires, while the black and yellow wires just sit there being useless. What you will have to do to enable 2 lines of phone service to all your existing jacks is to connect the red and green incoming service wires of the new phone line to the black and yellow wires on the existing wiring in your home.
To use both lines inside from the same jack, go to Radio Shack and get a 2-line splitter or a “duplex jack.” This splitter will have a modular plug on one end that fits into your existing phone jack, and three modular jacks that you can plug phones into - a jack for line 1, a jack for line 2, and a jack for lines 1 AND 2, just in case you have a 2-line phone. You simply plug one of these splitters into Junior’s phone jack and plug his computer modem into “line 2” and presto - he can play Ultima Online till his internet connection dies or his bed time rolls around…
Oh, when you talk to the phone company about installing a second line, think about how you intend to use the line. In our house, the second line does nothing but make a local call to an ISP. If your second line will have a single simple function like this, be sure to specify when you order it that you require no long distance services, no call-waiting (ew, talk about “game over”) and no other special services that your area phone company might assume everyone wants with a phone line. You can save yourself a few dollars that way.
~ .\\
It’s the first time I commented here and I must say you provide us genuine, and quality information for other bloggers! Good job.
p.s. You have a very good template . Where have you got it from?
I\’m happy I found this blog, I couldnt discover any info on this subject matter prior to. I also run a site and if you want to ever serious in a little bit of guest writing for me if possible feel free to let me know, i\’m always look for people to check out my site. Please stop by and leave a comment sometime!
I like this web blog very much so much fantastic information.
hello, take a look at my personal twitter user profile at http://www.kristenstewart.net/index.php?page=forum&action=profile;u=67935
I’m not able to view this web site correctly on firefox I think there’s a drawback
Thenk you very much
xyxytodwhy.2011
I have not checked in here for a while because I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are really great quality so I guess I will add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend.
Hiya, I am really glad I’ve found this info. Nowadays bloggers publish only about gossip and web stuff and this is actually frustrating. A good site with interesting content, that is what I need. Thanks for making this website, and I will be visiting again. Do you do newsletters? I Can’t find it.
I don’t actually understand how how this is much different between the Daily News printing this or some internet blog. Content like this must to be administered out more to the public. I wish that someone else in the USA would want to take a stance like this.
I know this if off topic but Im looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is required to get set up Im assuming having a blog like
Can I just say what a aid to search out someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know tips on how to convey an issue to mild and make it important. Extra folks must read this and understand this aspect of the story. I cant believe youre not more fashionable since you undoubtedly have the gift.
Generally I don’t learn article on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very pressured me to take a look at and do so! Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thank you, very nice article.
I needed to put you the little bit of observation so as to thank you very much over again for all the pleasing knowledge you’ve shared on this website. It has been so seriously open-handed with people like you to make freely just what a lot of people could have marketed for an e-book to end up making some cash on their own, specifically given that you could have done it in case you desired. These principles also acted as the easy way to be sure that many people have the identical keenness similar to my personal own to know the truth lots more with reference to this issue. I believe there are many more pleasurable periods in the future for individuals that read carefully your blog.
I really appreciated your viewpoints on this topic. Thank you for pointing this out to us. Do you have anymore essays like this one?
Hello, Neat post. There’s an issue with your website in web explorer, may check this… IE nonetheless is the marketplace leader and a huge section of other folks will omit your excellent writing due to this problem.