atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services T1's, CSU's and DSU's Can a noob do inside wiring for T1?

I hope that the forum members allow non-techs to post here. If this is a private place I apologize.

I live in rural Southern Indiana and I finally got tired of having lousy wireless broadband. I ordered a T1 from AT&T and just had my technical interview.

My house is 3 years old. I suspect that it has 4 pairs installed to the NID (This is the the box outside my house?)

I have two voice lines now, but once the T1 is installed I will cancel at least one of them right away.

When I placed the order with AT&T, I told them I would do my own inside wiring. I've been thinking and reading this forum and I'm wondering if I need to have a professional do it.

I've done plenty of Cat5 cabling and terminating. I make my own cat-5 patch cables. I wired my basement phone jacks with no problem.

Is T1 really different? I imagined that the installer (verizon) would bring the 2 extra pairs to my NID and then those pairs would be available at all of the jacks in my house (the builder didn't do home runs). It was my idea that I would just take those two pairs, install an extra jack, and hook that up to my router.

Am I crazy or close or none of the above?

Thanks for any help. I have a call into the AT&T P.M. in case I need to order inside wiring service.

Art

Art:

Chances are, they will terminate your T1 in an outdoor NID. This NID will provide you with an RJ48X jack. If you wire a straight-through cable using the 568A or B wiring plan (same at both ends of course), then you should be fine.

I assure you that the telco will not connect your new circuit to the other pairs in your existing building wiring. They will leave it outside at best. Regardless, that is bad practice anyway to loop a T1 circuit from outlet to outlet in a residence. Forget about using the existing wiring, seriously.

You really should install a home-run cable and terminate this cable on a true RJ48X jack at the equipment end to keep it proper.

Using existing pre-wiring in a new home wired by electricians is not worth even trying to use. You need to route the T1 circuit via a clean cable run to your channel bank or router.

Oh, and:

Keep in mind that the RJ48x jack is not ethernet. You will have to provide and configure (according to the service provided) a channel bank or CSU/DSU. That will provide for your ethernet into your router and phone lines (if you have phone lines on the T1).

-Hal

Thanks for all the replies.

So on my side of the NID I will have a jack that I can plug into and run it to where my CSU/DSU is? That's easy enough.

I'll just need to find a drill bit long enough to get through my exterior brick wall and get the guts to drill it into the basement. :toast:

Yes, you will be provided with an RJ48X jack on the customer side of the NID.

Thanks again.

I just received my "Customer Confirmation Document". Soon I might have an install date.

If you're going to extend from the NID much more than 10 to 15 feet, you'll want to keep the Tx pair separate from the Rx pair. Either with two lengths of Cat5 cable, or a single length of cable where the two pairs are individually shielded.

I know that is the right way to do it...but at my HS, for example, they ran the T1 lines from the demarc to the computer room using regular 25 pair phone cable...nothing special, no separate binders or anything, and it works fine. This is a pretty good distance too. Actually, the lines come into the building in the electrical room, then are sent to a protector where the phone system is, and then out. It's a weird setup.

I was looking over some pinout charts, and noticed that the RJ-48C seems to be the same as the RJ-48X jack except for the shorting bars. It says here that both of those jacks are for 1.544 Mbps data service. Where would you use the RJ-48C (without the shorting bars) instead of the RJ-48X (with the shorting bars)?

Is "1.544 Mbps data service" always a T1 or PRI line, or is there some other 1.544 Mbps data service out there?