sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telephone Repairs & Equipment Rookie wiring question

Since we're scrimping to save money at our Senior Center, I thought I'd take a shot at replacing a broken phone jack myself. Trying to be a hero, I bought a Radio Shack six-pin (RJ-11/RJ-14/RJ-25) modular telephone jack. I removed the old jack and discovered eight wires: BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, BROWN, WHITE/BLUE, WHITE/ORANGE, WHITE/GREEN and WHITE/BROWN. The jack I bought has six points(RED, GREEN BLACK, YELLOW, WHITE and BLUE. Is there a way I can make it work? Which colors from the wall do I connect to which colors on the jack? If that's a lost cause, what jack should I buy? Or, is it time to bite the budgetary bullet and call the phone company?

It will depend on what type of phone the jack is supporting

some require all four pairs , some work on a single pair

so what is the jack being used for ?

Thanks for responding, Skip! I sent you a private message. It would be great if you could help us save some $$$ on this!

I would go back out and buy a 8-pin ( rj-45 ) jack and hook it back up the way it was. No matter what it's used for it will work if you set it up the way it was.

In the industry we refer to them as 4 pair.

Blue & Blue/White is the first pair
Orange & Orange/White is the second pair
Green & Green/White is the third pair
Brown & Brown/White is the fourth pair


CAUTION If this is on a phone system then crossing, shorting or miss wiring could damage equipment.

Well said .... an attempt to save a $100 may cost you several hundred.

I'm assuming since you bought a 6 position wall plate that is what came out of the wall.

Typically, the wh/bl bl/wh pair goes to screws with the red/green jumper wires (pins 3&4), the wh/or or/wh pair to the black/yellow (pins 2&5), and the wh/gr gr/wh pair to the white/blue (pins 1&6). That said, there is no guarantee the wiring in the phone room is standard - you might have dial tone on the brown pair, or on green and blue, or split pairs, or any number of funky configurations.

If you've taken the wires off of the old jack and didn't note their positions, it's best to call a pro to fix it.

Jack

Another option would be to look at another active telephone jack that is the same, then copy the wiring from that location.

Most likely, it is just plain old dialtone on the jack. From experience, I would assume the blue pair from the wall is carrying dialtone. Attach the white/blue from the wall to the green on the jack. Attach the blue from the wall to the red on the jack. This should work. If not, try the same with the orange or the green or the brown pair from the wall.

Has anyone noticed that this thread is over a year old?