Installing an extra phone jack/phone line

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Ripper

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#171100 6-Apr-2015 16:33

Hi all,

We're looking at moving into a new house soon and I want to make sure we sort out all the telecommunications issues etc. before we make the move. One of the issues with older houses is they tend to have far fewer phone jacks than modern places, in this instance we have one room which is lacking in a phone jack when it would be very handy to have one. My question is how difficult is it to add a phone jack into a room without any in it in the first place? We'd be looking at bringing someone in to do all the work, I was just trying to see if anyone has an indication of the difficulties we may face/the costs we may incur.

Thanks

Dynamic

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#1277902 6-Apr-2015 16:36

Is the old jack near floor level and how easy is access under the house?

Getting access to run the cables is often more time consuming and expensive than the new jacks and time to wire them in.

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Ripper

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#1277903 6-Apr-2015 16:43

There are currently no jacks in the room itself, so we'd be looking at potentially having to run a line through the room, I suppose? Honestly, I don't know too much about these sorts of things. You'd have to be going straight through the wall though, you can't access beneath the house easily.

sbiddle

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#1277904 6-Apr-2015 16:43

Firstly why do you need the phone jack? If it for DSL of for a phone? If it's for a phone does it need to be located there? As 99% of people rely on cordless phones these days and multiple phones can be connected to a base station you only need a single jackpoint in the house in this type of environment.

The complexity of adding a jack is going to depend entirely on the build on the house and how far the room is from existing wiring so could range from super sumple to incredibly difficult. Without looking at the actual house or knowing a lot more about the construction and layout it's pretty much impossible to answer your question.

Jase2985

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#1277909 6-Apr-2015 16:56

what is the phone jack going to be for? thats probably the biggest question that needs answered

Ripper

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#1277917 6-Apr-2015 17:28

sbiddle: Firstly why do you need the phone jack? If it for DSL of for a phone? If it's for a phone does it need to be located there? As 99% of people rely on cordless phones these days and multiple phones can be connected to a base station you only need a single jackpoint in the house in this type of environment.

The complexity of adding a jack is going to depend entirely on the build on the house and how far the room is from existing wiring so could range from super sumple to incredibly difficult. Without looking at the actual house or knowing a lot more about the construction and layout it's pretty much impossible to answer your question.

The jack will be used for accessing the internet without having to use a wireless connection. My computer doesn't have a wireless card (I know they're easy to fit though) and I prefer the added reliability of a wired connection.

I see the issue, so it really just comes down to whether or not there is already a wire running through the room somewhere?

Dynamic

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#1277922 6-Apr-2015 17:54

Ahhhh now we are getting to the heart of the matter.

If you have broadband, you cannot (normally) use a phone jack in another part of the house to access the Internet. The wiring through the walls for computer communication needs to be CAT5 or CAT6 cable which is manufactured to a different standard than basic phone cabling.

Unless you are prepared to spend $200+ (more likely $300-$500 in my guesstimate) on getting a CAT5/6 cable run from your broadband router to your desired location, I suggest going with a $50 wireless adapter.

Cable will give you greater reliability and (normally) greater speed but it can be expensive to retro-fit. If you had easy access under the house, an 8mm hole in the floor at each location lets you run CAT5 cable fairly easily. Going through walls is impractical unless you don't mind multiple holes in the wall that will have to be re-gibbed and re-painted as at each stud a hole will have top be knocked in the wall so a drill bit can drill through that stud. Imagine what your Mrs or Parents or Landlord would say about that!

Optionally the cable may be able to ruin through the ceiling cavity and down inside a closet, then poked through the wall from the inside of the closet into the bedroom, for example. Drilling from the roof cavity down through the wall through multiple nogs down to floor level is (I believe) impractical as you can't get the drill to go that straight and you don't know if you'll be drilling through existing electrical cables in the walls.

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Ripper

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#1277923 6-Apr-2015 17:58

Dynamic: Ahhhh now we are getting to the heart of the matter.

If you have broadband, you cannot (normally) use a phone jack in another part of the house to access the Internet. The wiring through the walls for computer communication needs to be CAT5 or CAT6 cable which is manufactured to a different standard than basic phone cabling.

Unless you are prepared to spend $200+ (more likely $300-$500 in my guesstimate) on getting a CAT5/6 cable run from your broadband router to your desired location, I suggest going with a $50 wireless adapter.

Cable will give you greater reliability and (normally) greater speed but it can be expensive to retro-fit. If you had easy access under the house, an 8mm hole in the floor at each location lets you run CAT5 cable fairly easily. Going through walls is impractical unless you don't mind multiple holes in the wall that will have to be re-gibbed and re-painted as at each stud a hole will have top be knocked in the wall so a drill bit can drill through that stud. Imagine what your Mrs or Parents or Landlord would say about that!

Optionally the cable may be able to ruin through the ceiling cavity and down inside a closet, then poked through the wall from the inside of the closet into the bedroom, for example. Drilling from the roof cavity down through the wall through multiple nogs down to floor level is (I believe) impractical as you can't get the drill to go that straight and you don't know if you'll be drilling through existing electrical cables in the walls.

Whoops I should have been a bit clearer!

We'll be using a wireless router etc. which we'd like to have set up in this room that currently has no phone jack. My PC can then hook straight up to it and it's very central so it's an ideal place for the router.

I'd imagine the info regarding the wiring would still apply, however?

Dynamic

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#1277924 6-Apr-2015 18:04

Yes, getting a cable through existing walls if you can't get under the house is a pig. If there is a closet in a handy location and the phone lines from the street go through the ceiling then you might be in luck. Drilling from the ceiling down through one nog is possible if you don;t mind the jackpoint being in the middle of the wall height-wise. You have to accept the risk of the drill going off-centre, and of drilling throuigh hidden cables.

Think about power as well. You can run an extension cord for power or from the phone jack to the router.

Talk to your telephone provider about Chorus coming out to install an additional phone jack for you. They will likely make a time to come and do the job, charging a fixed fee for success and a lower fixed fee for failure or should the job not go ahead because it is impractical for any reason.

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richms

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#1277925 6-Apr-2015 18:07

Get VDSL if there is no central splitter already, and offer the installer some extra cash when they turn up if they dont want to put it in the location that you ask for. Or booze.

Richard rich.ms

coffeebaron

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#1277939 6-Apr-2015 18:52

If you are in Auckland or Waikato, I can do a dedicated DSL jack-point including master filter for you. Cost usually $150-200 depending on complexity.
Flick me a message if you are interested in getting this done.
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MadEngineer

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#1281536 12-Apr-2015 16:56

to answer the original question, the installer should have no problems as it's a simple job. there are many tricks to getting cables into difficult to reach places.

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