How to Wire a Whole House With VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol is a wonderful thing. It's easily portable. Call rates are lower than standard telephone service---some providers even provide unlimited calling for a monthly rate. If you're living in a studio apartment, you simply place the VOIP device in a place convenient to your phone. But what do you do if you live someplace larger, and you want the VOIP line to ring on every phone?
The answer is surprisingly simple. The wiring needed to ring multiple phones is already in your house. A few simple changes are all that is needed to make all of your phones ring.
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Things You'll Need
- VOIP device
- Power drill
- 1/2" x 10" drill bit
- 15 ft. outdoor rated telephone wire.
- Phillips screwdriver or Flat screwdriver
- Cutting Pliers
- Sealant
Instructions
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Running the Lines
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1
Locate your outdoor telephone service box.
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2
In the room on the opposite side of the wall, find a suitable place to locate your broadband modem and your VOIP device. It should be within 15 feet of the telephone box. Take into account the wiring needed to connect your broadband modem to its source.
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3
Using the power drill and the 1/2" by 10" drill bit, drill a hole through the outside wall as close as possible to the telephone service box. Run the telephone wire through the hole.
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4
Use either the Phillips or flat screwdriver to open the service box. Inside will be a series of four jacks. The top one should already have a wire plugged into it. This is the wire that connects land-line telephone service to your house wiring.
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5
Disconnect the original wire and replace that with line you ran through the hole in the wall.
WARNING: See the Warnings section if you have DSL. -
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Close the box, making sure that you don't pinch the new line in the door. If necessary, using the cutting pliers, remove a small (1/4 inch by 1/4 inch) square out of the bottom edge of the door to allow room for the new line.
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7
Inside the house, pull on the line until there is no slack remaining. Fill the hole inside with the sealant until there are no gaps around the line. Fill the hole with sealant on the outside of the house.
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8
Plug the line into the phone jack on the back of the VOIP device.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Alternatively, instead of just running bare wire through the hole, you can install a wall jack on the indoor side of the hole. If this is the case, you'll only need about 3 feet of outdoor rated telephone wire. You'll also need a pair of wire strippers to strip the insulation off of the end of the line, which is required to connect the line to the wall jack. Lastly, you'll need an appropriate length of indoor telephone wire.
If you have DSL, disconnecting the land-line service from the service box will disconnect your Internet connection. You'll want to run a second line out the service box and through the hole. Using a female to female jack adapter, connect the second line with the wire that you disconnected to plug in the VOIP line. Connect the other end of the second line to your DSL modem.
References
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Comments
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Matt Javernick
Feb 28, 2011
for the CORRECT instructions on how to do this go here... http://www.ehow.com/how_7462294_wire-voip-house-phone-lines.html -
Matt Javernick
Feb 28, 2011
Whoever wrote this article is a complete moron. You dont have to drill any holes to do this! **You do need to disconnect the line from the phone company in the NID on the outside of the house ** but thats it... then all you have to do is connect the phone line from the VOIP box into any phone jack in the house and then all jacks in the house will work through VOIP. Duh! All the phone jacks are connected, hence the reason if someone is one the phone you can pick up another phone somewhere else in the house and jump in the same conversation!
