How to Wire for Phones

Connecting your telephone to a telephone line requires you to install a telephone jack. This device generally consists of a wall-mounted faceplate with a socket for the telephone plug on one side and the connection to the house telephone wiring on the rear side. A house may have up to three telephone lines but most home telephones only connect to one line. You must therefore choose the telephone line to which you will connect your telephone.

Things You'll Need

• Screwdriver
• Wire stripper
• Telephone jack

Instructions

1. Look at the back of the telephone jack for the golden pins on the telephone socket. Most telephone jacks have six pins numbered from right to left. Most telephone devices only use the telephone line connected to pins three and four. Pin three is the positive wire or tip wire. Pin four is the negative wire or ring wire.

2. Trace the wires that lead from pins three and four to their respective terminals. Terminal A is the terminal for pin three and terminal B is the terminal for pin four.

3. Select the telephone line to which you will connect your telephone. Assume, for this example, you wish to connect your telephone to line 1. The traditional color code for home telephone wiring uses green wire for the tip wire on line 1 and red wire for the ring wire on line 1.

4. Remove the terminal screws for terminal A and terminal B with a screwdriver. Strip 1/4 inch of insulation from the tip wire and ring wire for your telephone line. This will be the red and green wire for this example.

5. Wrap the bare end of each wire around one of the terminal screws that you removed in step four. Mount the terminal screw with the tip wire to terminal A and tighten the screw to hold the wire in place. Attach the terminal screw with the ring wire to terminal B in a similar manner.

6. Fasten the faceplate of the telephone jack over the telephone wall socket by using the mounting screws included in your telephone jack.

References

• Topbits.com: RJ-11
• Westerner: Wiring Standards