Re: OT: Telephone hijaaking

Unplugging will disconnect your phones (in at least my system). My system disconnects the phones, then "seizes" the line to dial out.

You may need to make a loop-back connector for the plug if you're disconnecting the dial-out. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
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It sounds like the installer used the wrong jack to save money. It may also be defective from age, or have a dead bug in the exposed switch contacts. There shouldn't be a corrosion problem in Arizona, but the switch is not designed for a lot of switching operations. It is nothing more than two pieces of gold plated wire that short pairs of the contacts in the jack when the plug is removed.

shows the proper wiring. It was designed to allow you to unplug the alarm, and plug a regular phone into the jack for testing the line. I first saw these about 35 years ago. The phone company installers kept wiring them wrong, so I had to meet them every time a new system was installed. they kept connecting the CO to the R1 & T1 terminals instead of the R & T terminals. The phones worked, but the alarm would disconnect the CO and connect to the inside wiring.

New jacks aren't that expensive if yours is bad:

A good electrical supply house should have them, as well. Some people confuse the common 'Keystone' network jack with the RJ-31X, since they take the same plug.

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I haven't looked yet..will do when have a chance. Used Google to look up RJ31X and found

which looks like an excellent reference.

I remember (a year or so ago) seeing what looked like an ordinary RJ11 plugged in and found that disconnected the house phone.

That is what i discovered when i unplugged what looked like an RJ11 (phones disconnected). So i assume that the 4 wires red/black need to tie to yellow/green (if i got the colors right)?

Inside the box; looks like a wide RJ11 connector. If i unplug it, we have NO phone service.

It should be 8P8C jack and have a pair of switches visible. If it doesn't, it isn't the right jack. i posted a link to the proper jack and wiring in another message.

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Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
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The connector plugs into a box very much like that shown in

and seems like it would be 8 wide.

That wiring diagram is wrong. They have T1 & R1 swapped with T & R. It will work, if the alarm is wired the same way, but you can not test the phone wiring at the jack if you have a problem.

This shows the proper wiring:

Does it have the switches? Only the 31X has the two shorting bars to bypass an open jack. Fly by night installers use a surface mount business phone jack that looks the same from the outside. They do this so you have to call them to remove the system and restore phone service. There are a lot of con men and thieves in the alarm business.

Some idiot installers put both sets of wires on the one set of terminals. They don't care that the system can't seize the line in an emergency.

The fact that you lose telephone service when the alarm is unplugged means the jack is wrong, or defective. You can test it with an ohm meter. Pins 1 & 4 should show continuity, and pins 5 & 8 should show continuity when the plug is removed. In any case, it's cheaper and faster to just replace the jack with a new RJ-31X. They no longer cost $185 from the phone company. I taught alarm installers the proper wiring in the late '70s.

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Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

Here is a small PDF by Leviton explaining how to install and test the RJ-31X.

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Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

• Err.. i just loaded both in my browser to do a "side-by-side" look and they are identical. "How do.." shows incoming (telco) R@4, T@5 and outgoing (to house) R1@1, T1@8; "RJ31X.." shows the same thing. What am i missing?

• Without taking the small orange box cover off, i have no idea as to how it is actually wired or if there are any (hidden) shorting bars inside it.

• I would have to unplug the connector to get at those thin spring wires inside the entrance for the plug; always difficult to do in the best situations, and with the box having that entryway pointing down and everything in the closet in the way (would have to empty the closet almost completely for slightly better access), access is verrry bad. That cable runs to the alarm board, and that access is only slightly better.

I was looking at that messy hand drawn diagram and got lost in it. About half of the drawings I looked at on line were backwards.

If you unplug the eight pin pulg and the phones don't work, it doesn't matter. The jack needs replaced. The fact taht it is a crowded closet meas there is probably a lot of dust that can get inside the jack & switches.

That sounds like a very poorly installed alarm system. None of the people I taught would do that, knowing that I would find it and fire them.

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Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

• Yea, about clear as mud. Had to look at it rather carefully three times to determine they were "the same".

• Yes, that is likely; old house also.