Long cable

[Bglad]

After trying Sunrocket at home with pretty darned good results, I am going to try hooking it to the primary outgoing line of my office phone system. Free long distance could save me $200 a month!

Problem is my incoming internet and routers are at the opposite end of the building from the utility closet housing the guts to my phone system. I need to run either cat5 or an analog phone line about 70 feet from the routers to the phone. Is 70-80 feet too long to run a cat5? Would one be a better choice than the other to run this long length? The analog line would have to run that lenth off the output of a Sunrocket gizmo.

Thanks.

 

[skyking]

go outside to the demark or customer equipment box, and unplug the modular jacks in there. That disconnects you from the landlines going away from your home.

Plug a wire from the sunrocket device into the nearest phone jack.
Now, you should have sunrocket dialtone at every jack that had dialtone before

 

[nweaver]

Cat5 is reated at 100 Meters (300ish feet) iirc

get a premade cable of the length you need (include routing around/over/under stuff fudge factor).

 

[Bglad]

This is not my home.

I can't unplug from the demark. If my phones are down, I don't make money! So I'm not willing to turn my entire business over to Sunrocket. I want to keep my 4 land lines and just add 1 Sunrocket to the system which would be the first chosen outgoing line i.e. the one most long distance is on.

I have 5 lines now, line 5 is dedicated to fax. Incoming calls are directed by the phone system to begin coming in line 1. When you pick up an extension to make an outgoing call, the phone system picks up the first available line starting with 4. I will change this to start outgoing calls with line 5 and make line 5 a Sunrocket line. That way the majority of my long distance will go out Sunrocket but I have land lines as a backup.

2. I have a distribution block in the closet with the phone system where all the incoming lines from outside are plugged on one side. Then my phone system is plugged to the other side of the block. I should be able to separate the gizmo from the outside lines at that point without losing my normal land lines.

Any comments on above that I've not thought of are appreciated, but I think I have it figured out. I was just trying to determine whether I should run cat5 th3 70-80 feet to the phone or if I should put the gizmo with the routers and run an analog phone line to the phone system.

 

[skyking]

sorry, I did not read your post completely. you can also route the sunrocket dialtone back to your phone closet on a spare pair in an existing run. That is the cheapest and quickest way, and likely every drop in your business has at least two spare pair.

 

[Bglad]

Yes yes yes, there is a desk with an extension right there by the routers! This building was originally wired back in the day when they hard wired all lines to every drop. I probably have 20 spare pairs right there!

Except there is a couple of big Steelcase file cabinets that are full and probably weight 1000 lbs right in front of that wiring! Can you help me with that too?

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: Bglad
Yes yes yes, there is a desk with an extension right there by the routers! This building was originally wired back in the day when they hard wired all lines to every drop. I probably have 20 spare pairs right there!

Except there is a couple of big Steelcase file cabinets that are full and probably weight 1000 lbs right in front of that wiring! Can you help me with that too?

what kind of phone system do you have? If it is digital and uses one pair, I'd bet you have a standard modular phone cord plugged into that <buried jack>, with two pair

So yeah, I can help with that!

Get a two-line splitter. it takes the two pair in a cord and puts them in two different jacks, line one and line two. plug your digital phone into line one and see that it works.
Next, go to phone room and route the orange/white pair of that drop to where you want that sunrocket dialtone. Test to make sure you did not kill digital extension.

go back, and plug sunrocket dialtone into the "line two" jack of the splitter.

now dialtone is in phone room

 

[Bglad]

hahahaha,
No, I meant can you help moving the file cabinets!

But yes, it is a digital phone system. Not sure exact model without looking but Panasonic KX maybe with on site voicemail options etc.

 

[skyking]

I might have just moved the file cabinets, the lazy-phone-guy method

 

[Bglad]

Skyking, are you still monitoring this thread?

I got a question for ya.

I got everything wired up this morning and it works like a charm... EXCEPT...

I pick up radio interference on that line LOL I am hearing some radio station.

Here is what I did: I ran cat5 internet into the closet. I am digital to there so we know that isn't the problem.

Then I spliced up a regular old cheap phone cable and replaced the line 4 wires on the ouside side of the NID with the red green pair from the Sunrocket gizmo. I've got about 10 feet of analog phone cable from gizmo to NID. I can shorten this when I get it mounted to the wall and everything cleaned up.

What can I do to get rid of the radio interference? Is there such a thing as shielded phone cable? It is not actually a twisted pair cable, just a regular phone to wall cord. Would real twisted pair fix it?

 

[skyking]

plug a phone into back of sunrocket and listen.
no interference?

OK, then move to wiring.

put sunrocket device right on the phone board wall. Do not go to the nid with wiring, you are looking for trouble. Once you got outside, you started playing "antenna" with an onbonded system.
go to 66 block and punch it down there, replacing line 4. If sunrocket box is metal, ground it to the phone system ground, it "should" be grounded if done right.

 

[Bglad]

"Once you got outside, you started playing "antenna" with an oubonded system. "

mmmmm you are right, didn't think of that.

Here is why I did it, first I know I have to unhook from the outside to keep from frying the gizmo so I had to get in there anyway.

And the biggie, I was dumbfounded by the 66 block. I don't know my way around it. You know of any resources for that? I spent an hour googling but didn't get the info I needed.

If I unhooked line 4 in the NID from the outside, will I still be picking up ground or something from outside on that line?

This is important because I don't like the station it is picking up
Actually, the radio bleed is quite loud.

 

[skyking]

so, no noise in sunrcket jack?

make a test set. twist some alligator clips on wire to a mod cord, and use a regular phone. test it outside, clip on screw terms out there and listen for dialtone.

I will PM you a number to use for testing.

 

[Bglad]

Ok, so here is what I've done today.

First, no noise if I plug a phone into the Sunrocket jack.

I've plugged into outside and inside sides of NID. Now plugged into the 66 block and still get noise.

Went and rewired with actual twisted pair cable and ran it through a ferrite block and STILL NOISE!!! Argh!

 

[Bglad]

OK... I think I've solved the problem!!!

Grounded the gizmo!!!!!!!!!!