ATT internet wiring

[mikesmiph]

I know there are several people out there who can probably answer this in a second. I'm trying to wire my daughters internet from outside to inside. Outside the box only has 2 connections, red and green. Its a CAT5 wire with 8 wires. Inside, the phone jack has 4 connections, but they are mostly different colors than the wire. Can anyone help me hook this up? If you can, please feel free to call me anytime. 810-394-1820. Thanks

[djkimmel]

Mike, if I still had a memory, I could answer this... @#@$%@! It might help too if I haven't been out of the DSL use circle for a looooonnnngg time. Normally, there can be 2 phone lines coming into most houses. Only 1 is used most of the time though, hence the 1 green and 1 red wire on the outside.

I thought ATT would hook their DSL up for their customers? Anyway, in Lansing, they were leaving the phone on the original line and using the 2nd line to run the DSL, meaning 2 new wires on the other 2 posts. I think I recall they may have changed things so they can run both phone and DSL on 1 phone line though??

You should have received a diagram and a modem - probably a couple cables too??

The inside phone box will have 4 wires, but for regular phone, only 2 were actually used. That shouldn't matter if the ATT person hooked you up outside correctly because you don't hook a CAT5 LAN (RJ-45 plug) cable directly to the phone wires. Your CAT5 cable from your computer should go to your router/modem. A phone cable RJ-11 plug (1 or 2 line, you'll need ATT to tell you if you aren't running everyone on 1 phone line pair) hooks your modem to your inside phone plug.

If you have your phone plug run to a separate modem, then your modem hooked to a separate router, you may require a 'twisted' crossover CAT cable instead of a straight CAT cable. The only way you could probably get away without a crossover CAT cable is if ATT rewired the crossover into your inside wall plug which shouldn't be the case if she previously had a phone plugged in there and no one has changed the wiring.

When we had our DSL years ago, we had it running on that separate phone line our company hooked up. Even then, because our lines are old, we had to have an inline filter module to keep the phone traffic and noise from killing the Internet. Maybe your daughter has newer, 'clean' phone lines and is able to use the newer DSL that can run phone and DSL on 1 line? But if you have problems after getting a good diagram, you might want to ask about a filter need. Also make sure you know you have a good phone cable that actually works!

In the past, you could test your DSL modem by plugging it in directly to the outside box - customer side - to see if it was working there. Unplug the short wire plug out there and plug in the modem. Don't know if your modem requires separate power or not. Some do. Some don't.

I remember trying several times to troubleshoot only to find out there was no signal outside either or the modem wasn't working. I also remember one time finding out the phone cable a tech left me to hook the phone plug to the modem was no good. That one was the end of my DSL experiment!

If she had a working phone before and no one touched the inside phone plug wiring, ATT activated the DSL and gave you a working modem, then you should just need to plug a good phone cord into the inside jack and run it to your modem. Then use the CAT5 cable to plug your computer into your modem. It should work.

If she has multiple computers and will add a router, then your computers go to the router - wireless or by CAT5 cable. Then another CAT5 (possibly crossover not straight CAT5) cable goes from the router to the modem.

This website usually saved me a ton of time and headaches - http://www.dslreports.com/faq/bellsouth/11.0_Wiring_Diagrams_and_Schematics

You really need ATT to provide you a wiring diagram for their local setup. They should have them, including required cable types.

[mikesmiph]

They told her $150 to run the wiring. I'm trying to save her some money. I'm a plumber. LOL I'll try to get a diagram from them. They left nothing but some wire.

[djkimmel]

The diagrams on the link I provided should help. But you may not need them.

Did she have a regular phone plugged in to the inside outlet before that worked?

If yes, plug a regular RJ-11 phone cable into the inside outlet and plug it into the DSL modem.

Does she have a separate router for multiple computers/wireless?

If no, then, while the computer is turned off, plug her computer into the DSL modem using the CAT5 cable. Then turn on the computer and see if you have a connection.

Lets start there first. If you answer no to the first question or yes to the second question, then that changes the instructions so post that here and don't do anything yet.

If you can't do the instructions above because of the different answers, look at the wire and/or cable ATT left and write down all the information on them to give to me. They did leave a DSL modem, didn't they?

[mikesmiph]

She never had a phone hooked up. ATT ran a new service from the pole to the side of her house and gave her some wire to hook up the jack for her modem/router. Thats what she said it is, a modem and router so she can have wifi. The wires they gave her are very fine, four colors, and each of the four colors have a white wire running with them, so a total of 8 wires. Only the red and green on the box outside.

[djkimmel]

She never had a phone hooked up. ATT ran a new service from the pole to the side of her house and gave her some wire to hook up the jack for her modem/router. Thats what she said it is, a modem and router so she can have wifi. The wires they gave her are very fine, four colors, and each of the four colors have a white wire running with them, so a total of 8 wires. Only the red and green on the box outside.

So you really are 'up the creek...' The color of the wires doesn't really matter as long as you hook the right wires from the right outside post the right inside post. I'm not sure about the white wire with each of the 4 wires they gave you? Some type of ground maybe?

You need a wiring diagram and maybe information about connecting up the modem/router (confirm it is 1 unit device, not 2 separate devices?). I believe there has to be a crossover and since you don't have a separate modem and router (if you confirm you have 1 unit), then you will be connecting your modem/router to the inside plug with a regular phone cable (RJ-11 probably). They should have provided a wiring diagram and modem/router document.

The trick will be whether or not you need a crossover in the inside plug or not?

They did not give you a Ethernet cable like a CAT5? You probably can only setup the modem/router the first time by physically hooking up a computer with an Ethernet cable first. You have to create a better admin (don't leave it admin if you can change it) username and password (DO NOT LEAVE IT THE DEFAULT - THAT'S LIKE LEAVING YOUR SAFE DOOR OPEN). You have to setup the wireless SSID and create a security key using WPA-2 of some type.

After you finish setting up the modem/router, you can shut down the computer. Disconnect the Ethernet cable, and try the wireless connection.

[mikesmiph]

UGH. Or, I could pay the $150 for her.

[Genie]

Where does she live?

[djkimmel]

Where does she live?

East side of the state.

[Genie]

Never mind then ...

[mikesmiph]

Flint

[djkimmel]

Mike, they didn't provide you with any diagrams or modem/router instructions? I am not a wiring expert and I did our old DSL wiring through the house years ago when we had it through someone else. It just didn't work well for us because of the technology at the time and we have old wires a loooonnnngg way from the switch station or whatever so we had signal problems back then.

If you have a diagram that tells you if you need to do a crossover and/or the modem/router manual, you should be able to do it.

Did you get the AT&T DSL kit? According to them, it should have a power adapter, an Ethernet cable, a phone cable, a 2-port filter and 3 single-port filters, along with an install guide?

If you don't have AT&T phone service, you don't have to use a filter. That would change if she ever added any other type of service to the existing

This doesn't totally apply, but it has some helpful steps: http://www.att.com/support_media/images/pdf/hsi/ATT_HSI_Self-Installation_Guide_All.pdf

[djkimmel]

What are the colors of the 'fine wires' AT&T gave her?

I'm still wondering about the white wires wrapped with them? I'm just not sure if that is some type of ground? Or just a wrap to reduce noise/interference? That may be the most important outstanding question besides whether or not you need a crossover somewhere?

Are the colored wires (not the white extra wires, just the colored wires):
Blue
White-Blue
Orange
White-Orange?

After a little more research, I think AT&T gave you Cat5e wire which would be 4 wire pairs of blue, orange, green and brown. Each of those wires would have a second wire with that would striped - blue would have a white/blue striped. Orange would have a white/orange striped, etc. Can you contact your daughter and have her look at the wire that is supposed to be used specifically to go from the outside box (NID) to the inside phone plug and get the EXACT wire colors of all 8 wires? We shouldn't do anything else until we have that figured out exactly 100%.

I don't see a wire type that has a plain white wire wrapped with each of the other colors?

The one other question necessary is which type of inside phone jack are you using to hook the wires too? A regular approximately square 4-post jack with 1 plug? If yes, great. If no, I need to know how many posts and what color wires inside the inside phone jack too.

Once we get the exact colors of all the wires for the wire intended to go from the NID to the inside plug, I can tell you which wires to hook to which posts.

[mikesmiph]

I wont get back over there till Thursday. I'll send you pictures of everything. Thanks for all the help.

[djkimmel]

Sure. Wish I had remembered some stuff quicker. Make sure and get a close up of the outside NID - I'm assuming since it is new it will be a fairly standard NID.

Also, close up of the outside and inside of the inside phone wall jack, and the wire that AT&T indicated was supposed to be used from the outside NID to the inside phone jack.