Obi feed into DSL home feed line

[helpful55]

I got my Obi all set up with a temp phone. I am going to have my landline phone disconnected soon and I had planned to feed the Obi into my home phone house wiring. I realize now that I will still have my DSL using that line so it will not be completely unused. Currently with the DSL and phone coming into that line I use line filters to isolate them from the DSL. Would I be able to feed the phone service from the Obi into that same wiring if I send it through a filter, and if not is there any way to accomplish this? I guess I could just try it through a filter, but I'd sure like to get advice first and not possibly mess up something. I had really hoped to use my home wiring for all of my phones, but it is needed for the DSL feed also. Thanks for any help.

[Shale]

It is possible, but not with standard filters. You would need to have a high-pass filter that would isolate the outside line from loading down the voice from the OBi. Standard DSL filters are low pass filters. Note that I am not using "possible" to mean normal, easy, common, or desirable.

It would probably be easier to do wiring to use a different pair to feed the DSL signal to the modem, and a different pair to distribute the phone audio around your home. There are lots of discussions on how to do this. They start with a description of the wiring coming into the home, etc.

[helpful55]

All right, thanks for the info Shale. I think I get what all you mean by not desirable, so I may skip the high pass filter route. It's not a total inconvenience to use the main phone near the modem area and use a cordless for around the house, which I do somewhat already, but I may like use of the house phone wiring. Believe me this isn't stopping my imminent disconnection of the landline! I do have an electrical and electronics background and I can do wiring. You may have been alluding to this idea I have. Since I may have to do some work with the house wiring connections either way, one idea I had is since I believe that this house does have the 4 conductor wiring, maybe I could swap the incoming two DSL wires to the wires that are not used by the normal house phone wires (those are the red and green ones). Then I could make a crossover type adapter to feed the modem from those two other terminals of the wall phone outlet. That would leave the Obi input and all the phones plug ins as standard for that isolated wiring system. Or as an alternate one of those crossover adapters for each outlet used as an Obiphone, to circumvent the outside box work. I would have to make sure that those other two alternate wires had no connections to anything outside of the house. See any fault in my ideas? Thanks.

[Shale]

Yes, that would be better. Put the DSL signal on pair 2, and connect the modem to pair 2 with a  splitter such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RJ11-6P4C-1-Male-to-3-Female-Modular-T-Adapter-/321095385030?pt=US_Networking_Splitters_Couplers_Adapters&hash=item4ac2c6bfc6 That one has 3 jacks, but the labels on the jacks makes it clear what the adapter is doing.

You might even be able to put a similar adapter in the NID in line with the pigtail to isolate L1 in the house and to feed the DSL signal in on the pair 2 wires.

However if you could run a separate "home run" cable from the NID to the modem, you would get the best signal at the modem. If your house is on a slab, running new wires is hard.

[helpful55]

I don't want you to have to make a career of helping me, and I appreciate all of the help. First I have snooped into the NID (had to look up NID - the box outside!). That takes care of that. Only two of the four incoming wires go to any house wires, the other two are sitting not attached. There are not any RJ11's other than for a testing plug in so I can't easily do things in the NID. Now on to: Wow, thanks for pointing out those Three-ways, and even getting the good pricing for me. I actually had three Three-ways lying around, with one being that two line type. I had looked at them to see if they were 2 or 4 wire type, and I had assumed (!) they were just straight three way splitters until I looked closer. I saw how one outlet said L1+L2, but I missed that the others were not the same line (i.e. L1 and L1), they are one of each of the line pairs L1 and L2. They send their outputs to a standard phones two center terminals. So this splits up the lines for me. The L1 hole is for my modem and I use the L2 slots for my phone wiring. Those Three-ways you recommend will allow me to use that alternate pair house wiring for my phones and Obi output. I was already planning for some cords that I was going to cut and splice, these do that for me. I just ordered two more of them that I will need. I need one for the modem/Obi connections, and two for the wall outlets that I use. I will also have to make sure that all four of the wires are connecting to each jack for this configuration. I'll reply back later in the week when I get this going. Hopefully this is helping some others, but hopefully will not get them to attempt something that is outside their knowledge or fry an Obi. Thanks Shale.

[Rick]

Instead of spending all that money, all you need to do is ensure that the two wires carrying the DSL from outside feed the DSL outlet (where the modem is) and that you connect the other two wires to every other outlet, and disconnect the DSL outlet.  That isolates the DSL.

If you need both DSL and the other two wires where the modem is, simply install a two outlet jack where one is connected to the DSL wires and one is connected to the other two wires.

[Shale]

I would tend toward changing the pair in the NID so that the L1, that now feeds everything becomes isolated. Then wire L2 pair 2 would be wired to the incoming wires that are now connected. Then use ONE adapter to feed the modem with the L2 output, and you will not need to use adapters on any of the other outlets.


Pictures are from http://www.homephonewiring.com/clr-code.html

[helpful55]

I think I understand what you are saying Rick, thanks. Shale, I understand what you say to do, and I may have got a little crazy with my way of doing this, but I kind of like the idea of just doing the circuitry changes completely inside the house even though I could do it outside and change it back easily if necessary. I hate spending any money that isn't needed, but the $5 is not a big deal. Thanks again all.

[helpful55]

I did get this working not too long after my last post and it has worked fantastically. The only problem I have is the Google Voice's apparently unremoveable voice mail system. Thank you very much for your help and the idea you gave me Shale. Deleting my regular phone line has made my internet bill more manageable. Thanks again.