Some of our members have asked how the TeleBlend service can be used throughout their home in multiple rooms. We recommend using an expandable cordless phone system and placing the extensions throughout your house. However, some members opt to use their existing telephone jacks by reconfiguring the wiring inside their home. The steps listed below will show you how to give any existing telephone jack in your house access to your TeleBlend service.
IMPORTANT: We strongly recommend contacting a licensed wiring technician when attempting to utilize your inside wiring. In-home technical support is best because of the visual access to your specific wiring configuration. TeleBlend does not provide this service and therefore our agents are not trained to assist you with inside wiring. Even with the help of a trained technician, TeleBlend cannot guarantee that your home can support inside wiring. The tips below are provided for informational purposes only.
What You Need to Know Before Your Start Wiring:
- While the task of connecting the gizmo to your household wiring is fairly straightforward, telephone wires do carry electrical current. Please use caution.
- These instructions are for use in a single family home. If you live in a multi-unit dwelling, or share wiring with your neighbor, these steps may not work for you.
- By following these steps you are completely disconnecting your home from your existing telephone company. And if you have DSL service, you are also disconnecting your internet connection. Before you start this process, it is most important to ensure the outside wiring from the telephone company is completely disconnected from your inside wiring. Even if the telephone company's line is disconnected, there may still be an electrical current on that line which could harm you and/or the gizmo. To ensure your safety, do not skip Steps 1 and 2 under any circumstances.
STEP 1: Find Out Where Your Current Telephone Company Connects to Your Home
- Locate the telephone company's Network Interface Unit (NIU). The NIU typically a gray or green plastic box, and is usually mounted on a wall outside of your house.
- The NIU box has two sides; one that connects to the telephone company and one side which is accessible to you and is used to go into your house and connect your telephone line, open this side of the box. Please note, if you live in an apartment or shared complex, you might need access to a locked room where all of the units are wired as well as permission to open the box and disconnect your wiring.
STEP 2: Disconnect Your Outside Wiring
- Once you are able to open the NIU box, you will see where the telephone company's cable (generally a black wire) is connected to your house wiring (generally white, gray or tan in color). The more recent NIU boxes actually have telephone jacks, similar to those in your own home that the telephone company uses to connect to you. However, you might have screw terminals. Once you identify the lines, you can disconnect or unplug them carefully.
IMPORTANT: The NIU will also have a solid copper ground wire attached, which should not be disconnected.
STEP 3: Make Sure You Disconnected Carefully and Properly
- Prior to closing the NIU box back up check the telephones connected to your home are NOT working (In other words, you don't get a dial tone).
- If your phones still have a dial tone, go back and check your work at the NIU before continuing. If you still hear a dial tone, even after you've checked your work thoroughly, then you should not proceed. Please contact a licensed wiring technician for additional assistance.
- If your phones do not have dial tone, you have disconnected the proper wiring and you can go back to the NIU and prepare to close the compartment.
- Leave a note inside of the NIU saying "Line disconnected, DO NOT reconnect, may cause damage" as a warning to anyone who might open the NIU and attempt to reconnect the lines without your permission.
STEP 4: Hooking Up Your Gizmo
- Before we move on to the next step, ensure that your gizmo is working properly by connecting your telephone directly into the gizmo. If you can hear a dial tone and you're able to make a telephone call, you're cleared to move on!
IMPORTANT: If you experience difficulties at this step and require assistance, the TeleBlend Technical Support team can help you. However, they will ask that you disconnect your Gizmo from the home wiring and directly attach a phone to the Gizmo before technical support will be offered.
Now, connect the gizmo directly into any household telephone jack. Since telephone jacks share common wiring, a dial tone should now be available on any telephone jack in your house.
Your gizmo will be able to ring up to 5 telephones and perhaps more depending on your specific phone and wiring conditions inside your home.
Again, TeleBlend Technical Support is not trained to assist you with inside wiring questions and highly recommends contacting a licensed wiring technician. In addition to the informational tips provided in this article there is also inside wiring information that can be found online by searching various websites.