I need voip phone box wiring help

[thecompu-doctor]

Hi all, we're heading out to install 8 cat5 drops in an office later this week for a new client that is moving into a new office. It wasn't until after I quoted the project that I found out 4 of the 8 (1 per worker/desk) is for their phone voip system (my fault for not asking the appropriate questions). So, I can do the network drops without any trouble for their computers, but I'm not sure when it comes to the phone side. Here's the breakdown:

• They have two Obihai voip boxes from phonepower.com (see pic below)
  • each box has one dedicated line, with a secondary "ghost" line
    • I don't think the ghost line as they call it is important info for you all
  • They have four workers that will each have one phone, with two physical lines feeding it

My problem is, I'm not sure how to wire up the phones at the patch panel to get the same two pairs of phone lines to each of the four phones. I should be able to use one cat5 cable run and just split the 8 wires into two sets of 4 wires, right?

Basically I'm planning on still running two drops to each desk, one for a computer, then one split into two sets of 4 wires and terminated into two phone jack keystones

See pics below for how their current office is setup:

So i'm looking for any diagrams/videos that you can point me to in order to get lines 1 and 2 at each of the four workers desk. We also have a 16 port cat5 patch panel, will we be able to use this for both data and phones, or do I need some other kind of patch panels like in the second picture?

Thanks, Kevin

 

[Markverhyden]

Your dealing with regular POTS lines coming out of the Obihai, one pair per phone number. So you'll need two pair at each workstation. The proper way to do this would be to use a 66 block. On the left side you would have the lines going to the phones and the right side you would have the incoming lines from the obihai. On the right you would use bridge clips to move the signal to the left and run two pair, one for each number, down the right to distribute the signal to all 4 pairs for each number. Kind of hard to explain. Maybe I'll have time this evening and upload a pic.

On the patch panel. Yes, you can use a regular cat5/6 PP. To keep things consistent you want to punch down all 4 pairs, I use 568b, so they can later be reused for netowkring if needed. But you just want to use the blue pair in the center for line one and then the green pair for line two. Desk side you can you can put in a pair of RJ11 keystones using the center pair on each using the cat5 from the PP. One pair will be blue and the second keystone center pair will be the green pair. You could also use a single rj45 keystone and make a cat5/6 patch cord. RJ45 to the keystone and then two rj11 jacks, one blue pair and one green pair.

 

[skdmaster]

This video goes into great detail on using a 66 block

 

[thecompu-doctor]

As a clarification, these are voip boxes in that they are an internet phone service. But at the desk/worker station, they are traditional phones. They use four wire cables:

I'm watching through the video now and thanks so much. I looked for good videos before I posted and didn't find anything as thorough as this.

One thing I'm not sure of is at their current office, it looks like they are using three wires from the voip box off to one of the two 66 blocks. Then the second voip box does the same thing to the other 66 block. I could be wrong though, when I zoom in it could be 4 wires.

voip box 1 feeding the right hand 66 block

voip box 2, feeding the left hand 66 block (this one looks like it could be 4 wires, but not sure

 

[Markverhyden]

Those phones are not voip phones. They are receiving a standard analog signal from the obihai box. I'm pretty sure you can plug them into a standard phone jack, POTS line, and they would work. Each phone number/line uses a pair of wires for basic telephone service. What exactly do you mean by a "ghost" number?

 

[TAPtech]

Those phones are not voip phones. They are receiving a standard analog signal from the obihai box. I'm pretty sure you can plug them into a standard phone jack, POTS line, and they would work. Each phone number/line uses a pair of wires for basic telephone service. What exactly do you mean by a "ghost" number?

Mark the OP realizes the difference between the POTS and IP phones, he stated that in the post above yours.

POTS telephone lines have 2 wires per line. I have never seen 3 wires, only 2, 4, 6 etc. So perhaps that image is fooling you. The standard phone plug can carry 4 wires, which is 2 phone lines. So if it were me I would wire up a CAT6 data jack and one POTS jack that had two lines. That way you just need to plug one phone cord into the phones. Usually you'll see on the back of the phone the first port says line 1/2 and the second port says line 3/4 or similar. EDIT- I'm a bit confused over the number of lines each phone needs so you may still need 2 cords per phone. Remember- a traditional phone cord can carry two phone lines if it has all 4 wires installed (some do not!)

Also that "VOIP box" is called an ATA. VOIP goes in, POTS comes out! Works in both directions too!

 

[fencepost]

Bleh!

Run ALL of the cables as full network drops, terminated in a bog-standard 24-port patch panel. You can use 2 different colors of jacks if you so desire. Number all ports appropriately with the matching patch panel port.

RJ11s plugged into those RJ45 ports will fit and work just fine. If they change to VOIP in the future, those lines won't need to be re-run.

In the back, you can run plain old 2-wire or 4-wire connections from the ATA devices into the appropriate ports on the patch panel.

The only place this gets weird is if you have a single line (from the ATA) going to multiple phones - that's easier to do on a 66 block, or you can get a cheap package of standard phone line connectors (blanking on the name) or even some simple duplex adapters that are on a short phone line instead of plugging directly into the port. You can also do some jumpering on the back of the patch panel, but that's risky because it's not obvious that it needs to be removed if the ports change to IP, or you can use some of the spare ports as build-it-yourself splitters.

 

[thecompu-doctor]

I just found this at Home Depot and was thinking it should simplify things a bit. Spoke to the HD electrical pro and he though this would be simpler than a 66 block, especially since I don't need a ton of jacks. Picked up two of these (plus two 66 blocks just in case)

The idea is I'll do two of these, one for each line out from each ATA.




http://www.homedepot.com/p/CE-TECH-1-x-8-Telephone-Module-5570/206415633


What are you thoughts on this?


Edit: found this and a few videos, so it looks like this CE Tech 1x8 module should work for my phone wiring.
https://www.manualshelf.com/manual/ce-tech/5570/installation-guide-english.html

Question, when I run the feed cable from the ATA into this 1x8, what four color wires from the cat5 cable should I use to go into the RJ11 in the ATA?

 

[Markverhyden]

Yes, that will work fine. Not clear from the pics but I was thinking that the old space had the same things based on your pics. I've seen those a few times.

When wiring you want to adhere to standards, TIA and such. Have you decided how you are going to run these? Cat5/6 end to end? If so you want 568b, much more common than 568a. Since phone connections start with the middle pair and then the next outer pair you want b/bw and g/gw. So the RJ11 on the Obihai box will have b/bw middle pair, then g/gw outer pair.

Personally I'd not run direct from the patch panels you posted to RJ11 jack desk side, limited utility. That technology has been on it's way out for some time. I'd have only RJ45, patch panel to desk side. 2 per workstation. Then handle the RJ11 part between the above referenced panels and the regular patch panel