Why does HomePhoneWiring.com exist?

Put simply, because I enjoy helping people.

The history of Phone-man's Home Phone Wiring Advice Page:

I started "Phone-man's Advice Page" while working for Bell Atlantic (now part of Verizon) so that when I was on commercial jobs and "by standers" asked for advice about wiring projects at their home, I'd have an easy way to point them in the right direction by just giving them a card with the web site address. That saved me a lot of time by not having to repeatedly explain how to wire jacks for two phone lines! "Phone-Man's Advice Page" existed from 1997 to 2003 as a completely free "non-commercial" advice only site, hosted at Yahoo/Geocities for free. I didn't even accept support donations until late in 2002 after a visitor asked how they could support the site. In 2002 the monthly traffic level began to exceed the Geocities allowed bandwidth and I was planning to add info about DSL, which would only make matters worse. So in 2002 I registered the domain "HomePhoneWiring.com" and moved the site to paid commercial hosting. In 2003 I began offering some items for sale, to cover the cost of the hosting and justify the increasingly significant amount of time spent responding to queries generated by visitors. I stopped offering items for sale in 2018 but will still gladly accept donations from anyone who want to help support maintenance of the site.

Why not just refer people to other web sites? When I started the site in 1997, there was little if any information about telephone wiring available on the web. In fact, that is why I felt the need to create the site: the info wasn't available elsewhere. Most manufactures now have web sites that provide some information about installing their products. These are typically the best "source documents" available to the general public. Many manufactures offer some fairly general advice, but it will normally be slanted toward use of their product. Where appropriate, I have provided links to information at some of those sites from various pages on HomePhoneWiring.com. Especially significant are the links regarding 66 and 110 blocks on page http://www.homephonewiring.com/blocks.html. Unfortunately, manufactures tend to update their sites and sometimes remove access to extremely useful "generic" info, with little regard for maintaining access via previous URLs. I know there are now a lot of other advice sites that offer information about phone wiring, but I also know that a lot of people still find the info at HomePhoneWiring.com very useful.

What is the basis of the advice offered on the site? The advice I offer via HomePhoneWiring.com is based largely on "standard practice", learned over the past 30-plus years. I would acknowledge that my advice based on "standard practice" occasionally conflicts with "industry standards" published by organizations like EIA/TIA. For example: EIA/TIA recommends using 8 pin (often referred to as RJ-45) jacks for all cable terminations, for both voice and data. Standard practice today and I believe for the foreseeable future is to use 6 pin (often referred to as RJ-11) jacks for residential telephone wiring and much commercial telephone wiring, especially in very small single location businesses where owners or employees are doing their own wiring. So my advice focuses on using RJ-11/RJ-14 type jacks. I think that advice based on the actual materials commonly in use is much more useful than "pie in the sky" "industry standards".

What is my background?
My background includes over 30 years in the telecom field. I was in the US Army Signal Corp for 20 years. During my Army career, I worked with voice and data circuits and eventually was responsible for installation and management of large telecom facilities. After "retiring" from the Army (they call it "retirement pay", but you can't live on it!), I worked for Bell Atlantic (now part of Verizon) for five years as a "Systems Tech", servicing voice, ISDN, and high speed data circuits and voice switching systems. In 2000 my wife also "retired" from the military and I left Bell Atlantic so that we could return home to Texas. After moving to Texas I owned my own company, CEWIM LLC, providing telecom cabling and equipment installation and maintenance services, to customers in the Central Texas Hill Country, including the Austin and San Antonio metro areas and to did a lot of sub-contact work for larger national companies. CEWIM LLC customers include private individuals (residential), small companies, large corporations, and government organizations. I ceased operations of CEWIM LLC in late 2019. I'll still spend some of my retired time answering emails and updating and improving the advice portions of the web site. That will help keep me out of my wife's way part of the time!

How is HomePhoneWiring.com different from other internet sites? HomePhoneWiring.com was and is primarily an advice site. HomePhoneWiring.com was not conceived as a money making venture. Visitors get that advice free of charge. When I was an independent contractor, I'm sure that the advice provided on the site occasionally cost me a wiring job. Many would argue that I should have taken the site down and quit helping people do their own wiring because it was bad for business. Guess I think a little different than a lot of people. I figure that people who are doing their own work are going to do it with or without my advice, either to save money or to gain knowledge and enjoyment. I just like to help them do it right if possible. I'd say it's too bad some other people don't do think the same way!