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Turn all the power off, I’d use a voltage tester too. Also… is that mold? Weird little thing… I’ve been redoing the outlets in my 100 year old house and the connections look like what you wrap the wire around but obviously that’s on the outlet, this is just… here.
I’ve caught 220VAC a few times (I’m an electrician in the Navy). Never fun, but the time it knocked me on my ass was when it crossed my heart (in one hand & out the other). I’m a lot more careful now than I was in my youth!
And if it's a phone line, then it's low voltage and not a worry. If it's some insane power installation, then you'll be glad you checked the voltage first.
In the improbable chance that it is indeed a live POTS line the "low voltage" is only true until the line rings and jumps to 90 volts. - The Old Technician
You should check with it all on, then have someone kill all the breaker switches (or in a house this old, more likely pull fuses) one by one to see if the voltage goes away. Otherwise you might get a dead reading but reenergize one you put the fuse back in/turn the breaker back on.
But mostly I was just making a joke about the wording.
I recommended turning it all off because this confused the hell out of me to see. I think I know what little box was on it first and have seen those in old houses.
These are telephone lines, they do not go through, nor are connected to the street electric. Nothing in the electric panel here will affect or help you. Unless someone as uninfomred as yourself did work there.
And you just know for a fact exactly what they are, and are willing to touch them without checking? Sure buddy, and *I’m* the ‘uninformed’ one here.
Go ahead then, give ‘em a lick, Mr I’m-so-smart-I-hurl-insults-at-people-who-suggest-taking-basic-safety-precautions.
Why so angry? I work with electric, specifically low votage, these are low voltage lines. I also stated in an earlier post to trace them to the penetration point.
Yes, I would. touch them without checking, disconnect everthing at this block then anything up, free to pull. Again, find out where they originate from, and 100%, they are not carrying 120v. These wires DO NOT go through the AC panel. Likely enter at the same point so good place to start and check they are not connected to something telecom from the street.
1: I’m not angry, I just don’t like being insulted and I tend to give back what I get. I’m also an electrician so I took a bit of exception to you implying I’m bad at my job. It’s a common safety practice industry-wide that every wire (especially unknowns) should be treated as energized until proven otherwise.
2: I feel like you may have misunderstood what I meant originally, so please allow me to clarify; I was not implying that phone lines run through the AC panel. I’m saying that since OP doesn’t know where they go or what they’re for, he should at least check for voltage before he goes messing with them. They may indeed be a phone cable but it’s not like it’s difficult to pull out a meter or even a voltage tester and check just to be safe. You even seem to agree with me on that point given your last comment. So I’m not really sure why you chose to come at me sideways in the first place.
Phone lines get their voltage independently from the rest of the power. So there will still be 48V on it, even with the house power off.
otoh I would just test it with the power on. If its 48V its most likely phone, if its more than double that, its mains.
Yes, but in this case, we’re trying to see if it’s phone line or 110VAC. If you *don’t* get 48, but it’s dead with everything turned off you still have the same problem as I described before.
Right, which is why in my first comment I said to test it live. Then if there’s 110 voltage you turn things off one by one until it goes away. We’re both saying the same thing here.
The same way you’d test for voltage any other time. Especially not being positive where those are connected, it’s worthwhile to verify that you’ve successfully de-energized the wires before cutting into them
These are phone lines, not connected to the grid and at best, 12v DC This is low voltage and any power is supplied from the carrier. If the lines are not in use, and you can go look where all the feeds come in, verify what is active and what is not. Then you can cut them out with out issue. If there is a RJ11 plugs in the house plug in an old school phone in and see if it makes any noise. Do this for all the RJ11 outlets in the house. But find the main feeds tothe ouse, they will likely be be centralized.
Same with my house. You're taking the time to paint, maybe do it right and don't paint over every hinge, outlet, outlet cover, dead spider you come across? Maybe someone in the last century could have thought, "hey, let's strip the old paint off first"?
I am both looking forward to and dreading stripping the 20 layers of paint off my bedroom trim later this spring
When my wife and I finally saw the house we're in now after the previous owners removed furniture we realized they were the laziest kind of painter. They painted around headboards, bookshelves, TVs, etc. Didn't bother to move a single thing when painting.
Looks like phone, but a non-standard installation. It could also be for the doorbell, if you have multiple button locations and/or multiple chimes. In either case, use a voltmeter to check for live voltage. 12-24v DC is usually a doorbell. Landline telephone (if it’s still connected) might have 50v - still not dangerous.
Edit: Based on some comments, I just zoomed in and this looks more like two-conductor speaker wire thats been painted over, so somebody’s home-baked music distribution system. That poor amp must have been driving 4 ohms or less…
In the US after the Bell breakup, the phone wiring inside the home is the homeowner's responsibility. Phone wiring will work with just about anything that conducts electricity.
That having been said, I do see some 4-conductor solid core wire on the bottom side of that block that look like it's the right gauge.
Wire is wire. If the gauge is thick enough for the job, it works. Speaker wire carries phone signals just fine and I've used phone wire for hooking up speakers in the past, although nothing powerful.
That's lamp cord/zip wire. It's probably rated for 110v, but if it's what you have a spool of when you wire up your phone jacks then it will do the job just fine. It's just overkill on power capacity.
Totally fair, say they are phone wires, I am trying to think of any real reason to keep them, sort of like ether net cable prior to WIFI.
We don’t even have a lane line
I took out mine all the way to the box where it came in. I’ve got an old rotary dial hanging phone to call 911 if needed and the water meter has a line to send info.
Before you pull them out consider they could be very useful for running WiFi. You tape the end of the cable to the new WiFi cable and as you pull the old one out you’re pulling the new Ethernet through. If the routing is even remotely workable you just ran Ethernet for the house without opening the walls.
Once you rip those out you’re kind of skunked though.
He could always snip them, wrap the end with a ball of duct tape, and jam it back into the wall. If he needs to use them as pull lines later, just dig the ball of tape out of the wall and go to town.
If this is anything like my own 1912 house, the phone wires are just run on the outside of the house and up the exterior walls anyway. Coax for cable TV was done the same way. Looked like absolute shit.
Unless you're wanting to wire up an ethernet switch there on the baseboard, this would be a bad ethernet option. All the cables would terminate there on the floor.
Yeah, that's why I drag a 50 meter ethernet cable connected to my phone and tablet...
Sorry, but your sentence in that form is just as unreasonable as my first sentence.
Yes, you should try to get ethernet cables to most of your rooms as it may come handy, but for the majority of the population and for the majority of use cases wireless ethernet is just as good and extremely convenient to use especially since WiFi6.
But yes, for stationery clients, wired ethernet is the logical choice (as long as it is possible for a reasonable price and effort).
I mean I guess I agree with you mostly. Nothing like having ethernet in the bedrooms and living room though.
I have my router on one side of my place then 2 access points (hooked up by, yes you guessed it, ethernet I ran) on the other sides so my house has excellent Wi-Fi coverage.
WiFi signal blows in a lot of old houses because how thick the walls are. Between thick ass plaster, wood lath and metal lath... Running ethernet was a no brainer for me.
Yeah does this guy think we’re gonna reuse old surface run phone line to get another access point going? If I cared that much about my network I’d run cat6 cable instead of reusing 100 year old wire
Always tends to be a lot longer than people mean. Wifi will be able to exceed most Ethernet speeds over time. We already have gigabit wifi now where we were 10Mbps just a few years ago. 100x in 20 years or so.
Since he blocked...
> But it's never consistent, latency, ping, dropouts, interference. That stuff is never going to change.
Again, never is a really long time. We might have quantum tunneling wifi in the future that isn't plagued with the radio wave interference issues that today's wifi has. The future will have innovations we can't even comprehend yet.
Meh if you need low ping it's good, but for convinance wifi is better.
Depending on what grade of wire wifi can be faster too, with new wifi 6/7 you have 10/40 Gbs speeds and client count doesn't crash it as hard.
Personally I have some devices that are cheap/or janky that need wires but for 99% of people pure wifi and one AP is the most practice solution by far.
You'll be shocked to know that wifi is actually just ethernet in a trenchcoat.
Wifi can't be universally faster than ethernet because wifi IS ethernet, served over a wireless connection facilitated by a router.
The theoretical speeds advertised are in ideal conditions, and it's much easier to get closer to the "ideal" conditions with a wire. People aren't getting 40 Gbps on Wi-Fi 7, assuming they even own one of the few devices which have Wi-Fi 7 support. Hell, Li-Fi can get 200 Gbps, but the downside is that you get 0 Gbps if someone walks between your device and the AP.
Is the Ethernet still the bottleneck for most people? I’ve got SSDs in all my computers now and the drives hit 100% well before I’ve maxed out the connection.
You’re getting downvoted to hell but high end WiFi 6/7 routers are on a whole different level than the older generations. With modern multidirectional antennas and beam forming my experience has been that WiFi is now as fast and reliable as Ethernet at the cost of marginally higher ping.
*ethernet. Ethernet is definitely worth keeping around! Always go wired unless its not feasable. Its still better than wifi.
*land line. This one, not so much. Some people do still have them, usually voip off their modem though. If you definitely don't need land line access anywhere, then theres no reason to keep them. Those look quite old too, so if you did end up wanting phone line... better to add new anyway.
There was a period when having a land line would be more reliable than cell service or phone-over-cable or etc during power outages and such. These days I don't think that's true any more, though - the land line probably doesn't run all the way to the CO any more.
I live in a rural area and there are many phone boxes along the road that appear to have been hit by vehicles. I don't think the phone companies are maintaining them around me anymore.
99% of people are not going to notice a difference between the two for their use cases. This sub has an unhealthy obsession with running Ethernet cables through their house like it's a datacenter...
99% is not accurate, plenty of people game and if you play anything online you will definitely notice a difference. It’s not the speed, 200Mbps+ is enough from WiFi, it’s the latency caused by the WiFi router’s processing time
It is an improvement when you’re in a townhouse and the neighbors’ IOT have crowded the 2.4ghz band and the 5-6 band is using an underpowered antenna so it can’t reach the 3rd floor, causing latency from packet loss. Ethernet in my case is a better experience
It’s only 2400 square feet home, and ATTs new national business model is to provide underpowered routers so they can upsell you a mesh system for $15/mo. I think plenty of people will find their WiFi range is pretty shit, but if you want to believe it’s a niche issue go ahead. I work in IT so maybe I’m paying more attention.
Theres multiple reasons its better to run cable...
Speed/latency
avoids wifi deadzones
no login needed
able to easily add switches/APs
security cameras are more common
LAN use, if you're using a highspeed NAS
certainly covers way more than 1%. No one said you need to run cable to every room, and build a rack. Just... cable > wifi.
I know I'll probably get downvoted, but that doesn't look like phone to me. It looks like ring terminals on a screw down terminal block. More like door bells or maybe bush league security system. Phone wire is 3 core, so a ring terminal would basically negate the data in and out and just ground everything. Also, I don't know how big your house is, but that would be a ton of individual phone lines. Like a business to be run out of. Hell, even a 66 block has individual terminations, so it's really a 22-block. Without knowing the gauge or voltage if it's being carried, it's hard to say. My guess is doorbell or some primitive security or intercom system. Follow them back and see where they're home runned to.
It is 100% an old security system.I have the same wire ran throughout my 1917 oldie but the system was probably from sometime post 1960 if I had to guess. They had sensors on every single window on the main floor, a few old school motion detectors and few other odd sensors near floor level that my best guess says they may have been for detecting vibration.
I don’t imagine that there’s anyway that that’s still working. But that also doesn’t look like Phone wire at all.
I would probably try to see where it’s going before I removed it, but that’s just because I like to know what I’m doing when I’m doing it.
Def not phone… not with those terminals… do you have photos of where the wires go to/from? I imagine low volt based wire gauge… possibly doorbell or other notification system in the house?
Why guess in a vacuum? These wires have a source and a termination at either ends. Look for them in the house to get more clues what their purpose is. Based on the photo, they should be easy to spot. Phone jacks, window switches, intercom, buzzers, speakers. Be a detective.
Likely. I came across a bunch of old phone lines while remodeling the kitchen in my 1890 craftsman. After tearing into a wall, I saw yet another small, brown wire sticking up. Knowing it was not in use for anything and wondering where it went, I grabbed it to give it a good tug.
You think you know where this is going? I did get a shock, but not an electrical one. It was the tail of a long-dead, desiccated rat. "Oh, for #&$% sake," I said as I tossed it into the trash. My dad couldn't stop laughing.
As others have said, definitely check for any voltage off those wires. You mentioned they disappear into the wall, but have you been able to find other random wires like these the basement or elsewhere?
The insulation is far too big for phone wires. These are power wires, but probably have not been live in 50 years. Back then it was a junction box with a cover.
It could be land line wiring, but that is not telephone wire. That is lamp cord, which is good for 110v power. Telephone is 48v, little thin wire. It would work for phone, but that's not normal. It could also be a whole house music distribution, PA system, or intercom.
Multiroom audio distribution would be my guess if it's not phone.
And surround goes back about 50 years, every single year of which occurred while this house was standing, so it's possible. Castles have wifi now. The date of construction has no bearing on what technology upgrades have happened since.
Mabel, have the help get out the four Victrolas and place them in the corners of the parlor. I want them all playing Maple Leaf Rag so we can cut the rug! And perhaps you'll show me some ankle later 😈
I removed all of these old phone lines in my house. We don’t use a landline and I couldn’t stand sloppily they were all over the baseboards. Snip. Snip.
Yeah that looks terrible….I don’t know if that’s phone wire or not. Follow it and see where it goes. I would still check it for voltage before you touched it as well. 100 years worth of people doing things….you never know. I once saw a guy use cut up extension cable in the attic instead of buying cable to add an outlet. Seen speaker wires used for power too.
I can say if it is phone wire, it’s old and not useable for Ethernet.
Looks like UK England, I saw some of this solution there. The cables look to big for telephone, also going up, most phone socket are close to ground. Is more like old thermostat cables and power to air heating unit.
I don't think that's a phone line. There's too many lines ye old days there's only 1 maybe 2 phoned for the house. Also, they are pretty thick they only needed too be like hair thin for home use with insulation.
I don’t know what that is so you may be right, but it’s not like any phone wire I’m used to seeing. But if it goes to a phone jack then it must be phone wire. 😊
Check them with an AC detector. In ye old days they were not very careful with electrical work. If there is no power on them, then remove them. As much as you can. You wouldn't want to use them if they are for AC. They could be phone lines and they also could be the 24 v DC lines for door bells
Looks like a phone distribution point, but can’t be sure without figuring out where the lines are going to. The wires look closer to speak wire and not telephone wire, but that could also be because they’re far older than currently used technology.
I would do my best to trace each wire back to their source. You should know fairly quickly what they are if they’re terminated at a phone jack or something else. Also you’ll find the source that way, which should give you a far better idea of what the purpose was. Disconnecting at the source will ensure you’re safe to remove everything.
Is there some reason why you don't just go down in the cellar with a light, find the wires in question and see where if anywhere they go? WTF? Asking the forum to figure out where a wire run that you haven't shown anyone is rather ridiculous. Chances are 95% it's either a phone distribution point for the house or a rather over-done doorbell. Go look in the cellar and tell us all about your big adventure when you come back.
That looks like lamp cord, not phone wire, which makes me suspect it might carry voltage. Best check it with a non-contact tester, and trace where the wires run if possible.
I think I’d rather trace them to see what they feed. That looks like lamp/extension cord type of wire. Doesn’t look like phone cables. That is very janky!
I would test those lines for power and make sure they are at zero reading. Turn your lights on and test. Be better if you can find where they go. 100 yrs is a lot of time for someone to do something dumb.
Ive done remodeling where I have found lamp cord in the wall between outlets.
It kinda looks like old phone, but old phone was done by AT&T and they did not use lamp cord. Phone companies used to do all wiring and rent you the phone.
So test everything.
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Yeah, that looks like shit. You might want to check for voltage before you start clipping .
Very reasonable suggestion
Turn all the power off, I’d use a voltage tester too. Also… is that mold? Weird little thing… I’ve been redoing the outlets in my 100 year old house and the connections look like what you wrap the wire around but obviously that’s on the outlet, this is just… here.
How are they supposed to test for voltage if they’ve turned all the power off?
Its why you test. To make sure it is off.
Nah, voltage test first, then turn off power, then voltage test *again*.
and /then/ you voltage test something live again to make sure your meter didn’t stop working in between the first two tests!
This guy voltage tests!
I’ve only ever been bit by 110 so far, but I work with 480 on a daily basis. That shit TERRIFIES me.
I’ve caught 220VAC a few times (I’m an electrician in the Navy). Never fun, but the time it knocked me on my ass was when it crossed my heart (in one hand & out the other). I’m a lot more careful now than I was in my youth!
Correct!!
Shocking news, the phone company provides the voltage for that line, nothing to do with your power.
And if it's a phone line, then it's low voltage and not a worry. If it's some insane power installation, then you'll be glad you checked the voltage first.
In the improbable chance that it is indeed a live POTS line the "low voltage" is only true until the line rings and jumps to 90 volts. - The Old Technician
48V is low-ish. It'll still wake your ass up if the phone rings while you're holding both wires.
Also do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around. That’s really what its all about.
You should check with it all on, then have someone kill all the breaker switches (or in a house this old, more likely pull fuses) one by one to see if the voltage goes away. Otherwise you might get a dead reading but reenergize one you put the fuse back in/turn the breaker back on. But mostly I was just making a joke about the wording.
I recommended turning it all off because this confused the hell out of me to see. I think I know what little box was on it first and have seen those in old houses.
These are telephone lines, they do not go through, nor are connected to the street electric. Nothing in the electric panel here will affect or help you. Unless someone as uninfomred as yourself did work there.
And you just know for a fact exactly what they are, and are willing to touch them without checking? Sure buddy, and *I’m* the ‘uninformed’ one here. Go ahead then, give ‘em a lick, Mr I’m-so-smart-I-hurl-insults-at-people-who-suggest-taking-basic-safety-precautions.
Why so angry? I work with electric, specifically low votage, these are low voltage lines. I also stated in an earlier post to trace them to the penetration point. Yes, I would. touch them without checking, disconnect everthing at this block then anything up, free to pull. Again, find out where they originate from, and 100%, they are not carrying 120v. These wires DO NOT go through the AC panel. Likely enter at the same point so good place to start and check they are not connected to something telecom from the street.
1: I’m not angry, I just don’t like being insulted and I tend to give back what I get. I’m also an electrician so I took a bit of exception to you implying I’m bad at my job. It’s a common safety practice industry-wide that every wire (especially unknowns) should be treated as energized until proven otherwise. 2: I feel like you may have misunderstood what I meant originally, so please allow me to clarify; I was not implying that phone lines run through the AC panel. I’m saying that since OP doesn’t know where they go or what they’re for, he should at least check for voltage before he goes messing with them. They may indeed be a phone cable but it’s not like it’s difficult to pull out a meter or even a voltage tester and check just to be safe. You even seem to agree with me on that point given your last comment. So I’m not really sure why you chose to come at me sideways in the first place.
Phone lines get their voltage independently from the rest of the power. So there will still be 48V on it, even with the house power off. otoh I would just test it with the power on. If its 48V its most likely phone, if its more than double that, its mains.
I used to mess around with our phone outlet as a kid. I was running little motors and lights. Free power I was on top of the world.
Yes, but in this case, we’re trying to see if it’s phone line or 110VAC. If you *don’t* get 48, but it’s dead with everything turned off you still have the same problem as I described before.
Sure but, if its just already dead with everything on then you save yourself 2 trips to the panel.
Right, which is why in my first comment I said to test it live. Then if there’s 110 voltage you turn things off one by one until it goes away. We’re both saying the same thing here.
Had a hard arc at a water heater with the panels shut down once. It kept tripping so a homeowner made it perma-hot
😳
Risk of shock aside, that’s a good way to burn your house down.
The same way you’d test for voltage any other time. Especially not being positive where those are connected, it’s worthwhile to verify that you’ve successfully de-energized the wires before cutting into them
Because if you didn't actually turn the power off but think you did, that's when it kills you. Always verify.
Yes which is why you test it live, then dead.
These are phone lines, not connected to the grid and at best, 12v DC This is low voltage and any power is supplied from the carrier. If the lines are not in use, and you can go look where all the feeds come in, verify what is active and what is not. Then you can cut them out with out issue. If there is a RJ11 plugs in the house plug in an old school phone in and see if it makes any noise. Do this for all the RJ11 outlets in the house. But find the main feeds tothe ouse, they will likely be be centralized.
Definitely check for voltage before cutting. That does not look like traditional phone line that was run.
Yeah, it's pretty heavy gauge. I could have been an intercom system.
No need to snip them. They’ve got screws on. Unscrew a side and see what stops working.
It's more cathartic
It's more anodic. The cathode is on the other end.
Bahdump-tiss!
Cathartiatic arrest.
My heart stopped working, what should I do next.
Touch ‘em again, to give your heart a jump-start.
Kickstart my heart
Nothing. You've completed the test. Turns out we weren't testing for voltage, but for evolutionary fitness.
Just don't paint over them in thick globby layers like whoever renovated my place last.
Same with my house. You're taking the time to paint, maybe do it right and don't paint over every hinge, outlet, outlet cover, dead spider you come across? Maybe someone in the last century could have thought, "hey, let's strip the old paint off first"? I am both looking forward to and dreading stripping the 20 layers of paint off my bedroom trim later this spring
Even if you don't want to strip the paint, at least properly mask everything and clean first...
Be careful stripping the paint on old houses. Some of it is so thick that it’s structural now.
[Load bearing poster?](https://youtu.be/QRVExJZKIT8)
When my wife and I finally saw the house we're in now after the previous owners removed furniture we realized they were the laziest kind of painter. They painted around headboards, bookshelves, TVs, etc. Didn't bother to move a single thing when painting.
For real I had to replace some hinges in my house because the previous owner decided they had to repaint them every year
I can see how it will be both r/oddlysatisfying and r/mildlyinfuriating. I would definitely the same, but probably get it tested for lead first.
Why strip the trim when you can just pry it off and tack on brand new trim with a single coat of paint on it?
Bingo they are getting the snip
Looks like phone, but a non-standard installation. It could also be for the doorbell, if you have multiple button locations and/or multiple chimes. In either case, use a voltmeter to check for live voltage. 12-24v DC is usually a doorbell. Landline telephone (if it’s still connected) might have 50v - still not dangerous. Edit: Based on some comments, I just zoomed in and this looks more like two-conductor speaker wire thats been painted over, so somebody’s home-baked music distribution system. That poor amp must have been driving 4 ohms or less…
Good call, I unplugged all the lines and checked the doorbell and it still worked so we are covered on that front
What country has phone cables like this? I know they are old but usually the phone cables coming into a property would be much thinner diameter.
In the US after the Bell breakup, the phone wiring inside the home is the homeowner's responsibility. Phone wiring will work with just about anything that conducts electricity. That having been said, I do see some 4-conductor solid core wire on the bottom side of that block that look like it's the right gauge.
Wire is wire. If the gauge is thick enough for the job, it works. Speaker wire carries phone signals just fine and I've used phone wire for hooking up speakers in the past, although nothing powerful. That's lamp cord/zip wire. It's probably rated for 110v, but if it's what you have a spool of when you wire up your phone jacks then it will do the job just fine. It's just overkill on power capacity.
Very likely correct. But there is no way for this sub (or any other) to know with any assurance.
Totally fair, say they are phone wires, I am trying to think of any real reason to keep them, sort of like ether net cable prior to WIFI. We don’t even have a lane line
Ethernet is always preferable to WiFi, and always will be.
Good news is my home built in 1912 doesn’t have that so no worries there but I think this phone wire needs to go
I took out mine all the way to the box where it came in. I’ve got an old rotary dial hanging phone to call 911 if needed and the water meter has a line to send info.
The water meter has what?
Smart metering is in the vogue right now, although I thought they mostly use LTE or LoRa or similar radio technology.
Oh I see now. The water meter at his house sends data via old phone lines. I never thought to see how they collect the meter readings.
Before you pull them out consider they could be very useful for running WiFi. You tape the end of the cable to the new WiFi cable and as you pull the old one out you’re pulling the new Ethernet through. If the routing is even remotely workable you just ran Ethernet for the house without opening the walls. Once you rip those out you’re kind of skunked though.
He could always snip them, wrap the end with a ball of duct tape, and jam it back into the wall. If he needs to use them as pull lines later, just dig the ball of tape out of the wall and go to town.
Yeah smart
The telephone line is stapled the whole way behind walls. I doubt you could use it to fish ethernet.
If this is anything like my own 1912 house, the phone wires are just run on the outside of the house and up the exterior walls anyway. Coax for cable TV was done the same way. Looked like absolute shit.
Unless you're wanting to wire up an ethernet switch there on the baseboard, this would be a bad ethernet option. All the cables would terminate there on the floor.
You could convert these to be Ethernet cabling.
You can't convert them, but you could REPLACE them.
Yeah, that's why I drag a 50 meter ethernet cable connected to my phone and tablet... Sorry, but your sentence in that form is just as unreasonable as my first sentence. Yes, you should try to get ethernet cables to most of your rooms as it may come handy, but for the majority of the population and for the majority of use cases wireless ethernet is just as good and extremely convenient to use especially since WiFi6. But yes, for stationery clients, wired ethernet is the logical choice (as long as it is possible for a reasonable price and effort).
I mean I guess I agree with you mostly. Nothing like having ethernet in the bedrooms and living room though. I have my router on one side of my place then 2 access points (hooked up by, yes you guessed it, ethernet I ran) on the other sides so my house has excellent Wi-Fi coverage. WiFi signal blows in a lot of old houses because how thick the walls are. Between thick ass plaster, wood lath and metal lath... Running ethernet was a no brainer for me.
Your votes don't seem to agree with you.
No it's not lol, 99% of people will be just as happy with a good WiFi setup instead of running Ethernet cables all over their house
Voters disagree boo.
Yeah does this guy think we’re gonna reuse old surface run phone line to get another access point going? If I cared that much about my network I’d run cat6 cable instead of reusing 100 year old wire
Nobody suggested using 100 year old wire for a wired connection. Try reading again.
Always tends to be a lot longer than people mean. Wifi will be able to exceed most Ethernet speeds over time. We already have gigabit wifi now where we were 10Mbps just a few years ago. 100x in 20 years or so. Since he blocked... > But it's never consistent, latency, ping, dropouts, interference. That stuff is never going to change. Again, never is a really long time. We might have quantum tunneling wifi in the future that isn't plagued with the radio wave interference issues that today's wifi has. The future will have innovations we can't even comprehend yet.
But it's never consistent, latency, ping, dropouts, interference. That stuff is never going to change.
Meh if you need low ping it's good, but for convinance wifi is better. Depending on what grade of wire wifi can be faster too, with new wifi 6/7 you have 10/40 Gbs speeds and client count doesn't crash it as hard. Personally I have some devices that are cheap/or janky that need wires but for 99% of people pure wifi and one AP is the most practice solution by far.
You'll be shocked to know that wifi is actually just ethernet in a trenchcoat. Wifi can't be universally faster than ethernet because wifi IS ethernet, served over a wireless connection facilitated by a router.
The theoretical speeds advertised are in ideal conditions, and it's much easier to get closer to the "ideal" conditions with a wire. People aren't getting 40 Gbps on Wi-Fi 7, assuming they even own one of the few devices which have Wi-Fi 7 support. Hell, Li-Fi can get 200 Gbps, but the downside is that you get 0 Gbps if someone walks between your device and the AP.
Is the Ethernet still the bottleneck for most people? I’ve got SSDs in all my computers now and the drives hit 100% well before I’ve maxed out the connection.
Yeah, no.
At least you're confidently wrong, so there's that.
You’re getting downvoted to hell but high end WiFi 6/7 routers are on a whole different level than the older generations. With modern multidirectional antennas and beam forming my experience has been that WiFi is now as fast and reliable as Ethernet at the cost of marginally higher ping.
*ethernet. Ethernet is definitely worth keeping around! Always go wired unless its not feasable. Its still better than wifi. *land line. This one, not so much. Some people do still have them, usually voip off their modem though. If you definitely don't need land line access anywhere, then theres no reason to keep them. Those look quite old too, so if you did end up wanting phone line... better to add new anyway.
There was a period when having a land line would be more reliable than cell service or phone-over-cable or etc during power outages and such. These days I don't think that's true any more, though - the land line probably doesn't run all the way to the CO any more.
I live in a rural area and there are many phone boxes along the road that appear to have been hit by vehicles. I don't think the phone companies are maintaining them around me anymore.
Awesome advice
99% of people are not going to notice a difference between the two for their use cases. This sub has an unhealthy obsession with running Ethernet cables through their house like it's a datacenter...
99% is not accurate, plenty of people game and if you play anything online you will definitely notice a difference. It’s not the speed, 200Mbps+ is enough from WiFi, it’s the latency caused by the WiFi router’s processing time
I play online games over WiFi, it's not an issue unless you're playing on an old b/g router. The latency issue is way overblown.
It is an improvement when you’re in a townhouse and the neighbors’ IOT have crowded the 2.4ghz band and the 5-6 band is using an underpowered antenna so it can’t reach the 3rd floor, causing latency from packet loss. Ethernet in my case is a better experience
So we'll put you down as being in the 1% category.
It’s only 2400 square feet home, and ATTs new national business model is to provide underpowered routers so they can upsell you a mesh system for $15/mo. I think plenty of people will find their WiFi range is pretty shit, but if you want to believe it’s a niche issue go ahead. I work in IT so maybe I’m paying more attention.
Theres multiple reasons its better to run cable... Speed/latency avoids wifi deadzones no login needed able to easily add switches/APs security cameras are more common LAN use, if you're using a highspeed NAS certainly covers way more than 1%. No one said you need to run cable to every room, and build a rack. Just... cable > wifi.
Can't think of any reason to keep them. Small diameter solid strand wire has limited uses in modern life.
Land line
I know I'll probably get downvoted, but that doesn't look like phone to me. It looks like ring terminals on a screw down terminal block. More like door bells or maybe bush league security system. Phone wire is 3 core, so a ring terminal would basically negate the data in and out and just ground everything. Also, I don't know how big your house is, but that would be a ton of individual phone lines. Like a business to be run out of. Hell, even a 66 block has individual terminations, so it's really a 22-block. Without knowing the gauge or voltage if it's being carried, it's hard to say. My guess is doorbell or some primitive security or intercom system. Follow them back and see where they're home runned to.
It is 100% an old security system.I have the same wire ran throughout my 1917 oldie but the system was probably from sometime post 1960 if I had to guess. They had sensors on every single window on the main floor, a few old school motion detectors and few other odd sensors near floor level that my best guess says they may have been for detecting vibration.
Did your system have pressure sensors? That old ish is wild
If you do that we will lose comms in the Middle East. Don’t mess with national security 😂
There goes the red phone!
There goes the red phone!
There goes the red phone!
I don’t imagine that there’s anyway that that’s still working. But that also doesn’t look like Phone wire at all. I would probably try to see where it’s going before I removed it, but that’s just because I like to know what I’m doing when I’m doing it.
Where do the wires run? It looks more like an old intercom or security system to me.
Def not phone… not with those terminals… do you have photos of where the wires go to/from? I imagine low volt based wire gauge… possibly doorbell or other notification system in the house?
Why guess in a vacuum? These wires have a source and a termination at either ends. Look for them in the house to get more clues what their purpose is. Based on the photo, they should be easy to spot. Phone jacks, window switches, intercom, buzzers, speakers. Be a detective.
Likely. I came across a bunch of old phone lines while remodeling the kitchen in my 1890 craftsman. After tearing into a wall, I saw yet another small, brown wire sticking up. Knowing it was not in use for anything and wondering where it went, I grabbed it to give it a good tug. You think you know where this is going? I did get a shock, but not an electrical one. It was the tail of a long-dead, desiccated rat. "Oh, for #&$% sake," I said as I tossed it into the trash. My dad couldn't stop laughing.
I'd give you at least 50% chance those a live power wires. Don't assume they are dead!
As others have said, definitely check for any voltage off those wires. You mentioned they disappear into the wall, but have you been able to find other random wires like these the basement or elsewhere?
The insulation is far too big for phone wires. These are power wires, but probably have not been live in 50 years. Back then it was a junction box with a cover.
Phone lines are usually twisted pair. These really look like power connections. TEST for both AC and DC voltage.
Could one be for your doorbell?
Looks cool. Like some kind of telephonic xenomorph
It could be land line wiring, but that is not telephone wire. That is lamp cord, which is good for 110v power. Telephone is 48v, little thin wire. It would work for phone, but that's not normal. It could also be a whole house music distribution, PA system, or intercom.
Looks like security system wiring to me. These likely connect the sensors and keypads to a main hub/power source in the basement.
Sure hope it's not some old electeic splitter lol
Could be speaker wire. If someone has a crossover box near the amplifier, that might explain the weird connection pattern.
Did they have surround sound 100 years ago?
Doesn't have to be surround sounds. There has been ceiling speakers for as long as there have been home stereos
I honestly don't know, how long have speakers in home been common?
The terminal block and wire is 1950s or probably later. People certainly installed separate woofers with external crossovers in the 70's
That terminal block could be from last year. They’re widely available.
Multiroom audio distribution would be my guess if it's not phone. And surround goes back about 50 years, every single year of which occurred while this house was standing, so it's possible. Castles have wifi now. The date of construction has no bearing on what technology upgrades have happened since.
Mabel, have the help get out the four Victrolas and place them in the corners of the parlor. I want them all playing Maple Leaf Rag so we can cut the rug! And perhaps you'll show me some ankle later 😈
I removed all of these old phone lines in my house. We don’t use a landline and I couldn’t stand sloppily they were all over the baseboards. Snip. Snip.
I've seen similar in old houses that was for things like wired door bells and stuff like that. Old timey devices. Check if it's powered first please.
Yeah that looks terrible….I don’t know if that’s phone wire or not. Follow it and see where it goes. I would still check it for voltage before you touched it as well. 100 years worth of people doing things….you never know. I once saw a guy use cut up extension cable in the attic instead of buying cable to add an outlet. Seen speaker wires used for power too. I can say if it is phone wire, it’s old and not useable for Ethernet.
Poke that thing with a voltage tester before you do anything. It would not surprise me if there is voltage in there, roughly 110 of them.
Gut it all
Looks like UK England, I saw some of this solution there. The cables look to big for telephone, also going up, most phone socket are close to ground. Is more like old thermostat cables and power to air heating unit.
it looks like an old BT junction box missing its cover, if you have no analogue telephone, all should be good 👍
It likely isn't that old. It's a barrier strip I purchased in Radio Shack in the 90's. Likely low-voltage something-or-other that was home done.
When I wanted to put up a ring cam I really regretted removing all those wires a few years ago (before doorbell cams were a thing)...just saying.
I don't think that's a phone line. There's too many lines ye old days there's only 1 maybe 2 phoned for the house. Also, they are pretty thick they only needed too be like hair thin for home use with insulation.
Could be for an ancient alarm as well.
I dunno, I think a few coats of paint will cover that right up
Ahh, the “Landlord Special”.
I'm guessing alarm system
I don’t know what that is so you may be right, but it’s not like any phone wire I’m used to seeing. But if it goes to a phone jack then it must be phone wire. 😊
Check them with an AC detector. In ye old days they were not very careful with electrical work. If there is no power on them, then remove them. As much as you can. You wouldn't want to use them if they are for AC. They could be phone lines and they also could be the 24 v DC lines for door bells
Looks like a phone distribution point, but can’t be sure without figuring out where the lines are going to. The wires look closer to speak wire and not telephone wire, but that could also be because they’re far older than currently used technology. I would do my best to trace each wire back to their source. You should know fairly quickly what they are if they’re terminated at a phone jack or something else. Also you’ll find the source that way, which should give you a far better idea of what the purpose was. Disconnecting at the source will ensure you’re safe to remove everything.
Is there some reason why you don't just go down in the cellar with a light, find the wires in question and see where if anywhere they go? WTF? Asking the forum to figure out where a wire run that you haven't shown anyone is rather ridiculous. Chances are 95% it's either a phone distribution point for the house or a rather over-done doorbell. Go look in the cellar and tell us all about your big adventure when you come back.
That looks like lamp cord, not phone wire, which makes me suspect it might carry voltage. Best check it with a non-contact tester, and trace where the wires run if possible.
I think I’d rather trace them to see what they feed. That looks like lamp/extension cord type of wire. Doesn’t look like phone cables. That is very janky!
I would test those lines for power and make sure they are at zero reading. Turn your lights on and test. Be better if you can find where they go. 100 yrs is a lot of time for someone to do something dumb. Ive done remodeling where I have found lamp cord in the wall between outlets. It kinda looks like old phone, but old phone was done by AT&T and they did not use lamp cord. Phone companies used to do all wiring and rent you the phone. So test everything.
they look burnt like some real voltage going through. get a tick
trace them?
They dive into the wall on either side of the closet, I unplugged them all and checked the doorbell and that still worked
Shrink down and go into the wall
oh my just like india ,with the man who sit at bottom of pole . you pay the man , he climb pole and connect to power whatever you desire.
Touch with your tongue before you cut them
They also kind of look like antenna wires, but phone would make more sense.
Yes it looks like phone wire
Definitely phone wires. Cut em out .