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We had a phone jack in kitchen that we removed. We first cut the line then taped it individually. We noticed the phone line in the basement stopped working afterwards. I'm assuming the basement line is looped through the kitchen line. Is there a way for me to get the basement line restored without having run another wire through another port or putting the box back in the kitchen?

Wire picture 1

Wire picture 2

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  • 2
    Did kitchen jack have one line or two lines/wire to it? If only one line/wire then should not cut out basement.
    – crip659
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 14:29
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    To clarify crip659's comment, a phone line (standard US/Canada) uses two wires that are normally in one cable. So if you have 4 wires or 2 cables (each cable could have anywhere from 2 to 50 wires, but typically between 2 and 8 wires) then it is a splice/daisy-chain and you need to get them back together properly.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 14:56
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    You only need to crimp two sets of wires - in one cable it is real obvious which wires. The other one it isn't clear in the picture. Likely, but not guaranteed that it is the same pair, solid to solid and striped to striped. The typical professional way is not tape but these connectors.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 15:54
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    Not just any white, (you'll find you have 4 of those) but the white with the blue bands that's twisted to the blue.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 16:19
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    Well, there's a lesson here: don't go cutting any wires unless you truly know their function.
    – Carl Witthoft
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 16:32

1 Answer 1

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It is very common for phone lines to be installed in a daisy-chain manner. The wires might only be stripped a bit in the middle and continue on to the next jack. By cutting the wires at any point you could potentially turn off every phone in the house.

Optimistically, the kitchen wires just need to be spliced. Did you take a photo of the kitchen wires?

Edit: The photos look good. Go to the nearest hardware store and ask for telephone splices. No special tools needed. For example:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/100192058

Put each same-colored wire from each cable into a separate splice and squish it with any plyers. No need to strip.

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  • Pictures attached. Let me know if this helps.
    – Longroadahead
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 15:24
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    Yeah - for normal phone service, wired normally, just splice the blue/white-blue pair, ignore the rest. You can do it nicely with Scotch-Loks or use tiny wire-nuts or twist & tape or...
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 16:09
  • Pictures help, yes. Added more to the answer.
    – Robert Chapin
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 16:18
  • You example link returns an access denied error, do you have another example?
    – Ferrybig
    Commented Aug 14, 2021 at 10:51

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