Phone hardening/backup

[IVB]

I've found what I think are the 2 phone lines running into my house. [it's 95yrs old, nothing wiring related is easy].

Is "phone hardening" basically just pulling the wires out from where they run inside the house, putting them in a pipe [ie i saw some flexibile metal tubing @HD the other day], and running the pipe into the wall so there's no exposed bits?

Also, if the point of cellular backups is to protect against someone cutting the phone lines, wouldn't that low-tech route be better & cheaper as they wouldn't be able to cut the metal tubing & phone line without a heavy-duty bolt cutter?

Just wondering what I should do in this arena, now's the right time for me to think about this as it looks like i may have to rewire this stuff anyhow.

 

[electriclight]

Phone hardening, which I believe means, “how can I protect my land line from being disabled (cut) before my alarm panel reports there is an idiot trying to break in my houseâ€, is from my standpoint a tough nut to crack. This is due to the fact that much of what we want to control, is out of our control. This meaning, the wires from the lightening protection block (at the side of the house) are typically exposed from that point all the way to the street (or back lot line). We can bury our interior wiring in concrete which is of no value if a semi-intelligent burglar knows to snip the phone line (outside) prior to busting my side door down. So the wire you really want to protect is the exterior phone line, the side that SBC/AT&T controls (in our case). If your lucky, your phone line comes into the house underground and the lightening arrestor that the phone company provides is also located inside (this is un-common in residential installs). If those two conditions are met, then put the exposed interior phone line that feeds your M1 panel in metal tube to further impede the prowler’s progress.

Otherwise, cell backup is good!

 

[Mike]

Would you have a potential problem from the phone company for touching anything on their side of the demarc box (for those where the wiring is exposed at a low level)?

 

[IVB]

Thanks for the info, seems like you've got all my answers lately

I'll check again tonight, but I noticed something that looked funny [2 yo-yo looking things] that sat along the run and were about 12' up from the floor. Furthermore, if I correctly id'd the telephone wires, they run into the house 4' off the ground, and the house is 10' from the curb. Hence it would be shockingly simple to kill our phone lines. I was thinking about encasing the from the 12' high lightning block down through the house in the pipe [or PVC, if metal is bad], to slow down the bad guys.

Sounds like that would be a good idea regardless, let me think more about that cell backup and when that would be helpful. I'm not trying to be cheap about this, just making sure I spend my time and energy in the right place.

 

[IVB]

Would you have a potential problem from the phone company for touching anything on their side of the demarc box (for those where the wiring is exposed at a low level)?

You posted this while i was typing my response. Not sure, but what problems would you think they could cause? I wonder if I would really care...

 

[betrickey]

Let me know if you want to go the cell back up route. I bought one off of ebay for cheap. I have since put my house up for sale and all of my projects are at a stand still. I won't be installing this in this house and I don't know when I will have time to mess with it for the new house.
email [email protected]

 

[IVB]

just sent you email.

 

[Mike]

Would you have a potential problem from the phone company for touching anything on their side of the demarc box (for those where the wiring is exposed at a low level)?

You posted this while i was typing my response. Not sure, but what problems would you think they could cause? I wonder if I would really care...

Realistically it would only be a problem if they came to do any work or inspect. I believe you are not supposed to touch anything on the other side of the demarc. However, since the wiring may be mounted to your house that gets a bit tricky.

I would have to guess they have no real 'power'. After all, you would just cancel the service (or could threaten to).

I could be way off. Regardless I'm going to guess that you should secure your house, and it's wires as you see fit, but perhaps someone here has experience/info to share.

 

[IVB]

I live in a very "Archie Bunker" type neighborhood, where we have houses that are 15' apart, 10' from the street, and everyone knows each other. When I came home yesterday, 3 of the neighbor hubbies were talking on one of their stoops, and one of them co-owns a construction company. That's the one who just put in some add'l security stuff [7 sensors total!].

I saw the telco line run also going into the dude's house about 4' off the ground. There's not a single house in the neighborhood less than 90 years old, so we don't really have regular "demarc" boxes, rather these P.O.S. 1" x 3" plastic jobbers as almost no one has more than 3 jacks total in their whole house. Folks just daisy-chain stuff around here.

Anyhow, I said hi, asked the dude how much he just spent on his 7 sensors, then took 7 steps from the sidewalk to the telco line, made a snipping sound, and said "And now, it's useless".

They were not amused. Suddenly, they've gone from mocking me for "creating Fort Knox" with the CCTV, sensors, and now measuring the length and location of the line for enclosure to asking me if I know any pro's who'd help them do the same...

 

[jeffx]

How about creating a "dummy" phone line that is actually wired as a perimeter sensor that would sound an instant alarm? Make it so a would-be thief would be most likely to cut your "fake" wire first, thus sounding an instant alarm.

 

[jeffx]

I also have a CCTV camera monitoring the corner of my house where all the wires from the pole connect.