You've Dropped Your Landline — Now What? 635
smurphmeister writes "My wife and I recently moved up to the world of cell phones, after taking our sweet time to make sure this whole newfangled technology was going to stick around. We moved the old landline phone number to her phone, so we're disconnected from the pole. Now the question is, what to do with the copper already in our house? My first thought was an intercom system, but that just seems so old school! So what ideas do you all have for what to do with the 4 little wires running to every room of my house?"
Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:5, Funny)
Just leave it alone.
If you're really itching, hook it up to some broadband interference generator. That'll really mess with the feds.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, they'll mess with you.
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/ [fcc.gov]
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:4, Funny)
No, they'll mess with you.
Oh pa-leaze, they got better things to do. I've been doing this for almost a year and haven't attracted any atten/#s{J!WNr&D]g*,*7bp]:^30/=gNO CARRIER
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sigs are appended by slashdot, not hand typed.
Yes: Removing it may cut your house resale $ (Score:4, Informative)
Just leave it alone.
In particular: Removing it may lower your house resale value. Keep it in place.
(See other posts below about things like cellphone adapters to make it live so ordinary phone instruments or antique phones will work in the house.)
Re:Yes: Removing it may cut your house resale $ (Score:4, Interesting)
That's for sure. I use those "ancient" jacks to access high-speed internet. Although not having telephone jacks would not stop me from buying a house, it would drop my offer a few thousand dollars since I have to deal with the hassle of re-installing the lines.
Also I like having old-fashioned phones in my house, because in an electrical outage, they are the only things that still work.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Although not having telephone jacks would not stop me from buying a house, it would drop my offer a few thousand dollars since I have to deal with the hassle of re-installing the lines.
Wow, I thought BT (UK phone company) were bad when they charged me £100 to install a line to my house.
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:5, Funny)
If I ever hear anybody use the term "TwenCen" to refer to the twentieth century, I will have to go medieval on your ass (yes, yours, as I highly doubt anyone sane would use such a term on their own, so if anyone else does, I declare it your fault and your fault alone).
Or maybe Napoleonic on your ass. At a stretch, Victorian or Elizabethan. At any rate, it certainly wouldn't be some sissy TwenCen on your ass. Those people were pansies.
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:5, Funny)
I was wondering what the fuck TwenCen meant until I read your post, though now I wish I hadn't. That word is so much more annoying now that I know what it means. Thanks.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I am wondering, if you get 25 Two Cen... do you get a FiftyCen? Is it a landline that sings rap when you turn on music on hold?
ahhhhh, a TwenCen ... makes all the difference :)
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:5, Funny)
I thought it sounded like a rapper: FifCen's younger brother, TwenCen.
-b
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, that actually happened in the eighteen hundreds...
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:4, Funny)
This is like a low UID pissing contest that the geologists always win. That is, at least until the cosmologists show up!
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Why a PBX? If youre that serious then run your own wire. For existing wire you can buy a little VOIP box that will run through you existing wiring and ring your analog phones. I got one of these [dlink.com] for 5 dollars when I first gave up on a land line. Ive since gotten rid of it and do cell-only, but it works.
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:5, Funny)
I want to icepick someone now.
Re:While we're at it, stop installing crap into wa (Score:5, Funny)
The previous message was brought to you by NORML. the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. Make mary jane legal and you will see more of our thoughtful postings on
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If your custom built house is prewired with cat5e/cat6, and you're selling it to someone who wants normal POTS phone, why not just replace the RJ45 jacks with regular phone jacks? After all, Cat5e and Cat6 are just twisted pairs that /can/ be used for phone.
If some future owner wants to convert it back, they can, just by putting RJ45 jacks back in.
If you're pre-wiring, leave enough slack in the walls for several conversions. About 400mm of slack will allow several re-terminations.
Re:Sir, step away from the wall jack ... (Score:4, Informative)
Sure you can do that. The poster I was replying to seemed to want to know why VOIP was better than a regular phone line.
You don't need to replace the jacks or re-terminate any runs though. You don't even need to change anything at the junction box either. A RJ-11 connector, which is what a phone line will use, will fit into a RJ-45 jack just fine. I have done that several times. As long as you don't pull on the line and leave it alone, the contacts are still made with the right pins. It works.
Take the money you were going to spend on all the outlets, which is $4-$5 per outlet at the cheapest (not including labor costs), and buy a CAT5 patch panel. Take the incoming phone lines and connect them to the appropriate pins on the patch panel. Use a long length of wire and and connect it to Pin 1 on each port one after the other. Do that several times and you have your pairs to connect the incoming lines to it. Now you have Line 1 & Line 2 on the patch panel. If you connect a POTS phone to a port on that panel, you will have dial tone and it will work. Then just use standard patch cables ($1 a piece or less) to connect each port on that patch panel to the existing patch panel that was distributing ethernet. If you have more than two lines, just dedicate one group of ports to Line 3 & Line 4, and another group of ports to Line 1 & Line 2. Heck, you could even create a couple of custom ports if you want, or even a custom cable for a specific room to give them just the right lines they need.
In any case, it is much cheaper and easier than converting all the jacks, re-terminating the runs, and modifying the existing patch panel. Other than an RJ-45 jack being bigger, I doubt that the new owner would notice anything. He can still plug his POTS phone into the jacks quite easily, and as long as it works, why should he care about the "wierd" outlet? As long as you do the work right at the junction box, the phone company should just be able to connect the lines to the telephone junction box on the outside of the house and it should work without any further intervention.
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>>>The infrastructure that he has in place is intrinsically more valuable since it will be more compatible with future technologies
That's what they said about ISDN installations in the 80s and early 90s.
Boy were they wrong.
Technology changes too rapidly to know what the future will hold. Today a VOIP arrangement may be ideal, but next year some genius might invent a new technology that makes the whole thing obsolete. I've learned from experience you can't really predict future technological break
What do you do with extra copper? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.metalprices.com/FreeSite/metals/cu/cu.asp [metalprices.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Errmmm... have you ever seen telephone wire? I can't imagine there would be more than few ounces of it in his entire house. The effort of stripping off the insulation wouldn't be worth it.
Use the line to pull other lines into your outlets (Score:5, Interesting)
Use it as a guide line for ethernet.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Heard a noise at night? just go to the tablet on the wall, scan the cameras, and alert the authorities if necessary.
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Yes, the first thing I want to do if I hear a noise at night is put my face up to a wall, highlight my silhouette, ruin my night vision, and fiddle with some electronics.
Correction, I'll go downstairs with a bat, or gun, and a really bright flashlight to blind any intruder with before I bat them. And if it's a miscreant child, blind them and scare the shit out of them so they'll stop sneaking
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It's only required to be Cat3, but it's possible (unlikely though) that he has Cat5 or higher run through his house, with only four of the eight wires terminated. Were I to build my own house, I'd go this route, myself, and this is what they did at a networking lab I used to work at instead of buying phone extension cables.
Re:Use the line to pull other lines into your outl (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah sure...
http://80211n.com/80211n-speed.html [80211n.com]
Site is run by Broadcom, they make and sell 802.11 chipsets. They say real world throughput is about 160Mbps (link speed means about as much as a politician's word). Real world speed on my wired LAN is ~980Mbps. In what world is 160Mbps "almost as fast" as 900+Mbps?
Simple physics, wireless simply can't compete with wired for speed. Wired is also switched, wireless is shared. More than one stream on the network and they all suffer.
Re:Use the line to pull other lines into your outl (Score:5, Interesting)
In New Zealand it is standard practice to use cat5e or cat6 when wiring new houses for phone. Some sparkies daisy chain but when I wire houses I star it from a central point.
Since 100baseT ethernet only uses pairs 2 and 3 (orange/white and green/white), you could punch down pairs 2 and 3 on an RJ45 jack and pair 1 (blue/white) on a phone jack.
Better would be to just run 2 cat6 cables to each location, then you can use GigE.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Indeed, usually only 2x single pairs, hardly enough to be usable at all for any sort of Ethernet network.
Anyone who's stupid enough to start fucking with the copper in their house should be aware that they actually don't own the copper. I know here in Australia, if you touch that copper, even though it's inside your house, you are liable for quite hefty fines from ACMA (Australian Communication & Media Authority). There's also the issue that if you have destroyed the line to the telco's joint out the fr
Re:Use the line to pull other lines into your outl (Score:5, Informative)
In my state in the U.S., there is a box on the outside wall of the house. The copper on the house side of that box belongs to the customer. I don't know what the laws are in other states, but I think they are similar.
Re:Use the line to pull other lines into your outl (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone who's stupid enough to start fucking with the copper in their house should be aware that they actually don't own the copper. I know here in Australia...
I can't speak for Oz, but here in the US you own all the copper past the box. That's why they have different types of service plans. Some cover the line all the way to the phone (and even include the phone in some cases) while cheaper service plans only cover to the box. The phone company didn't pay for the copper to be put into the house, you did or the original owner of the house did initially. The cable company also tries to claim ownership over the coax in the wall too (which they don't own), but just try to get them to come an remove it if you use satellite.
Re:Use the line to pull other lines into your outl (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's not that they own it, it's that in Australia you have to have a cabling license, a registration to install cabling in order to install, terminate, connect, disconnect any kind of data cabling for telephone, computers, alarms, etc.
Oh, and you can't install your own Cat5 to run your home LAN either, same rules apply, you've got to get an electrician.
But it's not just existing cabling you can't change, you can't install new cabling either.
Generally the first jack (closest jack to the outside box),
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In New Zealand you can do your own wiring (eg install a new power socket or light fitting) provided it's your home and you follow NZ ECP 50 (Electrical Code of Practice).
You may not do anything inside the switchboard - that requires a registered electrician.
You may not do any of the above for reward (own home or near relative is fine).
You ARE allowed to do any ELV (extra low voltage) wiring yourself. ELV wiring is not regulated. ELV in NZ is defined as below 50V AC or below 120V DC.
Telephone networks in NZ
Re:Use the line to pull other lines into your outl (Score:5, Funny)
Old bell labs hand here.
When AT&T was a monopoly they owned everything right up to and including the phone.
You only rented.
They would install and maintain the wire in your house.
The equipment was designed to last 100 years. No joke, that was the requirement.
You could beat the burglar senseless with your phone, they were heavy, it would hurt.
Then you could use it to call the police.
The recommended fix for a bad carbon microphone in the handset was to bang it on a table.
A phone today will break if you drop it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A phone today will break if you drop it.
At which point you run down to the store and pick from one of the several thousand phones that are available without having to resort to perpetual financing options. Or, even more horrific, you hook up a modem. Without asking permission.
Yeah. I remember those days too. :P
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
I know! You'll need to make a weapon. Look around; can you construct some sort of rudimentary lathe?
Re:Hmmmm (Score:4, Informative)
Galaxy Quest does actually qualify to a surprising extent... not only is it a basically a Star Trek parody, but it's probably a better Star Trek movie than a couple of the actual Trek movies. It's not at the level of Star Trek itself, Red Dwarf, etc., but I would say it does qualify. If you haven't seen it I rather recommend it.
A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
1) If you got the budget, rip it out, replace with Cat6, if Fiber to the home comes to yours, you'll thank me later :-)
2) The intercom idea isn't bad, depends on the size of your house (what happened to "just yelling" sheesh)
3) Just yank out all the copper and sell it, few bucks anyways
At any rate I'd make sure you're real sure you like being away from your landline. Give that decision a 6 month wait period before you decide to recycle your wires one way or another.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe not ethernet but one could run Phonenet with the copper wires and use Appletalk over it.. *hhrrrrr*
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
From the modules in ubuntu 9.04:
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
At any rate I'd make sure you're real sure you like being away from your landline. Give that decision a 6 month wait period before you decide to recycle your wires one way or another.
I dropped my land line a few years ago, and haven't missed it at all.
However now that I own my own house* I'm considering trying to get the cheapest land line service possible. The reason is simply that in the past there have been times when a storm would kill cell phone service, even knock out the power, but phone-over-copper
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Funny)
3) Just yank out all the copper and sell it, few bucks anyways
Copper from telephone lines: +$20
Drywall repair bill: -$200
Advice from Slashdot: Priceless
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Drywall?
Unscrew wall plate.
Pop off any nearby staples securing the line to a stud.
Pull.
ethernet (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Forget them and get on with your life (Score:5, Insightful)
There's more important things to worry about.
Move on.
Xlink (Score:5, Informative)
Get one of these:
http://www.myxlink.com/index.aspx
And keep the legacy landline handsets in the house. This way, no matter where you are in the house, whether or not the cellphone is with you, you can still make/receive calls - leveraging your cell minutes.
You can probably integrate that with an Asterisk VoIP system and get additional things like intercom, room-to-room dialing, etc.
Re:Xlink (Score:4, Informative)
I have an Xlink BTTN and I love it. I am no longer running around the house wondering where I left my cell phone, because it's in its charging cradle right next to the Xlink. The only major draw back to this device is that text messages are not forwarded to the landline so my friends texting me while I'm at home tend to get ignored until I leave the house. I'm not sure how you would actually forward them however, since I know the landline phones in my house couldn't deal with it..
NO FAX! Here are more bluetooth cell/POTS bridges (Score:3, Informative)
That's apparently a good one: Pairs with up to 3 cellular phones (plus a landline if you buy the appropriate model). Searches for a free trunk or lets you select the outgoing phone. Lets you switch between calls on different cellphones ala call-waiting. Forwards caller ID info to the POTS phones on incoming calls. Supports pulse dial as well as tone so you can use antique phones.
Here's another one (only two lines): Cell2Tel [cell2telgateway.com]
A third one is Dock-n-Talk which can be connected either by wire or bluetooth (
Why not continue to use it for phones? (Score:2)
VLF sender (Score:2, Funny)
I suggest using them for a transmitter for Very Low Frequencies (VLF), so you can chat with u-boats and scuba diving friends.
A few ideas (Score:5, Interesting)
Connect it to your computer for music everywhere.
Now a real thought. Do you have, or are you going to have kids. At some point you will have to let the communicate, and a cell phone may not be a good option. If this is the case you may wish in just a few years that you had left the phone lines alone.
Yeah... (Score:2)
I'm going to have to say "leave it." If you want to run an intercomm, it'll be useful for the wires as guides, but due to the set up, you're never going to find something useful to send over the wires themselves. Find something you DO want in every room, and just run alongside, since all the holes in the studs should be pre-drilled for you.
AM radio! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
the kind of radio where you can listen to ideas too far off in the ideological fringes to make it onto the Internet
Alas, it looks like the fringes have [moveon.org] already [motherjones.org] arrived [chomsky.info].
Re:AM radio! (Score:4, Interesting)
I've never heard Chomsky or Mother Jones on the AM radio. I also wouldn't consider your examples "fringe".
Moveon is solidly pro-Democratic party, that's probably to the right of the American people. Democrats support corporate bailouts, drug wars, terror wars, etc. The American people do not.
Chomsky and Mother Jones might be a little to the left of the American mainstream, but would fit right with moderate European social democrats. I'd hardly call that fringe.
If you want to give examples of the radical left, check out crimethinc [crimethinc.com], bash back [wordpress.com], or infoshop.org [infoshop.org].
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If that's the fringe, then so [whitehouse.gov] are [rnc.org] these [rushlimbaugh.com].
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easy (Score:5, Funny)
in-home telegraph system
imagine the envy and awe of your friends and neighbors as you show off a morse telegraph key in every room
Anonymous Coward (Score:4, Funny)
Rig up a some doorbell switches, D cell batteries and bulbs to use as a signalling device that you need another bottle of beer
Nerdkits (Score:5, Interesting)
Been cell-only so long that I forgot... (Score:2)
What to do with the unused telephone wiring? (Score:2)
If you live close enough to a phone switch you can get DSL. I don't know what else it can be used for right now.
Falcon
LAN over phonelines - HomePNA (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePNA [wikipedia.org]
While technically possible...it's not really financially viable.
Convertor for VoIP (Score:2, Informative)
Get a stand alone adaptor for Skype/ other VoIP system (SIP?) and hook in your old landline phones to that. Cheaper internet calls out, emergency and incoming calls to your mobiles. Best of everything. And fairly easy to convert back to being wired into the normal telephone network!
Emulate your landline with Cell Phone Dock (Score:4, Informative)
Free Electricity? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The power gained from doing that would be about enough to charge 1 AA rechargable battery in a day.
Not worth it.
Re:Free Electricity? (Score:5, Informative)
Ah yes, my tongue can attest to that.
Note to self: do not hold bare telephone wires with mouth when reaching for a new RJ11 connector to crimp on.
Leave it for 911 service (Score:5, Informative)
Depending on which state you live in, the phone company may be required to provide a "soft dial tone" so that you can continue to make free 911 calls with a land line phone. In this case, it would be extremely foolish to remove or mess around with the phone lines. In an emergency, you may not be able to 100% rely on your cell phone to have a charged battery, get signal, etc. If your wife starts having a heart attack, you may not have time to run across the house and grab a charger if the battery is dead or reset the phone if it freezes.
Save it for 911 (Score:3, Informative)
Plug your old corded phone back in, so you can still call 911 in an emergency when the power is out and the cell towers are either down or jammed to capacity. AFAIK, all local phone companies in the US are required to still connect 911 calls, even if you're not paying for service.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Depends on the state, apparently.
First hit on Google: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2009/05/update-about-911-and-disconnected-landlines.html [consumerreports.org]
Maybe keep the landline? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe you're doing most of your chatting on the cell but there's still some good reasons for a landline:
1) home fax machine
2) landline more likely to function in an emergency as cell systems usually overload and are unavailable
3) landline call to 911 is more likely to show your address to the dispatcher possibly saving your life with a faster response
4) landline will not be lost or misplaced
5) landline more likely to continue to function during an electrical power failure
6) landline can provide emergency dial-up internet service
7) landline will not expose you to uhf radiation
8) landline will not suffer from battery failure
9) landline will not suffer from poor signal quality
10 landline is legally much more difficult for authorities to eavesdrop on
Re:Maybe keep the landline? (Score:4, Insightful)
1) home fax machine
myfax.com - $10 a month, PDF to your email, way more convenient
2) landline more likely to function in an emergency as cell systems usually overload and are unavailable
cablecompany (shaw.ca) home phone, cheaper than regular PSTN, never noticed it going down.
3) landline call to 911 is more likely to show your address to the dispatcher possibly saving your life with a faster response
cablecompany (shaw.ca) home phone, registered address for 911. Any reputable VOIP provider will handle this.
4) landline will not be lost or misplaced
Do you mean physically losing your cell phone? Can't really correct for that, not a technical issue, more of a PEBKAC issue.
5) landline more likely to continue to function during an electrical power failure
No more so than a good VOIP provider (i.e. the one that also owns your infrastructure).
6) landline can provide emergency dial-up internet service
I can't even imagine checking my email over dialup anymore let alone web browsing/etc. I'd rather just go to the nearest coffee shop.
7) landline will not expose you to uhf radiation
which is non-ionizing, and you probably don't live in a Faraday cage so it's a moot point.
8) landline will not suffer from battery failure
Actually yes it can, what do you think powers the phone infrastructure in your neighborhood when the power goes out? Magic elves? You can always buy a second battery or a USB battery powered charger.
9) landline will not suffer from poor signal quality
Not a problem in this city or any city I've been to recently.
10 landline is legally much more difficult for authorities to eavesdrop on
Uh no. the legality of a wiretap doesn't change if it's traditional PSTN/VOIP/cell/etc. Plus if you're worried about wire tapping using disposable prepaid cell phones and rotating them often is probably a lot more secure.
Re:Maybe keep the landline? (Score:4, Interesting)
When the blackouts come only the landlines keep working. When the cell tower batteries run down, after 4 hours or so, there goes your phone.
Here in NYC we get a major blackout every decade or so, even if the larger region does not, so I always keep a landline at the cheapest rate.
Redundancy isn't just for hard drives.
So, i guess you don't have DSL? (Score:5, Insightful)
And you don't have any doubt about the reliability of the cell system?
And in an emergency where POTS is the only functioning technology.
Mature systems that have been tested in dire situations, old fashioned switched telephones and HAM radios come to mind.
Re:So, i guess you don't have DSL? (Score:4, Informative)
Extended power outage, due to any number of different reasons.
The telco CO will have a huge array of batteries to supply -48VDC to all of their switching gear in a very uninterrupted fashion, and a diesel or natural gas generator which will start up shortly after the power goes out. It will probably also have redundant capacity for long-distance links, allowing them to reroute things in the event of a cable cut somewhere.
The cell tower may, in fact, have none of these. No or limited batteries, no generator, and no circuit redundancy. In a lot of cases, you'll just have to wait until Verizon (or whoever) rolls into town with generators.
What about that "Phone Call" (Score:5, Insightful)
Not that any Slashdotter would know anyone that might get arrested.... Still one should be aware that in many places (like Texas) your "Phone Call" has to be a collect phone call through some third party (don't know the name of the third rate company in Texas), and they won't make a collect call to a cell phone.
So.... If the police show up at your daughter's apartment because of a domestic disturbance call, and she isn't entirely interested in letting them search the house (like she is studying for finals barefoot in her night gown after finally kicking out her very loud boyfriend) .... And the police are so worried that she is being held against her will and being beaten up by her boy friend that they throw her on the ground and beat her up and haul her to jail....
THEN when she tries to call you and you have no land line.... You will not be disturbed.
THEN she will get tossed barefoot on the streets at 4:30 am in her night gown in downtown Austin Texas and will finally give you a call when she borrows a phone from a construction worker....
AND you will be thankful that you got 45 extra minutes sleep.
I am not entirely clear why so many states like Texas have decided that it is a great idea to only give people the right to a COLLECT phone call to a LAND LINE ONLY in this day and age, but that is the way it is.
TRUE STORY.
Ideas for future Ask Slashdot articles (Score:5, Funny)
Ideas for future Ask Slashdot articles:
VCR rabbit (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.amazon.com/RABBIT-VCR/dp/B001F87TWI [amazon.com] :-P
Everyone in the house can watch you play Ultima V on your C64 or you can play old school VHS pr0n in EVERY ROOM!
Do you plan on ever selling the property? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe put nice blank plates over the jacks if it bothers you that much. By "better" I'd say fishing cat 5, cat6, or structured wiring to each jack and then home running them somewhere. A loop is no good, you'll only make what's there worse with any other scheme.
The only thing worse than trying to un-fuck the wiring in a new place you just bought because the last owner did some "project" is being that home owner and trying to get it all unfucked on your own because an inspector told the potential buyers that the wiring is all screwed up. Trust me on this. Your wife will be a defcon 0 with the stress of moving. You'll be either paying two mortgages or dealing with the close on your new place, trying to get things timed just right. (And they never can time things "just right.") The new buyers will be ready to close yesterday, except for the list of stupid crap you need to fix and or explain. A contractor will want to tear up walls and fix it that way, for a couple grand (maybe more if they know you're bent over the table) and you'll have to re-clean the place with that lovely drywall dust just about everywhere... And it's going to be about 200 degrees in your attic where you cleverly "hid" most your dirty work... If you're there forever, then knock yourself out, but if you plan on selling the place, just realize that a lot of people still like to have phones in rooms and phone service (even Vonage or 8x8 or whatever can run over the old loop if you plug it in to the house instead of a phone)
Or maybe the new buyer will get a kick out of your "intercom" system or home brewed HPNA, with the speaker about 2 feet off the ground where the phone jack was... You never know.
Appletalk! (Score:3, Interesting)
I bet you can find those Farallon dongles on ebay for real cheap.
My mother in law still has an appletalk-ethernet gateway on her shelf.
Landmine (Score:5, Funny)
I read this as "landmine".
I expected a story about a soldier placing land mines, dropping one, and being stuck in one of those "oh shit I can't move or I'll blow up" situations.
Hands off the copper (Score:5, Insightful)
Leave it alone.
If you sell the house it will be there for the next person.
Really, why mess up perfectly operational systems just because you are not using it at the moment?
New product ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wi-Fi (Score:3, Interesting)
Turn your home into a giant wi-fi antenna. You could then either open it up to other to use, or keep it locked down, and brag to your friends that you can connect to the net from halfway accross the city. Or both.
Emergency lighting (Score:3, Interesting)
Signal to Noise (Score:4, Insightful)
Leave the wires alone. You may need them again.
That said, feel free to mod this off topic if you like, but the question in the title made some of the voices in my head yell stuff at me that makes sense, of a sort.
The author of TFA went to cellular phone only, dropping wired service. In most cases/comparisons cell service costs more than wired service. That comes with benefits, primarily portability, but the fact remains.
I used to install home TV antennae for my dad's TV shop. For $200 or less a home could get 5 to 10 years of service picking up signals broadcast over the air. Portable TVs could with rabbit ears and loops could, in our area, pick up the same 10 stations (VHF and UHF) as the big rig fed to the house. For that matter even larger TVs came with rabbit ears back then, making the rooftop gear unnecessary. Then along came cable and direct satellite, and we get our TV fed to us by wire and/or receiver boxes, and pay a good deal for the feed.
In the first case we trade hard wired for unwired, and we pay more. In the second we trade soft- or unwired for hardwired, and we pay more. As I said, it makes sense of a sort, but some of the voices keep saying "huh?".
Are you sure you're never going back? (Score:3, Interesting)
We have considered changing over to something like magic jack, because it can cut the price on a service we never use, but I have my reservations due to the way they do 911.
Anyway, the odds of this being relevant to you are low, but the point is that whatever plan you go with, try to make it future-proof. Some things to consider are:
FWIW...
Re:Cat-6 (Score:5, Informative)
That probably won't work. The old wiring would be stapled in place.
Re:Landlines are great (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Emergencies? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Emergencies? (Score:4, Funny)
Commissioner Anabell Brumford: Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to introduce a most special American. Tonight, he is being honoured for his 1000th drug-dealer killed.
Lt. Frank Drebin: [to applause] Thank you. But, in all honesty, the last three I backed over with my car. Luckily, they turned out to be drug-dealers.
Re:Emergencies? (Score:4, Informative)
The problem with cell-phone 911 is that, while it does figure out where you are and connect you to the local emergency dispatcher (most of the time), it doesn't connect you to their 911 system, only to their non-emergency line. So the dispatcher can't really see your GPS information without involving the mobile carrier. And, as an added side effect, in big emergencies (e.g. floods, etc.) the dispatchers are more likely to ignore their non-emergency line in order to keep up with the calls coming into the 911 system, so you could effectively lose contact with them simply because you're on a mobile phone.