rewiring phone lines

[dragonb]

Hey all,

Ok, finally got my parents on DSL, and having some major problems.
First off, it's earthlink, and I'm far from impressed with them so far.

But, having all kinds of problems connecting, and pretty much it's the horrible wiring in my parents house.
I ran a phone cord from the dsl modem straight to the box on the outside of the house. If I unplug the main line from that box, the dsl comes on right off, and works great. If I plug both the dsl straight through line in and with a splitter the main house line in, then the dsl quits working, or at least doesn't work most of the time. If I plug the dsl into the outlet, it works sometimes, but most of the time doesn't.
I'm familar with most dsl troubleshooting. I got rid of their 900 mhz phones, got a 2.4ghz now. There are filters on all the phones.
So, I'm pretty sure it's the wiring. I've done some of the wiring and it's a mess. At one point in the only unfinished room, there's 5 or 6 lines spliced into the phone line.

SO, the QUESTION: How hard is it to rewire?
All the wire is bad old stuff, and any new stuff(that my bro and dad put on is even worse, very thin cheap stuff)
I'll buy new wire, but where to start....

Is it possible try and find where the others go and tie new wire on, cut it, and pull it back through, draggin the new wire with it, or is it usually going through small holes where it will get caught up and not pull through?

Any other options? Anything else to narrow down the bad lines that I can do?
Thanks for any help and suggestions on rewiring,
dragonb

[JPMiller]

One thing I did once at an old house I rented was complain of disconnects and line noise/crossover from poor original wiring....1st time they came out they blew me off because it was in "Specs" so they didn't want to do anything...I said it was sporadic and would be fine for a day or 2 but would act up alot otherwise.
Called to complain again and they said they would rewire on insurance, after I pointed out that I was paying for it automatically whether I wanted to or not. They finally came out and did it, and it was a much better connection after that. Dial-up not DSL.

[Siliconjunkie]

It isnt that hard per se. You only really need one new run for the DSL modem. Depending on how the house is wired it can be done easily. In most cases you can run the wire outside under the soffit and then down to a driploop and in thru a hole to a jack just for the DSL. Alot depends on what you want it to look like, it doesnt look bad if run outside cleanly, but some people dont care for it.

This has alot of good info. Kinda hard to google for http://www.homephonewiring.com/add-line2.html

[goldenbuddha]

I have done that before, when i lived in a not so "modern" apt in San Francisco downtown. I bought myself a box of CAT5 cable (about 1000 feet) and ran the wire myself, replacing the phone all the way down to the phone box in the basement.

It is not too hard, just a lot of elbow grease, mummified bugs and spider webs =) Just remember the color sequence of the existing wire on both ends (write it down somewhere) and match the combination with your new CAT5 cable.

And make sure you get CAT5 and nothing lower. (You could, but what the heck, wanna do something, do it right)

[ChubTub]

I would do CAT5 too. If you ever want to add an additional line it is there and you do not need to run lines again.

[Xeroid]

If possible try to avoid the 115 volt lines when you run the new phone line. These can introduce noise into your phone signal. Try to run your new line as far away as possible from the power wires.

I run CAT3 for all my phones, right next to the CAT5 for network. I usually put both in at the same time. CAT3 will support 3 phone lines per cable (3 pair).